He pours contempt on princes, and causes them to wander in a trackless waste.

There were no paved roads, and even gravel or dirt roads were scarce most of the terrain consisted of trackless forests and swamps.

NEW DELHI The phrase Silk Road evokes a romantic image half history, half myth of tented camel caravans winding their way across the trackless deserts and mountains of Central Asia. But the Silk Road is not just part of a fabled past it is an important feature of China s current foreign policy.