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BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
— — — — — .
WORKS BY
FERDINAND OSSENDOWSKI
"A book of astounding, breath-taking, en-
Odyssey whose narrator
thralling adventure, an
encountered more perils and marvels than did
Ulysses himself." New York Times.
"One of the most thrilling authentic per-
sonal narrations of adventure ever written."
—
New York Herald.
"More absorbing than any fiction." Pro- —
fessor Katharine Lee Bates of Wellesley Col-
lege.
"Set the imagination of thousands of readers

afire." San Francisco Journal.
MAN AND MYSTERY IN ASIA

"This the most wonderful adventure story
is
of the twentieth century." Des Moines Mirror
"Each arresting episode contributes towards

giving a more enduring impression of the life
of the semi-civilized nomads inhabiting the
vast land of Siberia." New York Evening Post.
"Dr. Ossendowski's adventures rival Defoe

and Verne." Baltimore Evening Sun.
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

BY
FERDINAND OSSENDOWSKI
Officier d'AcadSmie Franqaise
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
68 1 Fifth Avenue
Copyright, 1922
By E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
All RigUs Rtstned
First Edition . . Aug., lOgt

Second Edition . Sept., 1922
Third Edition . . Oct., 1922
Fourth Edition . Nov., 1922
Fifth Edition . . Dec, 1922
Sixth Edition , . Dec, 1922
Seventh Edition . Dec, 1922
Eighth Edition . Dec, 1922
Ninth Edition . . Dec, 1922
Tenth Edition . . Dec, 1922
Eleventh Edition . Jan., 1923
Twelfth Edition .Jan., 1923
Thirteenth Edition Feb., 1923
Fourteenth Edition Feb., 1923
Fifteenth Edition Feb., 1923
Sixteenth Edition Feb., 1923
Seventtenth Edition Mar., 19ti
Eighteenth Edition June, 19SS
.
Nineteenth Edition June, 1923

.
Twentieth Edition .June, 1023

Twenty-first Edition June, 19SS
Twenty-second Edition Nov., 19S3
Twenty-third Edition April, 1924
Twenty-fourth Edition May, 19£4
Printed in the United States of America

College
Library
IS
^
EXPLANATORY NOTE f^^
When one of the leading publicists in America, Dr.

Albert Shaw of the Review of Reviews, after reading the
manuscript of Part I of this volume, characterized the
author as "The Robinson Crusoe of the Twentieth Century,"
he touched the feature of the narrative which is at once most
attractive and most dangerous for the succession of trying
;
and thrilling experiences recorded seems in places too highly

colored to be real or, sometimes, even possible in this day
and generation. I desire, therefore, to assure the reader
at the outset that Dr. Ossendowski is a man of long and
diverse experience as a scientist and writer with a training
for careful observation which should put the stamp of
accuracy and reliability on his chronicle. Only the extraor-
dinary events of these extraordinary times could have
thrown one with so many talents back into the surroundings
of the "Cave Man" and thus given to us this unusual account
of personal adventure, of great human mysteries and of the
political and religious motives which are energizing the
"Heart of Asia."
My share in the work has been to induce Dr. Ossen-
dowski to write his story at this time and to assist him ki
rendering his experiences into English.
Lewis Stanton Palen.
10
CONTENTS
PART I. DRAWING LOTS WITH DEATH
CHAPTER PAGET
I. Into the Forests 3
II. The Secret of My Fellow Traveler 10
III. The Struggle for Life 16
IV. A Fisherman 21
V. A Dangerous Neighbor 22
VI. A River in Travail 26
VII. Through Soviet Siberia 31
VIII. Three Days ON THE Edge OF A Precipice 34

IX. To THE SaYANS AND SAFETY 40
X. The Battle of the Seybi 49
XI. The Barrier of Red Partisans 58
XII. In the Country of Eternal Peace 62
XIII. Mysteries, Mir.\cles and a New Fight 71
XIV. The River of the Devil 79

XV. The March of Ghosts 85
XVI. In Mysterious Tibet 90
PART II. THE LAND OF DEMONS

XVII. Mysterious Mongolia loi
XVIII. The Mysterious Lama Avenger 113
XIX. Wild Chahars 122
XX. The Demon of Jagisstai 126
XXI. The Nest of Death 136

vii
VIU CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGB
XXII. Among the Mxjrderers 140
XXIII. On a Volcano 147
XXIV. A Bloody Chastisement 155
XXV. Harassing Days 160
XXVI. The Band of White Hunghutzes 173

XXVII. Mystery in a Small Temple 177
XXVIII. The Breath of Death 182
PART HI. THE STRAINING HEART OF ASIA

XXIX. On the Road of Great Conquerors 193
XXX. Arrested! 208
XXXI. Traveling by " Urga " 211
XXXII. An Old Fortune Teller 218

XXXIII. "Death from the White Man Will Stand Behind
You" 222
XXXIV. The Horror of War! 227

XXXV. In the City of Living Gods, 30,000 Buddhas and
60,000 Monks 232
XXXVI. A Son of Crusaders and Privateers 238
XXXVII. The Camp of Martyrs 250

XXXVIII. Before the Face of Buddha 256
XXXIX. "The Man with a Head like a Saddle" 267
PART IV. THE LIVING BUDDHA

XL, In the Blissful Garden of a Thousand Joys 273
XLI. The Dust of Centuries 282
-XLII. The Books of Miracles 287
XLIII. The Birth of the Living Buddha 290

CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER PAGE
XLIV. A Page in the History of the Present Living
Buddha 292
XLV. The Vision of the Living Buddha of May 17,

1921 295
PART V. MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES—THE KING OF THE

WORLD
XLVI. The Subterranean Kingdom 299
XLVII. The King of the World before the Face of
God 307
XLVIII. Reality or Religious Fantasy? 310
XLIX. The Prophecy of the King of the World in 1890. 313
Tftere are times, men and events about which History
alone can record the final judgments; contemporaries and
individual observers must only write what they have seen
and heard. The very truth demands it.
Titus Livius.
ru
Part I
DRAWING LOTS WITH DEATH

Part I
DRAWING LOTS WITH DEATH
CHAPTER I
INTO THE FORESTS
the beginning of the year 1920 happened to be

I
INHving in the Siberian town of Krasnoyarsk, situated
on the shores of the River Yenisei, that noble stream
which is cradled in the sun-bathed mountains of Mon-
golia to pour its warming life into the Arctic Ocean and
to whose mouth Nansen has twice come to open the
shortest road for commerce from Europe to the heart
of Asia. There in the depths of the still Siberian winter
I was suddenly caught up in the whirling storm of mad
revolution raging all over Russia, sowing in this peace-

ful and rich land vengeance, hate, bloodshed and crimes
that go unpunished by the law. No one could tell the
hour of his fate. The people lived from day to day
and left their homes not knowing whether they should
3
4 BEASTS. MEN AND GODS
return to them or whether they should be dragged from
the streets and thrown into the dungeons of that travesty
of courts, the Revolutionary Committee, more terrible
and more bloody than those of the Mediaeval Inquisition.
We who were strangers in this distraught land were
not saved from its persecutions and I personally lived
through them.
One morning, when I had gone out to see a friend,
I suddenly received the news that twenty Red soldiers
had surrounded my house to arrest me and that I must
escape. I quickly put on one of my friend's old hunting
suits, took some money and hurried away on foot along
the back ways of the town till I struck the open road,
where I engaged a peasant, who in four hours had driven
me twenty miles from the town and set me down in
the midst of a deeply forested region. On the way I
bought a rifle, three hundred cartridges, an ax, a knife,

a sheepskin overcoat, tea, salt, dry bread and a kettle.
I penetrated into the heart of the wood toan abandoned

half -burned hut. From this day I became a genuine
trapper but I never dreamed that I should follow this
role as long as I did. The next morning I went hunting
and had the good fortune to kill two heathcock. I found
deer tracks in plenty and felt sure that I should not
want for food. However, my sojourn in this place was
not for long. Five days later when I returned from
hunting I noticed smoke curling up out of the chimney
of my hut. I stealthily crept along closer to the cabin
and discovered two saddled horses with soldiers' rifles
slung to the saddles. Two disarmed men were not
dangerous for me with a weapon, so I quickly rushed
across the open and entered the hut. From the bench
INTO THE FORESTS 5
two up in fright. They were Bolsheviki.

soldiers started
On their bigAstrakhan caps I made out the red stars
of Bolshevism and on their blouses the dirty red bands.
We greeted each other and sat down. The soldiers had
already prepared tea and so we drank this ever welcome
hot beverage and chatted, suspiciously eyeing one an-
other the while. To disarm this suspicion on their part,
I told them that I was a hunter from a distant place
and was living there because I found it good country
for sables. They announced to me that they were soldiers
of a detachment sent from a town into the woods to
pursue all suspicious people.
"Do you understand, 'Comrade,' " said one of them to
me, "we are looking for counter-revolutionists to shoot
them?"
I knew it without his explanations. All my forces
were directed to assuring them by my conduct that I
was a simple peasant hunter and that I had nothing
in common with the counter-revolutionists. I was think-
ing also all the time of where I should go after the
departure of my unwelcome guests. It grew dark. In
the darkness their faces were even less attractive. They
took out bottles of vodka and drank and the alcohol
began to act very noticeably. They talked loudly and
constantly interrupted each other, boasting how many
bourgeoisie they had killed in Krasnoyarsk and how
many Cossacks they had slid under the ice in the river.
Afterwards they began to quarrel but soon they were
tired and prepared to sleep. All of a sudden and without
any warning the door of the hut swung wide open
and the steam of the heated room rolled out in a great
cloud, out of which seemed to rise like a genie, as the
6 BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
steam settled, the figure of a tall, gaunt peasant impres-
sively crowned with the high Astrakhan cap and wrapped
in the great sheepskin overcoat that added to the mas-
siveness of his figure. He stood with his rifle ready
to fire. Under his girdle lay the sharp ax without which
the Siberian peasant cannot exist. Eyes, quick and glim-
mering like those of a wild beast, fixed themselves alter-
nately on each of us. In a moment he took off his
cap, made the sign of the cross on his breast and asked
of us: "Who is the master here?"
I answered him.
"May I stop the night?"
"Yes," I replied, "places enough for all. Take a cup
of tea. It is still hot."
The stranger, running his eyes constantly over all of
us and over everything about the room, began to take
off his skin coat after putting his rifle in the corner.
He was dressed in an old leather blouse with trousers
of the same material tucked in high His felt boots.
face was quite young, fine and tinged with something
akin to mockery. His white, sharp teeth glimmered as
his eyes penetrated everything they rested upon. I
noticed the locks of grey in his shaggy head. Lines of

bitterness circled his mouth. They showed his life had
been very stormy and full of danger. He took a seat
beside his rifle and laid his ax on the floor below.
"What? Is it your wife?" asked one of the drunken
soldiers, pointing to the ax.

The tall peasant looked calmly at him from the quiet
eyes under their heavy brows and as calmly answered:
"One meets a different folk these days and with an
ax it is much safer."
INTO THE FORESTS 7
He began to drink tea very greedily, while his eyes

looked at me many times with sharp inquiry in them
and ran often round the whole cabin in search of the
answer to his doubts. Very slowly and with a guarded
drawl he answered all the questions of the soldiers be-
tween gulps of the hot tea, then he turned his glass up-
side down as evidence of having finished, placed on the
top of it the small lump of sugar left and remarked to
the soldiers:
"I am going out to look after my horse and will
unsaddle your horses for you also."
"All right," exclaimed the half-sleeping young soldier,
"bring in our rifles as well."
The were lying on the benches and thus left
soldiers
for us only the floor. The stranger soon came back,
brought the rifles and set them in the dark corner. He
dropped the saddle pads on the floor, sat down on them
and began to take off his boots. The soldiers and my
guest soon were snoring but I did not sleep for think-
ing of what next to do. Finally as dawn was breaking,
I dozed off only to awake in the broad daylight and
find my stranger gone. I went outside the hut and
discovered him saddling a fine bay stallion.
"Are you going away?" I asked.
"Yes, but I want to go together with these
'comrades,' " he whispered, "and afterwards I shall come
back."
I him anything further and told him only
did not ask
that would wait for him. He took off the bags that
I
had been hanging on his saddle, put them away out of

sight in the burned corner of the cabin, looked over the
stirrups and bridle and, as he finished saddling, smiled
and said:
"
"I am ready. I'm going to awake my 'comrades/
Half an hour after the morning drink of tea, my three
guests took their leave. I remained out of doors and
was engaged in splitting wood for my stove. Suddenly,

from a distance, rifle shots rang through the woods, first
one, then a second. Afterwards all was still. From
the place near the shots a frightened covey of blackcock
broke and came over me. At the top of a high pine a
jay cried out. I listened for a long time to see if any-
one was approaching my hut but everything was still.

On the lower Yenisei it grows dark very early. I
built a fire in my stove and began to cook my soup,
constantly listening for every noise that came from be-
yond the cabin walls. Certainly I understood at all times
very clearly that death was ever beside me and might
claim me by means of either man, beast, cold, accident
or disease. that nobody was near me to assist
I knew
and that all my help was in the hands of God, in the
power of my hands and feet, in the accuracy of my aim
and in my presence of mind. However, I listened in
vain. I did not notice the return of my stranger. Like
yesterday he appeared all at once on the threshold.
Through the steam I made out his laughing eyes and
his fine face. He stepped into the hut and dropped
with a good deal of noise three rifles into the comer.
"Two horses, two rifles, two saddles, two boxes of
dry bread, half a brick of tea, a small bag of salt, fifty
cartridges, two overcoats, two pairs of boots," laugh-
ingly he counted out. "In truth today I had a very
successful hunt."
INTO THE FORESTS 9
In astonishment I looked at him.

"What are you surprised at?" he laughed. "Komu
nujny eti tovarischif Who's got any use for these
fellows? Let us have tea and go to sleep. Tomorrow
I will guide you to another safer place and then go on."
%
CHAPTER II
THE SECRET OF MY FELLOW TRAVELER
AT the
place of
dawn of day
refuge.
we
Into
started forth, leaving
the bags
my
we packed our
first
personal estate and fastened them on one of the saddles.

"We must go four or five hundred versts," very calmly
announced my fellow traveler, who called himself
"Ivan," a name that meant nothing to my mind or heart
in this land where every second man bore the same.
"We shall travel then for a very long time," I re-
marked regretfully.
"Not more than one week, perhaps even less," he
answered.
That night we spent in the woods under the wide
spreading branches of the fir trees. It was my first
night in the forest under the open sky. How many like
this I was destined to spend in the year and a half of

my wanderings! During the day there was very sharp
cold. Under the hoofs of the horses the frozen snow
crunched ,and the balls that formed and broke from
their hoofs rolled away over the crust with a sound
like crackling glass. The heathcock flew from the trees
very idly, hares loped slowly down the beds of summer
streams. At night the wind began to sigh and whistle
as it bent the tops of the trees over our heads; while
below it was still and calm. We stopped in a deep ravine
to
THE SECRET OF MY FELLOW TRAVELER ii
bordered by heavy where we found fallen firs,

trees,
cut them into logs for the fire and, after having boiled
our tea, dined.
Ivan dragged in two tree trunks, squared them on one

side with his ax, laid one on the other with the squared
faces together and then drove in a big wedge at the
butt ends which separated them three or four inches.
Then we placed live coals in this opening and watched
the fire run rapidly the whole length of the squared faces
Z'is-d-z'is.
"Now there will be a fire in the morning," he

announced. "This is the 'ncdda' of the gold prospectors.
We prospectors wandering in the woods summer and
winter always sleep beside this 'naida* Fine! You
shall see for yourself," he continued.
He cut fir branches and made a sloping roof out of
them, resting it on two uprights toward the naida. Above
our roof of boughs and our nmda spread the branches
of protecting fir. More branches were brought and
spread on the snow under the roof, on these were placed
the saddle cloths and together they made a seat for Ivan
to rest on and to take off his outer garments down to bis
blouse. Soon I noticed his forehead was wet with per-
spiration and that he was wiping it and his neck on his
sleeves.
"Now good and warm!" he exclaimed.
it is
In a short time Iwas also forced to take off my over-

coat and soon lay down to sleep witliout any covering
at all, while through the branches of the fir trees and
our roof glimmered the cold bright stars and just be-
yond the naida raged a stinging cold, from which we
were cosily defended. After this night I was no longer
frightened by the cold. Frozen during the days on horse-
back, I was thoroughly warmed through by the genial
naida at night and rested from my heavy overcoat, sit-
ting only in my blouse under the roofs of pine and fir
and sipping the ever welcome tea.
During our daily treks Ivan related to me the stories
of his wanderings through the mountains and woods of
Transbaikalia in the search for gold. These stories were
very lively, full of attractive adventure, danger and
struggle. Ivan was a type of these prospectors who
have discovered in Russia, and perhaps in other coun-
tries, the richest gold mines, while they themselves re-
main beggars. He evaded telling me why he left Trans-
baikalia to come to the Yenisei. I understood from his
manner that he wished to keep his own counsel and

so did not press him. However, the blanket of secrecy
covering this part of his mysterious life was one day
quite fortuitously lifted a bit. We were already at the
objective point of our trip. The whole day we had
traveled with difficulty through a thick growth of willow,
approaching the shore of the big right branch of the
Yenisei, the Mana. Everywhere we saw runways
packed hard by the feet of the hares living in this bush.
These small white denizens of the wood ran to and fro
in front of us. Another time we saw the red tail of a
fox hiding behind a rock, watching us and the unsuspect-
ing hares at the same time.
Ivan had been silent for a long while. Then he spoke
up and told me that not far from there was a small
branch of the Mana, at the mouth of which was a hut.
"What do you say? Shall we push on there or spend
the night by the naida?"
THE SECRET OF MY FELLOW TRAVELER 13
I suggested going to the hut, because I wanted to wash

and because it would be agreeable to spend the night
under a genuine roof again. Ivan knitted his brows
but acceded.
It was growing dark when we approached a hut sur-
rounded by the dense wood and wild raspberry bushes.
It contained one small room with two microscopic
windows and a gigantic Russian stove. Against the
building were the remains of a shed and a cellar. We
fired the stove and prepared our modest dinner. Ivan
drank from the bottle inherited from the soldiers and
in a short time was very eloquent, with brilliant eyes-
and with hands that coursed frequently and rapidly
through his long locks. He began relating to me the
story of one of his adventures, but suddenly stopped
and, with fear in his eyes, squinted into a dark comer.
"Is it a rat?" he asked.
"I did not see anything," I replied.
He again became silent and reflected with knitted brow.
Often we were silent through long hours and conse-
quently I was not astonished. Ivan leaned over near to
me and began to whisper.
"I want to tell you an old story. I had a friend in
Transbaikalia. He was a banished convict. His name
was Gavronsky. Through many woods and over many
mountains we traveled in search of gold and we had
an agreement to divide all we got into even shares. But
Gavronsky suddenly went out to the 'Taiga' on the
Yenisei and disappeared. After five years we heard
that he had found a very rich gold mine and had be-
come a rich man; then later that he and his wife with
him had been murdered. ..." Ivan was still for a
moment and then continued:
"This is their old hut. Here he lived with his wife
and somewhere on this river he took out his gold. But
he told nobody where. All the peasants around here
know that he had a lot of money bank and that
in the
he had been selling gold to the Government. Here they
were murdered."
Ivan stepped to the stove, took out a flaming stick
and, bending over, lighted a spot on the floor.
"Do you see these spots on the floor and on the wall ?
It is their blood, the blood of Gavronsky. They died
but they did not disclose the whereabouts of the gold.
It was taken out of a deep hole which they had drifted
into the bank of the river and was hidden in the cellar
under the shed. But Gavronsky gave nothing away.
. . . And Lord how I tortured them! I burned them
with fire; I bent back their fingers; I gouged out their
eyes; but Gavronsky died in silence."
He thought for a moment, then quickly said to me:
"I have heard all this from the peasants." He threw
the log into the stove and flopped down on the bench.
"It's time to sleep," he snapped out, and was still.
I listened for a long time to his breathing and his

whispering to himself, as he turned from one side to
the other and smoked his pipe.
In the morning we left this scene of so much suffer-
ing and crime and on the seventh day of our journey
we came to the dense cedar wood growing on the foot-
hills of a long chain of mountains.
"From here," Ivan explained to me, "it is eighty ?y^r.$-/.r
to the next peasant settlement. The people come to these
THE SECRET OF MY FELLOW TRAVELER 15
woods to gather cedar nuts but only in the autumn. Be-

fore then you meet anyone. Also you will
will not
find many and beasts and a plentiful supply of
birds
nuts, so that it will be possible for you to Hve here.
Do you see this river? When you want to find the
peasants, follow along this stream and it will guide you
to them."
Ivan helped me build my mud hut. But it was not
the genuine mud hut. It was one formed by the tearing
out of the roots of a great cedar, that had probably fallen
in some wild storm, which made for me the deep hole
as the room for my house and flanked this on one side
with a wall of mud held fast among the upturned roots.
Overhanging ones formed also the framework into which
we interlaced the poles and branches to make a roof,
finished off with stones for stability and snow for
warmth. The front of the hut was ever open but
was constantly protected by the guardian naida. In that
snow-covered den I spent two months like summer with-
out seeing any other human being and without touch
with the outer world where such important events were
transpiring. In that grave under the roots of the fallen
tree I lived before the face of nature with my trials
and my anxiety about my family as my constant com-
panions, and in the hard struggle for my life. Ivan
went off the second day, leaving for me a bag of dry
bread and a little sugar. I never saw him again.
CHAPTER III
THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE
THEN I was alone. Around me only the wood of

eternally green cedars covered with snow, the bare
bushes, the frozen river and, as far as I could see out
through the branches and the trunks of the trees, only
the great ocean of cedars and snow. Siberian taiga!
How long shall I be forced to live here? Will the
Bolsheviki find me here or not? Will my friends know
where I am? What is happening to my family? These
questions were constantly as burning fires in my brain.
Soon I understood why Ivan guided me so long. We
passed many secluded places on the journey, far away
from all where Ivan could have safely left me
people,
but he always said that he would take me to a place
where it would be easier to live. And it was so. The
charm of my lone refuge was in the cedar wood and
in the mountains covered with tliese forests which
stretched to every horizon. The cedar is a splendid,
powerful tree with wide-spreading branches, an eternally
green tent, attracting to its shelter every living being.
Among the cedars was always effervescent life. There
the squirrels were continually kicking up a row, jumping
from tree to tree; the nut-jobbers cried shrilly; a flock
of bullfinches with carmine breasts swept through the
trees like a flame; or a small army of goldfinches broke
i6
THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE 17
in and filled the amphitheatre of trees with their whist-

ling; a hare scooted from one tree trunk to another and
behind him stole up the hardly visible shadow of a white
ermine, crawling on the snow, and I watched for a long
time the black spot which I knew to be the tip of his
tail ; snow approached
carefully treading the hard crusted
a noble deer; at last there visited me from the top of
the mountain the king of the Siberian forest, the brown
bear. All this distracted me and carried away the black
thoughts from my brain, encouraging me to persevere.
It was good for me also, though difficult, to climb to the
top of my moimtain, which reached up out of the forest

and from which away to the range of red
I could look
on the horizon. was the red cliff on the farther bank
It
of the Yenisei. There lay the country, the towns, the

enemies and the friends; and there was even the point
which I located as the place of my family. It was the
reason why Ivan had guided me here. And as the days
by I began to miss sorely this
in this solitude slipped
companion who, though the murderer of Gavronsky, had
taken care of me like a father, always saddling my horse
for me, cutting the wood and doing everything to make
me comfortable. He had spent many winters alone with
nothing except his thoughts, face to face with nature
— I should say, before the face of God. He had tried
the horrors of solitude and had acquired facility in bear-
ing them. I thought sometimes, if I had to meet my
end in would spend my last strength
this place, that I
to drag myself to the top of the mountain to die there,
looking away over the infinite sea of mountains and
forest toward the point where my loved ones were.
However, the same life gave me much matter for
i8 BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
reflectionand yet more occupation for the physical side.
It was a continuous struggle for existence, hard and se-
vere. The hardest work was the preparation of the big

logs for the naida. The fallen trunks of the trees were
covered with snow and frozen to the ground. I was
forced to dig them out and afterwards, with the help

of a long stick as a lever, to move them from their
place. For facilitating this work I chose the mountain
for my supplies, where, although difficult to climb, it
was easy to roll the logs down. Soon I made a splendid

discovery. I found near my den a great quantity of
larch, this beautiful yet sad forest giant, fallen during
a big storm. The trunks were covered with snow but
remained attached to their stumps, where they had
broken off. When I cut into these stumps with the ax,
the head buried itself and could with difficulty be drawn
and, investigating the reason, I found them filled with
pitch. Chips of this wood needed only a spark to set
them aflame and ever afterward I always had a stock
of them to light up quickly for warming my hands on
returning from the hunt or for boiling my tea.
The greater part of my days was occupied with the
hunt. I came to understand that I must distribute my
work over every day, for it distracted me from my sad

and depressing thoughts. Generally, after my morning
tea, I went into the forest to seek heathcock or black-
cock. After killing one or two I began to prepare my
dinner, which never had an extensive menu. It was
constantly game soup with a handful of dried bread and
afterwards endless cups of tea, this essential beverage
of the woods. Once, during my search for birds, I
heard a rustle in the dense shrubs and, carefully peering
THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE 19
about, I discovered the points of a deer's horns. I

crawled along toward the spot but the watchful animal
heard my approach. With a great noise he rushed from
the bush and I saw him very clearly, after he had run
about three hundred steps, stop on the slope of the
mountain. It was a splendid animal with dark grey
coat, with almost a black spine and as large as a small

cow. I laid my rifle across a branch and fired. The
animal made a great leap, ran several steps and fell.
With all my strength I ran to him but he got up again
and half jumped, half dragged himself up the mountain.
The second shot stopped him. I had won a warm carpet
for my den and a large stock of meat. The horns I
fastened up among the branches of my wall, where they
made a fine hat rack.
I cannot forget one very interesting but wild picture,
which was staged for me several kilometres from my
den. There was a small swamp covered with grass and
cranberries scattered through it, where the blackcock and
sand partridges usually came to feed on tlie berries. I
approached noiselessly behind the bushes and saw a whole
flock of blackcock scratching in the snow and picking
out the berries. While I was surveying this scene, sud-
denly one of the blackcock jumped up and the rest of
the frightened flock immediately flew away. To my
astonishment the first bird began going straight up in
a and afterwards dropped directly down
spiral flight
dead. When approached there sprang from the body
I
of the slain cock a rapacious ermine that hid under the

trunk of a fallen tree. The bird's neck was badly torn.
I then understood that the ermine had charged the cock,
fastened itself on his neck and had been carried by the

bird into the air, as he sucked the blood from its throat,
and had been the cause of the heavy fall back to the
earth. Thanks to his aeronautic ability I saved one
cartridge.
So I lived fighting for the morrow and more and more
poisoned by hard and bitter thoughts. The days and
weeks passed and soon I felt the breath of warmer winds.
On the open places the snow began to thaw. In spots
the little rivulets of Another day I
water appeared.
saw a fly or a spider awakened after the hard winter.
The spring was coming. I realized that in spring it was
impossible to go out from the forest. Every river over-
flowed its banks; the swamps became impassable; all
the runways of the animals turned into beds for streams
of running water. I understood that until summer I
was condemned to a continuation of my solitude. Spring
very quickly came into her rights and soon my moun-
tain was free from snow and was covered only with
stones, the trunks of birch and aspen trees and the high
cones of ant hills; the river in places broke its covering
of ice and was coursing full with foam and bubbles.
CHAPTER IV
A FISHERMAN
/^ NE day during the hunt, I approached the bank of

^^ the river and noticed many very large fish with
red backs, as though filled with blood. They were swim-
ming on the surface enjoying the rays of the sun. When
the river was entirely free from ice, these fish appeared
in enormous quantities. Soon I
realized that they were
working up-stream for the spawning season in the smaller
rivers. I thought to use a plundering method of catch-
ing, forbidden by the law of all countries; but all the

lawyers and legislators should be lenient to one who
lives in a den under the roots of a fallen tree and dares
to break their rational laws.
Gathering many thin birch and aspen trees I built in
the bed of the stream a weir which the fish could not'
pass and soon I found them trying to jump over it. Near
the bank I left a hole in my barrier about eighteen inches
below the surface and fastened on the up-stream side a
high basket plaited from soft willow twigs, into which
the fish came as they passed the hole. Then I stood
cruelly by and them on the head with a strong stick.
hit
All my catch were over thirty pounds, some more than
eighty. This variety of fish is called the tairnen, is of
the trout family and is the best in the Yenisei.
After two weeks the fish had passed and my basket
gave me no more treasure, so I began anew the hunt.
CHAPTER V
A DANGEROUS NEIGHBOR
THE hunt became more and more

enjoyable, as spring animated everything.
profitable and
In the
morning at the break of day the forest was full of voices,
strange and undiscernible to the inhabitant of the town.
There the heathcock clucked and sang his song of love,
as he sat on the top branches of the cedar and admired
the grey hen scratching in the fallen leaves below. It
was very easy to approach this full- feathered Caruso

and with a shot to bring him down from his more poetic
to his more utilitarian duties. His going out was an
euthanasia, for he was in love and heard nothing. Out
in the clearing the blackcocks with their wide-spread
spotted tails were fighting, while the hens strutting near,
craning and chattering, probably some gossip about their
fighting swains, watched and were delighted with them.
From the distance flowed in a stern and deep roar, yet
full of tenderness and love, the mating call of the deer;
while from the crags above came down and the short
broken voice of the mountain buck. Among the bushes
frolicked the hares and often near them a red fox lay
flattened to the ground watching his chance. I never
heard any wolves and they are usually not found in the
Siberian regions covered with mountains and forest.
But there was another beast, who was my neighbor,
22
A DANGEROUS NEIGHBOR 23
and one of us had to go away. One day, coming back

from the hunt with a big heathcock, I suddenly noticed
among the trees a black, moving mass. I stopped and,
looking very attentively, saw a bear, digging away at an
ant-hill. Smelling me, he snorted violently, and very
quickly shuffled away, astonishing me with the speed of
his clumsy gait. The following morning, while still lying
under my overcoat, I was attracted by a noise behind my
den, I peered out very carefully and discovered the
bear. He stood on his hind legs and was noisily sniffing,
investigating the question as to what living creature had
adopted the custom of the bears of housing during the
winter under the trunks of fallen trees. I shouted and
struck my kettle with the ax. My early visitor made off
with all his energy; but his visit did not please me. It
was very early in the spring that this occurred and the
bear should not yet have left his hibernating place. He
was the so-called "ant-eater," an abnormal type of bear
lacking in all the etiquette of the first families of the
bear clan,
I knew that the "ant-eaters" were very irritable and
audacious and quickly I prepared myself for both the
defence and the charge. My preparations were short.
I rubbed off the ends of five of my cartridges, thus mak-
ing dum-dums out of them, a sufficiently intelligible argu-
ment for so unwelcome a guest. Putting on my coat I
went to the place where I had first met the bear and
where there were many ant-hills. I made a deto«r of
the whole mountain, looked in all the ravines but no-
where found my caller. Disappointed and tired, I was
approaching my shelter quite off my guard when I sud-
denly discovered the king of the forest himself just com-
ing out of my lowly dwelling and sniffing all around
the entrance to it. I shot. The bullet pierced his side.
He roared with pain and anger and stood up on his hind
legs. As the second bullet broke one of these, he squatted
down but immediately, dragging the leg and endeavor-
ing to stand upright, moved to attack me. Only the third
bullet in his breast stopped him. He weighed about
two hundred to two hundred fifty pounds, as near as
I could guess, and was very tasty. He appeared at his
best in cutlets but only a little less wonderful in the
Hamburg which I rolled and roasted on hot
steaks
stones, watching them swell out into great balls that were
as light as the finest souffle omelettes we used to have
at the "Medved" in Petrograd. On this welcome addi-
tion to my larder I lived from then until the ground
dried out and the stream ran down enough so that I
could travel down along the river to the country whither
Ivan had directed me.
Ever traveling with the greatest precautions I made
the journey down along the river on foot, carrying from
my winter quarters all my household furniture and goods,
wrapped up in the deerskin bag which I formed by tying
the legs together in an awkward knot; and thus laden
fording the small streams and wading through the
swamps that lay across my After fifty odd miles
path.
of this I came to the country called Sifkova, where I
found the cabin of a peasant named Tropoff, located
closest to the forest that came to be my natural environ-
ment. With him I lived for a time.
Now in these unimaginable surroundings of safety and

A DANGEROUS NEIGHBOR 25
peace, summing up the total of my experience in the

Siberian taiga, I make the following deductions. In
every healthy spiritual individual of our times, occasions
of necessity resurrect the traits of primitive man, hunter
and warrior, and help him in the struggle with nature.
It is the prerogative of the man with the trained mind
and spirit over the untrained, who does not possess suffi-
cient science and will power to carry him through. But
the price that tlie man must pay is that for him
cultured
there exists nothing more awful than absolute solitude
and the knowledge of complete isolation from human
society and the life of moral and aesthetic culture. One
step, one moment of weakness and dark madness will
seize a man and carry him to inevitable destruction. I
spent awful days of struggle with the cold and hunger

but I passed more terrible days in the struggle of the
will to kill weakening destructive thoughts. The
memories of these days freeze my heart and mind and
even now, as I revive them so clearly by writing of
my experiences, they throw me back into a state of fear
and apprehension. Moreover, I am compelled to observe
that the people in highly civilized states give too little
regard to the training that is useful to man in primitive

conditions, in conditions incident to the struggle against
nature for existence. It is the single normal way to de-
velop a new generation of strong, healthy, iron men,
with at the same time sensitive souls.
Nature destroys the weak but helps the strong, awaken-
ing in the soul emotions which remain dormant under
the urban conditions of modern life.
CHAPTER VI
A RIVER IN TRAVAIL
MY presence in the Sifkova country was not for long

but I used it in full measure. First, I sent a man
in whom I had confidence and whom I considered trust-
worthy to my friends in the town that I had left and
received from them linen, boots, money and a small case
of first aid materials and essential medicines, and, what
was most important, a passport in another name, since
I was dead for the Bolsheviki. Secondly, in these more
or less favorable conditions I reflected upon the plan
for my future actions. Soon in Sifkova the people heard
that the Bolshevik commissar would come for the requisi-
tion of cattle for the Red Army. It was dangerous to
remain longer. I waited only until the Yenisei should

lose its massive lock of ice, which kept it sealed long
after the small rivulets had opened and the trees had
taken on their spring foliage. For one thousand roubles
I engaged a fisherman who agreed to take me fifty-five
miles up the river to an abandoned gold mine as soon

as the river, which had then only opened in places, should
be entirely clear of ice. At last one morning I heard a
deafening roar like a tremendous cannonade and ran
out to find the river had lifted its great bulk of ice and
then given way to break it up. I rushed on down to
the bank, where I witnessed an awe-inspiring but magnifi-

26
A RIVER IN TRAVAIL 27
cent scene. had brought down the great volume

The river
of ice that had been dislodged in the south and vâs
carrying it northward under the thick layer which still
covered parts of the stream until finally its weight had
broken the winter dam to the north and released the
whole grand mass in one last rush for the Arctic. The
Yenisei, "Father Yenisei," "Hero Yenisei," is one of
the longest rivers in Asia, deep and magnificent, espe-
cially through the middle range of its course, where it
is flanked and held in canon-like by great towering ranges.

The huge stream had brought down whole miles of ice
fields, breaking them up on the rapids and on isolated
rocks, twisting them with angry swirls, throwing up sec-
tions of the black winter roads, carrying down the
tepees built for the use of passing caravans which in the
winter always go from Minnusinsk to Krasnoyarsk on
tlie frozen river. From time to time the stream stopped
in its flow, the roar began and the great fields of ice
were squeezed and piled upward, sometimes as high as

thirty feet, damming up the water behind, so that it
rapidly rose and ran out over the low places, casting
on the shore great masses of ice. Then the power of
the reinforced waters conquered the towering dam of
ice and carried it downward with a sound like breaking
glass. At the bends in the river and round the great
rocks developed terrifying chaos. Huge blocks of ice
jammed and jostled until some were thrown clear into
the air, crashing against others already there, or were
hurled against the curving cliffs and banks, tearing out
boulders, earth and trees high up tlie sides. All along
the low embankments this giant of nature flung upward
with a suddenness that leaves man but a pigmy in force
a great wall of ice fifteen to twenty feet high, which
the peasants call "Zaberega" and through which they
cannot get to the river without cutting out a road. One
incredible feat Isaw the giant perform, when a block
many feet thick and many yards square was hurled
through the air and dropped to crush saplings and little
trees more than a half hundred feet from the bank.
Watching this glorious withdrawal of the ice, I was
filled with terror and revolt at seeing the awful spoils
which the Yenisei bore away in this annual retreat.

These were the bodies of the executed counter-revolu-
tionaries— officers, soldiers and Cossacks of the former
army of the Superior Governor of all anti-Bolshevik

Russia, 'Admiral Kolchak. They were the results of the
bloody work of the "Qieka" at Minnusinsk. Hundreds
of these bodies with heads and hands cut off, with
mutilated faces and bodies half burned, with broken
skulls, floated and mingled with the blocks of ice, look-
ing for their graves; or, turning in the furious whirl-

pools among the jagged blocks, they were ground and
torn to pieces into shapeless masses, which the river,
nauseated with its task, vomited out upon the islands
and projecting sand bars. I passed the whole length
of the middle Yenisei and constantly came across these
putrifying and terrifying reminders of the work of the
Bolsheviki. In one place at a turn of the river I saw
a great heap of horses, which had been cast up by the

ice and current, in number not less than three hundred.
A verst below there I was sickened beyond endurance

by the discovery of a grove of willows along the bank
which had raked from the polluted stream and held in
their finger-like drooping branches human bodies in all
A RIVER IN TRAVAIL 29
shapes and attitudes with a semblance of naturalness

which made an everlasting picture on my distraught
mind. Of this pitiful gruesome company I counted
seventy.
At last the mountain of ice passed by, followed by
the muddy freshets that carried down the trunks of
fallen trees, logs and bodies, bodies, bodies. The fisher-
man and his son put me and my luggage into their dug-
out made from an aspen and poled upstream along
tree
the bank. Poling in a swift current is very hard work.
At the sharp curves we were compelled to row, struggling
against the force of the stream and even in places hugging
the and making headway only by clutching the
cliffs
rocks with our hands and dragging along slowly. Some-

times it took us a long while to do five or six metres
through these rapid holes. In two days we reached the
goal of our journey. I spent several days in this gold
mine, where the watchman and his family were living.

As they were short of food, they had nothing to spare
for me and consequently my rifle again served to nourish
me, as well as contributing something to my hosts. One
day there appeared here a trained agriculturalist. I did
not hide because during my winter in the woods I had
raised a heavy beard, so that probably my own mother
could not have recognized me. However, our guest was
very shrewd and at once deciphered me. I did not fear
him because I saw that he was not a Bolshevik and
later had confirmation of this. We found common
acquaintances and a common viewpoint on current events.
He lived close to the gold mine in a small village where
he superintended public works. We determined to escape
together from Russia. For a long time I had puzzled
over this matter and now my plan was ready. Know-
ing the position in Siberia and its geography, I decided
that the best way to safetywas through Urianhai, the
northern part of Mongolia on the head waters of the
Yenisei, then through Mongolia and out to the Far East
and the Pacific. Before the overthrow of the Kolchak
Government I had received a commission to investigate
Urianhai and Western Mongolia and then, with great
accuracy, I studied all the maps and literature I could get
on this question. To accomplish this audacious plan I
had the great incentive of my own safety.
CHAPTER VII
THROUGH SOVIET SIBERIA
AFTER several days we started through the forest on

•^ *• the left bank of the Yenisei toward the south, avoids
ing the villages as much as possible in fear of leaving
some trail by which we might be followed. Whenever
we did have to go into them, we had a good reception
at the hands of the peasants, who did not penetrate our
disguise and we saw that they hated the Bolsheviki, who
;
had destroyed many of their villages. In one place we

were told that a detachment of Red troops had been sent
out from Minnusinsk to chase the Whites. We were
forced to work far back from the shore of the Yenisei
and to hide in the woods and mountains. Here we re-
mained nearly a fortnight, because all this time the Red
soldiers were traversing the country and capturing in the
woods half-dressed unarmed officers who were in hiding
from the atrocious vengeance of the Bolsheviki. After-
wards by accident we passed a meadow where we found
the bodies of twenty-eight officers hung to the trees, with
their faces and bodies mutilated. There we determined
never to allow ourselves to come alive into the hands
of the Bolsheviki. To prevent this we had our weapons
and a supply of cyanide of potassium.
Passing across one branch of the Yenisei, once we saw
a narrow, miry pass, the entrance to which was strewn
31
with the bodies of men and horses. A little farther
along we found a broken sleigh with rifled boxes and
papers scattered about. Near them were also torn gar-
ments and bodies. Who were these pitiful ones ? What
tragedy was staged in this wild wood? We tried to
guess this enigma and we began to investigate the docu-
ments and papers. These were official papers addressed
to the Staff of General Pepelaieff. Probably one part
of the Staff during the retreat of Kolchak's army went
through this wood, striving to hide from the enemy
approaching from all sides; but here they were caught
by the Reds and killed. Not far from here we found

the body of a poor unfortunate woman, whose condition
proved clearly what had happened before relief came
through the beneficent bullet. The body lay beside a
shelter of branches, strewn with bottles and conserve
tins, telling the tale of the bantering feast that had
preceded the destruction of this life.
The further we went to the south, the more pro-

nouncedly hospitable the people became toward us and
themore At last we emerged
hostile to the Bolsheviki.
from the and entered the spacious vastness of
forests
the Minnusinsk steppes, crossed by the high red moun-
tain range called the "Kizill-Kaiya" and dotted here and
^here with salt lakes.It is a country of tombs, thousands
of large and small dolmens, the tombs of the earliest
proprietors of this land: pyramids of stone ten metres
high, the marks set by Jenghiz Khan along his road of
conquest and afterwards by the cripple Tamerlane-
Temur. Thousands of these dolmens and stone pyramids
stretch in endless rows to the north. In these plains the
Tartars now live. They were robbed by the Bolsheviki
THROUGH SOVIET SIBERIA 33
and therefore hated them ardently. We openly told

them that we were escaping. They gave us food for
nothing and supplied us with guides, telling us with whom
we might stop and where to hide in case of danger.
After several days we looked down from the high
bank of the Yenisei upon the first steamer, the "Oriol,"
from Krasnoyarsk to Minnusinsk, laden with Red
soldiers. Soon we came to the mouth of the river Tuba,
which we were to follow straight east to the Sayan moun-
tains, where Urianhai begins. We thought the stage along
the Tuba and its branch, the Amyl, the most dangerous
part of our course, because the valleys of these two rivers
had a dense population which had contributed large num-
bers of soldiers to the celebrated Communist Partisans,
Schetinkin and Krafcheno.
A Tartar ferried us and our horses over to the right
bank of the Yenisei and afterwards sent us some
Cossacks at daybreak who guided us to the mouth of
the Tuba, where we spent the whole day in rest, gratify-
ing ourselves with a feast of wild black currants and
cherries.
CHAPTER VIII
THREE DAYS ON THE EDGE OF A PRECIPICE

A RMED with our false passports, we moved along up
"^* the valley of the Tuba. Every ten or fifteen vcrsts
we came across large villages of from one to six hun-
dred houses, where all administration was in the hands
of Soviets and where spies scrutinized all passers-by. We
could not avoid these villages for two reasons. First,
our attempts to avoid them when we were constantly
meeting the peasants in the country would have aroused
suspicion and would have caused any Soviet to arrest
us and send us to the "Cheka" in Minnusinsk, where we
should have sung our last song. Secondly, in his docu-
ments my fellow traveler was granted permission to use
the government post relays for forwarding him on his
journey. Therefore, we were forced to visit the village
Soviets and change our horses. Our own mounts we
had given to the Tartar and Cossack who helped us at
the mouth of the Tuba, and the Cossack brought us
in his wagon to the first village, where we received the
post horses. All except a small minority of tlie peasants
were against the Bolsheviki and voluntarily assisted us.
I paid them for their help by treating their sick and my
fellow traveler gave them practical advice in the manage-

ment of their agriculture. Those who helped us chiefly
were the old dissenters and the Cossacks.
34
THREE DAYS ON EDGE OF PRECIPICE 35
Sometimes we came across villages entirely Com-

munistic but very soon we learned to distinguish them.
When we entered a village with our horse bells tinkling
and found the peasants who happened to be sitting in
front of their houses ready to get up with a frown and
a grumble that here were more new devils coming, we
knew that this was a village opposed to the Communists
and that here we could stop in safety. But, if the
peasants approached and greeted us with pleasure, call-
ing us "Comrades," we knew at once that we were among
the enemy and took great precautions. Such villages
were inhabited by people who were not the Siberian
liberty-loving peasants but by emigrants from the
Ukraine, idle and drunk, living in poor dirty huts, though
their village were surrounded with the black and fertile
soil of the steppes. Very dangerous and pleasant
moments we spent in the large village of Karatuz. It
israther a town. In the year 191 2 two colleges were
opened here and the population reached 15,000 people.
It is the capital of the South Yenisei Cossacks. But
by now it is very difficult to recognize this town. The
peasant and Red army murdered all the
emigrants
Cossack population and destroyed and burned most of
the houses and it is at present the center of Bolshevism
;
and Communism in the eastern part of the Minnusinsk

district. In the building of the Soviet, where we came
to exchange our horses, there was being held a meeting
of the "Cheka." We were immediately surrounded and
questioned about our documents. We were not any too
calm about the impression which might be made by our
papers and attempted to avoid this examination. My
fellow traveler afterwards often said to me:
good fortune that among the Bolsheviki
"It is great
the good-for-nothing shoemaker of yesterday is the Gov-
ernor of today and scientists sweep the streets or clean

the stables of the Red cavalry. I can talk vîth the
Bolsheviki because they do not know the difference be-
tween and 'diphtheria/ 'anthracite' and
'disinfection'
'appendicitis' and can talk them round in all things, even
up to persuading them not to put a bullet into me."
And so we talked the members of the "Cheka" roimd
to everything that we wanted. We presented to them
a bright scheme for the future development of their dis-
trict, when we would build the roads and bridges which
would allow them to export the wood from Urianhai,

iron and gold from the Sayan Mountains, cattle and
furs from Mongolia. What a triumph of creative work
for the Soviet Government! Our ode occupied about
an hour and afterwards the members of the "Cheka,"
forgetting about our documents, personally changed our
horses, placed our luggage on the wagon and wished us
success. It was the last ordeal within the borders of
Russia.
When we had crossed the valley of the river Amyl,
Happiness smiled on us. Near the ferry we met a mem-
ber of the militia from Karatuz. He had on his wagon
several rifles and automatic pistols, mostly Mausers, for
outfitting an expedition through Urianhai in quest of
some Cossack officers who had been greatly troubling
the Bolsheviki. We stood upon our guard. We could
very easily have met this expedition and we were not
quite assured that the soldiers would be so appreciative
of our high-sounding phrases as were the members of
the "Cheka." Carefully questioning the militiaman, we
ferreted out the route their expedition was to take. In

the next village we stayed in the same house with him.
I had to open my luggage and suddenly I noticed his
admiring glance fixed upon my bag.
"What pleases you so much?" I asked.
He whispered : "Trousers . . . Trousers."

