Yet even in these inaccessible places has daring and ingenious man triumphed over opposing nature.

The yawning abyss is spanned by frail rope bridges, and the narrow ledges of rocks are connected by ladders to form a giddy pathway overhanging the seething cauldron below." (3) The Japanese edition has a different reading here from the Chinese copies,--one which Remusat (with true critical instinct) conjectured should take the place of the more difficult text with which alone he was acquainted.

The "Nine Interpreters" would be a general name for the official interpreters attached to the invading armies of Han in their attempts to penetrate and subdue the regions of the west.

The phrase occurs in the memoir of Chang K'een, referred to in the next note.
(4) Chang K'een, a minister of the emperor Woo of Han (B.C.

140-87), is celebrated as the first Chinese who "pierced the void," and penetrated to "the regions of the west," corresponding very much to the present Turkestan.