Note B — Chapter XLI

[Dr. F. Hirth (China and the Roman Orient, p. 323) writes: “O-lo-pên = Ruben, Rupen?” He adds (Jour. China Br. R. As. Soc. XXI. 1886, pp. 214–215): “Initial r is also quite commonly represented by initial l. I am in doubt whether the two characters o-lo in the Chinese name for Russia (O-lo-ssŭ) stand for foreign ru or ro alone. This word would bear comparison with a Chinese transcription of the Sanskrit word for silver, rūpya, which in the Pen-ts’ao-kang-mu (ch. 8, p. 9) is given as o-lu-pa. If we can find further analogies, this may help us to read that mysterious word in the Nestorian stone inscription, being the name of the first Christian missionary who carried the cross to China, O-lo-pên, as ‘Ruben’. This was indeed a common name among the Nestorians, for which reason I would give it the preference over Pauthier’s Syriac ‘Alopeno’. But Father Havret (Stèle Chrétienne, Leide, 1897, p. 26) objects to Dr. Hirth that the Chinese character lo, to which he gives the sound ru, is not to be found as a Sanskrit phonetic element in Chinese characters, but that this phonetic element ru is represented by the Chinese characters pronounced lu, and therefore, he, Father Havret, adopts Colonel Yule’s opinion as the only one being fully satisfactory.”—H. C.]