I had received from my townsmen quite new trousers
of black thick cloth for riding. Those trousers attracted
the rapt attention of the militiaman.
"If you have no other trousers. ..." I remarked,
upon my plan of attack
reflecting against my new friend.
"No," he explained with sadness, "the Soviet does
not furnish trousers. They tell me they also go with-
out trousers. And my trousers are absolutely worn out.
Look at them."
With these words he threw back the comer of his
overcoat and was astonished how he could keep him-
I
self inside these trousers, for theyhad such large holes

that they were more of a net than trousers, a net through
which a small shark could have slipped.
"Sell me," he whispered, with a question in his voice.
"I cannot, for I need them myself," I answered
decisively.
He reflected for a few minutes and afterward,
approaching me, said: "Let us go out doors and talk.
Here it is inconvenient."
We went outside. "Now, what about
it?" he began.
"You There the Soviet bank-
are going into Urianhai.
notes have no value and you will not be able to buy
anything, where there are plenty of sables, fox-skins,
ermine and gold dust to be purchased, which they very
willingly exchange for rifles and cartridges. You have
each of you a rifle and I will give you one more rifle
with a hundred cartridges if you give me the trousers."
"Wedo not need weapons. We are protected by our
documents," I answered, as though I did not understand.
"But no," he interrupted, "you can change that rifle
there into furs and gold. I shall give you that rifle out-
right."
"Ah, that's it, is it? But it's very little for those
trousers. Nowhere you now find trousers.
in Russia can
All Russia goes without trousers and for your rifle I
should receive a sable and what use to me is one skin?"
Word by word I attained to my desire. The militia-
man got my trousers and I received a rifle with one
hundred cartridges and two automatic pistols with forty
cartridges each. We were armed now so that we could
defend ourselves. Moreover, I persuaded the happy
possessor of my trousers to give us a permit to carry
the weapons. Then the law and force were both on
our side.
In a distant village we bought three horses, two for

riding and one for packing, engaged a guide, purchased
dried bread, meat, salt and butter and, after resting
twenty-four hours, began our trip up the Amyl toward
the Sayan Mountains on the border of Urianhai. There
we hoped not to meet Bolsheviki, either sly or silly. In
three days from the mouth of the Tuba we passed the
last Russian village near the Mongolian-Urianhai border,
three days of constant contact with a lawless population,
of continuous danger and of the ever present possibility
of fortuitous death. Only iron will power, presence
of mind and dogged tenacity brought us through all
the dangers and saved us from rolling back down our

whose foot lay so many others

precipice of adventure, at
who had failed to make this same climb to freedom
which we had just accomplished. Perhaps they lacked
the persistence or the presence of mind, perhaps they
had not the poetic ability to sing odes about "roads,
bridg-es and gold mines" or perhaps they simply had
no spare trousers.
:
CHAPTER IX
TO THE SAYANS AND SAFETY

TP\ ENSE virgin wood surrounded us. In the high,
*-^ already yellow grass the trail wound hardly notice-
able in among bushes and trees just beginning to drop

their many colored leaves. It is the old, already forgot-
ten Amyl pass road. Twenty-five years ago it carried
the provisions, machinery and workers for the num-
erous,now abandoned, gold mines of the Amyl valley.
The road now wound along the wide and rapid Amyl,
then penetrated into the deep forest, guiding us round
the swampy ground filled with those dangerous Siberian
quagmires, through the dense bushes, across mountains
and wide meadows. Our guide probably did not surmise
our real intention and sometimes, apprehensively look-
ing down at the ground, would say
"Three riders on horses with shoes on have passed
here. Perhaps they were soldiers."
His anxiety was tenninated when he discovered that
the tracks led off to one side and then returned to the
trail.
"They did not proceed farther," he remarked, slyly

smiling.
"That's too bad," we answered. "It would have been
more lively to travel in company."
40
TO THE SAYANS AND SAFETY 41
But the peasant only stroked his beard and laughed.

Evidently he was not taken in by our statement.
We passed on the way a gold mine that had been
formerly planned and equipped on splendid lines but
was now abandoned and the buildings all destroyed. The
Bolsheviki had taken away the machinery, supplies and
also some parts of the buildings. Nearby stood a dark
and gloomy church with windows broken, the crucifix
torn off and the tower burned, a pitifully typical emblem
of the Russia of today. The starving family of the watch-
man lived at the mine in continuing danger and priva-
tion. They told us that in this forest region were
wandering about a band of Reds who were robbing any-
thing that remained on the property of the gold mine,
were working the pay dirt in the richest part of the
mine and, with a little gold washed, were going to drink
and gamble it away in some distant villages where the
peasants were making the forbidden vodka out of
berries and potatoes and selling it for its weight in gold.
A meeting with this band meant death. After three
days we crossed the northern ridge of the Sayan chain,
passed the border river Algiak and, after tliis day, were
abroad in the territory of Urianhai.
This wonderful land, rich in most diverse forms of
natural wealth, is inhabited by a branch of the Mongols,
which is now only sixty thousand and which is gradually
dying off, speaking a language quite different from any
of the other dialects of this folk and holding as their
of "Eternal Peace." Urianhai long
life ideal the tenet
ago became the scene of administrative attempts by

Russians, Mongols and Qiinese, all of whom claimed
sovereignty over the region whose unfortunate in-
habitants, the Soyots, had to pay tribute to all three of
these overlords. It was due to this that the land was
us. We had heard already
not an entirely safe refuge for
from our militiaman about the expedition preparing to
go into Urianhai and from the peasants we learned that
the villages along the Little Yenisei and farther south
had formed Red detachments, who were robbing and
killing everyone who fell into their hands. Recently
they had killed sixty-two officers attempting to pass
Urianhai into Mongolia; robbed and killed a caravan
of Chinese merchants; and killed some German war
prisoners who escaped from the Soviet paradise. On
the fourth day we reached a swampy valley where, among
open forests, stood a single Russian house. Here we
took leave of our guide, who hastened away to get back
before the snows should block his road over the Sayans.
The master of the establishment agreed to guide us to
the Seybi River for ten thousand roubles in Soviet notes.
Our horses were tired and we were forced to give them
a rest, so we decided to spend twenty-four hours here.
We were drinking tea when the daughter of our host
cried:
"The Soyots are coming!" Into the room with their
rifles and pointed hats came suddenly four of them.
"Mende," they grunted to us and then, without
ceremony, began examining us critically. Not a button
or a seam in our entire outfit escaped tlieir penetrating
gaze. Afterwards one of them, who appeared to be the
local "Merin" or governor, began to investigate our
political views. Listening to our criticisms of the
Bolsheviki, he was evidently pleased and began talking
freely.
TO THESAYANS AND SAFETY 43
"You are good people. You do not like Bolsheviki.

We will help you."
I thanked him and presented him with the thick silk
cord which I was wearing as a girdle. Before night

they left us saying that they would return in the morn-
ing. It grew dark. We went to the meadow to look
after our exhausted horses grazing there and came back
to the house. We were gaily chatting with the hospitable
host when suddenly we heard horses' hoofs in the court
and raucous voices, followed by the immediate entry
of five Red soldiers armed with rifles and swords. Some-
thing unpleasant and cold rolled up into my throat and
my heart hammered. We knew
Reds as our enemies.
the
These men had the red stars on their Astrakhan caps
and red triangles on their sleeves. They were members
of the detachment that was out to look for Cossack offi-
cers. Scowling at us they took off their overcoats and
sat down. We first opened the conversation, explaining
the purpose of our journey in exploring for bridges, roads
and gold mines. From them we then learned that their
commander would arrive in a little while with seven
more men and that they would take our host at once
as a guide to the Seybi River, where they tliought the
Cossack must be hidden.
officers Immediately I re-
marked that our affairs were moving fortimately and
that we must travel along together. One of the soldiers
replied that tliat would depend upon the "Comrade-
officer."
During our conversation the Soyot Governor entered.
Very attentively he studied again the new arrivals and
then asked: "Why did you take from the Soyots the
good horses and leave bad ones?"
The soldiers laughed at him.
"Remember that you are in a foreign country!" an-
swered the Soyot, with a threat in his voice.
"God and the Devil!" cried one of the soldiers.
But the Soyot very calmly took a seat at the table
and accepted the cup of tea the hostess was preparing
for him. The conversation ceased. The Soyot finished
the tea, smoked his long pipe and, standing up, said:
'Tf tomorrow morning the horses are not back at the
owner's, we shall come and take them." And with these
words he turned and went out.
I noticed an expression of apprehension on the faces
of the soldiers. Shortly one was sent out as a messenger

while the others sat silent with bowed heads. Late in
the night the officer arrived with his other seven men.
As he received the report about the Soyot, he knitted
hisbrows and said:
"It's a bad mess. We must travel through the swamp
where a Soyot will be behind every mound watching
us."
He seemed really very anxious and his trouble for-
tunately prevented him from paying much attention to
us. I began to calm him and promised on the morrow
to arrange this matter with the Soyots. The officer was

a coarse brute and a silly man, desiring strongly to be
promoted for the capture of the Cossack officers, and

feared that the Soyot could prevent him from reaching
the Seybi.
At daybreak we started together with the Red detach-
ment. When we had made about fifteen kilometers, we
discovered behind the bushes two riders. They were
Soyots. On their backs were their flint rifles. *
"Wait for me!" I said to the officer. "I shall go

for a parley with them."
I went forward with all the speed of my horse. One
of the horsemen was the Soyot Governor, who said to
me:
"Remain behind the detachment and help us."
"All right," I answered, "but let us talk a little, in
order that they may think we are parleying."
After a moment I shook the hand of the Soyot and
returned to the soldiers.
"All right," I exclaimed, "we can continue our journey.
No hindrance will come from the Soyots."
We moved forward and, when we were crossing a
large meadow, we espied at a long distance two Soyots
riding at full gallop right up the side of a mountain.
Step by step I accomplished the necessary manoeuvre to
bring me and my fellow traveler somewhat behind the
detachment. Behind our backs remained only one soldier,
very brutish in appearance and apparently very hostile
to us. had time to whisper to my companion only
I
one word: "Mauser," and saw that he very carefully

unbuttoned the saddle bag and drew out a little the handle
of his pistol.
Soon I understood why these aoldiers, excellent woods-

men as they were, would not attempt
go to the Seybi to
without a guide. All the country between the Algiak
and the Seybi is formed by high and narrow mountain
ridges separated by deep swampy valleys. It is a cursed
and dangerous place. At first our horses mired to the
knees, lunging about and catching their feet in the roots
of bushes in the quagmires, then falling and pinning
us under their sides, breaking parts of their saddles and
bridles.Then we would go in up to the riders' knees.
My horse went down once with his whole breast and
head under the red fluid mud and we just saved it and
no more. Afterwards the officer's horse fell with him
so that he bruised his head on a stone. My companion
injured one knee against a tree. Some of the men also
fell and were injured. The horses breathed heavily.
Somewhere dimly and gloomily a crow cawed. Later
the road became worse still. The trail followed through
the same miry swamp but everywhere the road was
blocked with fallen tree trunks. The horses, jumping
over the trunks, would land in an unexpectedly deep
hole and flounder. We and all the soldiers were covered
with blood and mud and were in great fear of exhaust-
ing our mounts. For a long distance we had to get
down and lead them. At last we entered a broad meadow
covered with bushes and bordered with rocks. Not only
horses but riders also began to sink to their middle in
a quagmire with apparently no bottom. The whole sur-
face of the meadow was but a thin layer of turf, cover-
ing a lake with black putrefying water. When we finally
learned to open our column and proceed at big intervals,
we found we could keep on this surface that undulated
like rubber ice and swayed the bushes up and down. In
places the earth buckled up and broke.
Suddenly, three shots sounded. They were hardly
more than the report of a Flobert rifle; but they v/ere
genuine shots, because the officer and two soldiers fell
to the ground. The other soldiers grabbed their rifles
and, with fear, looked about for the enemy. Four more
were soon unseated and suddenly I noticed our rearguard
brute raise his rifle and aim right at me. However, my
Mauser outstrode his rifle and I was allowed to continue

my story.
"Begin!" I cried to my friend and we took part in
the shooting. Soon the meadow began to swarm with
Soyots, stripping the fallen, dividing the spoils and re-
capturing their horses. In some forms of warfare it
is never safe to leave any of the enemy to renew hostili-

ties later with overwhelming forces.
After an hour of very difficult road we began to
ascend the mountain and soon arrived on a high plateau
covered with trees.
"After all, Soyots are not a too peaceful people," I
remarked, approaching the Governor.

He looked at me very sharply and replied:
was not Soyots who did the killing."
"It
He wasright. It was the Abakan Tartars in Soyot
clothes who killed the Bolsheviki. These Tartars were

running their herds of and horses down out of
cattle
Russia through Urianhai to Mongolia. They had as

their guide and negotiator a Kalmuck Lamaite. The
following morning we were approaching a small settle-
ment of Russian colonists and noticed some horsemen
looking out from the woods. One of our young and
brave Tartars galloped off at full speed toward these
men in the wood but soon wheeled and returned with
a reassuring smile.
"All right," he exclaimed, laughing, "keep right on."
We continued our travel on a good broad road along
a high wooden fence surrounding a meadow filled with
a fine herd of wapiti or iziihr, which the Russian colonists
breed for the horns that are so valuable in the velvet
for sale to Tibetan and Chinese medicine dealers. These
horns, when boiled and dried, are called panti and are
sold to the Chinese at very high prices.
We were received with great fear by the settlers.
"Thank God !" exclaimed the hostess, "we thought

..." and she broke off, looking at her husband.
CHAPTER X
THE BATTLE ON THE SEYBI
CONSTANT dangers develop one's watchfulness and

keenness of perception. We did not take off our
clothes nor unsaddle our horses, tired as we were. I put
my Mauser inside my coat and began to look about and
scrutinize the people. The first thing I discovered was
the butt end of a rifle under the pile of pillows always
found on the peasants' large beds. Later I noticed the

employees of our host constantly coming into the room
for orders from him. They did not look like simple
peasants, although they had long beards and were dressed
very dirtily. They examined me with very attentive
eyes and did not leave me and my friend alone with the
host. We could not, however, make out anything. But
then the Soyot Governor came in and, noticing our
strained relations, began explaining in the Soyot language
to the host all about us.
"I beg your pardon," the colonist said, "but you know
yourself that now for one honest man we have ten thou-
sand murderers and robbers."
With this we began chatting more freely. It appeared
that our host knew that a band of Bolsheviki would
attack him band of Cossack officers
in the search for the
who were living in his house on and off. He had heard
also about the "total loss" of one detachment. How-
49
ever, it did not entirely calm the old man to have our
news, for he had heard of the large detachment of Reds
that was coming from the border of the Usinsky District
in pursuit of the Tartars who were escaping with their
cattle south to Mongolia.
"From one minute to another we are awaiting them
with fear," said our host to me. "My Soyot has come
in and announced that the Reds are already crossing the
Seybi and the Tartars are prepared for the fight."
We immediately went out to look over our saddles
and packs and then took the horses and hid them in
the bushes not far off. We made ready our rifles and
pistols and took posts in the enclosure to wait for our
common enemy. An hour of trying impatience passed,
when one of the workmen came running in from the
wood and whispered:
"They are crossing our swamp. The fight is on."
. . .
In fact, like an answer to his words, came through

the woods the sound of a single rifle-shot, followed
closely by the increasing rat-tat-tat of the mingled guns.
Nearer to the house the sounds gradually came. Soon
we heard and the brutish
the beating of the horses' hoofs
cries of the soldiers. In a moment them burst
three of
into the house, from off the road where they were being
raked now by the Tartars from both directions, cursing
violently. One of them shot at our host. He stumbled
along and fell on his knee, as his hand reached out
toward the rifle under his pillows.
"Who are you?" brutally blurted out one of the
soldiers, turning to us and raising his rifle. We answered
with Mausers and successfully, for only one soldier in
the rear by the door escaped, and that merely to fall
THE BATTLE ON THE SEYBI 51
into the hands of a workman in the courtyard who

strangled him. The fight had begun. The soldiers called
on their comrades for help. The Reds were strung along
in the ditch at the side of the road, three hundred paces
from the house, returning the fire of the surrounding
Tartars. Several soldiers ran to the house to help their
comrades but this time we heard the regular volley of
the workmen of our host. They fired as though in a
manoeuvre calmly and accurately. Five Red soldiers lay
on the road, while the rest now kept to their ditch. Be-
fore long we discovered that they began crouching and
crawling out toward the end of the ditch nearest the
wood where they had left their horses. The sounds of
shots became more and more distant and soon we saw
fifty or sixty Tartars pursuing the Reds across the
meadow.
Two days we rested here on the Seybi. The work-
men of our host, eight in number, turned out to be offi-
cers hiding from the Bolsheviks. They asked permis-
sion to go on with us, to which we agreed.
When my friend and I continued our trip we had a
guard of eight armed officers and three horses with packs.
We crossed a beautiful valley between the Rivers Seybi
and Ut. Everywhere we saw splendid grazing lands
with numerous herds upon them, but in two or three
houses along the road we did not find anyone living. All
had hidden away in fear after hearing the sounds of the
fight with the Reds. The following day we went up
over the high chain of mountains called Daban and,
traversing a great area of burned timber where our trail
lay among the fallen trees, we began to descend into a
valley hidden from us by the intervening foothills. There
behind these hills flowed the Little Yenisei, the last large
river before reaching Mongolia proper. About ten kilo-
meters from the river we spied a column of smoke ris-
ing up out of the wood. Two of the officers slipped
away to make an investigation. For a long time they
did not return and we, fearful lest something had hap-
pened, moved off carefully in the direction of the smoke,
all ready for a fight if necessary. We finally came near
enough to hear the voices of many people and among
them the loud laugh of one of our scouts. In the middle
of a meadow we made out a large tent with two tepees
of branches and around these a crowd of fifty or sixty
men. When we broke out of the forest all of them
rushed forward with a joyful welcome for us. It
appeared that it was a large camp of Russian officers
and soldiers who, after their escape from Siberia, had
lived in the houses of the Russian colonists and rich
peasants in Urianhai.
"What
are you doing here?" we asked with surprise.
"Oh, ho, you know nothing at all about what has been
going on?" replied a fairly old man who called himself
Colonel Ostrovsky. "In Urianhai an order has been
issued from the Military Commissioner to mobilize all
men over twenty-eight years of age and everywhere
toward the town of Belotzarsk are moving detachments
of these Partisans. They are robbing the colonists and
peasants and killing everyone that falls into their hands.
We are hiding here from them."
The whole camp counted only sixteen rifles and three
bombs, belonging to a Tartar who was traveling with
his Kalmuck guide to his herds in Western Mongolia.
We explained the aim of our journey and our intention
to pass through Mongolia to the nearest port on the

Pacific. The asked me to bring them out with
officers
us. I agreed. Our reconnaisance proved to us that there

were no Partisans near the house of the peasant who was
to ferry us over the Little Yenisei. We moved off at
once in order to pass as quickly as possible this danger-
ous zone of the Yenisei and to sink ourselves into the
forest beyond. It snowed but immediately thawed. Be-
fore evening a cold north wind sprang up, bringing with
it a small blizzard. Late in the night our party reached
the river. Our colonist welcomed us and offered at once
to ferry us over and swim the horses, although there
was ice still floating which had come down from the
head-waters of the stream. During this conversation
there was present one of the peasant's workmen, red-
haired and squint-eyed. He kept moving around all the
time and suddenly disappeared. Our host noticed it and,
with fear in his voice, said:
"He has run to the village and will guide the Partisans
here. We
must cross immediately."
Then began the most terrible night of my whole
journey. We proposed to the colonist that he take only
our food and ammunition in the boat, while we would
swim our horses across, in order to save the time of the
many trips. The width of the Yenisei in this place is
about three hundred metres. The stream is very rapid

and the shore breaks away abruptly to the full depth of
the stream. The nightwas absolutely dark with not
a star in the sky. The wind in whistling swirls drove
the snow and sleet sharply against our faces. Before
us flowed the stream of black, rapid water, carrying
down thin, jagged blocks of ice, twisting and grinding
in the whirls and eddies. For a long time my horse
-refused to take the plunge down the steep bank, snorted
and braced himself. With all my strength I lashed him
with my whip across his neck until, with a pitiful groan,
he threw himself into the cold stream. We both went
all the way under and I hardly kept my seat in the saddle.
Soon I was some metres from the shore with my horse

stretching his head and neck far forward in his efforts
and snorting and blowing incessantly. I felt the every
motion of his feet churning the water and the quivering
of his whole body under me in this trial. At last we
reached the middle of the river, where the current be-
came exceedingly rapid and began to carry us down with
it. Out of the ominous darkness I heard the shoutings
of my companions and the dull cries of fear and suffer-
ing from the horses. I was chest deep in the icy water.
Sometimes the floating blocks struck me; sometimes the
waves broke up over my head and face. I had no time
to look about or to feel the cold. The animal wish to
live took possession of me; I became filled with the
thought that, if my horse's strength failed in his struggle
with the stream, I must perish. All my attention was
turned to his efforts and to his quivering fear. Sud-
denly he groaned loudly and I noticed he was sinking.
The water evidently was over his nostrils, because the
intervals of his frightened snorts through the nostrils
became longer. A big block of ice struck his head and
turned him so that he was swimming right downstream.
With difficulty I reined him around toward the shore
but felt now that his force was gone. His head several
times disappeared under the swirling surface. I had no
choice. I slipped from the saddle and, holding this by
my left hand, swam with my right beside my mount,

encouraging him with my shouts. For a time he floated
with Hps apart and his teeth set firm. In his widely
opened eyes was indescribable fear. As soon as I was
out of the saddle, he had at once risen in the water and
swam more calmly and rapidly. At last under the hoofs
of my exhausted animal I heard the stones. One after
another my
companions came up on the shore. The well-
trained horses had brought all their burdens over. Much
farther down our colonist landed with the supplies.
Without a moment's loss we packed our things on the
horses and continued our journey. The wind was grow-
ing stronger and colder. At the dawn of day the cold
was intense. Our soaked clothes froze and became hard
as leather; our teeth chattered; and in our eyes showed
the red fires of fever: but on to put as much
we traveled
space as we could between ourselves and the Partisans.
Passing about fifteen kilometres through the forest we
emerged into an open from which we could see
valley,
the opposite bank of the Yenisei. It was about eight
o'clock. Along the road on the other shore wound the
black serpent-like line of riders and wagons which we
made out to be a column of Red soldiers with their trans-
port. We dismounted and hid in the bushes in order
to avoid attracting their attention.
All the day with the thermometer at zero and below
we continued our journey, only at night reaching the
mountains covered with larch forests, where we made
big fires, dried our clothes and warmed ourselves thor-
oughly. The hungry horses did not leave the fires but
stood right behind us with drooped heads and slept. Very
early in the morning several Soyots came to our camp.
S6 BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
''Ulanf (Red?)" asked one of them.
"No! No!" exclaimed all our company.
"Tzagan? (White?)" followed the new question.
"Yes, yes," said the Tartar, "all are Whites."
"Mende! Mende!" they grunted and, after starting
their cups of tea, began to relate very interesting and
important news. It appeared that the Red Partisans,
moving from the mountains Tannu Ola, occupied with
their outposts all the border of Mongolia to stop and
seize the peasants and Soyots driving out their cattle.
To Tannu Ola now would be impossible. I
pass the
—
saw only one way to turn sharp to the southeast, pass
the swampy valley of the Buret Hei and reach the south
shore of Lake Kosogol, which is already in the territory
of Mongolia proper. It was very unpleasant news. To
the Mongol post in Samgaltai was not more than
first
sixty miles from our camp, while to Kosogol by the

shortest line not less than two hundred seventy- five.
The horses my friend and I were riding, after having
traveled more than six hundred miles over hard roads
and without proper food or rest, could scarcely make
such an additional distance. But, reflecting upon the
situation and studying my new fellow travelers, I deter-
mined not to attempt to pass the Tannu Ola. They were
nervous, morally weary men, badly dressed and armed
and most of them were without weapons. I knew that
during a fight there is no danger so great as that of
disarmed men. They are easily caught by panic, lose
their heads and infect all the others. Therefore, I con-
sulted with my friends and decided to go to Kosogol.
Our company agreed to follow us. After luncheon, con-
sisting of soup with big lumps of meat, dry bread and
tea, we movedout. About two o'clock the mountains

began to up before us. They were the northeast out-
rise
spurs of the Tannu Ola, behind which lay the Valley

of Buret Hei.
CHAPTER XI
THE BARRIER OF RED PARTISANS

TN a valley between two sharp ridges we discovered
* a herd of yaks and cattle being rapidly driven off
to the north by ten mounted Soyots. Approaching us
warily they finally revealed that Noyon (Prince) of
Todji had ordered them to drive the herds along the
Buret Hei into Mongolia, apprehending the pillaging of
the Red Partisans. They proceeded but were informed
by some Soyot hunters that this part of the Tannu Ola
was occupied by the Partisans from the village of
Vladimirovka. Consequently they were forced to return.
We inquired from them the whereabouts of these out-
posts and how many Partisians were holding the moun-
tain pass over into Mongolia. We sent out the Tartar
and the Kalmuck for a reconnaissance while all of us
prepared for the further advance by wrapping the feet
of our horses in our shirts and by muzzling their noses
with straps and bits of rope so that they could not neigh.
It was dark when our investigators returned and reported
to us that about thirty Partisans had a camp some ten

kilometers from us, occupying the yiirtas of the Soyots.
At the pass were two outposts, one of two soldiers and
the other of three. From the outposts to the camp was a
little over a mile. Our trail lay between the two outposts.
From the top of the mountain one could plainly see the
two posts and could shoot them all. When we had come
58
THE BARRIER OF RED PARTISANS 59
near to the top of this mountain, I left our party and,

taking with me my friend, the Tartar, the Kalmuck and
two of the young officers, advanced. From
the moun-
tain I saw about five hundred yards ahead two fires. At
each of the fires sat a soldier with his rifle and the others
slept. not want to fight with the Partisans but
I did
we had to do away with these outposts and that without

firing or we never should get through the pass. I did
not believe the Partisans could afterwards track us be-

cause the whole trail was thickly marked with the spoors
of horses and cattle.
*T shall take for my share these two," whispered my

friend, pointing to the left outpost.
The rest of us were to take care of the second post.
I crept along through the bushes behind my friend in
order to help him in case of need; but I am bound to
admit that I was not at all worried about him. He was
about seven feet tall and so strong that, when a horse
used to refuse sometimes to take the bit, he would wrap
his arm around its neck, kick its forefeet out from under
it and throw it so that he could easily bridle it on the
ground. When only a hundred paces remained, I stood

behind the bushes and watched. I could see very dis-
tinctly the fireand the dozing sentinel. He sat with his
rifle on his knees. His companion, asleep beside him,
did not move. Their white felt boots were plainly visible
to me. For a long time I did not remark my friend.
At the fire all was quiet. Suddenly from the other out-
post floated over a few dim shouts and all was still. Our
sentinel slowly raised his head. But just at this moment
the huge body of my friend rose up and blanketed the
fire from me and in a twinkling the feet of the sentinel
6o BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
flashed through the air, as my companion had seized him
by the throat and swung him clear into the bushes, where
both figures disappeared. In a second he re-appeared,
flourished the rifle of the Partisan over his head and I
heard the dull blow which was followed by an absolute

calm. He came back toward me and, confusedly smiling,
said:
is done.
"It God and the Devil When I was a boy,
!
my mother wanted to make a priest out of me. When

I grew up, I became a trained agronome in order . . .
to strangle the people and smash their skulls. Revolution

is a very stupid thing!"
And with anger and disgust he spit and began to smoke
his pipe.
At the other outpost also all was finished. During this
night we reached the top of the Tannu Ola and descended
again into a valley covered with dense bushes and twined
with a whole network of small rivers and streams. It
was the headwaters of the Buret Hei. About one o'clock

we stopped and began to feed our horses, as the grass
just there was very good. Here we thought ourselves
in safety. We saw many calming indications. On the
mountains were seen the grazing herds of reindeers and
yaks and approaching Soyots confirmed our supposition.
Here behind the Tannu Ola the Soyots had not seen
the Red soldiers. We presented to these Soyots a brick
of tea and saw them depart happy and sure that we were
"Tzagan," a "good people."
While our horses rested and grazed on the well-pre-
served grass, we sat by the fire and deliberated upon our
further progress. There developed a sharp controversy
between two sections of our company, one led by a
THE BARRIER OF RED PARTISANS 6i
Colonel who with four officers were so impressed by

the absence of Reds south of the Tannu Ola that they
determined to work westward to Kobdo and then on
to the camp on the Emil River where the Chinese authori-
ties had interned six thousand of the forces of General
Bakitch, which had come over into Mongolian territory.
My friend and I with sixteen of the officers chose to
carry through our old plan to strike for the shores of
Lake Kosogol and thence out Far East. As neither
to the
side could persuade the other to abandon its ideas, our
company was divided and the next day at noon we took
kave of one another. It turned out that our own wing
of eighteen had many fights and difficulties on the way,
which cost us the lives of six of our comrades, but that
the remainder of us came through to the goal of our
journey so closely knit by the ties of devotion which
fighting and struggling for our very lives entailed that
we have ever preserved for one another the warmest
feelings of friendship. The other group under Colonel
Jukoff perished. He met a big detachment of Red
cavalry and was defeated by them in two fights. Only
two officers escaped. They related to me this sad news
and the details of the fights when we met four months
later in Urga.
Our band of eighteen riders with five packhorses
moved up the valley of the Buret Hei. We floundered
in the swamps, passed innumerable miry streams, were
frozen by the cold winds and were soaked through by
the snow and sleet; but we persisted indefatigably toward
the south end of Kosogol. As a guide our Tartar led
us confidently over these trails well marked by the feet
of many cattle being run out of Urianhai to Mongolia.
CHAPTER XII
IN THE COUNTRY OF ETERNAL PEACE
THE inhabitants of Urianhai, the Soyots, are proud

of being the genuine Buddhists and of retaining the
pure doctrine of holy Rama and the deep wisdom of
Sakkia-Mouni. They are the eternal enemies of war and
of the shedding of blood. Away back in the thirteenth
century they preferred to move out from their native
land and take refuge in the north rather than fight or
become a part of the empire of the bloody conqueror
Jenghiz Khan, who wanted to add to his forces these
wonderful horsemen and skilled archers. Three times in
their history they have thus trekked northward to avoid
struggle and now no one can say that on the hands of
the Soyots there has ever been seen human blood. With
their love of peace they struggled against the evils of
war. Even the severe Chinese administrators could not
apply here in this country of peace the full measure of
their implacable laws. In the same manner the Soyots
conducted themselves when the Russian people, mad with
blood and crime, brought this infection into their land.
They avoided persistently meetings and encounters with
theRed troops and Partisans, trekking off witli their
families and cattle southward into the distant principali-
ties of Kemchik and Soldjak. The eastern branch of
this stream of eni\'.;Tation passed through the valley of
62
IN THE COUNTRY OF ETERNAL PEACE 63
the Buret Hei, where we constantly outstrode groups of

them with their cattle and herds.
We traveled quickly along the winding trail of the
Buret Hei and in two days began to make the elevations
of the mountain pass between the valleys of the Buret
Hei and Kharga. The trail was not only very steep but
was also littered with fallen larch trees and frequently
intercepted, incredible as it may seem, with swampy
places where the horses mired badly. Then again we
picked our dangerous road over cobbles and small stones
that rolled away under our horses' feet and bumped off
over the precipice nearby. Our horses fatigued easily

in passing this moraine that had been strewn by ancient
glaciers along the mountain sides. Sometimes the trail
led right along the edge of the precipices where the horses
and sand. I remember one
started great slides of stones
whole mountain covered with these moving sands. We
had to leave our saddles and, taking the bridles in our
hands, to trot for a mile or more over these sliding beds,
sometimes sinking in up to our knees and going down
the mountain side with them toward the precipices below.
One imprudent move at times would have sent us over
the brink. This destiny met one of our horses. Belly
down in the moving trap, he could not work free to
change his direction and so slipped on down with a mass
of it until he rolled over the precipice and was lost to us
forever. We heard only the crackling of breaking trees
along his road to death. Then with great difficulty we
worked down to salvage the saddle and bags. Further
along we had to abandon one of our pack horses which
had come all the way from the northern border of
Urianhai with us. We first unburdened it but this did
«4 BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
not help; no more did our shouting and threats. He
only stood with his head down and looked so exhausted
that we realized he had reached the further bourne of
his land of toil. Some Soyots with us examined him,
felt of his muscles on the fore and hind legs, took his
head in their hands and moved it from side to side,

examined his head carefully after that and then said:
"That horse will not go further. His brain is dried
out." So we had to leave him.
That evening we came to a beautiful change in scene
when we topped a rise and found ourselves on a broad
plateau covered with larch. On it we discovered the
yurtas of some Soyot hunters, covered with bark instead
of the usual felt. Out of these ten men with rifles
rushed toward us as we approached. They informed us

that the Prince of Soldjak did not allow anyone to pass
this way, as he feared the coming of murderers and
robbers into his dominions.
"Go back to the place from which you came," they
advised us with fear in their eyes.
I did not answer but I stopped the beginnings of a
quarrel between an old Soyot and one of my officers.
I pointed to the small stream in the valley ahead of us

and asked him its name.
"Oyna," replied the Soyot. "It is the border of the
principality and the passage of it is forbidden."
"All right," I said, "but you will allow us to warm
and rest ourselves a little."
"Yes, yes!" exclaimed the hospitable Soyots, and led
us into their tepees.
On our way there I took the opportunity to hand to
the old Soyot a cigarette and to another a box of
:
matches. We were all walking along together save one

Soyot who limped slowly in the rear and was holding
his hand up over his nose.
"Is he ill?" I asked.
"Yes," sadly answered the old Soyot. "That is my
son. He has been losing blood from the nose for two
days and now quite weak."
is
I stopped and called the young man to me.

"Unbutton your outer coat," I ordered, "bare your
neck and chest and turn your face up as far as you can."
I pressed the jugular vein on both sides of his head for
some minutes and said to him

"The blood will not flow from your nose any more.
Go into your tepee and lie down for some time."
The "mysterious" action of my fingers created on the
Soyots a strong impression. The old Soyot with fear
and reverence whispered:
"Ta Lama, Ta Lama! (Great Doctor)."
In the yurta we were given tea while the old Soyot
sat thinking deeply about something. Afterwards he took
counsel with his companions and finally announced:
"The wife of our Prince is sick in her eyes and I
think the Prince will be very glad if I lead the Ta Lama*
to him. He will not punish me, for he ordered that no
'bad people' should be allowed to pass; but that should
not stop the 'good people* from coming to us."
"Do as you think best,'* I replied rather indifferently.
"As a matter of fact, I know how to treat eye diseases
but I would go back if you say so.'*
"No, no !" the old man exclaimed with fear. "I shall
guide you myself.*'
Sitting by the fire, he lighted liis pipe with a flint,
wiped the mouthpiece on his sleeve and offered it to me
in true native hospitahty. I was "comme ilfaut" and
smoked. Afterwards he offered his pipe to each one
of our company and received from each a cigarette, a
little tobacco or some matches. It was the seal on our
friendship. Soon in our ynrta many persons piled up

around us, men, women, children and dogs. It was
impossible to move. From among them emerged a Lama
with shaved face and close cropped hair, dressed in the
flowing red garment of his caste. His clothes and his
expression were very different from the common mass
of dirty Soyots with their queues and felt caps finished
off with squirrel tails on the top. The Lama was very
kindly disposed towards us but looked ever greedily at
our gold rings and watches. I decided to exploit this
avidity of the Servant of Buddha. Supplying him with
tea and dried bread, I made known to him that I was
in need of horses.
Will you buy it from me?" he asked.
'T have a horse.
"But I do not accept Russian bank notes. Let us ex-
change something."
For a long time I bargained with him and at last for
my gold wedding ring, a raincoat and a leather saddle
—
bag I received a fine Soyot horse to replace one of the
—
pack animals we had lost and a young goat. We
spent the night here and were feasted with fat mutton.
In the morning we moved off under the guidance of the
old Soyot along the trail that followed the valley of the
Oyna, free from both mountains and swamps. But we
knew that the mounts of my friend and myself, together
with three others, were too worn down to make Kosogol
and determined to tr^' to buy others in Soldjak. Soon
:
we began to meet groups of Soyot yurtas with their

little
cattle and horses round about. Finally we approached

the shifting capital of the Prince. Our guide rode on
ahead for the parley with him after assuring us that the
Prince would be glad to welcome the Ta Lama, though
at the time I remarked great anxiety and fear in his
features as he spoke. Before long we emerged on to a
large plain well covered with small bushes. Down by
the shore of the river we made out big yurtas with
yellow and blue flags floating over them and easily
guessed that this wâs the seat of government. Soon our
guide returned to His face was wreathed with smiles.
us.
He and cried
flourished his hands
"Noyon (the Prince) asks you to come! He is very
glad!"
From a warrior I was forced to change myself Into
a diplomat. As we approached the yurta of the Prince,
we were met by two officials, wearing the peaked Mongol
caps with peacock feathers rampants behind. With low
obeisances they begged the foreign "Noyon" to enter the
yurta. My friend the Tartar and I entered. In the
rich yurta draped with expensive silk we discovered a
feeble, wizen-faced little old man with shaven face and
cropped hair, wearing also a high pointed beaver cap
with red silk apex topped off with a dark red button
with the long peacock feathers streaming out behind.
On his nose were big Chinese spectacles. He was sitting
on a low divan, nervously clicking the beads of his rosary.
This was Ta Lama, Prince of Soldjak and High Priest
of the Buddhist Temple. He welcomed us very cordially
and invited us to sit down fire burning in
before the
the copper brazier. His surprisingly beautiful Princess
served us with tea and Chinese confections and cakes.
We smoke<i our pipes, though the Prince as a Lama did
not indulge, fulfiUing, however, his duty as a host by
raising to his Hps the pipes we him and handing
offered
us in return the green nephrite bottle of snuff. Thus
with the etiquette accomplished we awaited the words
of the Prince. He inquired whether our travels had been
felicitous and what were our further plans. I talked
with him quite frankly and requested his hospitality for

the rest of our company and for the horses. He agreed
immediately and ordered four yurtas set up for us.
"I hear that the foreign Noyon," the Prince said, "is
a good doctor."
"Yes, I know some diseases and have with me some
medicines," I answered, "but I am not a doctor. I am
a scientist in other branches."
But the Prince did not tmderstand this. In his simple

directness a man who knows how to treat disease is a
doctor.
"My wife has had constant trouble for two months
with her eyes," he announced. "Help her."
I asked the Princess to show me her eyes and I found
the typical conjunctivitis from the continual smoke of
the yurta and the general uncleanliness. The Tartar
brought me my medicine case. I washed her eyes with
boric acid and dropped a little cocaine and a feeble solu-
tion of sulphurate of zinc into them.
"I beg you to cure me," pleaded the Princess. "Do
not go away you have cured me. We shall give
until
you sheep, milk and flour for all your company. I weep
now very often because I had very nice eyes and my
IN THE COUNTRY OP ETERNAL PEACE 69
husband used to tell me they shone like the stars and

!"
now they are red. I cannot bear it, I cannot
She very capriciously stamped her foot and, coquet-
tishly smiling at me, asked:
"Do you want to cure me? Yes?"
The character and manners of lovely woman are the
same everywhere: on bright Broadway, along the stately
Thames, on the vivacious boulevards of gay Paris and
in the silk-draped yurta of the Soyot Princess behind the
larch covered Tannu Ola.
*T shall certainly try," assuringly answered the new
oculist.
We spent here ten days, surrounded by the kindness

and friendship of the whole family of the Prince. The
eyes of the Princess, which eight years ago had seduced
the already old Prince Lama, were now recovered. She
was beside herself with joy and seldom left her looking-
glass.
The Prince gave me five fairly good horses, ten sheep
and a bag of flour, which was immediately transformed

into dry bread. My friend presented him with a Roma-
noff five-hundred-rouble note with a picture of Peter the
Great upon it, while I gave to him a small nugget of gold
which had picked up in the bed of a stream. The

I
Prince ordered one of the Soyots to guide us to the

Kosogol. The whole family of the Prince conducted us
to the monastery ten kilometres from the "capital." We
did not visit the monastery but we stopped at the
"Dugun," a Chinese trading establishment. The Chinese
merchants looked at us in a very hostile manner though
they simultaneously offered us all sorts of goods, think-
ing especially to catch us with their round bottles
{lanJion) of nmygolo or sweet brandy made from ani-
seed. As we had neither lump silver nor Chinese dollars,
we could only look with longing at these attractive bottles,
till the Prince came to the rescue and ordered the Chinest
to put five of them in our saddle bags.
CHAPTER XIII
MYSTERIES, MIRACLES AND A NEW FIGHT

TN the evening of the same day we arrived at the
* Sacred Lake of Teri Noor, a sheet of water eight
kilometres across, muddy and yellow, with low unattract-
ive shores studded with large holes. In the middle of
the lake lay what was left of a disappearing island. On
this were a few and some old ruins. Our guide
trees
explained to us that two centuries ago the lake did not
exist and that a very strong Chinese fortress stood here
on the plain. A Chinese chief in command of the fort-
ress gave offence to an old Lama who cursed the place
and prophesied that it would all be destroyed. The very
next day the water began rushing up from the ground,
destroyed the fortress and engulfed all the Chinese
soldiers. Even to thisday when storms rage over the
lake the waters cast up on the shores the bones of men
and horses who perished in it. This Teri Noor increases
its size every year, approaching nearer and nearer to the
mountains. Skirting the eastern shore of the lake, we
began to climb a snow-capped ridge. The road was easy
at first but the guidewarned us that the most difficult
bit was there ahead. We reached this point two days
later and found there a steep mountain side thickly set
with forest and covered with snow. Beyond it lay the
lines of eternal snow —
ridges studded with dark rocks
71
set in great banks of the white mantle that gleamed
bright under the clear stmshine. These were the eastern
and highest branches of the Tannu Ola system. We
spent the night beneath this wood and began the passage
of it in the morning. At noon the guide began leading
us by zigzags in and out but everywhere our trail was
Mocked by deep ravines, great jams of fallen trees and
walls of rock caught in their mad tobogganings from
the mountain top. We struggled for several hours, wore
out our horses and, all of a sudden, turned up at the
place where we had made our last halt. It was very
evident our Soyot had lost his way; and on his face I
noticed marked fear.
"The old devils of the cursed forest will not allow
us to pass," he whispered with trembling lips. "It is a
very ominous sign. We must return to Kharga to the
Noyon."
But I threatened him and he took the lead again evi-
dently without hope or effort to find the way. Fortu-
nately, one of our party, an Urianhai hunter, noticed the
blazes on the trees, the signs of the road which our guide
had lost. Following these, we made our way through
the wood, came into and crossed a belt of burned larch
timber and beyond this dipped again into a small live
forest bordering the bottom of the mountains crowned
witfi the eternal snows. It grew dark so that we had
to camp for the night. The wind rose high and carried
in its grasp a great white êet of snow that shut us
off from the horizon on every side and buried our camp
deep in its folds. Our horses stood round like white
g^sts, refusing to eat or to leave the circle round our
fire. The wind combed their manes and tails. Througii
MYSTERIES, MIRACLES—A NEW FIGHT 73
the niches in the mountains it roaredand whistled.

From somewhere in the distance came the low rumble
of a pack of wolves, punctuated at intervals by the sharp
individual barking that a favorable gust of wind threw
up into high staccato.
As we by the fire, the Soyot came over to me and
lay
said: "Noyon, come with mc to the obo. I want to
show you something."
We went there and began to ascend the mountain.
At the bottom of a very steep slope was laid up a large
pile of stones and tree trunks, making a cone of some
three metres in height. These obo are the Lamaite sacred
signs set up at dangerous places, the altars to the bad
demons, rulers of these places. Passing Soyots and
Mongols pay tribute to the spirits by hanging on the
branches of the trees in the obo hatyk, long streamers
of blue silk, shreds torn from the lining of their coats
or simply tufts of hair cut from their horses' manes;
or by placing on the stones lumps of meat or cups of
tea and salt.
"Look at it," said the Soyot. "The hatyks are torn
off. The demons are angry, they 'vill not allow us to
pass, Noyon. ..."
He caught my hand and with supplicating voice whis-
pered: "Let us go back, Noyon; let us! The demons
do not wish us to pass their mountains. For twenty
years no one has dared to pass these mountains and all
bold men who have tried have perished here. The demons
fell upon them with sno wstorm and cold. Look! It is
beginning already. ... Go back to our Noyon, wait for
the warmer days and then. ..."
I did not listen further to the Sovot but turned back
to the fire, which I could hardly see through the blind-
ing snow. Fearing our guide might run away, I ordered
a sentry to be stationed for the night to watch him. Later
in the night I was awakened by the sentry, who said to
me: "Maybe I am mistaken, but I think I heard a rifle."
What could I say to it? Maybe some stragglers like

ourselves were giving a sign of their whereabouts to
their lost companions, or perhaps the sentry had mis-
taken for a rifle shot the sound of some falling rock or
frozen ice and snow. Soon I fell asleep again and sud-
denly saw in a dream a very clear vision. Out on the
plain, blanketed deep with snow, was moving a line of
riders. They were our pack horses, our Kalmuck and
the funny pied horse with the Roman nose. I saw us
descending from this snowy plateau into a fold in the

mountains. Here some larch trees were growing, close
to which gurgled a small, open brook. Afterwards I
noticed a fire burning among the trees and then woke
up.
It grew light. I shook up the others and asked them
to prepare quickly so as not to lose time in getting under
way. The storm was The snow blinded us and
raging.
blotted out all The cold also became
traces of the road.
more intense. At last we were in the saddles. The
Soyot went ahead trying to make out the trail. As we
worked higher the guide less seldom lost the way. Fre-
quently we fell snow; we
into deep holes covered with
scrambled up over slippery rocks. Soyot At last the
swung his horse round and, coming up to me, announced
very positively: 'T do not want to die with you and I
will not go further."
My first motion was the swing of my whip back over
my head. I was so close to the "Promised Land" of

Mongolia that this Soyot, standing in the way of fulfil-
ment of my wishes, seemed to me my worst enemy. But
I lowered my flourishing hand. Into my head flashed
a quite wild thought.
"Listen," I said. "If you move your horses, you will
receive a bullet in the back and you will perish not at

the top of the mountain but at the bottom. And now
I will tell you what happen to us. When we shall
will
have reached these rocks above, the wind will have ceased
and the snowstorm will have subsided. The sun will
shine as we cross the snowy plain above and afterwards
we shall descend into a small valley where there are
larches growing and a stream of open running water.
There we shall light our fires and spend the night."
The Soyot began to tremble with fright.
"Noyon has already passed these mountains of Dark-
hat Ola?" he asked in amazement.
"No," I answered, "but last night I had a vision and
I know that we shall fortunately win over this ridge."
"I will guide you!" exclaimed the Soyot, and, whip-

ping his horse, led the way up the steep slope to the
top of the ridge of eternal snows.
As we were passing along the narrow edge of a
precipice, the Soyot stopped and attentively examined
the trail.
"Today many shod horses have passed here !" he cried

through the roar of the storm. "Yonder on the snow
the lash of a whip has been dragged. These are not
Soyots."
The solution of this enigma appeared instantly. A
volley rang out. One of my companior.s cried out, as
he caught hold of his right shoulder one pack horse fell
;
dead with a bullet behind his ear. We quickly tumbled

out of our saddles, lay down behind the rocks and began
to study the situation. We were separated from a
parallel spur of the mountain by a small valley about one
thousand paces across. There we made out about tiiirty
riders already dismounted and firing at us. I had never
allowed any fighting to be done until the initiative had

been taken by the other side. Our enemy fell upon us
unawares and I ordered my company to answer.
"Aim at the horses!" cried Colonel Ostrovsky. Then
he ordered the Tartar and Soyot to throw our own
animals. We killed six of theirs and probably wounded
others, as they got out of control. Also our rifles took
toll of any bold man who showed his head from behind
his rock. We heard the angry shouting and maledictions

of Red soldiers who shot up our position more and more
animatedly.
Suddenly I saw our Soyot kick up three of the horses
and spring into the saddle of one with the others in leash
behind. Behind him sprang up the Tartar and the Kal-
muck. I had already drawn my rifle on the Soyot but,
as soon as I saw the Tartar and Kalmuck on their lovely
horses behind him, I dropped my gun and knew all was
well. The Reds let off a volley at the trio but they made
good their escape behind the rocks and disappeared. The
firing continued more and more lively and I did not know
what to do. From our side we shot rarely, saving our
cartridges. Watching carefully the enemy, I noticed two
black points on the snow high above the Reds. They
slowly approached our antagonists and finally were hid-
den from view behind some sharp hillocks. When they
emerged from were right on the edge of some

these, they
overhanging rocks at the foot of which the Reds lay
concealed from us. By this time I had no doubt that
these were the heads of two men. Suddenly these men
rose up and I watched them flourish and throw some-
thing that was followed by two deafening roars which
re-echoed across the mountain valley. Immediately a
third explosion was followed by wild shouts and dis-
orderly firing among the Reds. Some of the horses rolled
down the slope into the snow below and the soldiers,
chased by our shots, made ofif as fast as they could down
into the valley out ofwhich we had come.
Afterward the Tartar told me the Soyot had proposed
to guide them around behind the Reds to fall upon their
rear with the bombs. When I had bound up the wounded
shoulder of the officer and we had taken the pack off
the killed animal, we continued our journey. Our posi-
tion was complicated. We had no doubt that the Red
detachment came up from Mongolia. Therefore, were
there Red troops in Mongolia? What was their strength?
Where might we meet them? Consequently, Mongolia
was no more the Promised Land? Very sad thoughts
took possession of us.
But Nature pleased us. The wind gradually fell. The
storm ceased. The sun more and more frequently broke
through the scudding clouds. We were traveling upon
a high, snow-covered plateau, where in one place the
wind blew it clean and in another piled it high with
drifts which caught our horses and held them so that
they could hardly extricate themselves at times. We had
to dismount and wade through the white piles up to
our waists and often a man or horse was down and had
to be helped to his feet. At last the descent began and
at sunset we stopped in the small larch grove, spent the
night at the fire among the trees and drank the tea boiled
in the water carriedfrom the open mountain brook. In
various places we came across the tracks of our recent
antagonists.
Everything, even Nature herself and the angry demons
of Darkhat Ola, had helped us: but we were not gay,
because again before us lay the dread uncertainty that
threatened us with new and possibly destructive dangers.
CHAPTER XIV
THE RIVER OF THE DEVIL
T TLAN TAIGA with Darkhat Ola lay behind us. We
^^ went forward very rapidly because the Mongol
plains began here, free from the impediments of moun-
tains. Everywhere splendid grazing lands stretched
away. In places there were groves of larch. We crossed
some very rapid streams but they were not deep and
they had hard beds. After two days of travel over the
Darkhat plain we began meeting Soyots driving their
cattle rapidly toward the northwest into Orgarkha Ola.
They communicated to us very unpleasant news.
The Bolsheviki from the Irkutsk district had crossed
the Mongolian border, captured the Russian colony at
Khathyl on the southern shore of Lake Kosogol and
turned off south toward Muren Kure, a Russian settle-
ment beside a big Lamaite monastery sixty miles south
of Kosogol. The Mongols told us there were no Russian
troops between Khathyl and Muren Kure, so we decided
to pass between these two points to reach Van Kure
farther to the east. We took leave of our Soyot guide
and, after having sent three scouts in advance, moved
forward. From the mountains around the Kosogol we
admired the splendid view of this broad Alpine lake.
It was set like a sapphire in the old gold of the surround-
79
#
ing hills, chased with lovely bits of rich dark forestry.
At night we approached Khathyl with great precaution
and stopped on the shore of the river that flows from
Kosogol, the Yaga or Egingol. We found a Mongol
who agreed to transport us to the other bank of the
frozen stream and to lead us by a safe road between
Khathyl and Muren Kure. Everywhere along the shore
of the river were found large obo and small shrines to
the demons of the stream.
"Why are there so many oho?*' we asked the Mongol.
"It is the River of the Devil, dangerous and crafty,"
replied the Mongol. "Two days ago a train of carts
went through the ice and three of them with five soldiers
were lost."
We started to cross. The surface of the river
resembled a thick piece of looking-glass, being clear and
without snow. Our horses walked very carefully but
some and floundered before they could regain their
fell
feet. We were leading them by the bridle. With bowed

heads and trembling all over they kept their frightened
eyes ever on the ice at their feet. I looked down and
understood their fear. Through the cover of one foot

of transparent ice one could clearly see the bottom of the
river. Under the lighting of the moon all the stones,
the holes and even some of the grasses were distinctly
visible, even though the depth was ten metres and more.
The Yaga rushed under the ice with a furious speed,
swirling and marking its course with long bands of foam
and bubbles. jumped and stopped as though
Suddenly I
fastened to the spot. Along the surface of the river

ran the boom of a cannon, followed by a second and a
third.
THE RIVER OF THE DEVIL 8i
"Quicker, quicker!" cried our Mongol, waving us for-

ward with his hand.
Another cannon boom and a crack ran right close to
us. The horses swung back on their haunches in pro-
test, reared and fell, many of them striking their heads
severely on the ice. In a second it opened up two feet

wide, so that I could follow its jagged course along the
surface. Immediately up out of the opening the water
spread over the ice with a rush.
"Hurry, hurry!" shouted the guide.
With we forced our horses to jump
great difficulty
over cleavage
this and to continue on further. They
trembled and disobeyed and only the strong lash forced
them to forget this panic of fear and go on.
When we were safe on the farther bank and well
into the woods, our Mongol guide recounted to us how
way and leaves
the river at times opens in this mysterious
great areas of clear water. men and animals on
All the
the river at such times must perish. The furious current
of cold water will always carry them down under the
ice. At other times a crack has been known to pass
rig^t under a horse and, where he fell in with his front
feet in the attempt to get back to the other side, the
crack has closed up and ground his legs or feet right
off.
The valley of Kosogol is the crater of an extinct

volcano. Its outlines may be followed from the high
west shore of the lake. However, the Plutonic force
still acts and, asserting the glory of the Devil, forces
the Mongols to build oho and offer sacrifices at his
shrines. We spent all the night and all the next day
hurrying away eastward to avoid a meeting with tiie
Reds and seeking good pasturage for our horses. At
about nine o'clock in the evening a fire shone out of the
distance. My friend and Imade toward it with the
feeling that wasit surely a Mongol yurta beside which
we camp in safety. We traveled over a mile be-
could
fore making out distinctly the lines of a group of yurtas.
But nobody came out to meet us and, what astonished
us more, we were not surrounded by the angry black
Mongolian dogs with fiery eyes. Still, from the distance
we had seen the fire and so there must be someone there.
We dismounted from our horses and approached on foot.
From out of the yurta rushed two Russian soldiers, one
of whom shot at me with his pistol but missed me and
wounded my horse in the back through the saddle. I
brought him to earth with my Mauser and the other
was killed by the butt end of my friend's rifle. We
examined the bodies and found in their pockets the papers
of soldiers of the Second Squadron of the Communist
Interior Defence. Here we spent the night. The owners
of the yurtas had evidently run away, for the Red soldiers
had collected and packed in sacks the property of the
Mongols. Probably they were just planning to leave,
as they were fully dressed. We acquired two horses,
which we found in the bushes, two rifles and two auto-
matic pistols with cartridges. In the saddle bags we also
found tea, tobacco, matches and cartridges — all of these
valuable supplies to help us keep further hold on our
lives.
Two days later we were approaching the shore of the

River Uri when we met two Russian riders, who were
the Cossacks of a certain Ataman Sutunin, acting against
the Bolshevik! in the valley of the River Selenga. They
THE RIVER OF THE DEVIL 83
were riding to carry a message from Sutunin to Kaigoro-

doff, chief of the Anti-Bolsheviki in the Altai region.
They informed us that along the whole Russian-
Mongolian border the Bolshevik troops were scattered;
also that Communist agitators had penetrated to
Kiakhta, Ulankom and Kobdo and had persuaded the
Chinese authorities to surrender to the Soviet authorities
all the refugees from Russia. We knew that in the
neighborhood of Urga and Van Kure engagements were
taking place between the Chinese troops and the detach-
ments of the Anti-Bolshevik Russian General Baron
Ungern Sternberg and Colonel Kazagrandi, who were
fighting for the independence of Outer Mongolia. Baron
Ungern had now been twice defeated, so that the Chinese
were carrying on high-handed in Urga, suspecting all
foreigners of having relations with the Russian General.
We realized that the whole situation was sharply re-
versed. The route to the Pacific was closed. Reflecting
very carefully over the problem, I decided that we had
but one possible exit left. We must avoid all Mongolian
cities with Chinese administration, cross Mongolia from
north to south, traverse the desert in the southern part
of the Principality of Jassaktu Khan, enter the Gobi in
the western part of Inner Mongolia, strike as rapidly
as possible through sixty miles of Chinese territory in
the Province of Kansu and penetrate into Tibet. Here
I hoped to search out one of the English Consuls and
with his help to reach some English port in India. I
understood thoroughly all the difficulties incident to such

an enterprise but I had no other choice. It only remained
to make this last foolish attempt or to perish without
doubt at the hands of the Bolsheviki or languish in a
Chinese prison. When I announced my plan to my com-
panions, without in any way hiding from them all its
dangers and quixotism, all of them answered very quickly

and shortly: "Lead us! We will follow."
One circumstance was distinctly in our favor. We
did not fear hunger, for we had some supplies of tea,
tobacco and matches and a surplus of horses, saddles,
rifles, overcoats and boots, which were an excellent cur-
rency for exchange. So then we began to initiate the
plan of the new expedition. We should start to the
south, leaving the town of Uliassutai on our right and
taking the direction of Zaganluk, then pass through the
waste lands of the district of Balir of Jassaktu Khan,
cross the Naron Khuhu Gobi and strike for the moun-
tains of Boro. Here we should be able to take a long
rest to recuperate the strength of our horses and of our-
selves. The second section of our journey would be
the passage through the western part of Inner Mongolia,
through the Little Gobi, through the lands of the Torguts,
over the Khara Mountains, across Kansu, where our road
must be chosen to the west of the Chinese town of
Suchow. From there we should have to enter the Domi-
nion of Kuku Nor and then work on southward to the
head waters of the Yangtze River. Beyond this I had
but a hazy notion, which however I was able to verify
from a map of Asia in the possession of one of the
oflficers, to the effect that the mountain chains to the
west of the sources of the Yangtze separated that river

system from the basin of the Brahmaputra in Tibet
Proper, where I expected to be able to find English
assistance.
CHAPTER XV
THE MARCH OF GHOSTS
TN no other way can I describe the journey from the
"• River Ero to the border of Tibet. About eleven
hundred miles through the snowy steppes, over moun-
tains and across deserts we traveled in forty-eight days.
We hid from the people as we journeyed, made short
stops in the most desolate places, fed for whole weeks
on nothing but raw, frozen meat in order to avoid
attracting attention by the smoke of fires. Whenever
we needed to purchase a sheep or a steer for our supply
department, we sent out only two unarmed men who
represented to the natives that they were the workmen
of some Russian colonists. We even feared to shoot,
although we met a great herd of antelopes numbering
as many as five thousand head. Behind Balir in the lands
of the Lama Jassaktu Khan, who had inherited his throne
as a result of the poisoning of his brother at Urga by
order of the Living Buddha, we met wandering Russian
Tartars who had driven their herds all the way from
Altaiand Abakan, They welcomed us very cordially,
gave us oxen and thirty-six bricks of tea. Also they
saved us from inevitable destruction, for they told us
that at this season it was utterly impossible for horses
to make the trip across the Gobi, where there was no
grass at all. We must buy camels by exchanging for
85
them our horses and some other of our bartering sup-
pHes. One of the Tartars the next day brought to their
camp a rich Mongol with whom he drove the bargain
for this trade. He gave us nineteen camels and took all
our horses, one rifle, one pistol and the best Cossack
saddle. He advised us by all means to visit the sacred
Monastery of Narabanchi, the last Lamaite monastery
on the road from Mongolia to Tibet. He told us that
the Holy Hutuktu, "the Incarnate Buddha," would be
greatly offended if we did not visit the monastery and
his famous "Shrine of Blessings," where all travelers
going to Tibet always offered prayers. Our Kalmuck
Lamaite supported the Mongol in this. I decided to go
there with the Kalmuck. The Tartars gave me some big
silk hatyk as presents and loaned us four splendid horses.
Although the monastery was fifty-five miles distant, by

nine o'clock in the evening I entered the yurta of this
holy Hutuktu.
He was a middle-aged, clean shaven, spare little man,
laboring under the name of Jelyb Djamsrap Hutuktu.
He received us very cordially and was greatly pleased
with the presentation of the liatyk and with my knowl-
edge of the Mongol etiquette in which my Tartar had
been long and persistently instructing me. He listened
to me most and gave valuable advice about the
attentively
road, presenting me then with a ring which has since
opened for me the doors of all Lamaite monasteries. The
name of this Hutuktu is highly esteemed not only in all
Mongolia but in Tibet and in the Lamaite world of
China. We spent the night in his splendid yurta and
on the following morning visited the shrines where they
were conducting very solemn services with the music
THE MARCH OF GHOSTS 87
of gongs, tom-toms and whistling. The Lamas with their

deep voices were intoning the prayers while the lesser
priests answered with their antiphonies. The sacred
phrase: "Om! Mani padme Hung!" was endlessly re-
peated.
The Hutuktu wished us success, presented us with a
large yellow hatyk and accompanied us to the monastery
gate. When we were in our saddles he said:
"Remember that you are always welcome guests here.
Life is very complicated and anything may happen. Per-
haps you will be forced in future to re-visit distant
Mongolia and then do not miss Narabanchi Kure."
That night we returned to the Tartars and the next
day continued our journey. As I was very tired, the
slow, easy motion of the camel was welcome and restful
to me. All the day I dozed off at intervals to sleep. It
turned out to be very disastrous for me; for, when my

camel was going up the steep bank of a river, in one
of my naps I and hit my head on a stone, lost
fell off
consciousness and woke up to find my overcoat covered

with blood. My friends surrounded me with their
frightened faces. They bandaged my head and we
started off again. I only learned long afterwards from
a doctor who examined me that I had cracked my skull

as the price of my siesta.
We crossed the eastern ranges of the Altai and the

Karlik Tag, which are the most oriental sentinels the
great Tian Shan system throws out into the regions of
the Gobi and then traversed from the north to the south
;
the entire width of the Khuhu Gobi. Intense cold ruled

all this time and fortunately the frozen sands gave us
better speed. Before passing the Khara range, we ex-

changed our rocking-chair steeds for horses, a deal in
which the Torguts skinned us badly like the true "old
clothes men" they are.
Skirting around these mountains we entered Kansu.
It was a dangerous move, for the Chinese were arresting
all refugees and I feared for my Russian fellow-travelers.
During the days we hid in the ravines, the forests and

bushes, making forced marches at night. Four days we
thus used in this passage of Kansu. The few Chinese
peasants we did encounter were peaceful appearing and
most hospitable. A marked sympathetic interest sur-
rounded the Kalmuck, who could speak a bit of Chinese,
and my box of medicines. Everywhere we found many
ill people, chiefly afflicted with eye troubles, rheumatism
and skin diseases.

As we were approaching Nan Shan, the northeast
branch of the Altyn Tag (which is in turn the east
branch of the Paminand Karakhorum system), we over-
hauled a large caravan of Chinese merchants going to
Tibet and joined them. For three days we were wind-
ing through the endless ravine-like valleys of these moun-
tains and ascending the high passes. But we noticed
that the Chinese knew how to pick the easiest routes
for caravans over all these difficult places. In a state of
semi-consciousness made this whole journey toward the
I
large group of swampy lakes, feeding the Koko Nor

and a whole network of large rivers. From fatigue and
constant nervous strain, probably helped by the blow
on my head, I began suffering from sharp attacks of
chills and fever, burning up at times and then chatter-
ing so with my teeth that I frightened my horse who
several times threw mc from the saddle. I raved, cried
THE MARCH OF GHOSTS 89
out at times and even wept. I called my family and
instructedthem how they must come to me. I remember

as though through a dream how I was taken from the
horse by my companions, laid on the ground, supplied
with Chinese brandy and, when I recovered a little, how
they said to me:
"The Chinese merchants are heading for the west and
we must travel south."
"No! To the north," I replied very sharply.
"But no, to the south," my
companions assured me.
"God and the Devil!" I "we have
angrily ejaculated,
!"
just swum the Little Yenisei and Algyak is to the north
"We are in Tibet," remonstrated my companions.
"We must reach the Brahmaputra."
Brahmaputra. . . . Brahmaputra. . . . This word re-
volved in my fiery brain, made a terrible noise and
commotion. remembered everything and
Suddenly I
opened my eyes. moved my lips and soon I

I hardly
again lost consciousness. My companions brought me
to the monastery of Sharkhe, where the Lama doctor
quickly brought me round with a solution of fatil or
Chinese ginseng. In discussing our plans he expressed
grave doubt as to whether we would get through Tibet
but he did not wish to explain to me the reason for his
doubts.
CHAPTER XVI
IN MYSTERIOUS TIBET
A FAIRLY broad road led out from Sharkhe through

^ ^ the mountains day of our two weeks'
and on the fifth
march to the we emerged

south from the monastery
into the great bowl of the mountains in whose center
lay the large lake of Koko Nor. If Finland deserves
the ordinary title of the "Land of Ten Thousand Lakes,"
the dominion of Koko Nor may certainly with justice
be called the "Country of a Million Lakes." We skirted
this lake on the west between it and Doulan Kitt, zig-
zagging between the numerous swamps, lakes and small
rivers, deep and miry. The water was not here covered
with ice and only on the tops of the mountains did we
feel the cold winds sharply. We rarely met the natives
of the country and only with greatest difficulty did our
Kalmuck learn the course of the road from the occasional
shepherds we passed. From the eastern shore of the
Lake of Tassoun we worked round to a monastery on
the further side, where we stopped for a short rest. Be-
sides ourselves there was also another group of guests
in the holy place. These were Tibetans. Their behavior
was very impertinent and they refused to speak with
us. They were all armed, chiefly with the Russian
military rifles and were draped with crossed bandoliers
of cartridges with two or three pistols stowed beneath
90
IN MYSTERIOUS TIBET 91
belts with more cartridges sticking out. They examined

us very sharply and we readily realized that they were
estimating our martial strength. After they had left
on that same day I ordered our Kalmuck to inquire from
the High Priest of the temple exactly who they were.
For a long time the monk gave evasive answers but when
I showed him the ring of Hutuktu Narabanchi and pre-
sented him with a large yellow hatyk, he became more

communicative.
"Those are bad people," he explained. "Have a care
of them."
However, he was not willing to give their names, ex-
plaining his refusal by citing the Law of Buddhist lands
against pronouncing the name of one's father, teacher
or chief. Afterwards found out that in North
I Tibet
there exists the same custom as in North China. Here
and there bands of hiinghutse wander about. They
appear at the headquarters of the leading trading firms
and at the monasteries, claim tribute and after their
collections become the protectors of the district. Prob-
ably this Tibetan monastery had in this band just such
protectors.
When we continued our trip, we frequently noticed
singlehorsemen far away or on the horizon, apparently
studying our movements with care. All our attempts to
approach them and enter into conversation with them
were entirely unsuccessful. On their speedy little horses
they disappeared like shadows. As we reached the steep
and difficult Pass on the Hamshan and were preparing
to spend the night there, suddenly far up on a ridge
above us appeared about forty horsemen with entirely
white mounts and without formal introduction or warn-
ing spattered us with a hail of bullets. Two of our
officers fell with a cry. One had been instantly killed
while the other lived some few minutes. I did not allow
my men to shoot but instead I raised a white flag and
started forward with the Kalmuck for a parley. At
first they fired two shots at us but then ceased firing
and sent down a group of riders from the ridge toward

us. We began the parley. The Tibetans explained that
Hamshan is a holy mountain and that here one must not
spend the night, advising us to proceed farther where
we could consider ourselves in safety. They inquired
from us whence we came and whither we were going,
stated in answer to our information about the purpose
of our journey that they knew the Bolsheviki and con-
sidered them the liberators of the people of Asia from
the yoke of the white race. I certainly did not want to
begin a political quarrel with them and so turned back
to our companions. Riding down the slope toward our
camp, I waited momentarily for a shot in the back but
the Tibetan hiinghiitze did not shoot.
We moved forward, leaving among the stones the
bodies of two of our companions as sad tribute to the
difficulties and dangers of our journey. We rode all
night, with our exhausted horses constantly stopping and
some lying down under us, but we forced them ever
onward. At last, when the sun was at its zenith, we
finally halted. Without unsaddling our horses, we gave
them an opportunity to lie down for a little rest. Be-
fore us lay a broad, swampy plain, where was evidently
the sources of the river Ma-chu. Not far beyond lay
the Lake of Aroung Nor. We made our fire of cattle
dung and began boiling water for our tea. Again with-
out any warning the bullets came raining in from all

sides. Immediately we took cover behind convenient
rocks and waited developments. The firing became
fasterand closer, the raiders appeared on the whole circle
round us and the bullets came ever in increasing numbers.
We had fallen into a trap and had no hope but to perish.
We realized this clearly. I tried anew to begin the
parley; but when I stood up with my white flag, the
answer was only a thicker rain of bullets and unfortu-
nately one of these, ricocheting off a rock, struck me in
the left leg and lodged there. same moment
At the
another one of our company was killed. We had no
other choice and were forced to begin fighting. The
struggle continued for about two hours. Besides myself
three others received slight wounds. We resisted as
long as we could. The hunghutse approached and our
situationbecame desperate.
"There's no choice," said one of my associates, a very
expert Colonel. "We must mount and ride for it. . .
anywhere."
"Anywhere. ..." It was a terrible word ! We con-
sulted for but an instant. It was apparent that with
this band of cut-throats behind us the farther we went
into Tibet, the less chance we had of saving our lives.
We decided to return to Mongolia. But how ? That
we did not know. And thus we began our retreat. Fir-
ing all the time, we trotted our horses as fast as we
could toward the north. One after another three of
my companions fell. There lay my Tartar with a bullet
through his neck. After him two young and fine stalwart
officers were carried from their saddles with cries of
death, while their scared horses broke out across the

plain In wild fear, perfect pictures of our distraught
selves. This emboldened the Tibetans, who became more
and more audacious. A on the
bullet struck the buckle
ankle strap of my and carried it, with a piece
right foot
of leather and cloth, into my leg just above the ankle.
My old and much tried friend, the agronome, cried out
as he grasped his shoulder and then I saw him wiping
and bandaging as best as he could his bleeding forehead.
A second afterward our Kalmuck was hit twice right
through the palm of the same hand, so that it was entirely
shattered. Just at this moment fifteen of the himghutse
rushed against us in a charge.
"Shoot at them with volley fire!" commanded our
Colonel.
Six robber bodies lay on the turf, while two others
of the gang were unhorsed and ran scampering as fast
as they could after their retreating fellows. Several
minutes later the fire of our antagonists ceased and they
raised a white flag. Two riders came forward toward
us. In the parley it developed that their chief had been
wounded through the chest and they came to ask us
to "render first aid." At once I saw a ray of hope. I
took my box of medicines and my groaning, cursing,

wounded Kalmuck to interpret for me.
"Give that devil some cyanide of potassium," urged
my companions.
But I devised another scheme.
We were led to the wounded chief. There he lay
on the saddle cloths among the rocks, represented to
us to be a Tibetan but I at once recognized him from his
cast of countenance to be a Sart or Turcoman, probably
from the southern part of Turkestan. He looked at me
with a begging and frightened gaze. Examining him,

I found the had passed through his chest from left
bullet
to right, that he had lost much blood and was very
weak. Conscientiously I did all that I could for him.
In the first place I tried on my own tongue all the
medicines to be used on him, even the iodoform, in order
to demonstrate that there was no poison among them.
I cauterized the wound with iodine, sprinkled it with
iodoform and applied the bandages. I ordered that the
wounded man be not touched nor moved and that he be
left right where he lay. Then I taught a Tibetan how
the dressing must be changed and left with him medicated
cotton, bandages and a little iodoform. To the patient,
in whom the fever was already developing, I gave a big
dose of aspirin and left several tablets of quinine with
them. Afterwards, addressing myself to the bystanders
through my Kalmuck, I said very solemnly:
"The wound is very dangerous but I gave to your
Chief very strong medicine and hope that he will recover.
One condition, however, is necessary: the bad demons
which have rushed to his side for his unwarranted attack
upon us innocent travelers will instantly kill him, if an-
other shot is let off against us. You must not even keep
a single cartridge in your rifles."
With these words I ordered the Kalmuck to empty

his rifle and I, at the same time, took all the cartridges
out of my ]\Iauser. The Tibetans instantly and very
servilely followed my example.
"Remember that I told you : 'Eleven days and eleven
nights do not move from this place and do not charge
your rifles.' Otherwise the demon of death will snatch
off your Chief and will pursue you!" and with these —
;

words I solemnly drew forth and raised above their heads
the ring of Hutuktu Narabanchi.
I my companions and calmed them. I told
returned to
them we were safe against further attack from the rob-
bers and that we must only guess the way to reach Mon-
golia. Our horses were so exhausted and thin that on
their bones we could have hung our overcoats. We spent
two days here, during which time I frequently visited
my patient. It also gave us opportunity to bandage our
own fortunately light wounds and to secure a little rest
though unfortunately I had nothing but a jackknife with
which to dig the bullet out of my left calf and the shoe-
maker's accessories from my right ankle. Inquiring from
the brigands about the caravan roads, we soon made
our way out to one of the main routes and had the good
fortune to meet there the caravan of the young Mongol
Prince Pounzig, who was on a holy mission carrying
a message from the Living Buddha in Urga to the Dalai
Lama in Lhasa. He helped us to purchase horses,
camels and food.
With all our arms and supplies spent in barter during
the journey for the purchase of transport and food, we
returned stripped and broken to the Narabanchi Mon-
astery, where we were welcomed by the Hutuktu.
"I knew you would come back," said he. "The divin-
ations revealed it all to me."
With six of our band left behind us in Tibet to
little
pay the eternal toll of our dash for the south we returned
but twelve to the Monastery and waited there two weeks
to re-adjust ourselves and learn how events would again
set us afloat on this turbulent sea to steer for any port
that Destiny might indicate. The officers enlisted in the
detachment which was then being formed in Mongolia to

fight against the destroyers of their native land, the Bol-
sheviki. My companion and I prepared to con-
original
tinue our journey over Mongolian plains with whatever
further adventures and dangers might come in the
struggle to escape to a place of safety.
And now, with the scenes of that trying march so viv-
idly recalled, I would dedicate these chapters to my gi-
gantic, old and ruggedly tried friend, the agronome, to
my Russian fellow-travelers, and especially, to the sacred
memory of those of our companions whose bodies lie
cradled in the sleep among the mountains of Tibet —
Col-
onel Ostrovsky, Captains Zuboff and Turoff, Lieutenant
Pisarjevsky, Cossack Vernigora and Tartar Mahomed
Spirin. Also here I express my deep thanks for help and
friendship to the Prince of Soldjak, Hereditary Noyon
Ta Lama and to the Kampo Gelong of Narabanchi Mon-
astery, the honorable Jelyb Djamsrap Hutuktu.
Part II
THE LAND OF DEMONS

Part II
THE LAND OF DEMONS
CHAPTER XVII
MYSTERIOUS MONGOLIA
T N the heart of Asia lies the enormous, mysterious and

•*-
MongoUa. From somewhere on the
rich country of
snowy slopes of the Tian Shan and from the hot sands
of Western Zungaria to the timbered ridges of the Sayan
and to the Great Wall of China it stretches over a huge
portion of Central Asia. The cradle of peoples, his-
toriesand legends the native land of bloody conquerors,
;
who have left here their capitals covered by the sand of

the Gobi, their mysterious rings and their ancient nomad
laws; the states of monks and evil devils, the country of
wandering tribes administered by the descendants of
Jenghiz Khan and Kublai Khan — Khans and Princes of
the Junior lines: that is Mongolia.
Mysterious country of the cults of Rama, Sakkia-
Mouni, Djonkapa and Paspa, cults guarded by the very
person of the living Buddha —Buddha incarnated the in
third dignitary of the Lamaite —Bogdo Gheghen
religion
in Ta Kure or Urga; the land of mysterious doctors,
lOI
I02 BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
prophets, sorcerers, fortune-tellers and witches; the land
of the sign of the swastika; the land which has not for-
gotten the thoughts of the long deceased great potentates
of Asia and of half of Europe: that is Mongolia.
The land of nude mountains, of plains burned by the
sun and killed by the cold, of ill cattle and ill people ; the
nest of pests, anthrax and smallpox; the land of boiling
hot springs and of mountain passes inhabited by demons;
of sacred lakes swarming with fish ; of wolves, rare spe-
cies of deer and mountain goats, marmots in millions,
wild horses, wild donkeys and wild camels that have
never known the bridle, ferocious dogs and rapacious
birds of prey which devour the dead bodies cast out on the
plains by the people: that is Mongolia.
The land whose disappearing primitive people gaze
upon the bones of their forefathers whitening in the
sands and dust of their plains; where are dying out the
people who formerly conquered China, Siam, Northern
India and Russia and broke their chests against the iron
lances of the Polish knights, defending then all the Chris-
tian world against the invasion of wild and wandering
Asia : that is Mongolia.
The land swelling with natural riches, producing noth-
ing, in need of everything, destitute and suffering from
the world's cataclysm: that is Mongolia.
In this land, by order of Fate, after my unsuccessful

attempt to reach the Indian Ocean through Tibet, I spent
half a year in the struggle to live and to escape. My old
and faithful friend and I were compelled, willy-nilly, to
participate in the exceedingly important and dangerous
events transpiring in Mongolia in the year of grace 1921.
Thanks to this, I came to know the calm, good and honest
MYSTERIOUS MONGOLIA 103
Mongolian people I read their souls, saw their sufferings

;
and hopes; I witnessed the whole horror of their oppres-

sion and fear before the face of Mystery, there where
Mystery pervades all Hfe. I watched the rivers during
the severe cold break with a rumbling roar their chains
of ice; saw lakes cast up on their shores the bones of
human unknown wild voices in tlie moun-
beings; heard
tain ravines made out the fires over miry swamps of the
;
will-o'-the-wisps witnessed burning lakes gazed upward

; ;
to mountains whose peaks could not be scaled; came

across great balls of writhing snakes in the ditches in
winter; met with streams which are eternally frozen,
rocks like petrified caravans of camels, horsemen and
carts ; and over all saw the barren mountains whose folds
looked like the mantle of Satan, which the glow of the
evening sun drenched with blood.
"Look up there!" cried an old shepherd, pointing to
the slope of the cursed Zagastai. "That is no mountain.
It is he who lies in his red mantle and awaits the day
when he will rise again to begin the fight with the good
spirits."
And as he spoke I recalled the mystic picture of the

noted painter Vroubel. The same nude mountains with
the violet and purple robes of Satan, whose face is half
covered by an approaching grey cloud. Mongolia is a
terrible land of mystery and demons. it isTherefore
no wonder that here every violation of the ancient order
of life of the wandering nomad tribes is transformed into
streams of red blood and horror, ministering to tiie de-
monic pleasure of Satan couched on the bare mountains
and robed in the grey cloak of dejection and sadness, or in
the purple mantle of war and vengeance.
After returning from the district of Koko Nor to
Mongolia and resting a few days at the Narabanchi Mon-
astery, we went to Hve in Uliassutai, the capital of
Western Outer Mongolia. It is the last purely Mongolian
town to the west. In Mongolia there are but three purely
Mongolian towns, Urga, Uliassutai and Ulankom. The
fourth town, Kobdo, has an essentially Chinese character,
being the center of Chinese administration in tliis district
inhabited by the wandering tribes only nominally recog-

nizing the influence of either Peking or Urga. In Uli-
assutai and Ulankom, besides the unlawful Chinese com-
missioners and troops, there were stationed Mongolian
governors or "Saits," appointed by the decree of the
Living Buddha.
When we arrived in that town, we were at once in the
sea of political passions. The Mongols were protesting
in great agitation against the Chinese policy in their
country the Chinese raged and demanded from the
; Mon-
golians the payment of taxes for the full period since
the autonomy of Mongolia had been forcibly extracted
from Peking; Russian colonists who had years before
settled near the town and in the vicinity of the great
monasteries or among the wandering tribes had separated
into factions and were fighting against one another; from
Urga came the news of the struggle for the maintenance
of the independence of Outer Mongolia, led by the Rus-
sian General, Baron Ungern von Sternberg; Russian
officers and refugees congregated in detachments, against
which the Chinese authorities protested but which the
Mongols welcomed; the Bolsheviki, worried by the for-
mation of White detachments in Mongolia, sent their
troops to the borders of Mongolia; from Irkutsk and
Chita to Uliassutai and Urga envoys were running from

the Bolsheviki to the Chinese commissioners with various
proposals of all kinds; the Chinese authorities in Mon-
golia were gradually entering into secret relations with
the Bolsheviki and in Kiakhta and Ulankom delivered
to them the Russian refugees, thus violating recognized
international law; in Urga the Bolsheviki set up a Rus-
sian communistic municipality Russian Consuls were in-
;
active Red troops in the region of Kosogol and the val-

;
ley of the Selenga had encounters with Anti-Bolshevik

officers; the Chinese authorities established garrisons in
the Mongolian towns and sent punitive expeditions into
the country ; and, to complete the confusion, the Chinese
troops carried out house-to-house searches, during which
they plundered and stole.
Into what an atmosphere we had fallen after our hard

and dangerous trip along the Yenisei, through Urianhai,
Mongolia, the lands of the Turguts, Kansu and Koko
Nor!
"Do you know," said my old friend to me, "I prefer
strangling Partisans and fighting with the hunghutze to
listening tonews and more anxious news!"
He was it was that in this
right; for the worst of
bustle and whirl of facts, rumours and gossip the Reds
could approach troubled Uliassutai and take everyone
with their bare hands. We should very willingly have
left this town of uncertainties but we had no place to
go. In the north were the hostile Partisans and Red
troops ; to the south we had already lost our companions
and not a little of our own blood to the west raged the
;
Chinese administrators and detachments ; and to the ea*t

6. war had broken out. the news of which, in spite of the
io6 BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
attempts of the Chinese authorities at secrecy, had filtered
through and had testified to the seriousness of the situa-
tion in this part of Outer MongoUa. Consequently we
had no choice but to remain in Uliassutai. Here also
were living several Polish soldiers who had escaped from
the prison camps in Russia, two Polish families and two
American firms, all in the same plight as ourselves. We
joined together and made our own intelligence depart-
ment, very carefully watching the evolution of events.
We succeeded in forming good connections with the
Chinese commissioner and with the Mongolian Salt,
which greatly helped us in our orientation.
What was behind all these events in Mongolia? The
very clever Mongol Salt of Uliassutai gave me the follow-
ing explanation.
"According to the agreements between Mongolia,
China and Russia of October 21, 1912, of October 23,
1913, and of June 7, 191 5, Outer Mongolia was accorded
independence and the Moral Head of our 'Yellow Faith,'
His Holiness the Living Buddha, became the Suzerain of
the Mongolian people of Khalkha or Outer Mongolia
with the title of 'Bogdo Djebtsung Damba Hutuktu
Khan.' While Russia was still strong and carefully

watched her policy in Asia, the Government of Peking
kept the treaty; but, when, at the beginning of the war
with Germany, Russia was compelled to withdraw her
troops from Siberia, Peking began to claim the return
of its lost rights in Mongolia. It was because of this that
the first two treaties of 191 2 and 19 13 were supplemented
by the convention of 191 5. However, in 19 16, when
all the forces of Russia were pre-occupied in the unsuc-
cessful war and afterwards when the first Russian revo-
lution broke out in February, 191 7, overthrowing the

Romanoff Dynasty, the Chinese Government openly re-
took Mongolia. They changed all the Mongolian min-
isters and Saits, replacing them with individuals friendly
to China; arrested many Mongolian autonomists and

sent them to prison in Peking set up their administration
;
in Urga and other Mongol towns; actually removed His

Holiness Bogdo Khan from the affairs of administration;
made him only a machine for signing Chinese decrees;
and at last introduced into Mongolia their troops. From
that moment there developed an energetic flow of Chinese
merchants and coolies into Mongolia. The Chinese began
to demand the payment of taxes and dues from 1912.
The Mongolian population were rapidly stripped of their
wealth and now in the vicinities of our towns and mona-
steries you can see whole settlements of beggar Mongols
living in dugouts. All our Mongol arsenals and treas-
urieswere requisitioned. All monasteries were forced to
pay taxes; all Mongols working for the liberty of their
country were persecuted; through bribery with Chinese
silver, orders and titles the Chinese secured a following
among the poorer Mongol Princes. It is easy to under-
stand how the governing class, His Holiness, Khans,
Princes, and high Lamas, as well as the ruined and op-
pressed people, remembering that the Mongol rulers had
once held Peking and China in their hands and under
their reign had given her the first place in Asia, were
definitely hostile to the Chinese administrators acting
thus. Insurrection was, however, impossible. We had
no arms. All our leaders were under surveillance and
every movement by them toward an armed resistance
would have ended in the same prison at Peking where
loS BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
eighty of our Noblca, Princes and Lamas died from
hunger and torture after a previous struggle for the lib-
erty of Mongolia. Some abnormally strong shock was
necessary to drive the people into action. This was given
by the Chinese administrators, General Cheng Yi and
General Chu Chi-hsiang. They announced that His Holi-
ness Bogdo Khan was under arrest in his own palace,
and they recalled to his attention the former decree of
the Peking Government —
held by the Mongols to be un-
—
warranted and illegal that His Holiness was the last
Living Buddha. This was enough. Immediately secret
relations were made between the people and their Living
God, and plans were at once elaborated for the liberation
of His Holiness and for the struggle for liberty and
freedom of our people. We were helped by the great
Prince of the Buriats, Djam Bolon,who began parleys
with General Ungern, then engaged in fighting the Bol-
sheviki in Transbaikalia, and invited him to enter Mon-
golia and help in the war against the Chinese. Then
our struggle for liberty began."
Thus the Sait of Uliassutai explained the situation
to me. Afterwards I heard that Baron Ungern, who had
agreed to fight for the liberty of Mongolia, directed that
the mobilization of the Mongolians in the northern dis-
tricts be forwarded at once and promised to enter Mon-
golia with his own small detachment, moving along the
River Kerulen. Afterwards he took up relations with
the other Russian detachment of Colonel Kazagrandi
and, together with the mobilized Mongolian riders, began
the attack on Urga. Twice he was defeated but on the
third of February, 192 1, he succeeded in capturing the
town and replaced the Living Buddha on the tlirone of

the Khans.
At the end of March, however, these events were still
unknown in Uliassutai. We knew neither of the fall of
Urga nor of the destruction of the Chinese army of
nearly 15,000 in the battles of Maimachen on the shore of
the Tola and on the roads between Urga and Ude. The
Chinese carefully concealed the truth by preventing any-
body from passing westward from Urga. However,
rumours existed and troubled all. The atmosphere be-
came more and more tense, while the relations between
the Chinese on the one side and the Mongolians and
Russians on the other became more and more strained.
At this time the Chinese Commissioner in Uliassutai was
Wang Tsao-tsun and his advisor, Fu Hsiang, both very
young and inexperienced men. The Chinese authorities
had dismissed the Uliassutai Sait, the prominent Mon-
golian patriot. Prince Chultun Beyle, and had appointed
a Lama Prince friendly to China, the former Vice-Min-
ister of War in Urga. Oppression increased. The search-
ing of Russian officers' and colonists' houses and quarters
commenced, open relations with the Bolsheviki followed
and arrest and beatings became common. The Russian
officers formed a secret detachment of sixty men so that
they could defend themselves. However, in this detach-
ment disagreements soon sprang up between Lieutenant-
Colonel M. M. Michailoff and some of his officers. It
was evident that in the decisive moment the detachment
must separate into factions.
We foreigners in council decided to make a thorough
reconnaissance in order to know whether there was danger
of Red troops arriving. My old companion and I agreed
no BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
to do this scouting. Prince Chultun Beyle gave us a very
—
good guide an old Mongol named Tzeren, who spoke
and read Russian perfectly. He vâs a very interesting
personage, holding the position of interpreter with the
Mongolian authorities and sometimes with the Chinese
Commissioner. Shortly before he had been sent as a
specialenvoy to Peking with very important despatches
and this incomparable horseman had made the journey
between Uliassutai and Peking, that is i,8oo miles, in nine
days, incredible as it may seem. He prepared himself for
the journey by binding all his abdomen and chest, legs,
arms and neck with strong cotton bandages to protect
himself from the wracks and strains of such a period in
the saddle. In his cap he bore three eagle feathers as a
token that he had received orders to fly like a bird. Armed
with a special document called a tzara, which gave him
the right to receive at all post stations the best horses, one
to ride and one fully saddled to lead as a change, together

with two oulatchen or guards to accompany him and
bring back the horses from the next station or our ton, he
made the distance of from fifteen to thirty miles between
stations at full gallop, stopping only long enough to have
the horses and guards changed before he was off again.
Ahead of him rode one oulatchen with the best horses
to enable him to announce and prepare in advance the
complement of steeds at the next station. Each oulatchen
had three horses in all, so that he could swing from one
that had given out and release him to graze until his re-
turn to pick him up and lead or ride him back home. At
every third oiirton, without leaving his saddle, he received
a cup of hot green tea with salt and continued hi% race
southward. After seventeen or eighteen hours O** Mu:h
!
MYSTERIOUS MONGOLIA iii
what was
riding he stopped at the ourton for the night or
left of it, devoured a leg of boiled mutton and slept.
Thus he ate once a day and five times a day had tea and ;
so he traveled for nine days

With this servant we moved out one cold winter morn-
ing in the direction of Kobdo, just over three hundred
miles, because from there we had received the disquiet-
ing rumours that the Red troops had entered Ulankom
and that the Chinese authorities had handed over to them
all the Europeans in the town. We crossed the River
Dzaphin on the ice. It is a terrible stream. Its bed is
full of quicksands, which in summer suck in numbers
of camels, horses and men. We entered a long, winding

valley among the mountains covered with deep snow and
here and there with groves of the black wood of the larch.
About halfway to Kobdo we came across the yurta of a
shepherd on the shore of the small Lake of Baga Nor,
where evening and a strong wind whirling gusts of snow
in our faces easily persuaded us to stop. By the yurta
stood a splendid bay horse with a saddle richly orna-
mented with silver and coral. As we turned in from the
road, two Mongols left the yurta very hastily; one of
them jumped into the saddle and quickly disappeared in
the plain behind the snowy hillocks. We clearly made out
the flashing folds of his yellow robe under the great outer
coat and saw his large knife sheathed in a green leather
scabbard and handled with horn and ivory. The other
man was the host of the yurta, the shepherd of a local
prince, Novontziran. He gave signs of great pleasure at
seeing us and receiving us in his yurta.
"Who was the rider on the bay horse?" we asked.
He dropped his eyes and was silent.
"Tell us," we insisted. "If you do not wish to speak
his name, it means that you are dealing with a bad char-
acter."
"No No !" he remonstrated, flourishing his hands.
!
"He is a good, great man but the law does not permit me
;
to speak his name."

We at man was either the
once understood that the
chief of the shepherd or some high Lama. Consequently
we did not further insist and began making our sleeping
arrangements. Our host set three legs of mutton to boil
for us, skillfully cutting out the bones with his heavy
knife. We chatted and learned that no one had seen Red
troops around this region but in Kobdo and in Ulankom
the Chinese soldiers were oppressing the population, and
were beating to death with the bamboo Mongol men
who were defending their women against the ravages
of these Chinese troops. Some of the Mongols had re-
treated to the mountains to join detachments under the
command of Kaigordoff, an Altai Tartar officer who
was supplying them with weapons.
: !
CHAPTER XVIII
THE MYSTERIOUS LAMA AVENGER

TTT'E rested soundly in the yurta after the two
^ ' days of travel which had brought us one hundred
seventy miles through the snow and sharp cold. Round
the evening meal of juicy mutton we were talking freely
and carelessly when suddenly we heard a low, hoarse
voice
"Sayn —Good evening !"
We turned around from the brazier to the door and

saw a medium height, very heavy set Mongol in deerskin
overcoat and cap with side flaps and the long, wide tying
strings of the same material. Under his girdle lay the
same large knife in the green sheath which we had seen
on the departing horseman.
"Amoursayn," we answered.
He quickly untied his girdle and laid aside his overcoat.
He stood before us in a wonderful gown of silk, yellow
as beaten gold and girt with a brilliant blue sash. His
cleanly shaven face, short hair, red coral rosary on the
left hand and his yellow garment proved clearly that
before us stood some high Lama Priest, —with a big Colt
tmder his blue sash
I turned to my host and Tzeren and read in their faces
fear and veneration. The stranger came over to the
brazier and sat down.
113
"Let's speak Russian," he said and took a bit of meat.
The conversation began. The stranger began to find
fault with the Government of the Living Buddha in
Urga.
"There they liberate Mongolia, capture Urga, defeat
the Chinese army and here in the west they give us no
news of it. We are without action here while the Chinese
kill our people and steal from them. I think that Bogdo
Khan might send us envoys. How is it the Chinese can
send their envoys from Urga and Kiakhta to Kobdo,
asking for assistance, and the Mongol Government cannot
do it? Why?"
"Will the Chinese send help to Urga?" I asked.
Our guest laughed hoarsely and said: "I caught all the
envoys, took away their letters and then sent them back
. . . into the ground."
He laughed again and glanced around peculiarly with
his blazing eyes. Only then did I notice that his cheek-
bones and eyes had lines strange to the Mongols of Cen-
tral Asia. He looked more like a Tartar or a Kirghiz.
We were silentand smoked our pipes.
"How soon will the detachment of Chahars leave Uli-
assutai?" he asked.
We answered that we had not heard about them. Our
guest explained that from Inner Mongolia the Chinese
authorities had sent out a strong detachment, mobilized
from among the most warlike tribe of Chahars, which
wander about the region just outside the Great Wall. Its
chief was a notorious hiinghutse leader promoted by the
Chinese Government to the rank of captain on promising
that he would bring under subjugation to the Chinese
authorities all the tribes of the districts of Kobdo and
THE MYSTERIOUS LAMA AVENGER 115
Urianhai. When he learned whither we were going and

for what purpose, he said he could give us the most accu-
rate news and relieve us from the necessity of going
farther.
"Besides that, it is very dangerous," he said, "because
Kobdo will be massacred and burned. I know this posi-
tively."
When he heard of our unsuccessful attempt to pass
through Tibet, he became attentive and very sympa-
thetic in his bearing toward us and, with evident feeling
of regret, expressed himself strongly:
"Only I could have helped you in this enterprise, but
not the Narabanchi Hutuktu. With my laissez-passer
you could have gone anywhere in Tibet. I am Tushe-
goun Lama."
Tushegoun Lama! How many extraordinary tales I
had heard about him. He is a Russian Kalmuck, who
because of his propaganda work for the independence of
the Kalmuck people made the acquaintance of many Rus-
sian prisons under the Czar and, for the same cause,
added to his list under the Bolsheviki. He escaped to
Mongolia and at once attained to great influence among
the Mongols. It was no wonder, for he was a close friend
and pupil of the Dalai Lama in Potala (Lhasa), was the
most learned among the Lamites, a famous thaumaturgist
and doctor. He occupied an almost independent position
in his relationship with the Living Buddha and achieved
to the leadership of all the old wandering tribes of West-
ern Mongolia and Zungaria, even extending his political
domination over the Mongolian tribes of Turkestan.
His influence was irresistible, based as it was on his great
control of mysterious science, as he expressed it; but I
:
ii6 BEASTS, MEN AND GODS

was also told that it has its foundation largely in the
panicky fear which he could produce in the Mongols.
Everyone who disobeyed his orders perished. Such an
one never knew the day or the hour when, in his yiirta
or beside his galloping horse on the plains, the strange
and powerful friend of the Dalai Lama would appear.
The stroke of a knife, a bullet or strong fingers strangling
the neck like a vise accomplished the justice of the plans
of this miracle worker.
Without the walls of the yurta the wind whistled and
roared and drove the frozen snow sharply against the
stretched felt. Through wind came the
the roar of the
sound of many voices in mingled shouting, wailing and
laughter. I felt that in such surroundings it were not
difficult to dumbfound a wandering nomad with miracles,
because Nature herself had prepared the setting for it.

This thought had scarcely time to flash through my mind
before Tushegoun Lama suddenly raised his head, looked
sharply at me and said
"There is very much unknown in Nature and the skill
of using the unknown produces the miracle; but the
power is given to few. I want to prove it to you and you
may tell me afterwards whether you have seen it before
or not."
He stood up, pushed back the sleeves of his yellow gar-
ment, seized his knife and strode across to the shepherd.
"Michik, stand up!" he ordered.
When the shepherd had risen, the Lama quickly un-
buttoned his coat and bared the man's chest. I could not
yet understand what was his intention, when suddenly
the Tushegoun with all his force struck his knife into
the chest of the shepherd. The Mongol fell all covered
with blood, a splash of which I noticed on the yellow

silk of the Lama's coat.
"What have you done?" I exclaimed.
"Sh! Be still," he whispered turning to me his now
quite blanched face.
With a few strokes of the knife he opened the chest
of the Mongol and I saw the man's lungs softly breath-
ing and the distinct palpitations of the heart. The Lama
touched these organs with his fingers but no more blood
appeared to flow and the face of the shepherd was quite
calm. He was lying with his eyes closed and appeared
to be in deep and quiet sleep. As the Lama began to
open his abdomen, I shut my eyes in fear and horror and, ;
when I opened them a little while later, I was still more

dumbfounded at seeing the shepherd with his coat still
open and his breast normal, quietly sleeping on his side

and Tushegoun Lama sitting peacefullly by the brazier,
smoking his pipe and looking into the fire in deep thought.
"It is wonderful!" I confessed. "I have never seen
!"
anything like it
"About what are you speaking?" asked the Kalmuck.

"About your demonstration or 'miracle,' as you call
it," I answered.
"I never said anything like that," refuted the Kalmuck,
with coldness in his voice.
"Did you see it?" I asked of my companion.
"What?" he queried in a dozing voice.
I realized that I had become the victim of the hypnotic
power of Tushegoun Lama; but I preferred this to seeing
an innocent Mongolian die, for I had not believed that
Tushegoun Lama, after slashing open the bodies of his
victims, could repair them again so readily.
ii8 BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
The following day we took leave of our hosts. We
decided to return, inasmuch as our mission was accom-
plished; and Tushegoun Lama explained to us that he
would "move through space." He wandered over all Mon-
golia, lived both in the single, simple yurta of the shepherd
and hunter and in the splendid tents of the princes and
tribal chiefs, surrounded by deep veneration and panic-
fear, enticing and cementing to him rich and poor alike

with his miracles and prophecies. When bidding us
adieu, the Kalmuck sorcerer slyly smiled and said:
"Do not give any information about me to the Chinese
authorities."
Afterwards he added: "What happened to you yester-
day evening was a futile demonstration. You Europeans
will not recognize that we dark-minded nomads possess
the powers of mysterious science. If you could only see
the miracles and power of the Most Holy Tashi Lama,
when at his command the lamps and candles before the
ancient statue of Buddha and when the
light themselves
ikons of the gods begin to speak and prophesy! But
there exists a more powerful and more holy man. ," .
"Is it the King of the World in Agharti?" I inter-

rupted.
He stared and glanced at me in amazement.
"Have you heard about him?" he asked, as his brows
knit in thought.
After a few seconds he raised his narrow eyes and
said:"Only one man knows his holy name only one man ;
now was ever in Agharti. That is I. This is the

living
reason why the Most Holy Dalai Lama has honored me
and why the Living Buddha in Urga fears me. But in
vain, for I shall never sit on the Holy Throne of the high-
Lhasa nor reach that which has come down

est priest in
from Jenghiz Khan to the Head of our yellow Faith. I
am no monk. I am a warrior and avenger,'
He jumped smartly into the saddle, whipped his horse
and whirled away, flinging out as he left the common
Mongolian phrase of adieu: "Sayn! Sayn-hayna!"
On the way back Tzeren related to us the hundreds
of legends surrounding Tushegoun Lama. One tale es-
pecially remained in my mind. It was in 191 1 or 1912
when the Mongols by armed force tried to attain their

liberty in a struggle with the Chinese. The general
Chinese headquarters in Western Mongolia was Kobdo,
where they had about ten thousand soldiers under the
command of their best officers. The command to capture
Kobdo was sent to Hun Baldon, a simple shepherd who
had distinguished himself in fights with the Chinese and
received from the Living Buddha the title of Prince of
Hun. Ferocious, absolutely without fear and possessing
gigantic strength, Baldon had several times led to the
attack his poorly armed Mongols but each time had been
forced to retreat after losing many of his men under the
machine-gun fire. Unexpectedly Tushegoun Lama ar-
rived. He collected all the soldiers and then said to them :
"You must not fear death and must not retreat. You
are fighting and dying for Mongolia, for which the gods
have appointed a great destiny. See what the fate of
Mongolia will be!"
He made a great sweeping gesture with his hand and
all the soldiers saw the country round about set with rich
yurtas and pastures covered with great herds of horses
and cattle. On the plains appeared numerous horsemen
on richly saddled steeds. The women were .clowned in
the finest of silk with massive silver rings in their ears
and precious ornaments in their elaborate head dresses
Chinese merchants led an endless caravan of merchan-
dise up to distinguished looking Mongol Saits, surrounded
by the gaily dressed tzirik or soldiers and proudly ne-
gotiating with the merchants for their wares.
Shortly the vision disappeared and Tushegoun began
to speak.
"Do not fear death ! It is a release from our labor on
earth and the path to the state of constant blessings.
Look to the East ! Do you see your brothers and friends
who have fallen in battle?"
"We see, we see!" the Mongol warriors exclaimed in
astonishment, as they all looked upon a great group of
dwellings which might have been yurtas or the arches of
temples flushed with a warm and kindly light. Red and
yellow silk were interwoven in bright bands that covered
the walls and floor, everywhere the gilding on pillars and
walls gleamed brightly ; on the great red altar burned the
thin sacrificial candles in gold candelabra, beside the mas-
and nuts; on soft
sive silver vessels filled with milk
Mongols who had fallen in
pillows about the floor sat the
the previous attack on Kobdo. Before them stood low,
lacquered tables laden with many dishes of steaming, suc-
culent flesh of the lamb and the kid, with high jugs of
wine and tea, with plates of borsuk, a kind of sweet, rich
cakes, with aromatic zatouran covered with sheep's fat,
with bricks of dried cheese, with dates, raisins and nuts.
These fallen soldiers smoked golden pipes and chatted
gaily.
This vision in turn also disappeared and before the

gazing Mongols stood only the mysterious Kalmuck with

his hand upraised.
"To battle and return not without victory ! I am with
you in the fight."
The attack began. The Mongols fought furiously, per-
ished by the hundreds but not before they had rushed
into the heart of Kobdo. Then was re-enacted the long
forgotten picture of Tartar hordes destroying European
towns. Hun
Baldon ordered carried over him a triangle
of lances with brilliant red streamers, a sign that he gave
up the town to the soldiers for three days. Murder and
pillage began. All the Chinese met their death there.
The town was burned and the walls of the fortress de-
stroyed. Afterwards Hun Baldon came to Uliassutai and
also destroyed the Chinese fortress there. The ruins of
it still stand with the broken embattlements and towers,
the useless gates and the remnants of the burned official
quarters and soldiers' barracks.

—
CHAPTER XIX
WILD CHAHARS
AFTER our return to Uliassutai we heard that dis-

quieting news had been received by the Mongol Sait
from Muren Kure. The letter stated that Red Troops were
pressing Colonel Kazagrandi very hard in the region of
Lake Kosogol. The Sait feared the advance of the Red
troops southward to Uliassutai. Both the American firms
liquidated their affairs and all our friends were prepared
for a quick exit, though they hesitated at the thought of
leaving the town, as they were afraid of meeting the de-
tachment of Chahars sent from the east. We decided
coming
to await the arrival of this detachment, as their
could change the whole course of events. In a few days
they came, two hundred warlike Chahar brigands under
the command of a former Chinese Imnghutne. He was a
tall, skinny man with hands that reached almost to his
knees, a face blackened by wind and sun and mutilated

with two long scars down over his forehead and cheek,
the making of one of which had also closed one of his
hawklike eyes, topped off with a shaggy coonskin cap
such was the commander of the detachment of Chahars.
A personage very dark and stern, with whom a night
meeting on a lonely street could not be considered a
pleasure by any bent of the imagination.
The detachment made camp within the destroyed fort-
WILD CHAHARS 123
ress, near to the single Chinese building that had not been
razed and which was now serving as headquarters for tlie
Chinese Commissioner. On the very day of their arrival

the Chahars pillaged a Chinese dugiin or trading house
not half a mile from the fortress and also offended the
wife of the Chinese Commissioner by calling her a
"traitor." The Chahars, like the Mongols, were quite
right in their stand, because the Chinese Commissioner
Wang Tsao-tsun had on his arrival in Uliassutai fol-
lowed the Chinese custom of demanding a Mongolian
wife. The servile new Sait had given orders that a beau-
tiful and suitable Mongolian girl be found for him. One
was so run down and placed in his yamen, together with
her big wrestling Mongol brother who wâs to be a guard
for the Commissioner but who developed into the nurse
for the little white Pekingese pug which the official pre-
sented to his new wife.
Burglaries, squabbles and drunken orgies of the Cha-
hars followed, so that Wang Tsoa-tsun exerted all his
efforts to hurry the detachment westward to Kobdo and
farther into Urianhai.
One morning the inhabitants of Uliassutai rose
cold
to witness a very stern picture.
Along the main street of
the town the detachment was passing. They were riding
on small, shaggy ponies, three abreast; were dressed in
warm blue coats with sheepskin overcoats outside and
crowned with the regulation coonskin caps; armed from
head to foot. They rode with wild shouts and cheers,
very greedily eyeing the Chinese shops and the houses
of the Russian colonists. At their head rode the one-
eyed hunghutsc chief with three horsemen behind him in
white overcoats, who carried waving banners and blew
what may have been meant for music through great conch
shells. One of the Chahars could not resist and so
jumped out of his saddle and made for a Chinese shop
along the street. Immediately the anxious cries of the
Chinese merchants came from the shop. The hunghutze
swung round, noticed the horse at the door of the shop
and realized what was happening. Immediately he reined
his horse and made for the spot. With his raucous voice
he called the Chahar out. As he came, he struck him full
in the face with his whip and withall his strength. Blood
flowed from the slashed cheek. But the Chahar was in
the saddle in a second without a murmur and galloped
to his place in the file. During this exit of the Chahars
all the people were hidden in their houses, anxiously peep-
ing through cracks and corners of the windows. But the

Chahars passed peacefully out and only when they met
a caravan carrying Chinese wine about six miles from
town did their native tendency display itself again in
pillaging and emptying several containers. Somewhere
in the vicinity of Hargana they were ambushed by Tushe-
goun Lama and so treated that never again will the plains
of Chahar welcome the return of these warrior sons who
were sent out to conquer the Soyot descendants of the
ancient Tuba.
The day the column left Uliassutai a heavy snow fell,
so that the road became impassable. The horses first were
up to their knees, Irired out and stopped. Some Mongol
horsemen reached Uliassutai the following day after
great hardship and exertion, having made only twenty-
five miles in forty-eight hours. Caravans were compelled
to stop along the routes. The Mongols would not con-
sent even to attempt journeys with oxen and yaks which
WILD CHAHARS 125
made but ten or twelve miles a day. Only camels could

be used but there were too few and their drivers did not
feel that they could make the first railway station of
Kuku-Hoto, which was about fourteen hundred miles
away. We were forced again to wait: for which ? Death
or salvation? Only our own energy and force could
save us. Consequently my friend and I started out, sup-
plied with a tent, stove and food, for a new reconnais-
sance along the shore of Lake Kosogol, whence the Mon-
gol Sait expected the new invasion of Red troops.
CHAPTER XX
THE DEMON OF JAGISSTAI
OUR group
small four mounted and one
consisting of
pack camel moved northward along the valley of
the River Boyagol in the direction of tlie Tarbagatai
Mountains. The road was rocky and covered deep with
snow. Our camels walked very carefully, sniffing out
the way as our guide shouted the "Ok Ok !" of the camel
!
drivers to urgethem on. We left behind us the fortress

and Chinese diigun, swung round the shoulder of a ridge
and, after fording several times an open stream, began
the ascent of the mountain.The scramble was hard and
dangerous. Our camels picked their way most cautiously,
moving their ears constantly, as is their habit in such
stress. The trail zigzagged into mountain ravines, passed
over the tops of ridges, slipped back down again into
shallower valleys but ever made higher and higher alti-
tudes. At one place under the grey clouds that tipped
the ridges we saw away up on the wide expanse of snow
some black spots.
"Those are the oho, the sacred signs and altars for
the bad demons watching this pass," explained the guide.
"This pass is called Jagisstai. Many very old tales about
it have been kept alive, ancient as these mountains them-
selves.*'
We encouraged him to tell us some of them.

126
:
THE DEMON OF JAGISSTAI 127
The Mongol, rocking on his camel and looking care-

fully all around him, began his tale.
"It was long ago, very long ago, The grandson
. . .
of the great Jenghiz Khan sat on the throne of China

and ruled all Asia. The Chinese killed their Khan and
wanted to exterminate all his family but a holy old Lama
slipped the wife and little son out of the palace and car-
ried them off on swift camels beyond the Grât Wall,
where they sank into our native plains. The Chinese
made a long search for the trails of our refugees and
at last found where they had gone. They despatched
a strong detachment on fleet horses to capture them.
Sometimes the Chinese nearly came up with the fleeing
heir of our Khan but the Lama called down from Heaven
a deep snow, through which the camels could pass while
the horses were inextricably held. This Lama was from
a distant monastery. We shall pass this hospice of Ja-
hantsi Kure. In order to reach it one must cross over
the Jagisstai. And it was just here the old Lama sud-
denly became ill, rocked in his saddle and fell dead. Ta
Sin Lo, the widow of the Great Khan, burst into tears;
below across
but, seeing the Chinese riders galloping there
the valley, pressedon toward the pass. The camels were
tired, stopping every moment, nor did the woman know
how to stimulate and drive them on. The Chinese riders
came nearer and nearer. Already she heard their shouts
of joy, as they felt within their grasp the prize of the
mandarins for the murder of the heir of the Great Khan.
The heads of the mother and the son would be brought
to Peking and exposed on the Ch'ien Men for the mock-
ery and insults of the people. The frightened mother
lifted her little son toward heaven and exclaimed
:

" 'Earth and Gods of Mongolia, behold the offspring
of the man who has glorified the name of the Mongols
from one end of the world to the other ! Allow not this
very flesh of Jenghiz KJian to perish!'
"At this moment she noticed a white mouse sitting
on a rock nearby. It jumped to her knees and said
" *I am sent to help you. Go on calmly and do not
fear. The pursuers of you and your son, to whom is
destined a life of glory, have come to the last bourne of
their lives.'
"Ta Sin Lo did not see how one small mouse could
hold in check three hundred men. The mouse jumped
back to the ground and again spoke:
" *I am the demon of Tarbagatai, Jagasstai. I am
mighty and beloved of the Gods but, because you doubted
the powers of the miracle-speaking mouse, from this day
the Jagasstai will be dangerous for the good and bad
alike.'
"The Khan's widow and son were saved but Jagasstai

has ever remained merciless. During the journey over
this pass one must always be on one's guard. The demon
of the mountain is ever ready to lead the traveler to
destruction."
All the tops of the ridges of the Tarbagatai are thickly
dotted with the oho of rocks and branches. In one place
there was even erected a tower of stones as an altar to
propitiate the Gods for the doubts of Ta Sin Lo. Evi-
dently the demon expected us. When we began our
ascent of the main ridge, he blew into our faces with a
sharp, cold wind, whistledand roared and afterwards
began casting over us whole blocks of snow torn off
the drifts above. We could not distinguish anything
around us, scarcely seeing the camel immediately in front.

Suddenly I felt a shock and looked about me. Nothing
unusual was visible. I was seated comfortably between
two leather saddle bags filled with meat and bread but
... I could not see the head of my camel. He had
disappeared. It seemed that he had slipped and fallen
to the bottom of a shallow ravine, while the bags which

were slung across his back without straps had caught on
a rock and stopped with myself there in the snow. This
time the demon of Jagasstai only played a joke but one
that did not satisfy him. He began to show more and
more anger. With furious gusts of wind he almost
dragged us and our bags from the camels and nearly
knocked over our humped steeds, blinded us with frozen
snow and prevented us from breathing. Through long
hours we dragged slowly on in the deep snow, often fall-
ing over the edge of the rocks. At last we entered a
small valley where the wind whistled and roared with
a thousand voices. It had grown dark. The Mongol
wandered around searching for the trail and finally came
back to us, flourishing his arms and saying:
"We have lost the road. We must spend the night
here. It is very bad because we shall have no wood for
our stove and the cold will grow worse."

With great difficulties and with frozen hands we man-
aged to set up our tent in the wind, placing in it the now
useless stove. We covered the tent with snow, dug deep,
long ditches in the drifts and forced our camels to lie
down inthem by shouting the "Dzuk Dzuk !" command

!
to kneel. Then we brought our packs into the tent.

My companion rebelled against the thought of spend-
ing a cold night with a stove hard by.
"I am going out to look for firewood," said he very
decisively; and at that took up the ax and started. He
returned after an hour wîth a big section of a telegraph
pole.
"You, Jenghiz Khans," said he, rubbing his frozen
hands, "take your axes and go up there to the left on
the mountain and you will find the telegraph poles that
have been cut down. I made acquaintance with the old
Jagasstai and he showed me the poles."
Just a little way from us the line of the Russian tele-
graphs passed, that which had connected Irkutsk with
Uliassutai before the days of the Bolsheviki and which
the Chinese had commanded the Mongols to cut down
and take the wire. These poles are now the salvation of
travelers crossing the pass. Thus we spent the night in a
warm tent, supped well from hot meat soup with vermi-
celli, all dominion of the angered
in the very center of the
Jagasstai. Early the next morning we found the road
not more than two or three hundred paces from our tent
and continued our hard trip over the ridge of Tarbagatai.
At the head of the Adair River valley we noticed a flock
of the Mongolian crows with carmine beaks circling
among the rocks. We approached the place and dis-
covered the recently fallen bodies of a horse and rider.
What had happened them was difficult to guess. They
to
lay close together ; was wound around the right
the bridle
wrist of the man; no trace of knife or bullet was found.
It was impossible to make out the features of the man.
His overcoat was Mongolian but his trousers and under

jacket were not of the Mongolian pattern. We asked
ourselves what had happened to him.
Our Mongol bowed his head in anxiety and said in
hushed but assured tones: "It is the vengeance of Jagas-

stai. The rider did not make sacrifice at the southern
obo and the demon has strangled him and his horse."
At last Tarbagatai was behind us. Before us lay the
valley of the Adair. It was a narrow zigzagging plain
following along the river bed between close mountain
ranges and covered with a rich grass. It was cut into
two parts by the road along which the prostrate telegraph
poles now lay, as the stumps of varying heights and long
stretches of wire completed the debris. This destruction
of the telegraph line between Irkutsk and Uliassutai was
necessary and incident to the aggressive Chinese policy
in Mongolia,
Soon we began to meet large herds of sheep, which
were digging through the snow to the dry but very
nutritious grass. In some places yaks and oxen were
seen on the high slopes of the mountains. Only once,
however, did we see a shepherd, for all of them, spying
us first, had made off to the mountains or hidden in the
ravines. We did not even discover any yurtas along the
way. The Mongols had also concealed all their movable
homes in the folds of the mountains out of sight and
away from the reach of the strong winds. Nomads are
very skilful in choosing the places for their winter dwell-
ings. I had often in winter visited the Mongolian yurtas
set in such sheltered places that, as I came off the windy
plains, I felt as though I were in a conservatory. Once
we came up But as we approached
to a big herd of sheep.
most of the herd gradually withdrew, leaving one part
that remained unmoved as the other worked off across
the plains. From this section soon about thirty of forty
head emerged and wen* scrambling and leaping right up
the mountain side. I took up my glasses and began to ob-
serve them. The part of the herd that remained behind
were common sheep; the large section that had drawn
off over the plain were Mongolian antelopes {gazella
gMtturosa) while the few that had taken to the mountain
;
were the big horned sheep {ovis argali). All this com-
pany had been grazing together with the domestic sheep
on the plains of the Adair, which attracted them with its
good grass and clear water. In many places the river
was not frozen and in some places I saw great clouds
of steam over the surface of the open water. In the
meantime some of the antelopes and the mountain sheep
began looking at us.
"Now they will soon begin to cross our trail," laughed
the Mongol; "very funny Sometimes the ante-
beasts.
lopes course for miles in their endeavor to outrun and
cross in front of our horses and then, when they have
done so, go loping quietly off."
I had already seen this strategy of the antelopes and
I decided to make use of it for the purpose of the hunt.

We organized our chase in the following manner. We
let one Mongol with the pack camel proceed as we had
been traveling and the other three of us spread out like
a fan headed toward the herd on the right of our true
course. The herd stopped and looked about puzzled, for
their etiquette required that they should cross the path
of all four of these riders at once. Confusion began.
They counted about three thousand heads. All this army
began run from one side to another but without form-
to
ing any distinct groups. Whole squadrons of them ran
before us and then, noticing another rider, came coursing
back and made anew the same manoeuvre. One group
of about fifty head rushed in two rows toward my point.

When they were about a hundred and fifty paces away
1 shouted and fired. They stopped at once and began
to whirl round in one spot, running into one another and
even jumping over one another. Their panic cost them
dear, for I had time to shoot four times to bring down
two beautiful heads. My friend was even more fortu-
nate than I, for he shot only once into the herd as it
rushed past him in parallel lines and dropped two with

the same bullet.
Meanwhile the argali had gone farther up the moun-
tainside and taken stand there in a row like so many
soldiers, turning to gaze at us. Even at this distance
I could clearly distinguish their muscular bodies with
their majestic heads and stalwart horns. Picking up our
prey, we overtook the Mongol who had gone on aliead
and continued our way. In many places we came across
the carcasses of sheep with necks torn and the flesh of
the sides eaten off.
"It is the work of wolves," said the Mongol. "They

are always hereabout in large numbers."
We came across several more herds of antelope, which
ran along quietly enough until they had made a comfort-
able distance ahead of us and then with tremendous leaps
and bounds crossed our bows like the proverbial chicken
on tlie road. Then, after a couple of hundred paces at
this speed, they stopped and began to graze quite calmly.
Once I turned my camel back and the whole herd imme-
diately tookup the challenge again, coursed along parallel
with me until they had made sufficient distance for their
ideas of safety and then once more rushed across the
road ahead of me as though it were paved with red hot
stones, only to assume their previous calmness and graze
back on the same side of the trail from which our column
had first started them. On another occasion I did this
three times with a particular herd and laughed long and
heartily at their stupid customs.
We passed a very unpleasant night in this valley. We
stopped on the shore of the frozen stream in a spot where
we found shelter from wind under the lee of a high
the
shore. In our stove we fire and in our kettle
did have a
boiling water. Also our tent was warm and cozy. We
were quietly resting with pleasant thoughts of supper to
soothe us, when suddenly a howling and laughter as
though from some inferno burst upon us from just out-
side the tent, while from the other side of the valley
came the long and doleful howls in answer.
"Wolves," calmly explained the Mongol, who took my
revolver and went out of the tent. He did not return
for some time but at last we heard a shot and shortly
after he entered.
"I scared them a little," said he. "They had congre-
gated on the shore of the Adair around the body of a
camel."
"And they have not touched our camels?" we asked.
"We shall make a bonfire behind our tent; then they
will not bother us."
After our supper we turned in but I lay awake for a
long time listening to the crackle of the wood in the fire,
the deep sighing breaths of the camels and the distant
howling of the packs of wolves; but finally, even with
all these noises, fell asleep. How long I had been asleep
I did not know when suddenly I was awakened by a
strong blow in the side. I was lying at the very edge

of the tent and someone from outside had, without the

least ceremony, pushed strongly against me. I thought
it was one of the camels chewing the felt of the tent.

I took my Mauser and struck the wall. A sharp scream
was followed by the sound of quick running over the
pebbles. In the morning we discovered the tracks of
wolves approaching our tent from the side opposite to
the fire and followed them to where they had begun to
dig under the tent wall ; but evidently one of the would-be
robbers was forced to retreat with a bruise on his head
from the handle of the Mauser.
Wolves and eagles are the servants of Jagasstai, the
Mongol very seriously instructed us. However, this does
not prevent the Mongols from hunting them. Once in
thecamp of Prince Baysei I witnessed such a hunt. The
Mongol horsemen on the best of his steeds overtook the
wolves on the open plain and killed them with heavy bam-
boo sticks or tashur. A Russian veterinary surgeon
taught the Mongols to poison wolves with strychnine but
the Mongols soon abandoned this method because of its
danger to the dogs, the faithful friends and allies of the

nomad. They do not, however, touch the eagles and
hawks but even feed them. When the Mongols are
slaughtering animals they often cast bits of meat up
into the air for the hawks and eagles to catch in flight,
just as we throw a bit of meat to a dog. Eagles and
hawks fight and drive away the magpies and crows, which
are very dangerous for cattle and horses, because they
scratch and peck at the smallest wound or al^rasion on
the backs of the animals until they make them into
uncurable areas which they continue to harass.
CHAPTER XXI
THE NEST OF DEATH
OUR camels were trudging

on toward
ure the north.
to a slow but steady meas-
We were making twenty-
five to thirty miles a day as we approached a small
monastery that lay to the left of our route. It was in
the form of a square of large buildings surrounded by
a high fence of thick poles. Each side had an opening
in the middle leading to the four entrances of the temple
in the center of the square. The temple was built with
the red lacquered columns and the Chinese style roofs
and dominated the surrounding low dwellings of the
Lamas. On the opposite side of the road lay what ap-
peared to be a Chinese fortress but which was in reality
a trading compound or dugun, which the Chinese always
build in the form of a fortress with double walls a few
feet apart, within which they place their houses and shops
and usually have twenty or thirty traders fully armed for
any emergency. In case of need these duguns can be
used as blockhouses and are capable of withstanding long
sieges. Between the dugun and the monastery and nearer
to the road I made out the camp of some nomads. Their
horses and cattle were nowhere to be seen. Evidently
the Mongols had stopped here for some time and had left
their cattle in the mountains. Over several yurtas waved
136
THE NEST OF DEATH 137
multi-colored triangular flags, a sign of the presence of

disease. Near some yurtas high poles were stuck into
the ground with Mongol caps at their tops, which indi-
cated that the host of the yurta had died. The packs of
dogs wandering over the plain showed that the dead
bodies lay somewhere near, either in the ravines or along
the banks of the river.
As we approached the camp, we heard from a distance
the frantic beating of drums, the mournful sounds of the
flute and shrill, mad Our Mongol went for-
shouting.
ward and reported that several Mon-
to investigate for us
golian families had come here to the monastery to seek
aid from the Hutuktu Jahansti who was famed for his
miracles of healing. The people were stricken with
leprosy and black smallpox and had come from long dis-
tances only to find that the Hutuktu was not at the mon-
astery but had gone to the Living Buddha in Urga. Con-
sequently they had been forced to invite the witch doctors.
The people were dying one after another. Just the day
before they had cast on the plain the twenty-seventh man.
Meanwhile, as we talked, the witch doctor came out
He was an old man with a cataract
of one of the yurtas.
on one eye and with a face deeply scarred by smallpox.
He was dressed in tatters with various colored bits of
cloth hanging down from his waist. He carried a drum
and a flute. We could see froth on his blue lips and
madness in his eyes. Suddenly he began to whirl round
and dance with a thousand prancings of his long legs and
writhings of his arms and shoulders, still beating the
drum and playing the flute or crying and raging at inter-
vals, ever accelerating his movements until at last with
pallid face and bloodshot eyes he fell on the snow, where
he continued to writhe and give out his incoherent cries.
In this manner the doctor treated his patients, frighten-

ing with his madness the bad devils that carry disease.
Another witch doctor gave his patients dirty, muddy
water, which I learned was the water from the bath of
the very person of the Living Buddha who had washed
in it his "divine" body born from the sacred flower of
the lotus.
"Om Om !"
! both witches continuously screamed.
While the doctors fought with the devils, the ill people
were left to themselves. They lay in high fever under
the heaps of sheepskins and overcoats, were delirious,
raved and threw themselves about. By the braziers
squatted adults and children who were still well, indif-
ferently chatting, drinking tea and smoking. In all the
yurtas I saw the diseased and the dead and such misery
and physical horrors as cannot be described.
And I thought: "Oh, Great Jenghiz Khan! Why did
you with your keen understanding of the whole situation
of Asia and Europe, you who devoted all your life to the
glory of the name of the Mongols, why did you not give
to your own people, who preserve their old morality,
honesty and peaceful customs, the enlightenment that
would have saved them from such death? Your bones
in the mausoleum at Karakorum being destroyed by the
centuries that pass over them must cry out against the
rapid disappearance of your formerly great people, who
were feared by half the civilized world!"
Such thoughts filled my brain when I saw this camp
of the dead tomorrow and when I heard the groans, shout-
ings and raving of dying men, women and children.
Somewhere in the distance the dogs were howling mourn-
THE NEST OF DEATH 139
fully, and monotonously the drum of the tired witch

rolled.
"Forward!" I could not witness longer this dark
horror, which had no means or force to eradicate. We

I
quickly passed on from the ominous place. Nor could

we shake the thought that some horrible invisible spirit
was following us from this scene of terror. "The devils
of disease ?" "The pictures of horror and misery ?" "The
souls of men who have been sacrificed on the altar of
darkness of Mongolia?" An inexplicable fear penetrated
into our consciousness from whose grasp we could not
release ourselves. Only when we had turned from the
road, passed over a timbered ridge into a bowl in the
mountains from which we could see neither Jahantsi
Kure, the diigun nor the squirming grave of dying Mon-
gols could we breathe freely again.
Presently we discovered a large lake. It was Tisingol.
Near the shore stood a large Russian house, the telegraph
station between Kosogol and Uliassutai.
CHAPTER XXII
AMONG THE MURDERERS
ASbywe approached
blonde young man who was
a
the telegraph station,
in
we were met
charge of the
office, Kanine by name. With some little confusion he
offered us a place in his house for the night. When we
entered the room, a tall, lanky man rose from the table
and indecisively walked toward us, looking very atten-
tively at us the while.
"Guests . .
." explained Kanine. "They are going to
Khathyl. Private persons, strangers, foreigners . .
."
"A-h," drawled the stranger in a quiet, comprehending

tone.
While we were untying our girdles and with difficulty
getting out of our great Mongolian coats, the tall man

was animatedly whispering something to our host. As
we approached the table to sit down and rest, I over-
heard him say : "We are forced to postpone it," and saw
Kanine simply nod in answer.
Several other people were seated at the table, among
them the assistant of Kanine, a tall blonde man with a
white face, who talked like a Gatling gun about every-
thing imaginable. He was half crazy and his semi-
madness expressed itself when any loud talking, shouting
or sudden sharp report led him to repeat the words of
the one to whom he was talking at the time or to relate
140
AMONG THE MURDERERS 141
in a mechanical, hurried manner stories of what was

happening around him just at this particular juncture.
The wife of Kanine, a pale, young, exhausted-looking
woman and a face distorted by fear,
witli frightened eyes
was and near her a young girl of fifteen with

also tliere
cropped hair and dressed like a man, as well as the two
small sons of Kanine. We made acquaintance with all
of them. The tall stranger called himself Gorokoff, a

Russian colonist from Samgaltai, and presented the short-
haired girl as his sister. Kanine's wife looked at us with
plainly discernible fear and said nothing, evidently dis-
pleased over our being there. However, we had no choice
and consequently began drinking tea and eating our bread
and cold meat.
Kanine told us that ever since the telegraph line had
been destroyed all his family and relatives had felt very
keenly the poverty and hardship that naturally followed.
The Bolsheviki did not send him any salary from Irkutsk,
so that he was compelled to shift for himself as best
he could. They cut and cured hay for sale to the Rus-
sian colonists, handled private messages and merchandise
from Khathyl to Uliassutai and Samgaltai, bought and
sold cattle, hunted and in tliis manner managed to exist.
Gorokoff announced that his commercial affairs compelled
him to go to Khathyl and that he and his sister would be
glad to join our caravan. He had a most unprepossessing,
angry-looking face with colorless eyes that always
avoided those of the person with whom
he was speaking.
During the conversation we asked Kanine if there were
Russian colonists near by, to which he answered with
knitted brow and a look of disgust on his face:
"There is one rich old man, Bobroff, who lives a verst
away from our station; but I would not advise you to
visit him. He is a miserly, inhospitable old fellow who
does not like guests."
During these words of her husband Madame Kanine
dropped her eyes and contracted her shoulders in some-
thing resembling a shudder. Gorokoff and his sister
smoked along indifferently. I very clearly remarked all
this as well as the hostile tone of Kanine, the confusion

of his wife and the artificial indifference of Gorokoff;
and I determined to see the old colonist given such a
bad name by Kanine. In Uliassutai I knew two Bobroffs.
I said to Kanine that I had been asked to hand a letter
personally to Bobroff and, after finishing my tea, put on
my overcoat and went out.
The house of Bobroff stood in a deep sink in the moun-
tains, surrounded by a high fence over which the low
roofs of the houses could be seen. A light shone through
the window. I knocked at the gate. A furious barking
of dogs answered me and through the cracks of the fence
I made out four huge black Mongol dogs, showing their
teeth and growling as they rushed toward the gate. Inside
the court someone opened the door and called out: "Who
is there?"
answered that I was traveling through from Ulias-
I
sutai. The dogs were first caught and chained and I was
then admitted by a man who looked me over very care-

fully and inquiringly from head to foot, A revolver
handle stuck out of his pocket. Satisfied with his obser-
vations and learning that I knew his relatives, he warmly
welcomed me to the house and presented me to his wife,
a dignified old woman, and to his beautiful little adopted
daughter, a girl of five years. She had been found
;
on the plain beside the dead body of her mother ex-

hausted in her attempt to escape from the Bolsheviki in
Siberia.
Bobroff told me that the Russian detachment of Kaza-
grandi had succeeded in driving the Red troops away
from the Kosogol and that we could consequently con-
tinue our trip to Khathyl without danger.
"Why did you not stop with me instead of with those
brigands?" asked the old fellow.
I began to question him and received some very im-
portant news. It seemed that Kanine was a Bolshevik,
the agent of the Irkutsk Soviet, and stationed here for

purposes of observation. However, now he was rendered
harmless, because the road between him and Irkutsk was
interrupted. Still from Biisk in the Altai country had
just come a very important commissar.
"Gorokoff?" I asked.
"That's what he calls himself," replied the old fellow
"but I am from Biisk and I know everyone there.
also
His real name is Pouzikoff and the short-haired girl with
him is his mistress. He is the commissar of the 'Cheka'
and she is the agent of this establishment. Last August
the two of them shot with their revolvers seventy bound
officers from Kolchak's army. Villainous, cowardly mur-
derers! Now they have come here for a reconnaissance.
They wanted to stay in my house but I knew them too
well and refused them place."
"And you do not fear him?" I asked, remembering
the different words and glances of these people as they
sat at the table in the station.
"No," answered the old man. "I know how to defend
myself and my family and I have a protector too my —
son, such a shot, a rider and a fighter as does not exist
in all Mongolia. I am very sorry that you will not make
the acquaintance of my boy. He has gone off to the
herds and will return only tomorrow evening."
We took most cordial leave of each other and I prom-
ised to stop with him on my return.
"Well, what yams did Bobroff tell you about us?"
was the question with which Kanine and Gorokoff met me
when I came back to the station.
"Nothing about you," I answered, "because he did not
even want to speak with me when he found out that I
was staying in your house. What is the trouble between
you?" I asked of them, expressing complete astonishment
on my face.
"It is an old score," growled Gorokoff.
"A malicious old churl," Kanine added in agreement,
the while the frightened, suffering-laden eyes of his wife
again gave expression to terrifying horror, as if she
momentarily expected a deadly blow. Gorokoff began to
pack his luggage in preparation for the journey with us
the following morning. We prepared our simple beds
in an adjoining room and went to sleep. I whispered to
my friend to keep his revolver handy for anything that
might happen but he only smiled as he dragged his re-
volver and his ax from his coat to place them under his
pillow.
"This people at the outset seemed to me very sus-
picious," he whispered. "They are cooking up some-
thing crooked. Tomorrow I shall ride behind this Goro-
koff and shall prepare for him a very faithful one of my
bullets, a little dum-dum."
The Mongols spent the night under their tent in the

open court beside their camels, because they wanted to

be near to feed them. About seven o'clock we started.
My friend took up his post as rear guard to our caravan,

keeping all the time behind Grorokoff, who with his sister,
both armed from tip to toe, rode splendid mounts.

"How have you kept your horses in such fine condi-
tion coming all the way from Samgaltai?" I inquired as
I looked over their fine beasts.
When he answered that these belonged to his host, I
realized that Kanine was not so poor as he made out;
for any rich Mongol would have given him in exchange
for one of these lovely animals enough sheep to have kept
his household in mutton for a whole year.
Soon we came to a large swamp surrounded by dense
brush, where I was much astonished by seeing literally
hundreds of white kuropatka or partridges. Out of the

water rose a flock of duck with a mad rush as we hove
in sight. Winter, cold driving wind, snow and wild
ducks! The Mongol explained it to me thus:
"This swamp always remains warm and never freezes.
The wild ducks live here the year round and the kuropatka
food in the soft warm earth."
too, finding fresh
As I was speaking with the Mongol I noticed over

the swamp a tongue of reddish-yellow flame. It flashed
and disappeared at once but later, on the farther edge,
two further tongues ran upward. I realized that here
was the real will-o'-the-wisp surrounded by so many thou-
sands of legends and explained so simply by chemistry
as merely a flash of methane or swamp gas generated by
the putrefying of vegetable matter in the warm damp
earth.
"Here dwell the demons of Adair, who are in perpetual
war with those of Muren," explained the Mongol.
"Indeed," I thought, "if in prosaic Europe in our days
the inhabitants of our villages believe these flames to be
some wild sorcery, then surely in the land of mystery
they must be at least the evidences of war between the
!"
demons of two neighboring rivers
After passing swamp we made out far ahead of
this
us a large monastery. Though this was some half mile
off the road, the Gorokoffs said they would ride over to
it to make some purchases in the Chinese shops there.
They quickly rode away, promising to overtake us shortly,
but we did not see them again for a while. They slipped
away without leaving any trail but we met them later In
very unexpected circumstances of fatal portent for them.
On our part we were highly satisfied that we were rid
of them so soon and, after they were gone, I imparted
to my friend the information gleaned from Bobroff the
evening before.
CHAPTER XXIII
ON A VOLCANO
THE
Russian
following evening we arrived at Khathyl, a small
settlement of ten scattered houses in the
valley of the Egingol or Yaga, which here takes its waters
from the Kosogol half a mile above the village. The
Kosogol is a huge Alpine lake, deep and cold, eighty-five
miles in length and from ten to thirty in width. On the
western shore live the Darkhat Soyots, who call it Hub-
sugul, the Mongols, Kosogol. Both the Soyots and Mon-
gols consider this a terrible and sacred lake. It is very
easy to understand this prejudice because the lake lies in
a region of present volcanic activity, where in the sum-

mer on perfectly calm sunny days it sometimes lashes
itself into great waves that are dangerous not only to the
native fishing boats but also to the large Russian passen-
ger steamers that ply on the lake. In winter also it some-
times entirely breaks up its covering of ice and gives off
great cloud§ of steam. Evidently the bottom of the lake
is sporadically pierced by discharging hot springs or, per-
haps, by streams of lava. Evidence of some great under-
ground convulsion like this is afforded by the mass of
killed fish which at times dams the outlet river in its
shallow places. The lake is exceedingly rich in fish,
chiefly varieties of troutand salmon, and is famous for

its wonderful "white fish," which was previously sent
147
all over Siberia and even down into Manchuria so far
as Moukden. It is fatand remarkably tender and pro-
duces fine caviar. Another variety in the lake is the white
khayrus or trout, which in the migration season, con-
trary to the customs of most fish, goes down stream into
the Yaga, where it sometimes fills the river from bank
to bank with swarms of backs breaking the surface of
the water. However, this fish is not caught, because it
is infested with worms and is unfit for food. Even cats

and dogs will not touch it. This is a very interesting
phemonenon and was being investigated and studied by
Professor Dorogostaisky of the University at Irkutsk
when the coming of the Bolsheviki interrupted his work.
In Khathyl we found a panic. The Russian detach-
ment of Colonel Kazagrandi, after having twice defeated
the Bolsheviki and well on its march against Irkutsk,
was suddenly r<"ndered impotent and scattered through
internal strife among the officers. The Bolsheviki took
advantage of this situation, increased their forces to one
thousand men and began a forward movement to recover
what they had lost, while the remnants of Colonel Kaza-
grandi's detachment were retreating on Khathyl, where
he determined to make his last stand against the Reds.
The inhabitants were loading their movable property with
their families into carts and scurrying away from the
town, leaving and horses to whomsoever
all their cattle
should have the power to seize and hold them. One party
intended to hide in the dense larch forest and the moun-
tain ravines not far away, while another party made
southward for Muren Kure and Uliassutai. The morn-
ing following our arrival the Mongol official received
word that the Red troops had outflanked Colonel Kaza*
ON A VOLCANO 149
•^randl's men and were approaching Khathyl, The Mon-

gol loaded his documents and his servants on eleven
camels and left his yamen. Our Mongol guides, without
ever saying a word to us, secretly slipped off with him
and left us without camels. Our situation thus became
desperate. We hastened to the colonists who had not
yet got away to bargain with them for camels, but they
had previously, in anticipation of trouble, sent their herds
to distant Mongols and so could do nothing to help us.
Then we betook ourselves to Dr. V. G. Gay, a veterinarian
living in the town, famous throughout Mongolia for his
battle against rinderpest. He lived here with his family
and after being forced to give up his government work
became a cattle dealer. He was a most interesting person,
clever and energetic, and the one who had been appointed
under the Czarist regime to purchase all the meat sup-
pHes from Mongolia for the Russian Army on the Cicr-
man Front. He organized a huge enterprise in Mon-
golia but when the Bolsheviki seized power in 191 7 he
transferred his allegiance and began to work with them.
Then in May, 19 18, when the Kolchak forces drove the
Bolsheviki out of Siberia, he was arrested and taken for
trial. However, he was released because he was looked
upon as the single individual to organize this big Mon-
golian enterprise and he handed to Admiral Kolchak all
the supplies of meat and the silver formerly received from
the Soviet commissars. At this time Gay had been serv-
ing as the chief organizer and supplier of the forces of
Kazagrandi.
When we went to him, he at once suggested that we
take the only thing left, some poor, broken-down horses
which would be able to carry us the sixty miles to Muren

Kure, where we could secure camels to return to Ulias-
sutai. However, even these were being kept some dis-
tance from the town so that we should have to spend
the night there, the night in which the Red troops were
expected to arrive. Also we were much astonished to
see that Gay was remaining there with his family right
up to the time of the expected arrival of the Reds. The
only others in the town were a few Cossacks, who had
been ordered to stay behind to watch the movements of the
Red troops. The night came. My friend and I were pre-
pared either to fight commit suicide.
or, in the last event, to
We stayed in a small house near the Yaga, where some

workmen were living who could not, and did not feel it
necessary to, leave. They went up on a hill from which
they could scan the whole country up to the range from
behind which the Red detachment must appear. From
this vantage point in the forest one of the workmen came
running in and cried out:
"Woe, woe to us The Reds have arrived. A horse-
!
man is galloping fast through the forest road. I called
to him but he did not answer me. It was dark but I
knew the horse was a strange one."

"Do not babble so!" said another of the workmen,
"Some Mongol rode by and you jumped to the conclu-
sion that he was a Red."
"No, it was not a Mongol," he replied. "The horse
was shod. I heard the sound of iron shoes on the road-
!"
Woe to us
"Well," said my friend, "it seems that this is our
finish. It is a silly way for it all to end."
He was right. Just then there was a knock at our
door but it was that of the Mongol bringing us three
ON A VOLCANO 151
horses for our escape. Immediately we saddled them,

packed the third beast with our tent and food and rode
off at once to take leave of Gay.
In his house we found the whole war council. Two
or three colonists and several Cossacks had galloped from
the mountains and announced that the Red detachment
was approaching Khathyl but would remain for the night
in the forest, where they were building campfires. In
fact, through the house windows we could see the glare
of the fires. It seemed very strange that the enemy
should await the morning there in the forest when they

were right on the village they wished to capture.
An armed Cossack entered the room and announced
that two armed men from the detachment were approach-
ing. All the men in the room pricked up their ears. Out-
side were heard the horses' hoofs followed by men's
voices and a knock at the door.
"Come in," said Gay.
Two young men entered, their moustaches and beards
white and their cheeks blazing red from the cold. They
were dressed in the common Siberian overcoat with the
big Astrakhan caps, but they had no weapons. Ques-
tions began. It was a detachment of
developed that it
White peasants from the Irkutsk and Yakutsk districts

who had been fighting with the Bolsheviki. They had
been defeated somewhere in the vicinity of Irkutsk and
were now trying to rr^ke a junction with Kazagrandi.
The leader of this band was a socialist, Captain Vassi-
lieff, who had suffered much under the Czar because of
his tenets.
Our troubles had vanished but we decided to start im-
mediately to Muren Kure, as we had gathered our infor-
mation and were in a hurry to make our report. We
started. On the road we overtook three Cossacks who
were going out to bring back the colonists who were
We joined them and, dismounting,
fleeing to the south.
we all led our horses over the ice. The Yaga was mad.
The subterranean forces produced underneath the ice
great heaving waves which with a swirling roar threw
up and tore loose great sections of ice, breaking them into
small blocks and sucking them under the unbroken down-
stream field. Cracks ran like snakes over the surface in
different directions. One of the Cossacks fell into one
of these but we had just time to save him. He was forced
by his ducking in such extreme cold to turn back to
Khathyl. Our horses slipped about and fell several times.
Men and animals felt the presence of death which hovered
over them and momentarily threatened them with de-
struction. At we made the farther bank and con-
last
tinued southward down the valley, glad to have left the

geological and figurative volcanoes behind us. Ten miles
farther on we came up with the first party of refugees.
They had spread a big tent and made a fire inside, filling
it with warmth and smoke. Their camp was made beside
the establishment of a large Chinese trading house, where
the owners refused to let the colonists come into their
amply spacious buildings, even though there were chil-
dren, women and invalids among the refugees. We spent

but half an hour here. The road as we continued was
easy, save in places where the snow lay deep. We crossed
the fairly high divide between the Egingol and Muren.
Near the pass one very unexpected event occurred to us.
We crossed the mouth of a fairly wide valley whose upper
end was covered with a dense wood. Near this wood we
ON A VOLCANO 153
noticed two horsemen, evidently watching us. Their man-

ner of sitting in their saddles and the character of their
horses told us that they were not Mongols. We began
shouting and waving to them; but they did not answer.
Out of the wood emerged a third and stopped to look at
us. We decided to interview them and, whipping up our
horses, galloped toward them. When we were about one
thousand yards from them, they slipped from their sad-
dles and opened on us with a running fire. Fortunately
we rode a little apart and thus made a poor target for
them. We jumped off our horses, dropped prone on
the ground and prepared to However, we
fight.
did not fire because we thought

might be a mis-
it
take on their part, thinking that we were Reds.

They shortly made off. Their shots from the
European rifles had given us further proof that they
were not Mongols. We waited until they had disappeared
into the woods and then went forward to investigate their
tracks, which we found were those of shod horses, clearly
corroborating the earlier evidence that they were not
Mongols. Who could they have been? We never found
out; yet what a different relationship they might have
borne to our lives, had their shots been true!
After we had passed over the divide,we met the Rus-
sian colonist D. A. Teternikoff from Muren Kure, who
invited us to stay in his house and promised to secure
camels for us from the Lamas. The cold was intense and
heightened by a piercing wind. During the day we froze
to the bone but at night thawed and warmed up nicely
by our tent stove. After two days we entered the valley
of Muren and from afar made out the square of the
Kure with its Chinese roofs and large red temples.
Nearby was a second square, the Chinese and Russian
settlement. Two hours more brought us to the house of
our hospitable companion and his attractive young wife
who feasted us with a wonderful luncheon of tasty dishes.
We spent five days at Muren waiting for the camels to
be engaged. During this time many refugees arrived from
Khathyl because Colonel Kazagrandi was gradually fall-
ing back upon the town. Among others there were two
Colonels, Plavako and Maklakoff, who had caused the
disruption of the Kazagrandi force. No sooner had the
refugees appeared in Muren Kure than the Mongolian
officials announced that the Chinese authorities had
ordered them to drive out all Russian refugees.
"Where can we go now in winter with women and
children and no homes of our own?" asked the distraught
refugees.
"That is of nomoment to us," answered the Mongo-
lian officials. "The Chinese authorities are angry and
have ordered us to drive you away. We cannot help you
at all."
The refugees had to leave Muren Kure and so erected
their tents in the open not far away. Plavako and Mak-
lakoff bought horses and started out for Van Kure. Long
afterwards I learned that both had been killed by the
Chinese along the road.
We secured three camels and started out with a large
group of Chinese merchants and Russian refugees to
make Uliassutai, preserving the warmest recollections of
our courteous hosts, T. V. and D. A. Teternikoff. For
the trip we had to pay for our camels the very high price
of 33 Ian of the silver bullion which had been supplied
us by an American firm in Uliassutai, the equivalent
roughly of 2.7 pounds of the white metal.
:
CHAPTER XXIV
A BLOODY CHASTISEMENT
"DEFORE we struck the road which we had
long
"^ coming north and saw again the kindly
travelled
rows of chopped down telegraph poles which had once
so warmly protected us. Over the timbered hillocks north
of the valley of Tisingol we wended just as it was grow-
ing dark. We decided to stay in Bobroff's house and our
companions thought to seek the hospitality of Kaninc in
the telegraph station. At the station gate we found a
soldier with a rifle, who questioned us as to who we were
and whence we had come and, being apparently satisfied,
whistled out a young officer from the house.
"Lieutenant Ivanoff," he introduced himself. "I am
staying here with my detachment of White Partisans."
He had come from near Irkutsk with his following of
ten men and had formed a connection with Lieutenant-
Colonel Michailoff at Uliassutai, who commanded him to
take possession of this blockhouse.
"Enter, please," he said hospitably.
I explained to him that I wanted to stay with BobrofT,
whereat he made a despairing gesture with his hand and
said
"Don't trouble yourself. The Bobroffs are killed and
their house burned."
I could not keep back a cry of horror.
15.5
:
1S6 BEASTS, MEN AND GODS

The Lieutenant continued: "Kanine and the Pouzikoffs
killed them, pillaged the place and afterwards burned the
house with their dead bodies in it. Do you want to
see it?"
My friend and I went with the Lieutenant and looked
over the ominous site. Blackened uprights stood among
charred beams and planks while crockery and iron pots
and pans were scattered all around. A little to one side
under some felt lay the remains of the four unfortunate
individuals. The Lieutenant first spoke:
'T reported the case to Uliassutai and received word
back that the relatives of the deceased would come with
two officers, who would investigate the affair. That is
why I cannot bury the bodies."

"How did it happen?" we asked, oppressed by the sad
picture.
"It was like this," he began. "I was approaching
Tisingol at night with my ten soldiers. Fearing that there
might be Reds here, we sneaked up to the station and
looked into the windows. We saw Pouzikoff, Kanine and
the short-haired girl, looking over and dividing clothes
and other things and weighing lumps of silver. I did
not at once grasp the significance of all this; but, feeling
the need for continued caution, ordered one of my soldiers
to climb the fence and open the gate. We rushed into
the court. The first to run from the house was Kanine's
wife, who threw up her hands and shrieked in fear
"I knew that misfortune would come of all this!" and
then fainted. One of the men ran out of a side door
to a shed in the yard and there tried to get over the
fence. I had not noticed him but one of my soldiers
caught him. We were met at the door by Kanine, who

A BLOODY CHASTISEMENT 157
was white and trembling. I realized that something im-

portant had taken place, placed them all under arrest,
ordered the men tied and placed a close guard. All my
questions were met with silence save by Madame Kanine
who cried: 'Pity, pity for the children! They are inno-
cent!' as she dropped on her knees and stretched out her
hands in supplication to us. The short-haired girl
laughed out of impudent eyes and blew a puff of smoke
into my face. I was forced to threaten them and said:
" 'I know you have committed some crime, but
that
you do not want to confess. If you do not, I shall shoot
the men and take the women to Uliassutai to try them
there.'
"I spoke with definiteness of voice and intention, for

they roused my Quite to my surprise the
deepest anger.
short-haired girl began to speak.
first
**
*I want to tell you about everything,' she said.
"I ordered ink, paper and pen brought me. My soldiers

were the witnesses. Then I prepared the protocol of the
confession of Pouzikoff's wife. This was her dark and
bloody tale.
" 'My husband and I are Bolshevik commissars and
we have been sent to find out how many White officers
are hidden in Mongolia. But the old fellow Bobroff
knew us. We
wanted to go away but Kanine kept us,
telling us that Bobroff was rich and that he had for a
long time wanted to kill him and pillage his place. We
agreed to join him. We decoyed the young Bobroff to
come and play cards with us. When he was going home
my husband stole along behind and shot him. After-
wards we all went to Bobroff's place. I climbed upon
the fence and threw some poisoned meat to the dogs, who
were dead in a few minutes. Then we all climbed over.
The first person to emerge from the house was Bobroff's
wife. Pouzikoff, who was hidden behind the door, killed
her with his ax. The old fellow we killed with a blow
of the ax as he slept. The little girl ran out into the
room as she heard the noise and Kanine shot her in the
head with buckshot. Afterwards we looted the house and
burned it, even destroying the horses and cattle. Later
all would have been completely burned, so that no traces
remained, but you suddenly arrived and these stupid fel-
lows at once betrayed us.'
"It was a dastardly affair," continued the Lieutenant,

as we returned to the station. "The hair raised on my
head as I listened to the calm description of this young
woman, hardly more than a girl. Only then did I fully
realize what depravity Bolshevism had brought into the
world, crushing out faith, fear of God and conscience.
Only then did I understand that all honest people must
fight without compromise against this most dangerous
enemy of mankind, so long as life and strength endure."
As we walked I noticed at the side of the road a black
spot. It attracted and fixed my attention.
"What is that?" I asked, pointing to the spot.
"It is the murderer Pouzikoff whom I shot," answered
the Lieutenant. "I would have shot both Kanine and
the wife of Pouzikoff but I was sorry for Kanine's wife
and children and I haven't learned the lesson of shooting
women. Now I shall send them along with you under
the surveillance of my soldiers to Uliassutai. The same
result will come, for the Mongols who try them for the
murder will surely kill them."
This is what happened at Tisingol, on whose shores the
A BLOODY CHASTISEMENT 159
will-o'-the-wisp flits over the marshy pools and near which

runs the cleavage of over two hundred miles that the last
earthquake left in the surface of the land. Maybe it was
out of this cleavage that Pouzikoff, Kanine and the others
who have sought to infect the whole world with horror
and crime made their appearance from the land of the
inferno. One of Lieutenant Ivanoff's soldiers, who was
always praying and pale, called them all "the servânts of
Satan."
Our trip from Tisingol to Uliassutai in the company
of these criminals was very unpleasant. My friend and
I entirely lost our usual strength of spirit and healthy
frame of mind. Kanine persistently brooded and thought
while the impudent woman laughed, smoked and joked
with the soldiers and several of our companions. At last
we crossed the Jagisstai and in a few hours descried at

first the fortress and then the low adobe houses huddled
on the plain, which we knew to be Uliassutai.
CHAPTER XXV
HARASSING DAYS
ONCE more we found ourselves in the whirl of events.

During our fortnight away a great deal had hap-
pened here. The Chinese Commissioner Wang Tsao-tsun
had sent eleven envoys to Urga but none had returned.
The situation in Mongolia remained far from clear. The
Russian detachment had been increased by the arrival of
new colonists and secretly continued its illegal existence,
although the Chinese knew about it through their omni-
present system of spies. In the town no Russian or for-
eign citizens left their houses and all remained armed
and ready to act. At night armed sentinels stood guard
in all their court-yards. It was the Chinese who induced
such precautions. By order of their Commissioner all the

Chinese merchants with stocks of rifles armed their staffs
and handed over any surplus guns to the oflicials, who
with these formed and equipped a force of two hundred
coolies into a special garrison of gamins. Then they took
possession of the Mongolian arsenal and distributed these
additional guns among the Chinese vegetable farmers in
the nagan hushun, where there was always a floating pop-
ulation of the lowest grade of transient Chinese laborers.
This trash of China now felt themselves strong, gathered
together in excited discussions and evidently were pre-
paring for some outburst of aggression. At night the
160
HARASSING DAYS i6i
coolies transported many boxes of cartridges from the

Chinese shops to the nagan hushun and the behaviour of
the Chinese mob became unbearably audacious.
These
coolies and gamins impertinently stopped and searched
people right on the streets and sought to provoke fights
that would allow them to take anything they wanted.
Through secret news we received from certain Chinese
quarters we learned that the Chinese were preparing a
pogrom for all the Russians and Mongols in Uliassutai.
We was only necessary to fire one
fully realized that it
town and the entire

single house at the right part of the
settlement of wooden buildings would go up in flames.
The whole population prepared to defend themselves, in-
creased the sentinels in the compounds, appointed leaders
for certain sections of the town, organized a special fire
brigade and prepared horses, carts and food for a hasty

flight. The situation became worse when news arrived
from Kobdo that the Chinese there had made a pogrom,
killing some of the inhabitants and burning the whole
town after a wild looting orgy. Most of the people got
away to the forests on the mountains but it was at night
and consequently without warm clothes and without food.
During the following days these mountains around Kobdo
heard many cries of misfortune, woe and death. The
severe cold and hunger killed off the women and children
out under the open sky of the Mongolian winter. This
news was soon known to the Chinese. They laughed in
mockery and soon organized a big meeting at the iiagan
hiishim to discuss letting the mob and gamins loose on
the town.
A young Chinese, the son of a cook of one of the
colonists, revealed this news. We immediately decided
1 62 BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
to make an investigation. A Russian officer and my
friend joined me with this young Chinese as a guide for
a trip to the outskirts of the town. We feigned simply
a stroll but were stopped by the Chinese sentinel on the
side of the city toward the nagan hiishun with an imper-
tinent command that no one was allowed to leave the
town. As we spoke with him, I noticed that between the
town and the nagan hushun Chinese guards were sta-
tioned all along the way and that streams of Chinese were
moving in that direction. We saw at once it was im-
possible to reach the meeting from this approach, so we
chose another route. We left the city from the eastern
side and passed along by the camp of the Mongolians
who had been reduced to beggary by the Chinese imposi-
tions. There also they were evidently anxiously awaiting
the turn of events, for, in spite of the lateness of the hour,

none had gone to sleep. We slipped out on the ice and
worked around by the river to the nagan husJiiin. As we
passed free of the city we began to sneak cautiously along,
taking advantage of every bit of cover. We were armed
with revolvers and hand grenades and knew that a small
detachment had been prepared in the town to come to our
aid, if we should be in danger. First the young Chinese
stole forward with my friend following him like a
shadow, constantly reminding him that he would strangle
him like amouse if he made one move to betray us. I
fear the young guide did not greatly enjoy the trip with
my gigantic friend puffing all too loudly with the unusual,
exertions. At last the fences of nagan Jinshim were in
sight and nothing between us and them save the open
plain, where our group would have been easily spotted;
so that we decided to crawl up one by one, save that the
HARASSING DAYS 163
Chinese was retained in the society of my trusted friend.

Fortunately there were many heaps of frozen manure
on the plain, which we made use of as cover to lead us
right up to our objective point, the fence of the enclo-
sures. In the shadow of this we slunk along to the court-
yard where the voices of the excited crowd beckoned us.
As we took good vantage points in the darkness for listen-

ing and making observations, we remarked two extraor-
dinary things in our immediate neighborhood.
Another invisible guest was present with us at the
Chinese gathering. He lay on the ground with his head
in a hole dug by the dogs under the fence. He was per-
fectly still and evidently had not heard our advance.
Nearby in a ditch lay a white horse with his nose muzzled
and a little further away stood another saddled horse tied
to a fence.
In the courtyard there was a great hubbub. About two
thousand men were shouting, arguing and flourishing
theirarms about in wild gesticulations. Nearly all were
armed with rifles, revolvers, swords and axes. In among
the crowd circulated the gamins, constantly talking,
handing out papers, explaining and assuring. Finally a
big, broad-shouldered Chinese mounted the well combing,
waved his rifle about over his head and opened a tirade
in strong, sharp tones.
"He is assuring the people," said our interpreter, "that
they must do here what the Chinese have done in Kobdo
and must secure from the Commissioner the assurance
of an order to his guard not to prevent the carrying out
Also that the Chinese Commissioner must
of their plans.
demand from the Russians all their weapons. 'Then we
shall take vengeance on the Russians for their Blago-
i64 BEAvSTS, MEN AND GODS
veschensk crime when they drowned three thousand
Chinese in 1900. You remain here while I go to the
"
Commissioner and talk with him.'
He jumped down from the well and quickly made his
way to the gate toward the town. At once I saw the man
who was lying with his head under the fence draw back
out of his hole, take his white horse from the ditch and
then run over to untie the other horse and lead them
both back to our which was away from the city. He
side,
left the second horse there and hid himself around the
corner of the hn^hiin. The spokesman went out of the

gate and, seeing his horse over on the other side of the
enclosure, slung his rifle across his back and started for
his mount. He had gone about half way when the
stranger behind the corner of the fence suddenly galloped
out and in a flash literally swung the man clear from the
ground up across the pommel of his saddle, where we saw
him tie the mouth of the semi-strangled Chinese with a
cloth and dash off with him toward the west away from
the town.
"Who do you suppose he is?" I asked of my friend,
who answered up at once: "It must be Tushegoun
Lama. .
.".
His whole appearance did strongly remind me of this

mysterious Lama avenger and his manner of addressing
himself to his enemy was a strict replica of that of Tushe-
goun. Late in the night we learned that some time after
their orator had gone to seek the Commissioner's coop-
eration in their venture, his head had been flung over the
fence into the midst of the waiting audience and that
eight gamins had disappeared on their way from the
hushun to the town without leaving trace or trail. This
!
HARASSING DAYS 163
event terrorized the Chinese mob and calmed their heated

spirits.
The next day we received very unexpected aid. A

young Mongol galloped in from Urga, his overcoat torn,
his hair all dishevelled and fallen to his shoulders and a
revolver prominent beneath his girdle. Proceeding di-
rectly to the market where the Mongols are always gath-

ered, without leaving his saddle he cried out:
"Urga is captured by our Mongols and Chiang Chiin
Baron Ungern Bogdo Hutuktu is once more our Khan
!
Mongols, kill the Chinese and pillage their shops! Our

!"
patience is exhausted
Through the crowd rose the roar of excitement. The
riderwas surrounded with a mob of insistent questioners.
The old Mongol Sait, Chultun Beyli, who had been dis-
missed by the Chinese, was at once informed of this news
and asked to have the messenger brought to him. After
questioning the man he arrested him for inciting the
people to riot, but he refused to turn him ovei to
the Chinese authorities. I was personally with the Sait
at the time and heard his decision in the matter. When

the Chinese Commissioner, Wang Tsao-tsun, threatened
the Sait for disobedience to his authority, the old man
simply fingered his rosary and said:
"Ibelieve the story of this Mongol in its every word
and I apprehend that you and I shall soon have to reverse
our relationship."
I felt that Wang Tsao-tsun also accepted the correct-
ness of the Mongol's story, because he did not insist fur-
ther. From this moment the Chinese disappeared from
the streets of Uliassutai as though they never had been,
and synchronously the patrols of the Russian officers and
of our foreign colony took tlieir places. The panic among
the Chinese was heightened by the receipt of a letter con-
taining the news that the Mongols and Altai Tartars
under the leadership of the Tartar officer Kaigorodoff
pursued the Chinese who were making off with their
booty from the sack of Kobdo and overtook and annihi-
lated them on the borders of Sinkiang. Another part of
the letter toldhow General Bakitch and the six thousand
men who had been Interned with him by the Chinese
authorities on the River Amyl had received arms and
started to join with Ataman Annenkoff, who had been
interned in Kuldja, with the ultimate Intention of linking
up with Baron Ungern. This rumour proved to be wrong
because neither Bakitch nor Annenkoff entertained this
intention, because Annenkoff had been transported by the
Chinese into the Depths of Turkestan. However, the
news produced veritable stupefaction among the Chinese.
Just at this time there arrived at the house of the
Bolshevist Russian colonist Bourdukoff three Bolshevik
agents from Irkutsk named Saltikoff, Frelmann and
Novak, who started an agitation among the Chinese au-
thorities to get them to disarm the Russian officers and
hand them over to the Reds. They persuaded the Chi-
nese Chamber of Commerce to petition the Irkutsk Soviet
to send a detachment of Reds to Uliassutai for the pro-
tection of the Chinese against the White detachments.
Frelmann brought with him communistic pamphlets in
Mongolian and instructions to begin the reconstruction
of the telegraph line to Irkutsk. Bourdukoff also received
some messages from the Bolsheviki. This quartette de-
veloped their policy very successfully and soon saw
Wang Tsao-tsun fall ir» with their schemes. Once more
HARASSING DAYS 167
the days of expecting apogrom in Uliassutai returned to

us. The Russian officers anticipated attempts to arrest
them. The representative of one of the American firms
went with me to the Commissioner for a parley. We
pointed out to him the illegality of his acts, inasmuch as
he was not authorized by his Government to treat with
the Bolsheviki when the Soviet Government had not been
recognized by Peking. Wang Tsao-tsun and his advisor
Fu Hsiang were palpably confused at finding we knew
of his secret meetings with the Bolshevik agents. He
assured us that his guard was sufficient to prevent any
such pogrom. It was quite true that his guard was very
capable, as it consisted of well trained and disciplined
soldiers under the command of a serious-minded and

well educated officer; but, what could eighty soldiers do
against a mob of three thousand coolies, one thousand
armed merchants and two hundred gamins? We strongly
registered our apprehensions and urged him to avoid any
bloodshed, pointing out that the foreign and Russian
population were determined to defend themselves to the
last moment. Wang at once ordered the establishment
of strong guards on the streets and thus made a very in-
teresting picture with all the Russian, foreign and Chinese
patrols moving up and down throughout the whole town.
Then we did not know there were three hundred more
sentinels on duty, the men of Tushegoun Lama hidden
nearby in the mountains.
Once more the picture changed very sharply and sud-
denly. The Mongolian Sait received news through the
Lamas of the nearest monastery that Colonel Kazagrandi,
after fighting with the Chinese irregulars, had captured
Van Kure and had formed there Russian-Mongolian
brigades of cavalry, mobilizing the Mongols by the order
of the Living Buddha and the Russians by order of Baron
Ungem. A few hours later it became known that in the
large monastery of Dzain the Chinese soldiers had killed
the Russian Captain Barsky and as a result some of the

troops of Kazagrandi attacked and swept the Chinese out
of the place. At the taking of Van Kure the Russians
arrested a Korean Communist who was on his way from
Moscow with gold and propaganda to work in Korea and
America. Colonel Kazagrandi sent .this Korean with his
freight of gold to Baron Ungern. After receiving this
news the chief of the Russian detachment in Uliassutai
arrested all the Bolsheviki agents and passed judgment
upon them and upon the murderers of the Bobroffs.

Kanine, Madame Pouzikofif and Freimann were shot.
Regarding Saltikoff and Novak some doubt sprang up
and, moreover, Saltikoff escaped and hid, while Novak,
under advice from Lieutenant Colonel Michailoff, left for
the west. The chief of the Russian detachment gave out
orders for the mobilization of the Russian colonists and
openly took Uliassutai under his protection with the tacit
agreement of the Mongolian authorities. The Mongol

Sait,Chultun Beyli, convened a council of the neighbor-
ing Mongolian Princes, the soul of which was the noted
Mongolian patriot, Hun Jap Lama. The Princes quickly
formulated their demands upon the Chinese for the com-
plete evacuation of the territory subject to the Sait Chul-
tun Beyli. Out of it grew and friction
parleys, threats
between the various Chinese and Mongolian elements.
Wang Tsao-tsun proposed his scheme of settlement,
which some of the Mongolian Princes accepted but Jap ;
Lama at the decisive moment threw the Chinese document

HARASSING DAYS 169
to the ground, drew his knife and swore that he would

die by his own hand rather than set it as a seal upon this
treacherous agreement. As a result the Chinese pro-

posals were rejected and the antagonists began to pre-
pare themselves for the struggle. All the armed Mongols
were summoned from Jassaktu Khan, Sain-Noion Khan
and the dominion of Jahantsi Lama. The Chinese au-
thorities placed their four machine guns and prepared to
defend the fortress. Continuous deliberations were held
by both the Chinese and Mongols. Finally, our old
acquaintance Tzeren came to me as one of the uncon-
cerned foreigners and handed to me the joint requests of
Wang Tsao-tsun and Chultun Beyli to try to pacify the
two elements and to work out a fair agreement between
them. Similar requests were handed to the representative
of an American firm. The following evening we held
the first meeting of the arbitrators and the Chinese and
Mongolian representatives. It was passionate and
stormy, so that we foreigners lost all hope of the success
of our mission. However, at midnight when the speakers
were tired, we secured agreement on two points: the
Mongols announced that they did not want to make war
and that they desired to settle this matter in such a way
as to retain the friendship of the great Chinese people;
while the Chinese Commissioner acknowledged that China
had violated the treaties by which full independence had
been legally granted to Mongolia.
These two points formed for us the groundwork of
the next meeting and gave us the starting points for
urging reconciliation. The deliberations continued for
three days and finally turned so that we foreigners could
propose our suggestions for an agreement. Its chief pro-
I70 BEAvSTS, MEN AND GODS
visions were that the Chinese authorities should surrender
administrative powers, return the arms to the Mongolians,
disarm the two hundred gamins and leave the country;
and that the Mongols on their side should give free and
honorable passage of their country to the Commissioner
with his armed guard of eighty men. This Chinese-
Mongolian Treaty of Uliassutai was signed and sealed by
the Chinese Commissioners, Wang Tsao-tsun and Fu
Hsiang, by both Mongolian Salts, by Hun Jap Lama and
other Princes, as well as by the Russian and Chinese
Presidents of the Chambers of Commerce and by us
foreign arbitrators. The Chinese officials and convoy
began at once to pack up their belongings and prepare for
departure. The Chinese merchants remained in Ulias-
sutai because Sait Chultun Beyli, now having full au-
thority and power, guaranteed their safety. The day of
departure for the expedition of Wang Tsao-tsun arrived.
The camels with their packs already filled the yaynen
court-yard and the men only awaited the arrival of their
horses from the plains. Suddenly the news spread every-
where that the herd of horses had been stolen during the
night and run off toward the south. Of two soldiers that
had been sent out to follow the tracks of the herd only one
came back with the news that the other had been killed.
Astonishment spread over the whole town while among
the Chinese it turned to open panic. It perceptibly in-
creased when some Mongols from a distant ourton to the
east came and announced that in various places along
in
the post road to Urga they had discovered the bodies of
sixteen of the soldiers whom Wang Tsao-tsun had sent
out with letters for Urga. The mystery of these events
will soon be explained.
HARASSING DAYS 171
The chief of the Russian detachment received a letter

from a Cossack Colonel, V. N. Domojiroff, containing
the order to disarm immediately the Chinese garrison, to
arrest all Chinese officials for transport to Baron Ungern
at Urga, to take control of Uliassutai, by force if neces-
sary, and to join forces with his detachment. At the very
same time a messenger from the Narabanchi Hutuktu
galloped in with a letter to the effect that a Russian de-
tachment under the leadership of Hun Boldon and Colonel
Domojiroff from Urga had pillaged some Chinese firms
and had come to the Monastery and
killed the merchants,
demanded and shelter. The Hutuktu asked
horses, food
for help because the ferocious conqueror of Kobdo, Hun
Boldon, could very easily pillage the unprotected isolated
monastery. We strongly urged Colonel Michailoff not
and discountenance all the for-
to violate the sealed treaty
eigners and Russians who had taken part in making it,
for this would but be to imitate the Bolshevik principle
of making deceit the leading rule in all acts of state. This
touched Michailoff and he answered Domojiroff that
Uliassutai was already in his hands without a fight; that
over the building of the former Russian Consulate the

Russia was flying; the gamins had been
tri-color flag of
disarmed but that the other orders could not be carried
out, because their execution would violate the Chinese-
Mongolian treaty just signed in Uliassutai.
Daily several envoys traveled from Narabanchi
Hutuktu to Uliassutai. The news became more and more
disquieting. The Hutuktu reported that Hun Boldon
was mobilizing the Mongolian beggars and horse stealers,
arming and training them; that the soldiers were taking
the sheep of the monastery; that the "Xoyo}!" Dr.mojiroff
was aiways drunk; and that the protests of the Hutuktu
were answered with jeers and scolding. The messengers
gave very indefinite information regarding the strength
of the detachment, some placing it at about thirty while
others stated that Domojiroff said he had eight hundred
in all. We could not understand it at all and soon the
messengers ceased coming. All the letters of the Sait re-
mained unanswered and the envoys did not return. There
seemed to be no doubt that the men had been killed or
captured.
Prince Chultun Beyli determined to go himself. He
took with him the Russian and Chinese Presidents of the
Chambers of Commerce and two Mongolian officers.
Three days elapsed without receiving any news from him
whatever. The Mongols began to get worried. Then
the Chinese Commissioner and Hun Jap Lama addressed
a request to the foreigner group to send some one to
Narabanchi, in order to try to resolve the controversy
there and to persuade Domojiroff to recognize the treaty
and not permit the "great insult of violation" of a cove-
nant between the two great peoples. Our group asked
me once more to accomplish this mission pro bono publico.
I had assigned me as interpreter a fine young Russian
colonist, the nephew of the murdered Bobroff, a splendid

rider as well as a cool, brave man. Lt.-Colonel Michailoff
gave me one of his accompany me. Supplied
officers to
with an express tzara for the post horses and guides, we
traveled rapidly over the way which was now familiar to
me to find my old friend. Jelib Djamsrap Huktuktu of
Narabanchi. Although there was deep snow in some
places, we made from one hundred to one hundred and
fifteen miles per day.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE BAND OF WHITE HUNGHUTZES
WE day
arrived at Narabanchi late at night on the third
out. As we were approaching, we noticed
several riders who, as soon as they had seen us, galloped
quickly back to the monastery. For some time we looked
for the camp of the Russian detachment without finding
it. The Mongols led us into the monastery, where the
Hutuktu immediately received me. In his yurta sat
Chultun Beyli. There he presented me with Jiatyks and
said to me: "The very God has sent you here to us in this
difficult moment."
It seems Domojiroff had arrested both the Presidents

of the Chambers of Commerce and had threatened to
shoot Prince Chultun. Both Domojiroff and Ilun Boldon
had no documents legalizing their activities. Chultun
Beyli was preparing to fight with them.
I asked them to take me to Domojiroff. Through the
dark I saw four big yurtas and two Mongol sentinels with
Russian rifles. We entered the Russian "Noyon's" tent.
A very strange picture was presented to our eyes. In the
middle of the yurta the brazier was burning. In the usual
place for the altar stood a throne, on which the tall, thin,
grey-haired Colonel Domojiroff was seated. He was only
in his undergarments and stockings, was evidently a little
drunk and was telling stories. Around the brazier lay
173
:

twelve young men in various picturesque poses. ]\Ty
officercompanion reported to Domojiroff about the events

in Uliassutai and during the conversation I asked Domo-
jiroff where his detachment was encamped. He laughed
and answered, with a sweep of his hand "This is my:
detachment." I pointed out to him that the form of his

orders to us in Uliassutai had led us to believe that he
must have a large company with liim. Then I informed
him that Lt.-Colonel Michailoff was preparing to cross
swords with the Bolshevik force approaching Uliassutai.
"What?" he exclaimed with fear and confusion, "the
Reds?"
We spent the night in his yurta and, when I was ready
to lie down, my officer whispered to me:
"Be sure to keep your revolver handy," to which I
laughed and said
"But we are in the center of a White detachment and
!"
therefore in perfect safety
"Uh-huh!" answered my officer and finished the re-
sponse with one eye closed.

The next day I invited Domojiroff to walk with me
when I talked very frankly with him about
over the plain,
what had been happening. He and Hun Boldon had
from Baron Ungern simply to get into
received orders
touch with General Bakitch, but instead they 1)egan pil-
laging Chinese firms along the route and he had made up

hismind to become a great conqueror. On the way he
had run across some of the officers who deserted Colonel
Kazagrandi and formed his present band. I succeeded in
persuading Domojiroff to arrange matters peacefully
with Chultun Beyli and not to violate the treaty. He
immediately went ahead to the monastery. As I returned,
THE BAND OF WHITE HUNGHUTZES 175
I met a tall Mongol with a ferocious face, dressed in a

blue silk outercoat —
it was Hun Boldon. He introduced
himself and spoke with me in Russian. had only time
I
to take off my coat in the tent of Domojiroff when a

Mongol came running to invite me to the yurta of Hun
Boldon. The Prince lived just beside me in a splendid
blue yurta. Knowing the Mongolian custom, I jumped
into the saddleand rode the ten paces to his door. Hun
Boldon received me with coldness and pride.
"Who is he?" he inquired of the interpreter, pointing
to me with his finger,
I understood his desire to offend me and I answered in
the same manner, thrusting out my finger toward him and
turning to the interpreter with the same question in a
slightly more unpleasant tone:
"Who is he? High Prince and warrior or shepherd
and brute ?"
Boldon at once became confused and, with trembling
voice and agitation in his whole manner, blurted out to
me that he would not allow me to interfere in his affairs
and would shoot every man who dared to run counter to
his orders. He pounded on the low table with his fist
and then rose up and drew his revolver. But I was much
traveled among the nomads and had studied them thor-
—
oughly Princes, Lamas, shepherds and brigands. I
grasped my whip and, striking it on the table with all my

strength, I said to the interpreter:
"Tell him that he has the honor to speak with neither
Mongol nor Russian but with a foreigner, a citizen of a
great and free state. Tell him he must first learn to be a
man and then he can visit me and we can talk together."
I turned and went out. Ten minutes later Hun Boldon
entered my yurta and offered his apologies. I persuaded
him to parley with Chultun Beyli and not to offend the
free Mongol people with his activities. That very night
all was arranged. Hun Boldon dismissed his Mongols
and left for Kobdo, while Domojiroff with his band
started for Jassaktu Khan to arrange for the mobilization
of the Mongols there. With the consent of Chultun Beyli
he wrote to Wang Tsao-tsun a demand to disarm his
guard, as all of the Chinese troops in Urga had been so
treated; but this letter arrived after Wang had bought
camels to replace the stolen horses and was on his way
to the border. Later Lt.-Colonel Michailoff sent a detach-
ment of fifty men under the command of Lieutenant
Strigine to overhaul Wang and receive their arms.
CHAPTER XXVII
MYSTERY IN A SMALL TEMPLE
DRINCE CHULTUN BEYLI and I were ready to
** leave the Narabanchi Kure. While the Hutuktu was
holding service for the Sait in the Temple of Blessing, I
wandered around through the narrow alleyways between
the walls of the houses of the various grades of Lama
Gelongs, Getids, Chaidje and Rabdjampa; of schools
where the learned doctors of theology or Maramba
taught together with the doctors of medicine or Ta Lama;
of the residences for students called Bandi; of stores,
archives and libraries. When I returned to the yurta of
the Hutuktu, he was inside. He presented me with a
large hatyk and proposed a walk around the monastery.
His face wore a preoccupied expression from which I
gathered that he had something he wished to discuss with
mc. As we went out of the yurta, the liberated President
of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and a Russian
officer joined us. The Hutuktu led us to a small building
just back of a bright yellow stone wall.

"In that building once stopped the Dalai Lama and
Bogdo Khan and we always paint the buildings yellow
!"
where these holy persons have lived. Enter
The interior of the buildingwas arranged with splen-
dor. On the ground was the dining-room, furnished
floor
with richly carved, heavy blackwood Chinese tables and
177
cabinets filled with porcelains and bronze. Above were
two rooms, the first a bed-room hung with heavy yellow
silk curtains ; a large Chinese lantern richly set with col-
ored stones hung by a thin bronze chain from the carved
wooden ceiling Here stood a large square bed cov-
beam.
ered with silken pillows, mattresses and blankets. The
frame work of the bed was also of the Chinese blackwood
and carried, especially on the posts that held the roof-like
canopy, finely executed carvings with the chief motive the
conventional dragon devouring the sun. By the side
stood a chest of drawers completely covered with carvings
setting forth religious pictures. Four comfortable easy
chairs completed the furniture, save for the low oriental
throne which stood on a dais at the end of the room.
"Do you Hutuktu to me.
see this throne?" said the
"One night in winter several horsemen rode into the
monastery and demanded that all the Gelongs and Gctids
with the Hutuktu and Kanpo at their head should congre-
gate in this room. Then one of the strangers mounted
the throne, where he took off his bashlyk or cap-like head
covering. All of the Lamas fell to their knees as they
recognized the man who had been long ago described in
the sacred bulls of Dalai Lama, Tashi Lama and Bogdo
Khan. He was the man to whom the whole world belongs
and who has penetrated into all the mysteries of Nature.
He pronounced a short Tibetan prayer, blessed all his
hearers and afterwards made predictions for the coming
half century. This was thirty years ago and in the in-
terim all his prophecies are being fulfilled. During his
prayers before that small shrine in the next room this
door opened of its own accord, the candles and lights
before the altar lighted themselves and the sacred braziers
MYSTERY IN A SMALL TEMPLE 179
without coals gave forth great streams of incense that

the room. And then, without warning, the King of
filled
the World and his companions disappeared from among

us. Behind him remained no trace save the folds in the
silken throne coverings which smoothed themselves out
and left the throne as though no one had sat upon it."
The Hutuktu entered the shrine, kneeled down, cover-
ing his eyes with his hands, and began to pray. I looked
at the calm, indifferent face of the golden Buddha, over
which the flickering lamps threw changing shadows, and
then turned my eyes to the side of the throne. It was
wonderful and difficult to believe but I really saw there
the strong, muscular figure of a man with a swarthy face
of stern and fixed expression about the mouth and jaws,
thrown into high relief by the brightness of the eyes.
Through his transparent body draped in white raiment I
saw the Tibetan inscriptions on the back of the throne.
I closed my eyes and opened them again. No one was
there but the silk throne covering seemed to be moving.
"Nervousness," I thought. "Abnormal and over-
emphasized impressionability growing out of the unusual
surroundings and strains."
The Hutuktu turned to me and said: "Give me your
hatyk. I have the feeling that you are troubled about
those whom you and I want to pray for them. And
love,
you must pray also, importune God and direct the sight
of your soul to the King of the World who was here and
sanctified this place."
The Hutuktu placed the hatyk on the shoulder of the
Buddha and, prostrating himself on the carpet before
the altar, whispered the words of prayer. Then he raised
i8o BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
his head and beckoned me to him with a sHght movement
of his hand.
"Look at the dark space behind the statue of Buddha
and he will show your beloved to you."
Readily obeying his deep-voiced command, I began to
look into the dark niche behind the figure of the Buddha.
Soon out of the darkness began to appear streams of
smoke or transparent threads. They floated in the air,
becoming more and more dense and increasing in number,
until gradually they formed the bodies of several persons
and the outlines of various objects. I saw a room that
was strange to me with my family there, surrounded by
some whom I knew and others whom I did not. I recog-
nized even the dress my wife wore. Every line of her
dear face was clearly visible. Gradually the vision be-
came too dark, dissipated itself into the streams of smoke
and transparent threads and disappeared. Behind the
golden Buddha was nothing but the darkness. The
Hutuktu arose, took my hatyk from the shoulder of the
Buddha and handed it to me with these words:
"Fortune is always with you and with your family.
God's goodness will not forsake you."
We left the building of this unknown King of the
World, where he had prayed for mankind and had
all
predicted the fate of peoples and states. I was greatly
astonished to find that my companions had also seen my

vision and to hear them describe to me in minute detail the
appearance and the clothes of the persons whom I had

aeen in the dark niche behind the head of Buddha.*
* In order that I might have the evidence of others on this extraor-
dinarily impressive vision, I asked them to make protocols or affi-
davits concerning what they saw. This they did and I now have these
8tat«m«nts in my possession.
1
MYSTERY IN A SMALL TEMPLE 18
The Mongol officer also told me that Chultun Beyli had

the day before asked the Hutuktu to reveal to him his fate
in this important juncture of his life and in this crisis of
his country but the Hutuktu only waved his hand in an
expression of fear and refused. When I asked the
Hutuktu for the reason of his refusal, suggesting to him
that it might calm and help Chultun Beyli as the vision of
my beloved had strengthened me, the Hutuktu knitted his
brow and answered:
"No! The vision would not please the Prince. His
fate is black. Yesterday I thrice sought his fortune on
the burned shoulder blades and with the entrails of sheep
and each time came to the same dire result, the same dire
result! . .
."
He did not really finish speaking but covered his face

with his hands in fear. He was convinced that the lot 0/
Chultun Beyli was black as the night.
In an hour we were behind the low hills that hid thf
Narabanchi Kure from our sight.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE BREATH OF DEATH
WE on the day of the return of

arrived at Uliassutai
the detachment which had gone out to disarm the
convoy of Wang Tsao-tsun. This detachment had met
Colonel Domojiroff, who ordered them not only to dis-
arm but to pillage the convoy and, unfortunately, Lieu-
tenant Strigine executed this illegal and unwarranted
command. It was compromising and ignominious to see
Russian officersand soldiers wearing the Chinese over-
coats, boots and wrist watches which had been taken from
the Chinese officials and the convoy. Everyone had
Chinese silver and gold also from the loot. The Mongol
wife of Wang Tsao-tsun and her brother returned with
the detachment and entered a complaint of having been
robbed by the Russians. The Chinese officials and their
convoy, deprived of their supplies, reached the Chinese
border only after great distress from hunger and cold.
We foreigners were astounded that Lt.-Colonel Michailoff
received Strigine with military honors but we caught the
explanation of it later when we learned that Michailoff
had been given some of the Chinese silver and his wife
the handsomely decorated saddle of Fu Hsiang. Chultun
Beyli demanded that all the weapons taken from the
Chinese and all the stolen property be turned over to him,
as it must later be returned to the Chinese authorities;
182
THE BREATH OF DEATH 183
but Michailoff refused. Afterwards we foreigners cut

off all contact with the Russian detachment. The rela-
tions between the Russians and Mongols became very
strained. Several of the Russian officers protested
against the acts of Michailoff and Strigine and contro-
versies became more and more serious.
At this time, one morning in April, an extraordinary
group of armed horsemen arrived at Uliassutai. They
stayed at the house of the Bolshevik Bourdukofif, who
gave them, so we were told, a great quantity of silver.
This group explained that they were former officers in
the Imperial Guard. They were Colonels Poletika, N. N.
Philipoff and three of the latter's brothers. They an-
nounced that they wanted to collect all the White officers
and soldiers then in Mongolia and China and lead them to
Urianhai to fight the Bolsheviki; but that first they
wanted to wipe out Ungern and return Mongolia to
China. They called themselves the representatives of the
Central Organization of the Whites in Russia.
The society of Russian officers in Uliassutai invited
them to a meeting, examined documents and inter-
their
rogated them. Investigation proved that all the state-
ments of these officers about their former connections
were entirely wrong, that Poletika occupied an important
position in the war commissariat of the Bolsheviki, that
one of the Philipoff brothers was the assistant of
Kameneff in his first attempt to reach England, that the
Central White Organization in Russia did not exist, that
the proposed fighting in Urianhai was but a trap for the
White officers and that this group was in close relations
with the Bolshevik Bourdukoff.
A discussion at once sprang up among the officers as to
:

what they should do with this group, which split the de-
tachment into two distinct parties. Lt-Colonel Michailoff
with several officers joined themselves to Poletika's group
just zs Colonel Domojiroff arrived with his detachment.
He began to get in touch with both factions and to feel
out the poHtics of the situation, finally appointing Poletika
to the post ofCommandant of Uliassutai and sending to
Baron Ungern a full report of the events in the town. In
this document he devoted much space to me, accusing me
of standing in the way of the execution of his orders.
His officers watched me continuously. From different
quarters I received warnings to take great care. This
band and its leader openly demanded to know what right
this foreigner had to interfere in the alfairs of Mongolia,
one of Domojiroff's officers directly giving me the chal-
lenge in a meeting in the attempt to provoke a contro-
versy. I quietly answered him
"And on what basis do the Russian refugees interfere,
they who have rights neither at home nor abroad ?"
The officer made no verbal reply but in his eyes burned
a definite answer. My huge friend who sat beside me
noticed this, strode over toward him and, towering over
him, stretched his arms and hands as though just waking
from sleep and remarked: "I'm looking for a little box-
ing exercise."
On one occasion Domojiroff's men would have suc-
ceeded in taking me if I had not been saved by the watch-
fulness of our foreign group. I had gone to the fortress
to negotiate with the Mongol Salt for the departure of

the foreigners from Uliassutai. Chultun Beyli detained
me for a long time, so that Iwas forced to return about
nine in the evening. My horse was walking Half a
mile from the town three men sprang up out of the ditch
and ran at me. I whipped up my horse but noticed sev-
eral more men coming out of the other ditch as though
to head me off. They, however, made for the other group
and captured them and I heard the voice of a foreigner
calling me back. There I found three of Domojiroff's
officers surrounded by the Polish soldiers and other for-
eigners under the leadership of my old trusted agronome,
who was occupied with tying the hands of the officers
behind their backs so strongly that the bones cracked.
Ending his work and still smoking his perpetual pipe, he
announced in a serious and important manner: *T think
it best to throw them into the river."
Laughing at his seriousness and the fear of Domo-

jiroff's officers, I asked them why they had started to
attack me. They dropped their eyes and were silent. It

was an eloquent silence and we perfectly understood what
they had proposed to do. They had revolvers hidden in
their pockets.
"Fine!" I said. "All is perfectly clear. I shall release
you but you must report to your sender that he will not
welcome you back the next time. Your weapons I shall
hand to the Commandant of Uliassutai."
My friend, using his former terrifying care, began to
untie them, repeating over and over: "And I would have
fed you to the fishes in the river!" Then we all returned
to the town, leaving them to go their way.
Domojiroff continued to send envoys to Baron Ungem
at Urga with requests for plenary powers and money and
with reports about Michailoff, Chultun Beyli, Poletika,
Philipoff and myself. With Asiatic cunning he was then
maintaining good relations with all those for whom he
was preparing death at the hands of the severe warrior.
Baron Ungern, who was receiving only one-sided reports
about all the happenings in Uliassutai. Our whole colony
was greatly agitated. The officers split into different par-
ties; the soldiers collected in groups and discussed the
events of the day, criticising their chiefs, and under the

influence of some of Domojiroff's men began making
such statements as:
"We have now seven Colonels, who all want to be in
command and are all quarreling among themselves. They
all ought to be pegged down and given good sound thrash-
ings. The one who could take the greatest number of

blows ought to be chosen as our chief."
It was an ominous joke that proved the demoralization
of the Russian detachment.
"It seems," my friend frequently observed, "that we
shall soon have the pleasure of seeing a Council of Sol-
diers here in Uliassutai. God and the Devil ! One thing
hereis very unfortunate —
there are no forests near into
which good Christian men may dive and get away from
all these cursed Soviets. It's bare, frightfully bare, this
wretched Mongolia, with no place for us to hide."

Really this possibility of the Soviet was approaching.
On one occasion the soldiers captured the arsenal contain-
ing the weapons surrendered by the Chinese and carried
them off to their barracks. Drunkenness, gambling and
fighting increased. We foreigners, carefully watching
events and in fear of a catastrophe, finally decided to leave
Uliassutai, that caldron of passions, controversies and
denunciations. We heard that the group of Poletika was
also preparing to get out a few days later. We foreigners
separated into two parties, one traveling by the old cara-
van route across the Gobi considerably to the south of

Urga to Kuku-Hoto or Kweihuacheng and Kalgan, and
mine, consisting of my friend, two Polish soldiers and
myself, heading for Urga via Zain Shabi, where Colonel
Kazagrandi had asked me in a recent letter to meet him.
Thus we left the Uliassutai where we had lived through
so many exciting events.
On the sixth day after our departure there arrived in
the town the Mongol-Buriat detachment under the com-
mand of the Buriat Vandaloff and the Russian Captain
Bezrodnoff. met them in Zain Shabi. It
Afterwards I
was a detachment from Urga by Baron Ungem

sent out
to restore order in Uliassutai and to march on to Kobdo.
On the way from Zain Shabi Bezrodnoff came across the
group of Poletika and Michailoff. He instituted a search
which disclosed suspicious documents in their baggage
and in that of Michailoff and his wife the silver and other
possessions taken from the Chinese. From this group of
sixteen he sent N. N. Philipoff to Baron Ungem, released
three others and shot the remaining twelve. Thus ended
in Zain Shabi the life of one party of Uliassutai refugees
and the activities of the group of Poletika. In Uliassutai
Bezrodnoff shot Chultun Beyli for the violation of the
treaty with the Chinese, and also some Bolshevist Russian
colonists ; arrested Domojiroff and sent him to Urga; and
. . . restored order. The predictions about Chultun
Beyli were fulfilled.
I knew of Domojiroff's reports regarding myself but I

decided, nevertheless, to proceed to Urga and not to swing
round it, had started to do when he was acci-
as Poletika
dentally captured by Bezrodnoff. I was accustomed now
to looking into the eyes of danger and I set out to meet the
terrible "bloody Baron." No one can decide his own fate.
I did not think myself in the wrong and the feeling of fear
had long since ceased to occupy a place in my menage.
On the way a Mongol rider who overhauled us brought
the news of the death of our acquaintances at Zain Shabi.
He spent the night with me in the yurta at the ourton and
related to me the following legend of death.
"It was a long time ago when the Mongolians ruled
over China. The Prince of Van, was
Uliassutai, Beltis
mad. He executed any one he wished without trial and
no one dared to pass through his town. All the other
Princes and rich Mongols surrounded Uliassutai, where
Beltis raged, cut off communication on every road and
allowed none to pass in or out. Famine developed in the
town. They consumed all the oxen, sheep and horses and
finally Beltis Van determined to make a dash with his
soldiers through to the west to the land of one of his
tribes, the Olets. He and his men all perished in the
fight. The Princes, following the advice of the Hutuktu
Buyantu, buried the dead on the slopes of the mountains
surrounding Uliassutai. They buried them with incanta-
tions and exorcisings in order that Death by Violence
might be kept from a further visitation to their land.
The tombs were covered with heavy stones and the
Hutuktu predicted that the bad demon of Death by Vio-
lence would only leave the earth when the blood of a man
should be spilled upon the covering stone. Such a legend
lived among us. Now it is fulfilled. The Russians shot
there three Bolsheviki and the Chinese two Mongols. The
evil spirit of Beltis Van broke loose from beneath the
heavy stone and now mows down the people with his
scythe. The noble Chultun Beyli has perished; the Rus-
sian Noyon Michailoff also has fallen; and death has

flowed out from Uliassutai all over our boundless plains.
Who shall be able to stem it now? Who shall tie the
ferocious hands ? An evil time has fallen upon the Gods
and the Good Spirits. The Evil Demons have made war
upon the Good Spirits. What can man now do? Only
perish, only perish. . .
/'
Part III
THE STRAINING HEART OF ASIA

Part III
THE STRAINING HEART OF ASIA
CHAPTER XXIX
ON THE ROAD OF GREAT CONQUERORS

^T^ HE great conqueror, Jenghiz Khan, the son of sad,
A stem, severe Mongolia, according to an old Mon-
golian legend "mounted to the top of Karasu Togol and
with his eyes of an eagle looked to the west and the east.
In the west he saw whole seas of human blood over which

floated a bloody fog that blanketed all the horizon. There
he could not discern his fate. But the gods ordered him
to proceed to the west, leading with him all his warriors
and Mongolian tribes. To saw wealthy towns,
the east he
shining temples, crowds of happy people, gardens and
fields of rich earth, all of which pleased the great Mongol.
He said to his sons: 'There in the west I shall be fire and
sword, destroyer, avenging Fate ; in the east I shall come
as the merciful, great builder, bringing happiness to the
"
people and to the land.'
Thus runs the legend. I found much of truth in it. I
had passed over much of his road to the west and always
identified it by the old tombs and the impertinent monu-
193
ments of stone to the merciless conqueror. I saw also a
part of the eastern road of the hero, over which he
traveled to China. Once when we were making a trip out
of Uliassutai we stopped the night in Djirgalantu. The
old host of the ottrton, knowing me from my previous
trip to Narabanchi, welcomed us very kindly and regaled
us with stories during our evening meal. Among other
things he led us out of the yurta and pointed out a moun-
tain peak brightly lighted by the full moon and recounted
to us the story of one of the sons of Jenghiz, afterwards
Emperor of China, Indo-China and Mongolia, who had
been attracted by the beautiful scenery and grazing lands
of Djirgalantu and had founded here a town. This was
soon left without inhabitants, for the Mongol is a nomad
who cannot live in artificial cities. The plain is his house
and the world his town. For a time this town witnessed
battles between the Chinese and the troops of Jenghiz
Khan but afterwards it was forgotten. At present there
remains only a half -ruined tower, from which in the early
days the heavy rocks were hurled down upon the heads
of the enemy, and the dilapidated gate of Kublai, the
grandson of Jenghiz Khan. Against the greenish sky
drenched with the rays of the moon stood out the jagged
line of the mountains and the black silhouette of the tower
with its loopholes, through which the alternate scudding
clouds and light flashed.
When our party left Uliassutai, we traveled on lei-
surely, making thirty-five to fifty miles a day until we
were within sixty miles of Zain Shabi, where I took leave
of the others to go south to this place in order to keep my
engagement with Colonel Kazagrandi. The sun had just
risen as my single Mongol guide and I without any pack
ON THE ROAD OF GREAT CONQUERORS 195
animals began to ascend the low, timbered ridges, from

the top of which I caught the last my com-
glimpses of
panions disappearing down the had no idea then
valley. I
of the many and almost fatal dangers which I should

have to pass through during this trip by myself, which
was destined to prove much longer than I had anticipated.
As we were crossing a small river with sandy shores, my
Mongol guide told me how the Mongolians came there
during the summer to wash gold, in spite of the prohibi-
tions of the Lamas. The manner of working the placer
was very primitive but the results testified clearly to the
richness of these sands. The Mongol lies flat on the

ground, brushes the sand aside with a feather and keeps
blowing into the little excavation so formed. From time
to time he wets his finger and picks up on it a small bit
of grain gold or a diminutive nugget and drops these into
a little bag hanging under his chin. In such manner this
primitive dredge wins about a quarter of an ounce or five
dollars' worth of the yellow metal per day.
I determined to make the whole distance to Zain Shabi
in a single day. At the ourtotis I hurried them through
the catching and saddling of the horses as fast as I could.
At one of these stations about twenty-five miles from the
monastery the Mongols gave me a wild horse, a big,
strong white stallion. Just as I was about to mount him
and had already touched my foot to the stirrup, he jumped
and kicked me right on the leg which had been wounded
in the Ma-chu fight. The leg soon began to swell and
ache. At sunset I made out the first Russian and Oiinese
buildings and later the monastery at Zain. We dropped
into the valley of a small stream which flowed along a
mountain on whose peak were set white rocks forming the
196 BEASTS, AlEN AND GODS
words of a Tibetan prayer. At the bottom of this moun-
tain was a cemetery for the Lamas, that is, piles of bones
and a pack of dogs. At last the monastery lay right below
us, a common square surrounded with wooden fences.
In the middle rose a large temple quite different from all
those of western Mongolia, not in the Chinese but in the
Tibetan style of architecture, a white building with per-
pendicular walls and regular rows of windows in black
frames, with a roof of black and with a most unusual
tiles
damp course laid between the stone walls and the roof
timbers and made of bundles of twigs from a Tibetan tree
which never rots. Another small quadrangle lay a little to
the east and contained Russian buildings connected with
the monastery by telephone.
"That is the house of the Living God of Zain," the
Mongol explained, pointing to this smaller quadrangle.
*'He likes Russian customs and manners."
To the north on a conical-shaped hill rose a tower that
recalled the Babylonian sikkiirat. It was where
the temple
the ancient books and manuscripts were kept and the
broken ornaments and objects used in the religious cere-
monies together with the robes of deceased Hutuktus pre-
served. A sheer cliff rose behind this museum, which it
was impossible for one to climb. On the face of this were
carved images of the Lamaite gods, scattered about with-
out any special order. They were from one to two and a
half metres high. At night the monks lighted lamps
before them, so that one could see these images of the
gods and goddesses from far away.
We entered the trading settlement. The streets were
deserted and from the windows only women and children
looked out. I stopped with a Russian firm whose other
branches had known throughout the country. Much to

I
my astonishment they welcomed me as an acquaintance.

It appeared that the Hutuktu of Narabanchi had sent
word to all the monasteries that, whenever I should come,

they must all render me aid, inasmuch as I had saved the
Narabanchi Monastery and, by the clear signs of the
divinations, I was an incarnate Buddha beloved of the
Gods. This letter of this kindly disposed Hutuktu helped
—
me very much perhaps I should even say more, that it
saved me from death. The hospitality of my hosts
proved of great and much needed assistance to me because
my injured leg had swelled and was aching severely.
When I took off my boot, I found my foot all covered
with blood and my old wound re-opened by the blow.
A felchcr was called to assist me with treatment and
bandaging, so that I was able to walk again three days
later.
I did not find Colonel Kazagrandi at Zain Shabi. After

destroying the Chinese gamins who had killed the local
Commandant, he had returned via Van Kurc. The new
Commandment handed me the letter of Kazagrandi, who
very cordially asked me to visit him after I had rested in
Zain. AMongolian document was enclosed in the letter
giving methe right to receive horses and carts from herd
to herd by means of the "urga," which I shall later de-
scribe and which opened for me an entirely new vista of
Mongolian life and country that I should otherwise never
have seen. The making of this journey of over two hun-
dred miles was a ver^' disagreeable task for me: but evi-
dently Kazagrandi, whom I had never met, had serious
reasons for wishing this meeting.
At one o'clock the day after my arrival I was visited by
the local "Very God," Gheghen Pandita Hutuktu. A
more strange and extraordinary a|)pearance of a god I
could not imagine. He was a short, thin young man of
twenty or twenty-two years with quick, nervous move-
ments and with an expressive face lighted and dominated,
like the countenances of all the Mongol gods, by large,
frightened eyes. He was dressed in a blue silk Russian

uniform with yellow epaulets with the sacred sign of
Pandita Hutuktu, in blue silk trousers and high boots, all
surmounted by a white Astrakhan cap with a yellow
pointed top. At his girdle a revolver and sword were
slung. I did not know quite what to think of this dis-
guised god. He took a cup of tea from the host and

began to talk with a mixture of Mongolian and Russian.
"Not far from my Kure is located the ancient mon-
astery of Erdeni Dzu, erected on the site of the ruins of
Karakorum, the ancient capital of Jenghiz Khan and
afterwards frequently visited by Kublai Kahn for sanc-
tuary and rest after his labors as Emperor of China,
India, Persia, Afghanistan, Mongolia and half of Europe.
Now only ruins and tombs remain to mark this former
'Garden of Beatific Days.' The pious monks of Baroun
Kure found in the underground chambers of the ruins
manuscripts that were much older than Erdeni Dzu itself.
In these my Maramba Meetchik-Atak found the predic-
tion that the Hutuktu of Zain who should carry the title
of 'Pandita,' should be but twenty-one years of age, be
born in the heart of the lands of Jenghiz Khan and have
on his chest the natural sign of the swastika such —
Hutuktu would be honored by the people in the days of
a great war and trouble, would begin the fight with the
servants of Red evil and would conquer them and bring
order into the universe, celebrating this happy day in the

city with white temples and with the songs of ten thousand
bells. It is I, Pandita Hutuktu ! The signs and symbols
have met in me. I shall destroy the Bolsheviki, the bad
'servants of the Red evil,' and in Moscow I shall rest from
my glorious and great work. Therefore I have asked
Colonel Kazagrandi to enlist me
Baron in the troops of
Ungern and give me the chance to fight. The Lamas seek
to prevent me from going but who is the god here ?"
He very sternly stamped his foot, while the Lamas and
guard who accompanied him reverently bowed their
heads.
As he left he presented me with a hatyk and, rummag-
ing through my found a single article that
saddle bags, I
might be considered worthy as a gift for a Hutuktu, a

small bottle of osmiridium, this rare, natural concomitant
of platinum.
"This is the most stable and hardest of metals," I said.
!"
"Let it be the sign of your glory and strength, Hutuktu
The Pandita thanked me and invited me to visit him.
When had recovered a little, I went to his house, which
I
was arranged in European style: electric lights, push bells

and telephone. He feasted me with wine and sweets and
introduced me to two very interesting personages, one an
old Tibetan surgeon with a face deeply pitted by smallpox,
a heavy thick nose and crossed eyes. He was a peculiar
surgeon, consecrated in Tibet. His duties consisted in
Hutuktus when they were ill and
treating and curing . . .
in poisoning them when they became too independent or

extravagant or when their policies were not in accord
with the wishes of the Council of Lamas of ilie Living
Buddha or the Dalai Lama. By now Pandita Hutuktu
probably rests in eternal peace on the top of some sacred
mountain, sent thither by the solicitude of his extraor-
dinary court physician. The martial spirit of Pandita
Hutuktu was very unwelcome to the Council of Lamas,
who protested against the adventuresomeness of this
"Living God."
Pandita liked wine and cards. One day when he was
in the company of Russians and dressed in a European
suit, some Lamas came running to announce that divine
service had begun and that the "Living God" must take
his place on the altar to be prayed to but he had gone out
from his abode and was playing cards Without any con-
!
fusion Pandita drew his red mantle of the Hutuktu over

his European coat and long grey trousers and allowed the
shocked Lamas to carry their "God" away in his palan-
quin.
Besides the surgeon-poisoner I met at the Hutuktu' s a
lad of thirteen years, whose youthfulness, red robe and

cropped hair led me to suppose he was a Bandi or student
servant in the home of the Hutuktu; but it turned out
otherwise. This boy was the first Hiihilgan, also an in-
carnate Buddha, an artful teller of fortunes and the suc-
cessor of Pandita Hutuktu. He was drunk all the time
and a great card player, always making side-splitting
jokes that greatly offended the Lamas.
That same evening I made the acquaintance of the sec-
ond Hiihilgan who called on me, the real administrator
of Zain Shabi, which is an independent dominion subject
directly to the Living Buddha. This Hiihilgan was a
serious and ascetic man of thirty-two, well educated and
deeply learned in Mongol lore. He knew Russian and
read much in that language, being interested chiefly in the
life and stories of other peoples. He had a high respect

for the creative genius of the American people and said to
me:
"When you go to America, ask the Americans to come
to us and lead us out from the darkness that surrounds us.
The Chinese and Russians will lead us to destruction and
only the Americans can save us."
It is a deep satisfaction for me to carry out the request
of this influential Mongol, Hitbilgan, and to urge his

appeal to the American people. Will you not save this
honest, uncorrupted but dark, deceived and oppressed
people? They should not be allowed to perish, for within
their souls they carry a great store of strong moral
forces. Make
of them a cultured people, believing in the
verity of humankind; teach them to use the wealth of
their land; and the ancient people of Jenghiz Khan will
ever be your faithful friends.
When I had sufficiently recovered, the Hutuktu invited
me to travel with him to Erdeni Dzu, to which I willingly
agreed. On the following morning a light and comfort-
able carriage was brought for me. Our trip lasted five
days, during which we visited Erdeni Dzu, Karakorum,
Hoto-Zaidam and Hara-Balgasun. All these are the
ruins of monasteries and cities erected by Jenghiz Khan
and his successors, Ugadai Khan and Kublai in the thir-
teenth century. Now only the remnants of walls and
towers remain, some large tombs and whole books of
legends and stories.
"Look at these tombs!" said the Hutuktu to me.
"Here the son of Khan Uyuk was buried. This young
prince was bribed by the Chinese to kill his father but
was frustrated in his attempt by his own sister, who killed
him in her watchful care of her old father, the Emperor
and Khan. There tomb of Tsinilla, the beloved
is the
spouse of Khan Mangu.She left the capital of China to
go to Khara Bolgasun, where she fell in love with the
brave shepherd Damcharen, who overtook the wind on
his steed and who captured wild yaks and horses with his
bare hands. The enraged Khan ordered his unfaithful
wife strangled but afterwards buried her with imperial
honors and frequently came to her tomb to weep for his
lost love."
"And what happened to Damcharen ?" I inquired.
The Hutuktu himself did not know but his old servant,
;
the real archive of legends, answered:

"With the aid of ferocious Chahar brigands he fought
with Qiina for a long time. It is, however, unknown how
he died."
Among the ruins the monks pray at certain fixed times
and they also search for sacred books and objects con-
cealed or buried in the debris. Recently they found here
two Chinese rifles and two gold rings and big bundles of
old manuscripts tied with leather thongs.
"Why did this region attract the powerful emperors
and Khans who ruled from the Pacific to the Adriatic?"
I asked myself. Certainly not these mountains and val-
leys covered with larch and birch, not these vast sands,
receding lakes and barren rocks. It seems that I found
the answer.
The great emperors, remembering the vision of Jenghiz
Khan, sought here new revelations and predictions of his
miraculous, majestic destiny, surrounded by the divine
honors, obeisance and hate. Where could they come into
touch with the gods, the good and bad spirits? Only
there where they abode. All the district of Zain with

these ancient ruins is just such a place.
"On this mountain only such men can ascend as are
born of the direct line of Jenghiz Khan," the Pandita
explained to me. "Half way up the ordinary man suf-
focates and dies, if he ventures to go further. Recently
Mongolian hunters chased a pack of wolves up this moun-
tain and, when they came to this part of the mountainside,
they all perished. There on the slopes of the mountain lie
the bones of eagles, big horned sheep and the kabarga

antelope, light and swift as the wind. There dwells the
bad demon who possesses the book of human destinies,"
"This is the answer," I thought.
In the Western Caucasus I once saw a mountain be-
tween Soukhoum Kale and Tuopsei where wolves, eagles
and wild goats also perish, and where men would likewise
perishif they did not go on horseback through this zone.
There the earth breathes out carbonic acid gas through

holes in the mountainside, killing all animal life. The gas
clings to the earth in a layer about half a metre thick.
Men on horseback pass above this and the horses always
hold their heads way up and snuff and whinny in fear
until they cross the dangerous zone. Here on the top of

this mountain where bad demon peruses the book of
tlie
human destinies same phenomenon, and I realized

is the
the sacred fear of the Mongols as well as the stern attrac-
tion of this place for the tall, almost gigantic descendants
of Jenghiz Khan. Their heads tower above the layers
of poisonous gas, so that they can reach the top of this
mysterious and terrible mountain. Also it is possible to
explain this phenomenon geologically, because here in this
region is the southern edge of the coal deposits which are
the source of carbonic acid and swamp gases.
Not far from the ruins in the lands of Hun Doptchin
Djamtso there is a small lake which sometimes burns with
a red flame, terrifying the Mongols and herds of horses.
Naturally this lake is rich with legends. Here a meteor
formerly fell and sank far into the earth. In the hole this
lake appeared. Now, it seems, the inhabitants of the sub-
terranean passages, semi-man and semi-demon, are labor-
ing to extract this "stone of the sky" from its deep bed
and it is setting the water on fire as it rises and falls back
in spite of their every effort. I did not see the lake myself
but a Russian colonist told me that it may be petroleum
on the lake that is fired either from the campfires of the
shepherds or by the blazing rays of the sun.
At any rate all this makes it very easy to understand the
attractions for the great Mongol potentates. The strong-
est impression was produced upon me by Karakorum, the
place where the cruel and wise Jenghiz Khan lived and
laid his gigantic plans for overrunning all the west with
blood and for covering the east with a glory never before
seen. Two Karakorums were erected by Jenghiz Khan,
one here near Tatsa Gol on the Caravan Road and the
other in Pamir, where the sad warriors buried the greatest
of human conquerors in the mausoleum built by five hun-
dred captiveswho were sacrificed to the spirit of the de-
ceased when their work was done.
The warlike Pandita Hutuktu prayed on the ruins
where the shades of these potentates who had ruled half
the world wandered, and his soul longed for the chimer-
ical exploits and for the glory of Jenghiz and Tamerlane.
On the return journey we were invited not far from
Zain to visit a very rich Mongol by the way. He had

already prepared the yurtas suitable for Princes, orna-
mented with rich carpets and silk draperies. The Hutuktu
accepted. We arranged ourselves on the soft pillows in
the yurtas as the Hutuktu blessed the Mongol, touching
hishead with his holy hand, and received the hatyks.
The host then had a whole sheep brought in to us, boiled
in a huge vessel. The Hutuktu carved off one hind leg
and offered it to me, while he reserved the other for him-
self. After this he gave a large piece of meat to the
smallest son of the host, which was the sign that Pandita
Hutuktu invited all to begin the feast. In a trice the
sheep was entirely carved or torn up and in the hands of
the banqueters. When the Hutuktu had thrown down by
the brazier the white bones without a trace of meat left
on them, the host on his knees withdrew from the fire a
piece of sheepskin and ceremoniously offered it on both
his hands to the Hutuktu. Pandita began to clean off the
wool and ashes with his knife and, cutting it into thin
strips, fell to eating this really tasty course. It is the cov-
ering from just above the breast bone and is called in Mon-
golian tarach or "arrow." When a sheep is skinned, this
small section is cut out and placed on the hot coals, where
it is broiled very slowly. Thus prepared it is considered
the most dainty bit of the whole animal and is always pre-
sented to the guest of honor. It is not permissible to
divide it, such is custom and ceremony.
the strength of the
After dinner our host proposed a hunt for bighorns,
a large herd of which was known to graze in the moun-
tains within less than a mile from the yii-rtas. Horses
with rich saddles and bridles were led up. All the elab-
orate harness of the Hutuktu's mount was ornamented
2o6 BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
with red and yellow bits of cloth as a mark of his rank.
About fifty Mongol riders galloped behind us. When we
left our horses, we were placed behind the rocks roughly
three hundred paces apart and the Mongols began the
encircling movement around the mountain. After about
half an hour I noticed way up among the rocks something
flash and soon made out a fine bighorn jumping with tre-
mendous springs from rock to rock, and behind him a
herd of some twenty odd head leaping like lightning over
the ground. I was vexed beyond words when it appeared
that the Mongols had made a mess of it and pushed the
herd out to the side before having completed their circle.
But happily was mistaken. Behind a rock right ahead

I
of the herd a Mongol sprang up and waved his hands.

Only the big leader was not frightened and kept right on
past the unarmed Mongol while all the rest of the herd
swung suddenly round and rushed right down upon me.
I opened fire and dropped two of them. The Hutuktu
also brought down one as well as a musk antelope that
came unexpectedly from behind a rock hard by. The
largest pair of horns weighed about thirty pounds, but
they were from a young sheep.
The day following our return to Zain Shabi, as I was
feeling quite recovered, I decided togo on to Van Kure.
At my leave-taking from the Hutuktu I received a large
hatyk from him together with warmest expressions of
thanks for the present I had given him on the first day of
our acquaintance.
*Tt is a fine medicine!" he exclaimed. "After our trip
I felt quite exhausted but I took your medicine and am
now quite rejuvenated. Many, many thanks!"
The poor chap had swallowed my osmiridium. To be
sure it could not harm him but

; to have helped him was
wonderful. Perhaps doctors in the Occident may wish
to try this new, harmless —
and very cheap remedy only
eight pounds of it in —
the whole world and I merely ask
that they leave me the patent rights for it for Mongolia,
Barga, Sinkiang, Koko Nor and all the other lands of
Central Asia.
An old Russian colonist went as guide for me. They
gave me a big but light and comfortable cart hitched and
drawn in a marvelous way. A straight pole four metres
long was fastened athwart the front of the shafts. On
either side two riders took this pole across their saddle
pommels and galloped away with me across the plains.
Behind us galloped four other riders with four extra
horses.
!
CHAPTER XXX
ARRESTED
ABOUT twelve miles from Zain we saw from a ridge

a snakelike line of riders crossing the valley, which
detachment we met half an hour later on the shore of a
deep, swampy stream. The group consisted of Mongols,
Buriats and Tibetans armed with Russian rifles. At the
head of the column were two men, one of whom in a huge
black Astrakhan and black felt cape with red Caucasian
cowl on his shoulders blocked my road and, in a coarse,
harsh voice, demanded of me "Who are you, where are
:
you from and where are you going?"

I gave also a laconic answer. They then said that they
were a detachment of troops from Baron Ungern under
the command of Captain Vandaloff. 'T am Captain Bez-
rodnoff, military judge."
Suddenly he laughed loudly. His insolent, stupid face
did not pleaseme and, bowing to the officers, I ordered
my riders to move.
"Oh no!" he remonstrated, as he blocked the road
again. "I cannot allow you to go farther. want to have
I
a long and serious conversation with you and you will

have to come back to Zain for it."
I protested and called attention to the letter of Colonel
Kazagrandi, only to hear Bezrodnoff answer with cold-

ness:
208
ARRESTED! 209
"This letter is a matter of Colonel Kazagrandi's and to

bring you back to Zain and talk with you is my affair.
Now give me your weapon."

But I could not yield to this demand, even though
death were threatened.
"Listen," I said. "Tell me frankly. Is yours really a
detachment fighting against the Bolsheviki or is it a Red
contingent?"
"No, I assure you!" replied the Buriat officer Van-
daloff, approaching me. "We have already been fighting
the Bolsheviki for three years."
"Then I cannot hand you my weapon," I calmly replied.
**I brought it from Soviet Siberia, have had many fights
with this faithful weapon and now I am to be disarmed by
White officers!an offence that I cannot allow."
It is
With these words I threw my rifle and my Mauser into

the stream. The officers were confused. Bezrodnoff
turned red with anger.
"I freed you and myself from humiliation," I ex-
plained.
Bezrodnoff in silence turned his horse, the whole de-
tachment of three hundred men passed immediately
before me and only the last two riders stopped, ordered
my Mongols to turn my cart round and then fell in
behind my little group. So I was arrested ! One of the

horsemen behind me was a Russian and he told me that
Bezrodnoff carried with him many death decrees. I was
sure that mine was among them.
Stupid, very stupid What was the use of fighting
!
one's way through Red detachments, of being frozen and

hungry, of almost perishing in Tibet only to die from a
bullet of one of Bezrodnoff 's Mongols? For such a pleas-
2IO BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
ure was not worth while
It to travel so long and so far!
In every Siberian "Cheka" I could have had this end so
joyfully accorded me.
When we arrived at Zain Shabi, my luggage was exam-
ined and Bezrodnoff began to question me in minutest
detail about the events in Uliassutai. We talked about
three hours, during which I tried to defend all the officers
of Uliassutai, maintaining that one must not trust only
the reports of Domojiroff. When our conversation was
finished, the Captain stood up and offered his apologies
for detaining me in my journey. Afterwards he pre-
sented me a fine Mauser with silver mountings on the
handle and said:
"Your pride greatly pleased me. I beg you to receive
this weapon as a memento of me."
The following morning I set out anew from Zain
Shabi, having in my pocket the laissez-passer of Bezrod-
nofif for his outposts.
CHAPTER XXXI
TRAVELING BY "URGA"
ONCE more we traveled along the now known places,

the mountain from which I espied the detachment of
Bezrodnoff, the stream into which had thrown my
I
weapon, and soon all this lay behind us. At the first
ourton we were disappointed because we did not find
horses there. In the yurtas were only the host with two
of his sons. I showed him my document and he ex-
claimed :
"Noyon has the right of 'urga.' Horses will be brought

very soon."
He jumped into his saddle, took two of my Mongols
with him, providing them and himself with long thin
poles, four or five metres in length, and fitted at the end
with a loop of rope, and galloped away. My cart moved
behind them. We left the road, crossed the plain for an
hour and came upon a big herd of horses grazing there.
The Mongol began to catch a quota of them for us with
his pole and noose or urga, when out of the mountains
nearby came galloping the owners of the herds. When
the old Mongol showed my papers to them, they sub-
missively acquiesced and substituted four of their men
for those who had come with me thus far. In this manner
the Mongols travel, not along the ourton or station road
but directly from one herd to another, where the fresh
horses are caught and saddled and the new owners sub-
stituted for those of the last herd. All the Mongols so
effected by the right of urga try to finish their task as
rapidly as possible and gallop like mad for the nearest

herd in your general direction of travel to turn over their
task to their neighbor. Any traveler having this right of
urga can catch horses himself and, if there are no owners,
can force the former ones to carry on and leave the ani-
mals in the next herd he requisitions. But this happen;:
very rarely because the Mongol never likes to seek out his
animals in another's herd, as it always gives so many
chances for controversy.
It was from this custom, according to one explanation,
that the town of Urga took its name among outsiders.
By the Mongols themselves it is always referred to as
Ta Kure, "The Great Monastery." The reason the
Buriats and Russians, who were the first to trade into this
region, called it Urga was because it was the principal
destination of all the trading expeditions which crossed
method or right of travel. A second
the plains by this old
explanation is that the town lies in a "loop" whose sides
are formed by three mountain ridges, along one of which
the River Tola i;uns like the pole or stick of the familiar
urga of the plains.
Thanks to this unique ticket of urga I crossed quite
untraveled sections of Mongolia for about two hundred
miles. It gave me
welcome opportunity to observe the
the
fauna of this part of the country. I saw many huge herde
of Mongolian antelopes running from five to six thous
sand, many groups of bighorns, wapiti and kaharga an-
telopes. Sometimes small herds of wild horses and wild
asses flashed as a vision on the horizon.
TRAVELING BY " URGA " 213
In one place I observed a big colony of marmots. All

over an area of several square miles their mounds were
scattered with the holes leading down to their runways
below, the dwellings of the marmot. In and out among
these mounds brown animals ran in
the greyish-yellow or
all sizes up to half that of an average dog. They ran
heavily and the skin on their fat bodies moved as though
it were too big for them. The marmots arc splendid
prospectors, always digging deep ditches, throwing out
on the surface all the stones. In many places I saw
mounds the marmots had made from copper ore and far-
ther north some from minerals containing wolfram and
vanadium. Whenever the marmot is at the entrance of
up straight on his hind legs and looks like
his hole, he sits
a bit of wood, a small stump or a stone. As soon as he
spies a rider in the distance, he watches him with great
curiosity and begins whistling sharply. This curiosity of
the marmots is taken advantage of by the hunters, who
sneak up to their holes flourishing streamers of cloth on
the tips of long poles. The whole attention of the small
animals is concentrated on this small flag and only the
bullet that takes his life explains to him the reason for
this previously unknown object.
I saw a very exciting picture as I passed through a
marmot colony near the Orkhon There were
River.
thousands of holes here so that my Mongols had to use
all their skill to keep the horses from breaking their legs
in them. I noticed an eagle circling high overhead. All
of a sudden he dropped like a stone to the top of a mound,
where he sat motionless as a rock. The marmot in a few
minutes ran out of his hole to a neighbor's doorway. The
eagle calmly jumped down from the top and with one
wing closed the entrance to the hole. The rodent heard
the noise, turned back and rushed to the attack, trying to
break through to his hole where he had evidently left his
family. The struggle began. The eagle fought with one

free wing, one leg and his beak but did not withdraw the
bar to the entrance. The marmot jumped at the rapacious
bird with great boldness but soon fell from
a blow on the
head. Only then the eagle withdrew his wing, approached
the marmot, finished him off and with difficulty lifted him
in his talons to carry him away to the mountains for a
tasty luncheon.
In the more barren places with only occasional spears
of grass in the plain another species of rodent lives, called
imouran, about the size of a squirrel. They have a coat

the same color as the prairie and, running about it like
snakes, they collect the seeds that are blown across by the
wind and carry them down into their diminutive homes.
The imouran has a truly faithful friend, the yellow lark
of the prairie with a brown back and head. When he sees
the imouran running across the plain, he settles on his
back, flaps his wings in balance and rides well this swiftly
galloping mount, who gaily flourishes his long shaggy
tail. The and quickly catches
lark during his ride skilfully
the parasites living on the body of his friend, giving evi-
dence of his enjoyment of his work with a short agreeable
song. The Mongols call the imouran "the steed of the
gay lark." The lark warns the imouran of the approach
of eagles and hawks with three sharp whistles the moment
he sees the aerial brigand and takes refuge himself behind
a stone or in a small ditch. After this signal no imouran
will stick his head out of his hole until the danger is past.
Thus the gay lark and his steed live in kindly neighborli-
ness.
In other parts of Mongolia where there was very rich
grass I saw another type of rodent, which I had previ-
ously come across in Urianhai. It is a gigantic black
prairie rat with a short tailand lives in colonies of from
one to two hundred. He is interesting and unique as the
most skilful farmer among the animals in his preparation
of his winter supply of fodder. During the weeks when
the grass is most succulent he actually mows it down with
swift jerky swings of his head, cutting about twenty or
thirty stalks with his sharp long front teeth. Then he
allows his grass to cure and later puts up his prepared hay
in a most scientific manner. First he makes a mound
about a foot high. Through he pushes down into the
this
ground four slanting stakes, converging toward the
middle of the pile, and binds them close over the surface
of the hay with the longest strands of grass, leaving the
ends protruding enough for him to add another foot to
the height of the pile, when he again binds the surface
—
with more long strands all this to keep his winter sup-
ply of food from blowing away over the prairie. This
stock he always locates right at the door of his den to
avoid long winter hauls. The horses and camels are very
fond of this small farmer's hay, because it is always made
from the most nutritious grass. The haycocks are so
strongly made that one can hardly kick them to pieces.
Almost everywhere in Mongolia I met either single
pairs or whole flocks of the greyish -yellow prairie par-
tridges, saiga or "partridge swallow," so called because
they have long sharp tails resembling those of swallows
and because their flight also is a close copy oi that of the
2i6 BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
swallow. These birds are very tame or fearless, allowing
men to come within ten or fifteen paces of them; but,
when they do break, they go high and fly long distances
without lighting, whistling all the time quite like swallows.
Their general markings are light grey and yellow, though
the males have pretty chocolate spots on the backs and
wings, while their legs and feet are heavily feathered.
My opportunity to make these observations came from
traveling through unfrequented regions by the urga,
which, however, had its counterbalancing disadvantages.
The Mongols carried me directly and swiftly toward my
destination, receiving with great satisfaction the presents
of Chinese dollars which I gave them. But after having
made about five thousand miles on my Cossack saddle
that now lay behind me on the cart all covered with dust
like common merchandise, I rebelled against being
wracked and torn by the rough riding of the cart as it
was swung heedlessly over stones, hillocks and ditches by
the wild horses with their equally wild riders, bounding
and cracking and holding together only through its
tenacity of purpose in demonstrating the cosiness and at-
tractiveness of a good ]\Iongol equipage All my bones !
began to ache. Finally I groaned at every lunge and at

last I suffered a very sharp attack of ischias or sciatica in
my wounded leg. At night I could neither sleep, lie down
nor sit with comfort and spent the whole night pacing up
and down the plain, listening to the loud snoring of the
inhabitants of the yiirta.At times I had to fight the two
huge black dogs which attacked me. The following day
I could endure the wracking only until noon and was then
forced to give up and lie down. The pain was unbear-
able. I could not move my leg nor my back and finally
fell into a high fever. We were forced to stop and rest.
I swallowed all my stock of aspirin and quinine but with-

out relief. Before me was a sleepless night about which
I could not think without weakening fear. We had
stopped in the yurta for guests by the side of a small
monastery. My Mongols invited the Lama doctor to
visit me, who gave me two very bitter powders and as-
sured me I should be able to continue in the morning.
I soon felt a stimulated palpitation of the heart, after
which the pain became even sharper. Again I spent the
night without any sleep but when the sun arose the pain
ceased instantly and, after an hour, I ordered them to
saddle me a horse, as I was afraid to continue further
in the cart.
While the Mongols were catching the horses, there
came to my tent Colonel N. N. Philipoff, who told me
that he denied all the accusations that he and his brother
and Poletika were Bolsheviki and that Bezrodnoff allowed
him to go to Van Kure to meet Baron Ungem, who was
expected there. Only Philipoff did not know that his
Mongol guide was armed with a bomb and that another
Mongol had been sent on ahead with a letter to Baron
Ungern. He did not know that Poletika and his brothers
were shot at the same time in Zain Shabi. Philipoff was
in a hurry and wanted to reach Van Kure that day. I
left an hour after him.

CHAPTER XXXII
AN OLD FORTUNE TELLER
FROM this point we began traveling along the our ton

road. In this region the Mongols had very poor
and exhausted horses, because they were forced continu-
ously to supply mounts to the numerous envoys of Dai-
chin Van and of Colonel Kazagrandi. We were com-
pelled to spend the night at the last oiirton before Van
Kure, where a stout old Mongol and his son kept the
station. After our supper he took the shoulder-blade
of the sheep, which had been carefully scraped clean
of all the flesh, and, looking at me^ placed this bone in
the coals with some incantations and said:
'T want to tell your fortune. All my predictions come
true."
When the bone had been blackened, he drew i^ out,
blew off the ashes and began to scrutinize the surface
very closely and to look through it into the fire. He
continued his examination for a long time and then,
with fear in his face, placed the bone back in the coals.
"What did you see?" I asked, laughing.

"Be silent!" he whispered. "I made out horrible
signs."
He again took out the bone and began examining it
all over, all the time whispering prayers and making

strange movements. In a very solemn quiet voice he
began his predictions.
218
AN OLD FORTUNE TELLER 219
"Death in the form of a tall white man with red hair

will stand behind you and will watch you long and close.
You and wait but Death will withdraw.

will feel it . . .
Another white man

will become your friend. Before . . .
the fourth day you will lose your acquaintances. They

will die by a long knife. I already see them being eaten
by the dogs. Beware of the man with a head like a

saddle. He will strive for your death."
For a long time after the fortune had been told we sat
smoking and drinking tea but still the old fellow looked
at me only with fear. Through my brain flashed the
thought that thus must his companions in prison look at
one who is condemned to death.
The next morning we left the fortune teller before the
sun was up, and, when we had made about fifteen miles,
hove in sight of Van Kure. I found Colonel Kazagrandi
at his headquarters. He was a man of good family, an
experienced engineer and a splendid officer, who had dis-
tinguished himself in the war at the defence of the
island of Moon in the Baltic and afterwards in the fight
with the Bolsheviki on the Volga. Colonel Kazagrandi
offered me a bath in a real tub, which had its habitat in
the house of the president of the local Chamber of Com-
merce. As I was in this house, a tall young captain
entered. He had long curly red hair and an unusually
white face, though heavy and stolid, with large, steel-
cold eyes and with beautiful, tender, almost girlish lips.
But in his eyes there was such cold cruelty that it was
quite unpleasant to look at his otherwise fine face. When
he left the room, our host told me was Captain
that he
VeselofFsky, the adjutant of General Rezukhin, who was
fighting ajrainst the Bolsheviki in the north of Mongolia.
They had just that day arrived for a conference with
Baron Ungern.
After luncheon Colonel Kazagrandi invited me to his
yurta and began discussing events in western Mongolia,
where the situation had become very tense.
"Do you know Dr. Gay?" Kazagrandi asked me. "You
know he helped me to form my detachment but Urga
accuses him of being the agent of the Soviets."
I made all the defences I could for Gay. He had
helped me and had been exonerated by Kolchak.
"Yes, yes, and I justified Gay in such a manner," said
the Colonel, "but Rezukhin, who has just arrived today,
has brought letters of Gay's to the Bolsheviki which were
seized in transit. By order of Baron Ungern, Gay and
his family have today been sent to the headquarters of
Rezukhin and I fear that they will not reach this destina-
tion."
"Why?" I asked.
"They will be executed on the road !" answered Colonel
Kazagrandi.
"What are we to do?" I responded. "Gay cannot be
a Bolshevik, "because he is too well educated and too
clever for it."
"I don't know ; I don't know !" murmured the Colonel

with a despondent gesture. "Try to speak with
Rezukhin."
I decided to proceed at once to Rezukhin but just then
Colonel Philipoff entered and began talking about the
errors being made in the training of the soldiers. When
I had donned my coat, another man came in. He was a
small sized officer with an old green Cossack cap with
a visor, a torn grey Mongol overcoat and with his right
AN OLD FORTUNE TELLER 221
hand in a black sling tied around his neck. It was Gen-

eral Rezukhin, to whom I was at once introduced. During
the conversation the General very politely and very skil-
fully inquired about the lives of Philipoff and myself
during the last three years, joking and laughing with
discretion and modesty. When he soon took his leave, I
availed myself of the chance and went out with him.

He listened very attentively and politely to me and
afterwards, in his quiet voice, said:
"Dr. Gay is the agent of the Soviets, disguised as a
White in order the better to see, know every-
hear and
thing. We are surrounded by our enemies. The Rus-
sian people are demoralized and will undertake any
treachery for money. Such is Gay. Anyway, what is
the use of discussing him further? He and his family
are no longer alive. Today my men cut them to pieces
five kilometres from here."
In consternation and fear I looked at the face of this
small, dapper man with such soft voice and courteous
manners. In his eyes I read such hate and tenacity that
I understood at once the trembling respect of all the
officers whom I had seen in his presence. Afterwards
in Urga I learned more of this General Rezukhin distin-
guished by his absolute bravery and boundless cruelty.
He was watchdog of Baron Ungern, ready to throw
the
himself into the fire and to spring at the throat of any-
one his master might indicate.
Only four days then had elapsed before "my acquaint-
ances" died "by a long knife," so that one part of the
prediction had been thus fulfilled. And now I have to
await Death's threat to me. The delay was not long.
Only two days later the Chief of the Asiatic Division
of Cavalr>^ arrived — Baron Ungern von Sternberg.

:
CHAPTER XXXIII
"DEATH FROM THE WHITE MAN WILL
STAND BEHIND YOU"
**^T^HE terrible general, the Baron," arrived quite un-
A expectedly, unnoticed by the outposts of Colonel
Kazagrandi. After a talk with Kazagrandi the Baron
invited Colonel N. N. Philipoff and me into his presence.
Colonel Kazagrandi brought the word to me. I wanted
to go at once but was detained about half an hour by the
Colonel, who then sped me with the words
"Now God Go!"
help you!
was a strange parting message, not reassuring and
It
quite enigmatical. I took my Mauser and also hid in
the cuff of my coat my cyanide of potassium. The Baron

was quartered in the yurta of the military doctor. When
I entered the court, Captain Veseloffsky came up to me.
He had a Cossack sword and a revolver without its

holster beneath his girdle. He went into the yurta to
report my arrival.
"Come in," he said, as he emerged from the tent.
At the entrance my eyes were struck with the sight of

a pool of blood that had not yet had time to drain down
into the ground —an ominous greeting that seemed to
carry the very voice of one just gone before me. I
knocked.
"Come in!" was the answer in a high tenor. As I
222
"DEATH FROM THE WHITE MAN" 223
passed the threshold, a figure In a red silk Mongolian coat

rushed at me with the spring of a tiger, grabbed and shook
my hand as though in flight across my path and then fell
prone on the bed at the side of the tent.
"Tell me who you are! Hereabouts are many spies
and agitators," he cried out in an hysterical voice, as he
fixed his eyes upon me. In one moment I perceived his
appearance and psychology. A small head on wide
shoulders; blonde hair in disorder; a reddish bristling
moustache; a skinny, exhausted face, like those on the
old Byzantine ikons. Then everything else faded from
view save a big, protruding forehead overhanging steely
sharp eyes. These eyes were fixed upon me like those
of an animal from a cave. My observations lasted for

but a flash but I understood that before me was a very
dangerous man ready for an instant spring into irrev-
ocable action. Though the danger was evident, 1 felt
^.he deepest offence.

"Sit down," he snapped out in a hissing voice, as he
pointed to a chair and impatiently pulled at his mous-
tache. I felt my anger rising through my whole body
and I said to him without taking the chair:
"You have allowed yourself to offend me, Baron. My
name is well enough known so that you cannot thus in-
dulge yourself in such epithets. You can do with me
as you wish, because force is on your side, but you can-
not compel me to speak with one who gives me offence."
At these words of mine he swung his feet down off
the bed and with evident astonishment began to survey
me, holding his breath and pulling still at his moustache.
Retaining my exterior calmness, I began to glance indif-
ferently around the yuria, and only then I noticed Gen-
eial Rezukhin. I bowed
him and received his silent
to
acknowledgment. After that I swung my glance back
to the Baron, who sat with bowed head and closed eyes,
from time to time rubbing his brow and mumbling to
himself.
Suddenly he stood up and sharply said, looking past
and over me:
"Go out There is no need of more.,
!
.*'
. .
I swung round and saw Captain Veseloffsky with his

white, cold face. I had not heard him enter. He did a
formal "about face" and passed out of the door.
" 'Death from the white man' has stood behind me,"
I thought; "but has it quite left me?"

The Baron stood thinking for some time and then
began to speak in jumbled, unfinished phrases.
"I ask your pardon. You must understand there
. . .
are so many Honest men have disappeared.

traitors!
I cannot trust anybody. All names are false and as-
sumed; documents are counterfeited. Eyes and words
deceive. . All is demoralized, insulted by Bolshevism.
, .
I just ordered Colonel Philipoff cut down, he who called
himself the representative of the Russian White Organi-

zation. In the lining of his garments were found two
secret Bolshevik codes. . . . When my officer flourished
hissword over him, he exclaimed: 'Why do you kill me,
Tavarischef I cannot trust anybody. ..."
He was silent and I also held my peace.
"I beg your pardon!" he began anew. "I offended
you; but I am not simply a man, I am a leader of great
forces and have in my head so much care, sorrow and
woe!"
In his voice I felt there was mingled despair and sin-
:
"DEATH FROM THE WHITE MAN" 225
ccrity. He frankly put out his hand to me. Again

silence. At last I answered
"What do you order me to do now, for I have neither
counterfeit nor real documents? But many of your offi-
cers know me and in Urga I can find many who will tes-
tify that I could be neither agitator nor ..."
"No need,no need!" interrupted the Baron. "All is
clear, all is understood I was in your soul and I know
!
all. It is the truth which Hutuktu Narabanchi has
written about you. What can I do for you?"

I explained how my friend and I had escaped from
Soviet Russia in the effort to reach our native land and

how a group of Polish soldiers had joined us in the hope
of getting back to Poland; and I asked that help be given
us to reach the nearest port.
"With pleasure, with pleasure. ... I will help you
all," he answered excitedly. "I shall drive you to Urga
in my motor car. Tomorrow we shall start and there in
Urga we shall talk about further arrangements."
Taking my went out of the yurta. On arriving
leave, I
at my found Colonel Kazagrandi in great
quarters, I
anxiety walking up and down my room.
"Thanks be to God!" he exclaimed and crossed him-
self.
His joy was very touching but at the same time I
thought that the Colonel could have taken much more

active measures for the salvation of his guest, if he had
been so minded. The agitation of this day had tired me
and made me feel years older. When I looked in the
mirror I was certain there were more white hairs on my
head. At night I could not sleep for the flashing thoughts
of the young, fine face of Colonel Philipoff. the pool of
blood, the cold eyes of Captain Veseloffsky, the sound
of Baron Ungern's voice with its tones of despair and
woe, until finally I sank into a heavy stupor. I was
awakened by Baron Ungem who came to ask pardon that
he could not take me in his motor car, because he was
obliged to take Daichin Van with him. But he informed
me that he had left instructions to give me his own white
camel and two Cossacks as servants. I had no time to
thank him before he rushed out of my room.
Sleep then entirely deserted me, so I dressed and began
smoking pipe after pipe of tobacco, as I thought: "How
much easier to fight the Bolsheviki on the swamps of
Seybi and to cross the snowy peaks of Ulan Taiga, where
the bad demons kill all the travelers they can! There
everything was simple and comprehensible, but here it
is all a mad nightmare, a dark and foreboding storm!"

I feltsome tragedy, some horror in every movement of
Baron Ungern, behind whom paced this silent, white-
faced Veseloffsky and Death.
:
CHAPTER XXXrV
THE HORROR OF WAR!
AT dawn of the following morning they led up the

splendid white camel forme and we moved away.
My company two Cossacks, two Mongol
consisted of the
soldiers and one Lama with two pack camels carrying
the tent and food. I still apprehended that the Baron
had it in mind not to dispose of me before my friends

there in Van Kure but to prepare this journey for me
under the guise of which it would be so easy to do away
with me by the road. A bullet in the back and all would
be finished. Consequently I was momentarily ready to
draw my revolver and defend myself. I took care all
the time to have the Cossacks either ahead of me or at
the side. About noon we heard the distant honk of a
motor car and soon saw Baron Ungern whizzing by us at
full speed. With him were two adjutants and Prince
Daichin Van. The Baron greeted me very kindly and
shouted
"Shall see you again in Urga !"
"Ah!" I thought, "evidently I shall reach Urga. So
1 can be at ease during my trip, and in Urga I have many
friends beside the presence there of the bold Polish sol-
diers whom I had worked with in Uliassutai and who had
outdistanced me in this journey."
After the meeting with the Baron my Cossacks be-
227
came very attentive to me and sought to distract me with
stories. They told me about their very severe struggles
with the Bolsheviki in Transbaikalia and Mongolia, about
the battle with the Chinese near Urga, about finding com-
munistic passports on several Chinese soldiers frorn Mos-
cow, about the bravery of Baron Ungern and how he
would sit at the campfire smoking and drinking tea right
on the battle line without ever being touched by a bullet.
At one fight seventy-four bullets entered his overcoat,
saddle and the boxes by his side and again left him un-
touched. This is one of the reasons for his great influ-
ence over the Mongols. They related how before the
battle he had made a reconnaissance in Urga with only
one Cossack and on his way back had killed a Chinese
and two
officer soldiers with his bamboo stick or tashur;
how he had no outfit save one change of linen and one
extra pair of boots; how he was always calm and jovial
in battleand severe and morose in the rare days of peace;
and how he was everywhere his soldiers were fighting.
I told them, in turn, of my escape from Siberia and
with chatting thus the day slipped by very quickly. Our

camels trotted all the time, so that instead of the ordinary
eighteen to twenty miles per day we made nearly fifty.
My mount was the fastest of them all. He was a huge

white animal with a splendid thick mane and had been
presented to Baron Ungern by some Prince of Inner
Mongolia with two black sables tied on the bridle. He
was a calm, strong, bold giant of the desert, on whose
back I felt myself as though perched on the tower of a
building. Beyond the Orkhon River we came across the
first dead body of a Chinese soldier, which lay face up
and arms outstretched right in the middle of the road.

THE HORROR OF WAR! 229
When we had crossed the Burgut Mountains, we entered

the Tola River valley, farther up which Urga is located.
The road was strewn with the overcoats, shirts, boots,
caps and kettles which the Chinese had thrown away in
their flight and marked by many of their dead. Further
;
on the road crossed a morass, where on either side lay

great mounds of the dead bodies of men, horses and
camels with broken carts and military debris of every
sort. Here the Tibetans of Baron Ungern had cut up
the escaping Chinese baggage transport; and it was a
'strange and gloomy contrast to see the piles of dead
besides the effervescing awakening life of spring. In
every pool wild ducks of different kinds floated about;
in the high grass the cranes performed their weird dance
of courtship on the lakes great flocks of swans and geese
;
were swimming; through the swampy places like spots
of light moved the brilliantly colored pairs of the Mon-

golian sacred bird, the ttcrpan or "Lama goose" on ; the
higher dry places flocks of wild turkey gamboled and
fought as they fed ; flocks of the saiga partridge whistled
by; while on the mountain side not far away the wolves
lay basking and turning in the lazy warmth of the sun,
whining and occasionally barking like playful dogs.
Nature knows only life. Death is for her but an epi-
sode whose traces she rubs out with sand and snow or
ornaments with luxuriant greenery and brightly colored
bushes and flowers. What Nature if a
matters it to
mother at Chefoo or on the banks of the Yangtse offers
her bowl of rice with burning incense at some shrine and
prays for the return of her son that has fallen unknown
for all time on the plains along the Tola, where his bones
will dry beneath the rays of Nature's dissipating fire
aso BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
and be scattered by her winds over the sands of the
prairie? It is splendid, this indifference of Nature to
death, and her greediness for Hfe!

On the fourth day we made the shores of the Tola
well after nightfall. We could not find the regular ford
and I forced my camel to enter the stream in the attempt
to make a crossing without guidance. Very fortunately
I found a shallow, though somewhat miry, place and we
got over all right. This if something to be thankful for
in fording a river with a camel; because, when your
mount water too deep, coming up around his
finds the
neck, he does not strike out and swim like a horse will do
but just rolls over on his side and floats, which is vastly
inconvenient for his rider. Down by the river we pegged
our tent.
Fifteen miles further on we crossed a battlefield, where

the third great battle for the independence of Mongolia
had been fought. Here the troops of Baron Ungern
clashed with six thousand Chinese moving down from
Kiakhta to the aid of Urga. The Chinese were com-
pletely defeated and four thousand prisoners taken. How-
ever, these surrendered Chinese tried to escape during the
night. Baron Ungern sent the Transbaikal Cossacks and
Tibetans in pursuit of them and it was their work which
we saw on this field of death. There were still about

fifteen hundred unburied and as many more interred,
according to the statements of our Cossacks, who had
participated in this battle. The killed showed terrible
sword wounds; everywhere equipment and other debris
were scattered about. The Mongols with their herds
moved away from the neighborhood and their place was
taken by the wolves which hid behind every stone and
THE HORROR OF WAR! 231
in every ditch as we passed. Packs of dogs that had

become wild fought with the wolves over the prey.
At last we left this place of carnage to the cursed god
of war. Soon we approached a shallow, rapid stream,
where the Mongols slipped from their camels, took off
their caps and began drinking. It was a sacred stream
which passed beside the abode of the Living Buddha.

From this winding valley we suddenly turned into another
where a great mountain ridge covered with dark, dense
forest loomed up before us.
"Holy Bogdo-Ol!" exclaimed the Lama. "The abode
of the Gods which guard our Living Buddha!"
Bogdo-Ol is the huge knot which ties together here
three mountain chains: Gegyl from the southwest,
Gangyn from the south, and Huntu from the north. This
mountain covered with virgin forest is the property of
the Living Buddha. The forests are full of nearly all
the varieties of animals found in Mongolia, but hunting
is not allowed. Any Mongol violating this law is con-
demned to death, while foreigners are deported. Cross-
ing the Bogdo-Ol is forbidden under penalty of death.
This command was transgressed by only one man, Baron
Ungern, who crossed the mountain with fifty Cossacks,
penetrated to the palace of the Living Buddha, where the
Pontiff of Urga was being held under arrest by the
Chinese, and stole him.
CHAPTER XXXV
IN THE CITY OF LIVING GODS, OF 30,000

BUDDHAS AND 60,000 MONKS
ATBuddha!last before our eyes the abode of the Living

At the foot of Bogdo-Ol behind white
walls rose a white Tibetan building covered with green-
ish-blue tiles that glittered under the sunshine. It was
richly set among groves of trees dotted here and there
with the fantastic roofs of shrines and small palaces, while
further from the mountain it was connected by a long
wooden bridge across the Tola with the city of monks,
sacred and revered throughout all the East as Ta Kure
or Urga. Here besides the Living Buddha live whole
throngs of secondary miracle workers, prophets, sor-
cerers and wonderful doctors. All these people have
divine origin and are honored as living gods. At the
left on the high plateau stands an old monastery with a
huge, dark red tower, which is known as the "Temple

Lamas City," containing a gigantic bronze gilded statue
of Buddha sitting on the golden flower of the lotus; tens
of smaller temples, shrines, oho, open altars, towers for
astrology and the grey city of the Lamas consisting of
single-storied houses and yiirtas, where about 60,000
monks of all and ranks dwell; schools, sacred
ages
archives and libraries, the houses of Bandi and the inns
for the honored guests from China, Tibet, and the lands
of the Buriat and Kalmuck.
232
!
IN THE CITY OF LIVING GODS 233
Down below the monastery is the foreign settlement

where the Russian, foreign and richest Chinese merchants
live and where the multi-colored and crowded oriental
bazaar carries forward its bustling life. A kilometre

away the greyish enclosure of Maimachen surrounds the
remaining Chinese trading establishments, while farther
on one sees a long row of Russian private houses, a hos-
pital, church, prison and, last of all,the awkward four-
storied red brick building that was formerly the Russian
Consulate.
We were already within a short distance of the mon-
astery,when I noticed several Mongol soldiers in the
mouth of a ravine nearby, dragging back and concealing
in the ravine three dead bodies.
"What are they doing?" I asked.
The Cossacks only smiled without answering. Sud-
denly they straightened up with a sharp salute. Out oT
the ravine came a small, stocky Mongolian pony with a
short man in the saddle. As he passed us, I noticed the
epaulets of a colonel and the green cap with a visor. He
examined me with cold, from under dense
colorless eyes
brows. As he went on ahead, he took off his cap and
wiped the perspiration from his bald head. My eyes
were struck by the strange undulating line of his skull.
It was the man "with the head like a saddle," against
whom I had been warned by the old fortune teller at the
last ourton outside Van Kure
"Who is this officer?" I inquired.
Although he was already quite a distance in front of
us, the Cossacks whispered: "Colonel SepailofT, Com-
mandant of Urga City."
Colonel Sepailoff, the darkest person on the canvas
of Mongolian events! Formerly a mechanician, after-
wards a gendarme, he had gained quick promotion under
the Czar's regime. He was always nervously jerking and
wriggling his body and talking ceaselessly, making most
unattractive sounds in his throat and sputtering with
saliva all over his lips, his whole face often contracted
with spasms. He was mad and Baron Ungern twice ap-
pointed a commission of surgeons to examine him and
ordered him to rest in the hope he could rid the man of
his evil genius. Undoubtedly Sepailoff was a sadist. I
heard afterwards that he himself executed the condemned
people, joking and singing as he did his work. Dark,
terrifying tales were current about him in Urga. He
was a bloodhound, fastening his victims with the jaws
of death. All the glory of the cruelty of Baron Ungern
belonged to Sepailoff. Afterwards Baron Ungern once
told me in Urga that this Sepailoff annoyed him and that
Sepailoff could kill him just as well as others. Baron
Ungern feared Sepailoff, not as a man, but dominated by
his own superstition, because Sepailoff had found in
Transbaikalia a witch doctor who predicted the death of
the Baron if he dismissed Sepailoff. Sepailoff knew no
pardon for Bolshevik nor for any one connected with
the Bolsheviki in any way. The reason for his vengeful
spirit was that the Bolsheviki had tortured him in prison
and, after his escape, had killed all his family. He was
now taking his revenge.
I put up with a Russian firm and was at once visited
by my associates from Uliassutai, who greeted me with
great joy because they had been much exercised about
the events in Van Kure and Zain Shabi. When I had
bathed and spruced up, I went out with them on the
street. We entered the bazaar. The whole market was

crowded. To the lively colored groups of men buying,
selling and shouting their wares, the bright streamers
of Chinese cloth, the strings of pearls, the earrings and
bracelets gave an air of endless festivity; while on
another side buyers were feeling of live sheep to see
whether they were fat or not, the butcher was cutting
great pieces of mutton from the hanging carcasses and
everywhere these sons of the plain were joking and jest-
ing. The Mongolian women in their huge coiffures and
heavy silver caps like saucers on their heads were admir-
ing the variegated silk ribbons and long chains of coral
beads; an imposing big Mongol attentively examined a
small herd of splendid horses and bargained with the
Mongol owner of the horses; a skinny,
zafiachine or
quick, black Tibetan, who had come to Urga to pray to
the Living Buddha or, maybe, with a secret message from
the other "God" in Lhasa, squatted and bargained for
an image of the Lotus Buddha carved in agate in another ;
comer a big crowd of Mongols and Buriats had collected

and surrounded a Chinese merchant selling finely painted
snuff-bottles of glass, crystal, porcelain, amethyst, jade,
agate and nephrite, for one of which made of a greenish
milky nephrite with regular brown veins running through
itand carved with a dragon winding itself around a bevy
of young damsels the merchant was demanding of his
Mongol inquirers ten young oxen; and everywhere
Buriats in their long red coats and small red caps em-
broidered with gold helped the Tartars in black over-
coats and black velvet caps
on the back of their heads
toweave the pattern of this Oriental human tapestry.
Lamas formed the common background for it all, as they
wandered about In their yellow and red robes, with capes
picturesquely thrown over their shoulders and caps of
many forms, some like yellow mushrooms, others like the
red Phrygian bonnets or old Greek helmets in red. They
mingled with the crowd, chatting serenely and counting
their rosaries, telling fortunes for those who would hear
but chiefly searching out the rich Mongols whom they
could cure or exploit by fortune telling, predictions or
other mysteries of a city of 60,000 Lamas. Simultane-
ously religious and political espionage was being carried
out. Just at this time many Mongols were arriving from
Inner Mongolia and they were continuously surrounded
by an invisible but numerous network of watching Lamas.
Over the buildings around floated the Russian, Chinese
and Mongolian national flags with a single one of the
Stars and Stripes above a small shop in the market while
;
over the nearby tents and yurtas streamed the ribbons,

the squares, the circles and triangles of the princes and
private persons afflicted or dying from smallpox and
leprosy. All were mingled and mixed in one bright mass
strongly lighted by the sun. Occasionally one saw the
soldiers of Baron Ungern rushing about in long blue
coats; Mongols and Tibetans in red coats with yellow
epaulets bearing the swastika of Jenghiz Khan and the
initials of the Living Buddha and Chinese soldiers from
;
their detachment in the Mongolian army. After the de-

feat of the Chinese army two thousand of these braves
petitioned the Living Buddha to enlist them in his legions,
swearing fealty and faith to him. They were accepted
and formed into two regiments bearing the old Chinese
silver dragons on their caps and shoulders.
As we crossed this market, from around a corner came
a big motor car with the roar of a siren. There was

Baron Ungern in the yellow silk Mongolian cokt with a
blue girdle. He was going very fast but recognized me
at once, stopping and getting out to invite me to go with
him to his yurta. The Baron lived in a small, simply
arranged yurta, set up in the courtyard of a Chinese
hong. He had his headquarters in two other yurtas
nearby, while his servants occupied one of the Chinese
fang-tzu. When
reminded him of his promise to help
I
me to reach the open ports, the General looked at me

with his bright eyes and spoke in French:
"My work here is coming to an end. In nine days I
shall begin the war with the Bolsheviki and shall go into
the Transbaikal. I beg that you will spend this time
here. For many years I have lived without civilized
society. I am alone with my thoughts and I would like
to have you know them, speaking with me not as the

'bloody mad Baron,' as my enemies call me, nor as the
'severe grandfather,'which my officers and soldiers call
me, but as an ordinary man who has sought much and
has suffered even more."
The Baron reflected for some minutes and then con-
tinued :
*T have thought about the further trip of your group

and I shall arrange everything for you, but I ask you
to remain here these nine days."
What was I to do? I agreed. The Baron shook my
hand warmly and ordered tea.
CHAPTER XXXVI
A SON OF CRUSADERS AND PRIVATEERS
**np ELL me about yourself and your trip," he urged.
-*• In response
I related all that I thought would
him and he appeared quite excited over my tale.

interest
"Now I shall tell you about myself, who and what I
am! My name surrounded with such hate and fear
is
that no one can judge what is the truth and what is false,
what is history and what myth. Some time you will
write about it, remembering your trip through Mongolia
"
and your sojourn at the ytirta of the 'bloody General.'
He shut his eyes, smoking as he spoke, and tumbling
out his sentences without finishing them as though some
one would prevent him from phrasing them.
"The family of Ungern von Sternberg is an old fam-
ily, a mixture of Germans with Hungarians Huns from —
the time of Attila. My warlike ancestors took part in afl
They participated in
the European struggles. the Cru-
sades and one Ungern was killed under the walls of
Jerusalem, fighting under Richard Cceur de Lion. Even
the tragic Crusade of the Children was marked by the
death of Ralph Ungern, eleven years old. When the
boldest warriors of the country were despatched to the
eastern border of the German Empire against the Slavs
in the twelfth century, my ancestor Arthur was among
them, Baron Halsa Ungern Sternberg. Here these bor-
238
A SON OF CRUSADERS 239
der knights formed the order of Monk

Knights or Teu-
tons, which with and sword spread Christianity among
fire
the pagan Lithuanians, Esthonians, Latvians and Slavs.

Since then the Teuton Order of Knights has always had
among its members representatives of our family. When
the Teuton Order perished in the Griinwald under the
swords of the Polish and Lithuanian troops, two Barons
Ungern von Sternberg were killed there. Our family
was warlike and given to mysticism and asceticism.
"During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries several
Barons von Ungern had their castles in the lands of
Latvia and Esthonia. Many legends and tales lived after
them. Heinrich Ungern von Sternberg, called *Ax,' was
a wandering knight. The tournaments of France, Eng-
land, Spain and Italy knew his name and lance, which
the hearts of his opponents with fear.
filled He fell at
Cadiz 'neath the sword of a knight who cleft both his
helmet and his skull. Baron Ralph Ungern was a brigand
knight between Riga and Reval. Baron Peter Ungern
had his castle on the island of Dago in the Baltic Sea,
where as a privateer he ruled the merchantmen of his day.
"In the beginning of the eighteenth century there was
also a well-known Baron Wilhelm Ungern, who was re-
ferred to as the 'brother of Satan' because he was an
alchemist. My grandfather was a privateer in the Indian
Ocean, taking his tribute from the English traders whose
warships could not catch him for several years. At last
he was captured and handed to the Russian Consul, who
transported him to Russia where he was sentenced to
deportation to the Transbaikal. I am also a naval officer
but the Russo-Japanese War forced me to leave my reg-
ular profession to join and fight with the Zabaikal Cos-
sacks. I have spent all my life in war or in the study
and learning of Buddhism. My grandfather brought
Buddhism to us from India and my father and I ac-
cepted and professed it. In Transbaikalia I tried to form
the order of Military Buddhists for an uncompromising
fight against the depravity of revolution."
He fell into silence and began drinking cup after cup
of tea as strong and black as coffee.
"Depravity of revolution ! . . . Has anyone ever thought
of it besides the French philosopher, Bergson, and the
most learned Tashi Lama in Tibet?"
The grandson of the privateer, quoting scientific theo-
ries, works, the names of scientists and writers, the Holy
Bible and Buddhist books, mixing together French, Ger-

man, Russian and English, continued:
"In the Buddhistic and ancient Christian books we
read stern predictions about the time when the war be-
tween the good and evil spirits must begin. Then there
must come the unknown 'Curse' which will conquer the
world, blot out culture, kill morality and destroy all the
people. Its weapon is revolution. During every revo-
lution the previously experienced intellect-creator will
be replaced by the new rough force of the destroyer. He

will place and hold in the first rank the lower instincts
and desires. Man will be farther removed from the
The Great War proved that
divine and the spiritual.
humanity must progress upward toward higher ideals;
but then appeared that Curse which was seen and felt
by Christ, the Apostle John, Buddha, the first Christian

martyrs, Dante, Leonardo da Vinci, Goethe and Do-
stoyevsky. It appeared, turned back the wheel of prog-
ress and blocked our road to the Divinity. Revolution is
an infectious disease and Europe making the treaty with

Moscow deceived itself and the other parts of the world.
The Great Spirit put at the threshold of our lives Karma,
who knows neither anger nor pardon. He will reckon
the account, whose total will be famine, destruction, the
death of culture, of glory, of honor and of spirit, the
death of states and the death of peoples. I see already
this horror, this dark, mad destruction of humanity."
The door of the yurta suddenly swung open and an
adjutant snapped into a position of attention and salute.
"Why do you enter a room by force?" the General
exclaimed in anger.
"Your Excellency, our outpost on the border has
caught a Bolshevik reconnaissance party and brought
them here."
The Baron arose. His eyes sparkled and his face con-
tracted with spasms.
"Bring them in front of my yurta!" he ordered.
All was forgotten — the inspired speech, the penetrat-
ing voice — were sunk in the austere order of the
all
severe commander. The Baron put on his cap, caught up

the bamboo tashur which he always carried with him and
rushed from the yurta. I followed him out. There
in front of the yurta stood six Red soldiers surrounded
by the Cossacks.
The Baron stopped and glared sharply at them for
several minutes. In his face one could see the strong
play of his thoughts. Afterwards he turned away from
them, sat down on the doorstep of the Chinese house
and for a long time was buried in thought. Then he
rose, walked over to them and, with an evident show of
decisiveness in his movements, touched all the prisoners
on shoulder with his tashur and said
tlie "You to the :
leftand you to the right!" as he divided the squad into

two sections, four on the right and two on the left.
"Search those two They must be commissars !" com-
!
manded the Baron and, turning to the other four, asked:

"Are you peasants mobilized by the Bolsheviki?"
"Just so, Your Excellency!" cried the frightened sol-
diers,
"Go to the Commandant and tell him that I have

!"
ordered you to be enlisted in my troops
On the two to the left they found passports of Com-
missars of the Communist PoliticalDepartment. The
General knitted his brows and slowly pronounced the
following:
"Beat them to death with sticks!"
He turned and entered the yurta. After this our con-
versation did not flow readily and so I left the Baron
to himself.
After dinner in the Russian firm where I was staying
some of Ungern's officers came
were chatting
in. We
animatedly when suddenly we heard the horn of an
automobile, which instantly threw the officers into
silence.
"The General is passing somewhere near,'* one of

them remarked in a strangely altered voice.
Our interrupted conversation was soon resumed but
not for long. The clerk of the firm came running into
the room and exclaimed "The Baron !"
:
He entered the door but stopped on the threshold.

The lamps had not yet been lighted and it was getting
dark inside, but the Baron instantly recognized us all,
approached and kissed the hand of the hostess, greeted

:
everyone very cordially and, accepting the cup of tea

offered him, drew up to the table to drink. Soon he
spoke
"I want your guest," he said to the hostess and
to steal
then, turning to me, asked: "Do you want to go for a
motor ride? I shall show you the city and the environs.'*
Donning my coat, I followed my established custom
and slipped my revolver into it, at which the Baron
laughed.
"Leave that trash behind! Here you are in safety.
Besides you must remember the prediction of Nara-
banchi Hutuktu that Fortune will ever be with you."
"All right," I answered, also with a laugh. "I re-
member very Only I do not know
well this prediction.
what the Hutuktu thinks 'Fortune' means for me.
Maybe it is death like the rest after my hard, long trip,
and I must confess that I prefer to travel farther and

am not ready to die."
We went out to the gate where the big Fiat stood
with its intruding great lights. The chauffeur officer
sat at the wheel and remained at salute
like a statue all
the time we were entering and seating ourselves.

"To the wireless station!" commanded tlie Baron.
We veritably leapt forward. The city swarmed, as
earlier, with the Oriental throng, but its appearance now
was even more strange and miraculous. In among the
noisy crowd Mongol, Buriat and Tibetan riders threaded
swiftly; caravans of camels solemnly raised their heads
as we passed; the wooden wheels of the Mongol carts
screamed in pain; and all was illumined by splendid
great arc lights from the electric station which Baron

Ungern had ordered erected immediately after the cap-
:
244 BEASTS. MEN AND GODS

ture of Urga, together with a telephone system and
wireless station. He also ordered his men to clean and
disinfect the citywhich had probably not felt the broom
since the days of Jenghiz Khan. He arranged an auto-
bus traffic between different parts of the city; built
bridges over the Tola and Orkhon; published a news-
paper; arranged a veterinary laboratory and hospitals;
re-opened the schools; protected commerce, mercilessly
hanging Russian and Mongolian soldiers for pillaging
Chinese firms.
In one of these cases his Commandant arrested two
Cossacks and a Mongol soldier who had stolen brandy
from one of the Chinese shops and brought them before
him. He immediately bundled them all into his car,
drove off to the shop, delivered the brandy back to the
proprietor and as promptly ordered the Mongol to hang
one of the Russians to the big gate of the compound.
With this one swung he commanded: "Now hang the
other!" and this had only just been accomplished when
he turned to the Commandant and ordered him to hang
the Mongol beside the other two. That seemed expedi-
tious and just enough until the Chinese proprietor came
in dire distress to the Baron and plead with him
"General Baron! General Baron! Please take those
men down from my gateway, for no one will enter my
shop!"
After the commercial quarter was flashed past our
eyes, we entered the Russian settlement across a small
river. Several Russian soldiers and four very spruce-
looking Mongolian women stood on the bridge as we
passed. The soldiers snapped to salute like immobile
statues and fixed their eyes on the severe face of their
A SON OF CRUSADERS 24S
Commander. The women began to run and shift

first
about and then, infected by the discipline and order of

events, swung their hands up to salute and stood as im-
mobile as their northern swains. The Baron looked at
me and laughed:
"You see the discipline ! Even the Mongolian women
salute me."
Soon we were out on the plain with the car going like
an arrow, with the wind whistling and tossing the folds
of our coats and caps. But Baron Ungern, sitting with
closed eyes, repeated: "Faster! Faster!" For a long
timewe were both silent.
"And yesterday I beat my adjutant for rushing into
my yurta and interrupting my story," he said.
"You can finish it now," I answered.
"And are you not bored by it ? Well, there isn't much
left and this happens to be the most interesting. I was
telling you that I wanted to found an order of military
Buddhists in Russia, For what? For the protection of
the processes of evolution of humanity and for the strug-
gle against revolution, because I am certain that evolu-
tion leads to the Divinity and revolution to bestiality.
But I worked in Russia In Russia, where the peasants
!
are rough, untutored, wild and constantly angry, hating

everybody and everything without understanding why.
They are suspicious and materialistic, having no sacred
ideals. Russian intelligents live among imaginary ideals
without realities. They have a strong capacity for crit-

icising everything but they lack creative power. Also
they have no will power, only the capacity for talking
and talking. With the peasants, they cannot like any-
thing or anybody. Their love and feelings are imaginar)'.
Their thoughts and sentiments pass without trace Hke
futile words. My companions, therefore, soon began
to violate the regulations of the Order. Then I intro-
duced the condition of celibacy, the entire negation of

woman, of the comforts of life, of superfluities, accord-
ing to the teachings of the Yellow Faith; and, in order
that the Russian might be able to live down his physical
nature, I introduced the limitless use of alcohol, hasheesh
and opium. Now for alcohol I hang my officers and
soldiers; then we drank tc the 'white fever,' delirium
tremens. I could not organize the Order but I gathered
round me and developed three hundred men wholly bold
and entirely ferocious. Afterward they were heroes
in the war with Germany and later in the fight against
the Bolsheviki, but now only a few remain."
''The wireless, Excellency!" reported the chauffeur.
"Turn in there!" ordered the General.
On the top of a flat hill stood the big, powerful radio
station which had been partially destroyed by the re-
treating Chinese but reconstructed by the engineers of
Baron Ungern. The General perused the telegrams and
handed them to me. They were from Moscow, Chita,
Vladivostok and Peking. On a separate yellow sheet
were the code messages, which the Baron slipped into his
pocket as he said to me:
"They are from my agents, who are stationed in Chita,
Irkutsk, Harbin and Vladivostok. They are all Jews,
very skilled and very bold men, friends of mine all. I
have also one Jewish officer, Vulfovitch, who commands
my right flank. He is as ferocious as Satan but clever
and brave. Now we shall fly into space."
. . .
Once more we rushed away, sinking into the darkness

of night. It was a wild ride. The car bounded over

small stones and ditches, even taking narrow streamlets,
as the skilled chauffeur only seemed to guide it round the
larger rocks. On the plain, as we sped by, I noticed
several times small bright flashes of fire which lasted but
for a second and then were extinguished.
"The eyes of wolves," smiled my companion. "We
have fed them to satiety from the flesh of ourselves and
our enemies!" he quietly interpolated, as he turned to
continue his confession of faith.
"During the War we saw the gradual corruption of
the Russian army and foresaw the treachery of Russia
to the Allies as well as the approaching danger of revo-
lution. To counteract this latter a plan was formed to
join together all the Mongolian peoples which had not
forgotten their ancient faiths and customs into one
Asiatic State, consisting of autonomous tribal units,
under the moral and legislative leadership of China, the
country of loftiest and most ancient culture. Into this
State must come the Chinese, Mongols, Tibetans, Af-
ghans, the Mongol tribes of Turkestan, Tartars, Buriats,
Kirghiz and Kalmucks. This State must be strong,
physically and morally, and must erect a barrier against
revolution and carefully preserve its own spirit, philos-
ophy and individual policy. If humanity, mad and cor-
rupted, continues to threaten the Divine Spirit in man-
kind, to spread blood and to obstruct moral development,
the Asiatic State must terminate this movement de-
cisively and establish a permanent, firm peace. This
propaganda even during the War made splendid progress
among the Turkomans, Kirghiz, Buriats and Mongols.
. . . Stop!" suddenly shouted the Baron.
The car pulled up with a jerk. The General jumped
out and called me to follow. We started walking over
the prairie and the Baron kept bending down all the time
as though he were looking for something on the ground.
"Ah !" he murmured at last, "He has gone away. . .
."
I looked at him in amazement.

"A rich Mongol formerly had his yuvia here. He was
the outfitter for the Russian merchant, Noskoff. Nos-
koffwas a ferocious man as shown by the name the
Mongols gave him 'Satan.'
— He used to have his
Mongol debtors beaten or imprisoned through the in-
strumentality of the Chinese authorities. He ruined this
Mongol, who lost everything and escaped to a place thirty
miles away; but Noskoff found him there, took all that
he had left of cattle and horses and left the Mongol and
his family to die of hunger. When I captured Urga,
this Mongol appeared and brought with him thirty other
Mongol families similarly ruined by Noskoff. They
demanded his death. ... So I hung 'Satan' ." . .
Anew the motor car was rushing along, sweeping a

great circle on the prairie, and anew Baron Ungern with
his sharp, nervous voice carried his thoughts round the
whole circumference of Asian life.
"Russia turned traitor to France, England and Amer-
ica, signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and ushered in a
reign of chaos. We then decided to mobilize Asia

against Germany. Our envoys penetrated Mongolia,
Tibet, Turkestan and China. At this time the Bolshevik!
began to kill all the Russian officers and we were forced
to open civil war against thern, giving up our Pan-
Asiatic plans; but we hope later to awake all Asia and
with their help to bring peace and God back to earth. I
want to feel that I have helped this idea by the libera-

tion of Mongolia."
He became silent and thought for a moment.
"But some of my associates in the movement do not
like me because of my and severity," he
atrocities re-
marked in a sad voice. "They cannot understand as
yet that we are not fighting a political party but a sect
of murderers of all contemporary spiritual culture. Why
do the Italians execute the 'Black Hand' gang? Why
are the Americans electrocuting anarchistic bomb throw-
ers? and I am not allowed to rid the world of those who
would kill the soul of the people? I, a Teuton, descend-
ant of crusaders and privateers, I recognize only death
for murderers ! . . . Return!" he commanded the chauf-
feur.
An hour and a half later we saw the electric lights
of Urga.
CHAPTER XXXVII
THE CAMP OF MARTYRS
NEAR the entrance to the town, a motor car stood

before a small house.
"What does that mean?" exclaimed the Baron. "Go
over there!"
Our car drew up beside the other. The house door
opened sharply, several officers rushed out and tried to
hide.
"Stand !" commanded the General. "Go back inside."
They obeyed and he entered after them, leaning on his
tashur. As the door remained open, I could see and
hear everything.
"Woe them!" whispered the chauffeur. "Our of-
to
ficers knew Baron had gone out of the town with
that the
me, which means always a long journey, and must have
decided to have a good time. He will order them beaten
to death with sticks."
I could see the end of the table covered with bottles
and tinned At the side two young women were
things.
seated, who sprang up at the appearance of the General.
I could hear the hoarse voice of Baron Ungern pro-
nouncing sharp, short, stern phrases.

"Your native land is perishing. . . . The shame of it
is upon all you Russians . . , and you cannot under-

stand it . . . nor feel it. . . .You need wine and
250
THE CAMP OF MARTYRS 251
women. . . . Scoundrels! Brutes! . . . One hundred

fifty tashur for every man of you."
The voice fell to a whisper.
"And you, Mesdames, do you not realize the ruin
of your people? No? For you it is of no moment.
And have you no feeling for your husbands at the front
who may even now be killed ? You are not women. . . -
I honor woman, who feels more deeply and strongly than
man but you are not women

; Listen to me, Mes-
! . . .
."
dames. Once more and I will hang you. . .
He came back to the car and himself sounded the horn

several times. Immediately Mongol horsemen galloped
up.
"Take these men to the Commandant. I will send
my orders later."
On the way to the Baron's yurta we were silent. He
was excited and breathed heavily, lighting cigarette after
cigarette and throwing them aside after but a single
puff or two.
"Take supper with me," he proposed.
He also invited his Chief of Staff, a very retiring,
oppressed but splendidly educated man. The servants
spread a Chinese hot course for us followed by cold
meat and fruit compote from California with the inevit-
able tea. We ate with chopsticks. The Baron was
greatly distraught.
Very cautiously I began speaking of the offending
officers and tried to justify their actions by the extremely
trying circumstances under which they were living.
"They are rotten through and through, demoralized,
sunk into the depths," murmured the General.
The Chief of Staff helped me out and at last the Baron
:

directed him to telephone the Commandant to release
these gentlemen.
The following day I spent with my friends, walking
a great deal about the streets and watching their busy
life. The great energy of the Baron demanded constant
nervous activity from himself and every one round him.
He was everywhere, seeing everything but never inter-
fering with the work of his subordinate administrators.
Every one was at work.
In the evening was invited by the Chief of Staff to
I
his quarters, where I met many intelligent officers. I

related again the story of my trip and we were all chat-
ting along animatedly when suddenly Colonel Sepailoff
entered, singing to himself. All the others at once be-
came silent and one by one under various pretexts they
slipped out. He handed our host some papers and, turn-
ing to us, said:
"I shall send you for supper a splendid fish pie and
some hot tomato soup."
As he left, my host clasped his head in desperation
and said
"With such scum of the earth are we now forced after
this revolution to work!"
A few minutes later a soldier from Sepailofif brought
us a tureen full of soup and the fish pie. As the soldier
bent over the table to set the dishes down, the Chief
motioned me with his eyes and slipped to me the words:
"Notice his face."
When the man went out, my host sat attentively listen-
ing until the sounds of the man's steps ceased.
"He is Sepailoff's executioner who hangs and strangles
the unfortunate condemned ones."
!
Then, to my amazement, he began to pour out the

soup on the ground beside the brazier and, going out of
the yurta, threw the pie over the fence.
"It is Sepailoff's feast and, though it may be very
tasty, it may also be poison. In Sepailoff's house it is
dangerous to eat or drink anything."

Distinctly oppressed by these doings, I returned to my
house. My host was not yet asleep and met me with a
frightened look. My friends were also there.
"God be thanked !" they all exclaimed. "Has nothing
happened to you?"
"What is the matter?" I asked.
"You see," began the host, "after your departure a
soldiercame from Sepailoff and took your luggage, say-
ing that you had sent him for it; but we knew what it
—
meant that they would first search it and after-
wards. ..."
I at once understood the danger. SepailoflF could
place anything he wanted in my luggage and afterwards
accuse me. My old friend, the agronome, and I started
at once for Sepailoff's, where I left him at the door
while I went in and was met by the same soldier who
had brought the supper to us. Sepailoff received me im-
mediately. In answer to my protest he said tiiat it was
a mistake and, asking me to wait for a moment, went
out. I waited five, ten, fifteen minutes but nobody came.
I knocked on the door but no one answered me. Then
I decided to go to Baron Ungem and started for the
exit. The door was locked. Then I tried the other

door and found that also locked. I had been trapped
I wanted at once to whistle to my friend but just then
noticed a telephone on the wall and called up Baron

Ungern. In a few minutes he appeared together with
Sepailoff.
"What is this?" he asked Sepailoff in a severe,
threatening voice; and, without waiting for an answer,
struck him a blow with his tashur that sent him to the
floor.
We Avent out and the General ordered my luggage pro-

duced. Then he brought me to hisown yurta.
"Live here, now," he said. "I am very glad of this
accident," he remarked with a smile, "for now I can say
all that I want to."
This drew from me the question:
"May I describe all that I have heard and seen here?"
He thought a moment before replying: "Gi\e me your
notebook."
I handed him the album with my sketches of the trip
and he wrote therein: "After my death, Baron Ungern."

"But I am older than you and I shall die before you,"
I remarked.
He shut his eyes, bowed his head and whispered:
"Oh, no! One hundred thirty days yet and it is
finished ; then . . . Nirvana! How wearied I am with sor-

!"
row, woe and hate
We were silent for a long time. I felt that I had now
a mortal enemy in Colonel Sepailoff and that I should
get out of Urga at the earliest possible moment. It was
two o'clock at night. Suddenly Baron Ungern stood up.
"Let us go to the great, good Buddha," he said with
a countenance held in deep thought and with eyes aflame,
his whole face contracted by a mournful, bitter smile. He
ordered the car brought.
Thus lived this camp of martyrs, refugees pursued 1)v
!
events to their tryst with Death, driven on by the hate

and contempt of this offspring of Teutons and privateers
And he, martyring them, knew neither day nor night of
peace. Fired by impelHng, poisonous thoughts, he tor-
mented himself with the pains of a Titan, knowing that
every day in this shortening chain of one hundred thirty
Hnks brought him nearer to the precipice called "Death."
CHAPTER XXXVIII
BEFORE THE FACE OF BUDDHA
ASandwe dipped
came to the monastery we
into the labyrinth of
left the automobile
narrow alleyways
until at last we were before the greatest temple of Urga
with the Tibetan walls and windows and its pretentious
Chinese roof. A single lantern burned at the entrance.
The heavy gate with and iron trimmings was
the bronze
shut. When gong hang-
the General struck the big brass
ing by the gate, frightened monks began running up from
all directions and, seeing the "General Baron," fell to the
earth in fear of raising their heads.
!"
"Get up," said the Baron, "and let us into the Temple
The inside was like that of all Lama temples, the same
multi-colored flags with the prayers, symbolic signs and
the images of holy saints; the big bands of silk cloth
hanging from the ceiling; the images of the gods and
goddesses. On both sides of the approach to the altar
were the low red benches for the Lamas and choir. On
the altar small lamps threw their rays on the gold and
silver vessels and candlesticks. Behind it hung a heavy
yellow silk curtain with Tibetan inscriptions. The Lamas
drew the curtain aside. Out of the dim light from the
flickering lamps gradually appeared the great gilded
statue of Buddha seated in the Golden Lotus. The face
of the god was indifferent and calm with only a soft
256
:
BEFORE THE FACE OF BUDDHA 257
gleam of light animating it. On either side he was

guarded by many thousands of lesser Buddhas brought
by the faithful as offerings in prayer. The Baron struck
the gong to attract Great Buddha's attention to his
prayer and threw a handful of coins into the large bronze
bowl. And then this scion of crusaders who had read
all the philosophers of the West, closed his eyes, placed
his hands together before his face and prayed. I noticed
a black rosary on hisleft wrist. He prayed about ten
minutes. Afterwards he led me to the other end of the
monastery and, during our passage, said to me:
'T do not like this temple. It is new, erected by the
Lamas when Buddha became blind. I do not
the Living
find on the face of the golden Buddha either tears, hopes,
distress or thanks of the people. They have not yet had
time to leave these traces on the face of the god. We
shallgo now to the old Shrine of Prophecies."
This was a small building, blackened with age and re-
sembling a tower with a plain round roof. The doors
stood open. At both sides of the door were prayer wheels
ready to be spun; over it a slab of copper with the signs
of the zodiac. Inside two monks, who were intoning
the sacred sutras, did not lift their eyes as we entered.
The General approached them and said

"Cast the dice for the number of my days V
The priests brought two bowls with many dice therein
and rolled them out on their low table. The Baron looked
and reckoned with them the sum before he spoke:
"One hundred thirty! Again one hundred thirty!"
Approaching the altar carrying an ancient stone statue
of Buddha brought all the way from India, he again
prayed. As day dawned, we wandered out through the
2S8 BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
monastery, visited all the temples and shrines, the museum
of the medical school, the astrological tower and then the
court where the Bandi and young Lamas have their daily
morning wrestling exercises. In other places the Lamas
were practising with the bow and arrow. Some of the
higher Lamas feasted us with hot mutton, tea and wild
onions. Afterwe returned to the yurta I tried to sleep
but in vain. Too many different questions were troubling
me. "Where am I? In what epoch am I living?" I
knew not but I dimly felt the unseen touch of some great
idea, some enormous plan, some indescribable human woe.
After our noon meal the General said he wanted to
introduce me to the Living Buddha. It is so difficult
to secure audience with the Living Buddha that Iwas
very glad to have this opportunity offered me. Our auto
soon drew up at the gate of the red and white striped
wall surrounding the palace of the god. Two hundred
Lamas in yellow and red robes rushed to greet the arriv-
ing "Chiang Chmi/' General, with the low-toned, respect-
ful whisper "Khan! God of War!" As a regiment of
formal ushers they led us to a spacious great hall softened
by its semi-darkness. Heavy carved doors opened to the
interior parts of the palace. In the depths of the hall
stood a dais v/ith the throne covered with yellow silk
cushions. The back of the throne was red inside a gold
framing; at either side stood yellow silk screens set in
highly ornamented frames of black Chinese wood; while
against the walls at either side of the throne stood glass
cases filled with varied objects from China, Japan, India
and Russia. I noticed also among them a pair of exquisite
Marquis and Marquises in the fine porcelain of Sevres.
Before the throne stood a long, low table at which eight
noble Mongols were seated, their chairman, a highly es-

teemed old man with a clever, energetic face and with
large penetrating eyes. His appearance reminded me
of the authentic wooden images of the Buddhist holy men
with eyes of precious stones which I saw at the Tokyo
Imperial Museum in the department devoted to Budd-
hism, where the Japanese show the ancient statues of
Amida, Daunichi-Buddha, the Goddess Kwannon and the
jolly old Hotei.
This man was the Hutuktu Jahantsi, Chairman of the
Mongolian Council of Ministers, and honored and re-
vered far beyond the bournes of Mongolia. The others
—
were the Ministers Khans and the Highest Princes of
Khalkha. Jahantsi Hutuktu invited Baron Ungern to
the place at his side, while they brought in a European
chair for me. Baron Ungern announced to the Council
of Ministers through an interpreter that he would leave
Mongolia in a few days and urged them to protect the
freedom won for the lands inhabited by the successors
of Jenghiz Khan, whose soul still lives and calls upon
the Mongols to become anew a powerful people and re-
unite again into one great Mid-Asiatic State all the Asian
kingdoms he had ruled.
The General rose and all the others followed him. He
took leave of each one separately and sternly. Only
before Jahantsi Lama he bent low while the Hutuktu
placed his hands on the Baron's head and blessed him.
From the Council Chamber we passed at once to the
Russian style house which is the personal dwelling of the
Living Buddha. The house was wholly surrounded by
a crowd of red and yellow Lamas; servants, councilors
of Bogdo, officials, fortune tellers, doctors and favorites.
From the front entrance stretched a long red rope whose
outer end was thrown over the wall beside the gate.
Crowds of pilgrims crawling up on their knees touch this
end of the rope outside the gate and hand the monk a
silken hatyk or a bit of silver. This touching of the rope
whose inner end is in the hand of the Bogdo establishes
directcommunication with the holy, incarnated Living
God. A current of blessing is supposed to flow through
this cable of camel's wool and horse hair. Any Mongol
who has touched the mystic rope receives and wears
about his neck a red band as the sign of his accomplished
pilgrimage.
I had heard very much about the Bogdo Khan before
this opportunity to see him. I had heard of his love of
alcohol, which had brought on blindness, about his lean-
ing toward exterior western culture and about his wife
drinking deep with him and receiving in his name numer-
ous delegations and envoys.
In the room which the Bogdo used as his private study,
where two Lama secretaries watched day and night over
the chest that contained his great seals, there was the
severest simplicity. On a low, plain, Chinese lacquered
table lay his writing implements, a case of seals given
by the Chinese Government and by the Dalai Lama and
wrapped in a cloth of yellow silk. Nearby was a low
easy chair, a bronze brazier with an iron stovepipe lead-
ing up from it on the walls were the signs of the swas-
;
tika, Tibetan and Mongolian inscriptions behind the easy

;
chair a small altar with a golden statue of Buddha

before which two tallow lamps were burning; the floor
was covered with a thick yellow carpet.
When we entered, only the two Lama secretaries were
there, for the Living Buddha was in the small private

shrine in an adjoining chamber, where no one is allowed
to enter save the Bogdo Khan himself and one Lama,
Kanpo-Gelong, who cares for the temple arrangements
and assists the Living Buddha during his prayers of soli-
tude. The secretary told us that the Bogdo had been

greatly excited this morning. At noon he had entered
his shrine. For a long time the voice of the head of the
Yellow Faith was heard in earnest prayer and after his
another unknown voice came clearly forth. In the shrine
had taken place a conversation between the Buddha on
—
earth and the Buddha of heaven thus the Lamas phrased
it to us.
"Let us wait a little," the Baron proposed. "Perhaps
he will soon come out."
As we waited the General began telling me about
Jahantsi Lama, saying that, when Jahantsi is calm, he is
an ordinary man but, when he is disturbed and thinks very

deeply, a nimbus appears about his head.
After half an hour the Lama secretaries suddenly
showed signs of deep fear and began listening closely by
the entrance to the shrine. Shortly they fell on their
faces on the ground. The door slowly opened and there
entered the Emperor of Mongolia, the Living Buddha,
His Holiness Bogdo Djebtsung Damba Hutuktu, Khan
of Outer Mongolia. He was a stout old man with a
heavy shaven face resembling those of the Cardinals of
Rome. He was dressed in the yellow silken Mongolian
coat with a black binding. The eyes of the blind man
stood widely open. Fear and amazement were pictured
in them. He lowered himself heavily into the easy chair
and whispered: "Write!"
A secretary immediately took paper and a Chinese
pen as the Bogdo began to dictate his vision, very com-
pHcated and far from clear. He finished with the fol-
lowing words:
"This I, Bogdo Hutuktu Khan, saw, speaking with the
great wise Buddha, surrounded by the good and evil
spirits. Wise Lamas, Hutuktus, Kanpos, Marambas and
Holy Gheghens, give the answer to my vision!"
As he he wiped the perspiration from his head
finished,
and asked who were present.
"Khan Chiang Chun Baron Ungern and a stranger,"
one of the secretaries answered on his knees.
The General presented me to the Bogdo, who bowed
his head as a sign of greeting. They began speaking
together in low tones. Through the open door I saw
a part of the shrine. I made out a big table with a heap
of books on it, some open and others lying on the floor
below; a brazier with the red charcoal in it; a basket
containing the shoulder blades and entrails of sheep for
Soon the Baron rose and bowed before
telling fortunes.
the Bogdo. The Tibetan placed his hands on the Baron's
head and whispered a prayer. Then he took from his
own neck a heavy ikon and hung it around that of the
Baron.
"You will not die but you will be incarnated in the
highest form of being. Remember that, Incarnated God
of War, Khan of grateful Mongolia!" I understood
that the Living Buddha blessed the "Bloody General"
before death.
During the next two days I had the opportunity to

visit the Living Buddha three times together with a friend
of the Bogdo, the Buriat Prince Djam Bolon. I âll

describe these visits in Part IV.
Baron Ungern organized the trip for me and my party
to the shore of the Pacific. We were to go on camels
to northern Manchuria, because there it was easy to
avoid cavilling with the Qiinese authorities so badly
oriented in the international relationship with Poland.
Having from Uliassutai to the French Lega-
sent a letter
tion at Peking and bearing with me a letter from the
Chinese Chamber of Commerce, expressing thanks for
the saving of Uliassutai from a pogrom, I intended to
make for the nearest station on the Chinese Eastern Rail-
way and from there proceed to Peking, The Danish mer-
chant E. V. Olufsen was to have traveled out with me
and also a learned Lama Turgut, who was headed for
China.
Never shall I forget the night of May 19th to 20th
of 192 1 ! After dinner Baron Ungern proposed that we
go to the ymrta of Djam Bolon, whose acquaintance I
had made on the first day after my arrival in Urga. His
yurta was placed on a raised wooden platform in a com-
pound located behind the Russian settlement. Two
Buriat officers met us and took lis in. Djam Bolon was
a man of middle age, tall and thin with an unusually
long face. Before the Great War he had been a simple
shepherd but had fought together with Baron Ungern
on the German front and afterwards against the Bolshe-
viki. He was a Grand Duke of the Buriats, the successor
of former Buriat kings who had been dethroned by the
Russian Government after their attempt to establish the
Independence of the Buriat people. The servants brought
us dishes with nuts, raisins, dates and cheese and served
us tea.
"This is the last night, Djam Bolon!" said Baron

."
Ungern. "You promised me . .
"I remember," answered the Buriat, "all is ready."

For a long time I listened to their reminiscences about
former battles and friends who had been lost. The clock
pointed to midnight when Djam Bolon got up and went
out of the yurta.
"I want to have my fortune told once more," said
Baron Ungern, as though he were justifying himself.
"For the good of our cause it is too early for me to
"
die
Djam Bolon came back with a little woman of middle
years, who squatted down eastern style before the
bowed low and began to stare at Baron Ungern.
brazier,
Her face was whiter, narrower and thinner than that of
a Mongol woman. Her eyes were black and sharp. Her
dress resembled that of a gypsy woman. Afterwards I
learned that she was a famous fortune teller and prophet
among the Buriats, the daughter of a gypsy woman and
a Buriat. She drew a small bag very slowly from her
girdle, took from it some small bird bones and a handful
of dry grass. She began whispering at intervals unintelli-
gible words, as she threw occasional hand fills of the grass
into the fire, which gradually filled the tent with a soft
fragrance. I felt a distinct palpitation of my heart and
a swimming in my head. After the fortune teller had
burned all her grass, she placed the bird bones on the
charcoal and turned them over again and again with a
small pair of bronze pincers. As the bones blackened,
she began to examine them and then suddenlv her face
took on an expression of fear and pain. She nervously

tore off the kerchief which bound her head and, contracted
with convulsions, began snapping out short, sharp phrases.
"I see ... I see the God of War. . . . His Hfe runs
out . . . horribly. After it a shadow
. . . black like . . .
the night. . . Shadow.

. One hundred thirty steps
. . .
remain. . . . Beyond darkness. Nothing ... I see . . .
nothing. The God of War has disappeared.

. . .
." . .
Baron Ungern dropped his head. The woman fell over

on her back with her arms stretched out. She had fainted,
but it seemed to me that I noticed once a bright pupil
of one of her eyes showing from under the closed lashes.
Two Buriats carried out the lifeless form, after which
a long silence reigned in the yurta of the Buriat Prince.
Baron Ungern finally got up and began to walk around
the brazier, whispering to himself. Afterwards he
stopped and began speaking rapidly:
"I shall die ! I shall die ! . . . but no matter, no matter.
. . . The cause has been launched and will not die. ... I
know the roads this cause will travel. The tribes of

Jenghiz Khan's successors are awakened. Nobody shall
extinguish the fire in the heart of the Mongols In Asia !
there will be a great State from the Pacific and Indian

Oceans to the shore of the Volga. The wise religion of
Buddha shall run to the north and the west. It will be
the victory of the spirit. A conqueror and leader will
appear stronger and more stalwart than Jenghiz Khan
and Ugadai. He will be more cleverand more merciful
than Sultan Baber and he will keep power in his hands
until thehappy day when, from his subterranean capital,
shall emerge the King of the World. Why, why shall
I not be in the first ranks of the warriors of Buddhism?
Why has Karma But so it must be! And
decided so?
Russia must first wash
from the insult of revo-
herself
lution, purifying herself with blood and death; and all
people accepting Communism must perish with their fam-
ilies in order that all their offspring may be rooted out!"
The Baron raised his hand above his head and shook
it, as though he were giving his orders and bequests to
some invisible person.
Day was dawning.
"My time has come!" said the General. *Tn a little
while I shall leave Urga."

He quickly and firmly shook hands with us and said:
"Good-bye for all time! I shall die a horrible death
but the world has never seen such a terror and such a
sea of blood as it shall now see. . .
."
The door of the yurta slammed shut and he was gone.

I never saw him again.
"^
"I must go also, for I am likewise leaving Urga today.
"I know it," answered the Prince, "the Baron has left
you with me for some purpose. I will give you a fourth
companion, the Mongol Minister of War. You will ac-
company him your yurta. necessary for you. ."

to It is , .
Djam Bolon pronounced this last with an accent on

every word. I did not question him about it, as I was
accustomed to the mystery of this country of the mys-
teries of good and evil spirits.
:
CHAPTER XXXIX
"THE MAN WITH A HEAD LIKE A SADDLE"
AFTER drinking tea at Djam Bolon's yurta I rode

back to my quarters and packed my few belong-
ings. The Lama Turgut was already there.
"The Minister of War will travel with us," he whis-
pered. "It is necessary."
"All right," answered, and rode off to Olufsen to
I
summon But Olufsen unexpectedly announced

him.
that he was forced to spend some few days more in Urga
— a fatal decision for him, for a month later he was
reported killed by Sepailoff who remained Command-
as
ant of the city after Baron Ungern's departure. The
War young Mongol, joined our cara-
Minister, a stout,
van. When we
had gone about six miles from the
city, we saw an automobile coming up behind us. The
Lama shrunk up inside his coat and looked at me
with fear. I felt the now familiar atmosphere of danger
and so opened my holster and threw over the safety
catch of my revolver. Soon the motor stopped along-
side our caravan. In it sat Sepailoff with a smiling
face and beside him his two executioners, Chestiakoff
and Jdanoff. Sepailoff greeted us very warmly and
asked
"You are changing your horses in Khazahuduk ? Does
267
the road cross that pass ahead? I don't know the way
and must overtake an envoy who went there."
The Minister of War answered that we would be in
Khazahuduk that evening and gave Sepailoff directions
as to the road. The motor rushed away and, when it had
topped the pass, he ordered one of the Mongols to gallop
forward to see whether it had not stopped somewhere
near the other side. The Mongol whipped his steed and
sped away. We followed slowly.
"What is the matter?" I asked. "Please explain!"
The Minister told me that Djam Bolon yesterday re-
ceived information that Sepailoff planned to overtake me
on the way and kill me. Sepailoff suspected that I had
stirred up the Baron against him. Djam Bolon reported
the matter to the Baron, who organized this column for
my safety. The returning Mongol reported that the
motor car had gone on out of sight.
"Now," said the Minister, "we shall take quite another
route so that the Colonel will wait in vain for us at
Khazahuduk."
We turned north at Undur Dobo and at night were in
the camp of a local prince. Here we took leave of our
Minister, received splendid fresh horses and quickly con-
tinued our trip to the east, leaving behind us "the man
with the head like a saddle" against whom I had been
warned by the old fortune teller in the vicinity of Van
Kure.
After twelve days without further adventures we
reached the first railway station on the Chinese Eastern
Railway, from where I traveled in unbelievable luxury to
Peking.
" :
" MAN WITH A HEAD LIKE A SADDLE " 269
Surrounded by the comforts and conveniences of the

splendid hotel at Peking, while shedding all the attributes
of traveler, hunter and warrior, I could not, however,
throw off the spell of those nine days spent in Urga,
where had daily met Baron Ungern, "Incarnated God
I
of War." The newspapers carrying accounts of the

bloody march of the Baron through Transbaikalia
brought the pictures ever fresh to my mind. Even now,
although more than seven months have elapsed, I cannot
forget those nights of madness, inspiration and hate.
The predictions are fulfilled. Approximately one hun-
dred thirty days afterwards Baron Ungern was captured
by the Bolsheviki through the treachery of his officers and,
it is reported, was executed at the end of September.
Baron R. F. Ungern von Sternberg. Like a bloody

. . .
storm of avenging Karma he spread over Central Asia.

What did he leave behind him? The severe order to his
soldiers closing with the words of the Revelations of
St. John
"Let no one check the revenge against the corrupter
and slayer of the soul of the Russian people. Revolution
must be eradicated from the World. Against it the Reve-
lations of St. John have warned us thus 'And the woman
:
was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold

and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a
golden cup full of abominations, even the unclean things
of her fornication, and upon her forehead a name
written. Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother
OF the Harlots and of the Abominations of the
Earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood
of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of
Jesus.'
:
270 BEASTS, MEN AND GOBS

It is a human document, a document of Russian and,
perhaps, of world tragedy.
But there remained another and more important trace.
* In the Mongol yurtas and at the fires of Buriat, Mon-
gol, Djungar, Kirkhiz, Kalmuck and Tibetan shepherds
still speak the legend bom of this son of crusaders and
privateers
"From the north a white warrior came and called on
the Mongols to break their chains of slavery, which fell
upon our freed soil. This white warrior was the Incar-
nated Jenghiz Khan and he predicted the coming of the
greatest of all Mongols who will spread the fair faith
of Buddha and the glory and power of the offspring of
Jenghiz, Ugadai and Kublai Khan. So it shall be!"
Asia is awakened and her sons utter bold words.
It were well for the peace of the world if they go forth
as disciples of the wise creators, Ugadai and Sultan Babcr,

rather than under the spell of the "bad demons" of the
destructive Tamerlane.
Part IV
THE LIVING BUDDHA

—
Part IV
THE LIVING BUDDHA
CHAPTER XL
IN THE BLISSFUL GARDEN OF A THOUSAND
JOYS
Mongolia, the country of miracles and mysteries,

IN
lives the custodian of all the mysterious and unknown,
the Living Buddha, His Holiness Djebtsung Damba
Hutuktu Khan or Bogdo Gheghen, Pontiff of Ta Kure.
He is the incarnation of the never-dying Buddha, the
representative of the unbroken, mysteriously continued
line of spiritual emperors ruling since 1670, concealing
in themselves the ever refining spirit of Buddha Amitabha
joined with Chan-ra-zi or the "Compassionate Spirit of
the Mountains." In him is everything, even the Sun
Myth and the fascination of the mysterious peaks of the
Himalayas, tales of the Indian pagoda, the stern majesty
of the Mongolian Conquerors —
Emperors of All Asia
and the ancient, hazy legends of the Chinese sages; im-
mersion in the thoughts of the Brahmans; the severities
of life of the monks of the "Virtuous Order"; the ven-
geance of the eternally wandering warriors, the Olets,
w'ith their Khans, Batur Hun Taigi and Gushi the proud
;
273
bequests of Jenghiz and Kublai Khan; the clerical re-
actionary psychology of the Lamas; the mystery of
Tibetan kings beginning from Srong-Tsang Gampo and ;
the mercilessness of the Yellow Sect of Paspa. All the

hazy history of Asia, of Mongolia, Pamir, Himalayas,
Mesopotamia, Persia and China, surrounds the Living
God of Urga, It is little wonder that his name is hon-
ored along the Volga, in Siberia, Arabia, between the
Tigris and Euphrates, in Indo-China and on the shores
of the Arctic Ocean.
During my stay in Urga I visited the abode of the
Living Buddha several times, spoke with him and ob-
served his life. His favorite learned Marambas gave me
long accounts of him. I saw him reading horoscopes, I
heard his predictions, I looked over his archives of ancient

Dooks and the manuscripts containing the lives and pre-
dictions of all the The Lamas were very
Bogdo Khans.
frank and open with me, because the letter of the Hu-
tuktu of Narabanchi won for me their confidence.
The personality of the Living Buddha is double, just
as everything in Lamaism is double. Clever, penetrating,
energetic, he at the same time indulges in the drunken-
ness which has brought on blindness. When he became
blind, theLamas were thrown into a state of despera-
ticBi.Some of them maintained that Bogdo Khan must
be poisoned and another Incarnate Buddha set in his
place; while the others pointed out the great merits of
the Pontiff in the eyes of Mongolians and the followers
of the Yellow Faith. They finally decided to propitiate
the gods by building a great temple with a gigantic statue
of Buddha. However, this did not help the Boedo's sight
but the whole incident gave him the opportunity of hurry-
:
IN THE BLISSFUL GARDEN 275
ing on to their higher H£e those among the Lamas who

had shown too much radicalism in their proposed method
of solving his problem.
He never ceases to ponder upon the cause of the church
and of Mongolia and same time likes to indulge
at the
himself with useless He amuses himself with
trifles.
artillery. A retired Russian officer presented him with

two old guns, for which the donor received the title of
Tumbaiir Hun, that is, "Prince Dear-to-my-Heart." On
holidays these cannon were fired to the great amusement
of the blind man. Motor cars, gramophones, telephones,
crystals, porcelains, pictures, perfumes, musical instru-
ments, rare animals and birds; elephants, Himalayan
bears, monkeys, Indian snakes and parrots — all these were
in the palace of "the god" but all were soon cast aside
and forgotten.
To Urga come pilgrims and presents from all the
Lamaite and Buddhist world. Once the treasurer of the
palace, the Honorable Balma Dorji, took me into the great
hall where the presents were kept It was a rnost unique
museum of precious articles. Here were gathered

together rare objects unknown to the museums of Europe.
The treasurer, as he opened a case with a silver lock,
said to me
"These are pure gold nuggets from Bei Kem here ;
are black sables from Kemchick; these the miraculous

deer horns; this a box sent by the Orochons and filled
with precious ginseng roots and fragrant musk this a ;
bit of amber from the coast of the 'frozen sea' and it
weighs 124 lans (about ten pounds) these are precious

;
stones from India, fragrant sebet and carved ivory from

China."
;

He showed the exhibits and talked of them for a long
time and evidently enjoyed the telling. And really it
was wonderful! Before my eyes lay the bundles of rare

furs; white beaver, black sables, white, blue and black
fox and black panthers; small beautifully carved tortoise
shell boxes containing hatyks ten or fifteen yards long,
woven from Indian silk as fine as the webs of the spider
small bags made of golden thread filled with pearls, the
presents of Indian Rajahs ;
precious rings with sapphires
and rubies from China and India; big pieces of jade,
rough diamonds; ivory tusks ornamented with gold,
pearls and precious stones bright clothes sewn with gold
;
and silver thread; walrus tusks carved in bas-relief by

the primitive artists on the shores of the Behring Sea;
and much more that one cannot recall or recount. In a
separate room stood the cases with the statues of Buddha,
made of gold, silver, bronze, ivory, coral, mother of pearl
and from a rare colored and fragrant species of wood.
"You know when conquerors come into a country
where the gods are honored, they break the images and
throw them down. So it was more than three hundred
years ago when the Kalmucks went into Tibet and the
same was repeated in Peking when the European troops
looted the place in 1900. But do you know why this is
done? Take one of the statues and examine it."
I picked up one nearest the edge, a wooden Buddha,
and began examining it. Inside something was loose and

rattled.
"Do you hear it?" the Lama asked. "These are pre-
cious stones and bits of gold, the entrails of the god. This
is the reason why the conquerors at once breakup the
statues of the gods. Many famous precious stones have
appeared from the interior of the statues of the gods in

India, Babylon and China."
Some rooms were devoted to the library, where man-
and volumes of different epochs in different lan-
uscripts
guages and with many diverse themes fill the shelves.
Some of them are mouldering or pulverizing away and
the Lamas cover these now with a solution which partially
solidifies like a jelly to protect what remains from the
ravages of the air. There also we saw tablets of clay
with the cuneiform inscriptions, evidently from Baby-
lonia; Chinese, Indian and Tibetan books shelved beside
those of Mongolia; tomes of the ancient pure Buddhism;
books of the "Red Caps" or corrupt Buddhism ; books of
the "Yellow" or Lamaite Buddhism books of traditions,
;
legends and parables. Groups of Lamas were perusing,

studying and copying these books, preserving and spread-
ing the ancient wisdom for their successors.
One department is devoted to the mysterious books on
magic, the historical lives and works of all the thirty-one
Living Buddhas, with the bulls of the Dalai Lama, of the
Pontiff from Tashi Lumpo, of the Hutuktu of Utai in
China, of the Pandita Gheghen of Dolo Nor in Inner
Mongolia and of the Hundred Chinese Wise Men. Only
the Bogdo Hutuktu and Maramba Ta-Rimpo-Cha can
enter this room of mysterious lore. The keys to it rest
with the seals of the Living Buddha and the ruby ring of
Jenghiz Khan ornamented with the sign of the swastika
in the chest in the private study of the Bogdo.
The person of His Holiness is surrounded by five
thousand Lamas. They are divided into many ranks
from simple servants to the "Councillors of God," of
which latter the Government consists. Among these
Councillors are all the four Khans of Mongolia and the
five highest Princes.
Of all the Lamas there are three classes of peculiar
interest, about which the Living Buddha himself told me
when I visited him with Djam Bolon.
"The God" sorrowfully mourned over the demoralized
and sumptuous life led by the Lamas which decreased
rapidly the number of fortune tellers and clairvoyants
among their ranks, saying of it:
"If the Jahantsi and Narabanchi monasteries had
not preserved their strict regime and rules, Ta Kure would
have been left without prophets and fortune tellers.
Barun Abaga Nar, Dorchiul-Jurdok and the other holy

Lamas who had the power of seeing that which is hidden
from the sight of the common people have gone with the
blessing of the gods."
This class of Lamas is a very important one, because
every important personage visiting the monasteries at
Urga is shown to the Lama Tsuren or fortune teller with-
out the knowledge of the visitor for the study of his des-
tiny and fate, which are then communicated to the Bogdo
Hutuktu, so that with these facts in his possession the
Bogdo knows in what way to treat his guest and what
policy to follow toward him. The Tzurens are mostly
old men, skinny, exhausted and severe ascetics. But I
have met some who were young, almost boys. They were
the Hubilgan, "incarnate gods," the future Hutuktus and
Gheghens of the various Mongolian monasteries.
The second class is the doctors or "Ta Lama." They
observe the actions of plants and certain products from
animals upon people, preserve Tibetan medicines and
cures, and study anatomy very carefully but without mak-
a
ing use of vivisection and the scalpel. They are skilful

bone setters, masseurs and great connoisseurs of hypno-
tism and animal magnetism.
The third class is the highest rank of doctors, consist-
ing chiefly of Tibetans and Kalmucks — poisoners. They
may be said to be "doctors of political medicine." They
live by themselves, apart from any associates, and are
the great silent weapon in the hands of the Living
Buddha. I was informed that a large portion of them
—
are dumb. I saw one such doctor, the very person who
poisoned the Chinese physician sent by the Chinese Em-
peror from Peking to "liquidate" the Living Buddha, —
small white old fellow with a deeply wrinkled face, a curl
of white hairs on his chin and with vivacious eyes that
were ever shifting inquiringly about him. Whenever he
comes to a monastery, the local "god" ceases to eat and
drink in fear of the activities of this Mongolian
Locusta. But even this cannot save the condemned, for
a poisoned cap or shirt or boots, or a rosary, a bridle,
books or religious articles soaked in a poisonous solution
will surely accomplish the object of the Bogdo-Khan.
The deepest esteem and religious faithfulness sur-
round the blind Pontiff. Before him all fall on their
faces. Khans and Hutuktus approach him on their knees.
Everything about him is dark, full of Oriental antiquity.
The drunken man, listening to the banal arias of
blind
the gramophone or shaking his servants with an electric
current from his dynamo, the ferocious old fellow poi-
soning his political enemies, the Lama keeping his people
in darkness and deceiving them with his prophecies and
fortune telling, —
he is, however, not an entirely ordinary
man.
One day we room of the Bogdo and Prince
sat in the
Djam Bolon translated to him my story of the Great
War. The old fellow was listening very carefully but
suddenly opened his eyes widely and began to give
attention to some sounds coming in from outside the
room. His face became reverent, supplicant and
frightened.
"The Gods me," he whispered and slowly moved
call
into his private shrine, where he prayed loudly about two

hours, kneeling immobile as a statue. His prayer consists
of conversation with the invisible gods, to whose ques-
tions he himself gave the answers. He came out of the
shrine pale and exhausted but pleased and happy. It was
his personal prayer. During the regular temple service
he did not participate in the prayers, for then he is "God."
Sitting on his throne, he is carried and placed on the
altar and there prayed to by the Lamas and the people.
He only receives the prayers, hopes, tears, woe and des-
peration of the people, immobilely gazing into space with
his sharpand bright but blind eyes. At various times in
the service the Lamas robe him in different vestments,
combinations of yellow and red, and change his caps. The
service always finishes at the solemn moment when the
Living Buddha with the tiara on his head pronounces the
pontifical blessingupon the congregation, turning his face
to all four cardinal points of the compass and finally
stretching out his hands toward the northwest, that is, to
Europe, whither in the belief of the Yellow Faith must
travel the teachings of the wise Buddha.
After earnest prayers or long temple services the Pon-
tiff seems very deeply shaken and often calls his secrc
;
:
taries and and prophecies, always very

dictates his visions
complicated and unaccompanied by his deductions.
Sometimes with the words "Their souls are communi-
cating," he puts on his white robes and goes to pray in
his shrine. Then all the gates of the palace are shut and
all the Lamas are sunk in solemn, mystic fear; all are
praying, telling their rosaries and whispering the orison
"Om! Mani padme Hung!" or turning the prayer wheels
with their prayers or exorcisings; the fortune tellers read
their horoscopes ; the clairvoyants write out their visions
while Marambas search the ancient books for explana-
tions of the words of the Living Buddha.
CHAPTER XLI
THE DUST OF CENTURIES
TTAVE you ever seen the dusty cobwebs and the
"" "• mould in the cellars of some ancient castle in Italy,
France or England? This is the dust of centuries. Per-
haps it touched the faces, helmets and swords of a Roman
Augustus, St. Louis, the Inquisitor, Galileo or King
Richard. Your heart is involuntarily contracted and you
feel a respect for these witnesses of elapsed ages. This
same impression came to me in Ta Kure, perhaps more
deep,more realistic. Here life flows on almost as it
flowed eight centuries ago; here man lives only in the

past ; and the contemporary only complicates and prevents
the normal life.
"Today a great day," the Living Buddha once said

is
to me, "the day of the victory of Buddhism over all other

religions. It —
was a long time ago on this day Kublai
Khan him the Lamas of all religions and ordered
called to
them to state to him how and what they believed. They
praised their Gods and their Hutuktus. Discussions and
quarrels began. Only one Lama remained silent. At
lasthe mockingly smiled and said:
" 'Great Emperor Order each to prove the power of
!
his Gods by the performance of a miracle and afterwards

judge and choose.*
282
THE DUST OF CENTURIES 283
"Kublai Khan so ordered all the Lamas to show him a

miracle but all were silent, confused and powerless before
him.
" 'Now,' said the Emperor, addressing the Lama who
had tendered this suggestion, 'now you must prove the

!'
power of your Gods
'The Lama looked long and silently at the Emperor,
turned and gazed at the whole assembly and then quietly
stretched out his hand toward them. At this instant the
golden goblet of the Emperor raised itself from the table
and tipped before the lips of the Khan without a visible
hand supporting it. The Emperor felt the delight of a
fragrant wine. All were struck with astonishment and
the Emperor spoke:
" 'I elect to pray to your Gods and to them all people
subject to me must pray. What is your faith? Who
are you and from where do you come?'
" 'My faith is the teaching of the wise Buddha. I am
Pandita Lama, Turjo Gamba, from the distant and
glorious monastery of Sakkia in Tibet, where dwells in-
carnate in a human body the Spirit of Buddha, his Wis-
dom and his Power. Remember, Emperor, that the peo-
ples who hold our faith shall possess all the Western
Universe and during eight hundred and eleven years
shall spread their faiththroughout the whole world.'
"Thus happened on this same day many centuries
it
ago! Lama Turjo Gamba did not return to Tibet but

lived here in Ta Kure, where there was then only a small
temple. From here he traveled to the Emperor at Kara-
korum and afterwards with him to the capital of China
to fortify hirp in the Faith, to predict the fate of state
:

affairs and to enlighten him according to the will of
God."
The Living Buddha was silent for a time, whispered a
prayer and then continued
"Urga, the ancient nest of Buddhism. . . . With Jenghiz
Khan on European conquest went out the Olets or
his
Kalmucks. They remainedthere almost four hundred
years, living on the plains of Russia. Then they returned
to Mongolia because the Yellow Lamas called them to
fight against the Kings of Tibet, Lamas of the 'red caps,'
who were oppressing the people. The Kalmucks helped
the Yellow Faith but they realized that Lhasa was too
distant from the whole world and could not spread our
Faith throughout the earth. Consequently the Kalmuck
Gushi Khan brought up from Tibet a holy Lama, Undur
Gheghen, who had visited the 'King of the World.' From
that day the Bogdo Gheghen has continuously lived in
Urga, a protector of the freedom of Mongolia and of the
Chinese Emperors of Mongolian origin. Undur Gheghen
was the first Living Buddha in the land of the Mongols.
He left to us, his successors, the ring of Jenghiz Khan,
which was sent by Kublai Khan to Dalai Lama in return
for the miracle shown by the Lama Turjo Gamba; also
the top of the skull of a black, mysterious miracle worker
from India, using which as a bowl, Strongtsan, King of
Tibet, drank during the temple ceremonies one thousand
six hundred years ago as well as an ancient stone statue
;
of Buddha brought from Delhi by the founder of the

Yellow Faith, Paspa."
The Bogdo clapped his hands and one of the secretaries
took from a red kerchief a big silver key with which he
THE DUST OF CENTURIES 285
unlocked the chest with the seals. The Living Buddha

slipped his hand into the chest and drew forth a small
box of carved ivory, from which he took out and showed
to me a large gold ring set with a magnificent ruby carved
with the sign of the swastika.
"This ring was always worn on the right hand of the
Khans Jenghiz and Kublai," said the Bogdo.
When the secretary had closed the chest, the Bogdo
ordered him to summon his favorite Maramba, whom he
directed to read some pages from an ancient book lying
on the table. The Lama began to read monotonously.
"When Gushi Khan, the Chief of all the Olets or Kal-
mucks, finished the war with the 'Red Caps' in Tibet, he
carried out with him the miraculous 'black stone' sent to
the Dalai Lama by the 'King of the World.' Gushi Khan
wanted to create in Western Mongolia the capital of the
i'"ellow Faith but the Olets at that time were at war with
;
the Manchu Emperors for the throne of China and suf-

fered one defeat after another. The last Khan of the
Olets, Amursana, ran away into Russia but before his
escape sent to Urga the sacred 'black stone.' While it
remained in Urga so that the Living Buddha could bless

the people with it, and misfortune never touched
disease
the Mongolians and their cattle. About one hundred
years ago, however, some one stole the sacred stone and
since then Buddhists have vainly sought it throughout the
whole world. With its disappearance the Mongol people
began gradually to die."
"Enough !" ordered Bogdo Gheghen. "Our neighbors
hold us in contempt. They forget that we were their
sovereigns but we preserve our holy traditions and we
know that theday of triumph of the Mongolian tribes
and the Yellow Faith will come. We have the Protectors
of the Faith, the Buriats. They are the truest guardians
of the bequests of Jenghiz Khan."
So spoke the Living Buddha and so have spoken the
ancient books!
CHAPTER XLII
THE BOOKS OF MIRACLES

pRINCE DJAM BOLON asked a Maramba to show
* us the Hbrary of the Living Buddha. It is a big room
occupied by scores of writers who prepare the works
deaHng with the miracles of all the Living Buddhas,
beginning with Undur Gheghen and ending with those of
the Gheghens and Hutuktus of the different Mongol
monasteries. These books are afterwards distributed
through all the Lama Monasteries, temples and schools
of Bandi. A Maramba read two selections:
". The beatific Bogdo Gheghen breathed on a mirror.
. .
Immediately as through a haze there appeared the picture

of a valley in which many thousands of thousands of
warriors fought one against another. . .
."
"The wise and favored-of-the-gods Living Buddha

burned incense in a brazier and prayed to the Gods to
reveal the lot of the Princes. In the blue smoke all saw
a dark prison and the paUid, tortured bodies of the dead
Princes. . .
."
A book, already done into thousands of copies,

sp>ecial
dwelt upon the miracles of the present Living Buddha.

Prince Djani Bolon described to me some of the contents
of this volume.
"There exists an ancient wooden Buddha with open
eyes. He was brought here from India and Bogdo
287
Gheghen placed him on the altar and began to pray.
When he returned from the shrine, he ordered the statue
of Buddha brought out. All were struck with amazement,
for the eyes of the God were shut and tears were falling
from them; from the wooden body green sprouts ap-
peared; and the Bogdo said:
" 'Woe and joy are awaiting me. I shall become blind
but Mongolia will be free.'

"The prophecy is fulfilled. At another time, on a day
when the Living Buddha was very much excited, he
ordered a basin of water brought and set before the altar.
He called the Lamas and began to pray. Suddenly the
altar candles and lamps lighted themselves and the water
in the basin became iridescent."
Afterwards the Prince described to me how the Bogdo
Khan tells fortunes with fresh blood, upon whose surface
appear words and pictures; with the entrails of sheep
and goats, according to whose distribution the Bogdo
reads the fate of the Princes and knows their thoughts;
with stones and bones from which the Living Buddha
with great accuracy reads the lot of all men and by the ;
stars, in accordance with whose positions the Bogdo pre-
pares amulets against bullets and disease.

"The former Bogdo Khans told fortunes only by the
use of the 'black stone,' " said the Maramba. "On the
surface of the stone appeared Tibetan inscriptions which
the Bogdo read and thus learned the lot of whole nations."
When the Maramba spoke of the black stone with the
Tibetan legends appearing on it, I at once recalled that
it was possible. In southeastern Urianhai, in Ulan
Taiga, I came across a place where black slate was de-
composing. All the pieces of this slate were covered with
THE BOOK OF MIRACLES 289
a special white lichen, which formed very complicated

designs, reminding me of a Venetian lace pattern or whole
pages of mysterious runes. When the slate was wet,
these designs disappeared; and then, as they were dried,
the patterns came out again.
Nobody has the right or dares to ask the Living Buddha
to tell his fortune. He predicts only when he feels the
inspiration or when him bear-
a special delegate comes to
ing a request for from the Dalai Lama or the Tashi
it
Lama. When the Russian Czar, Alexander I, fell under

the influence of Baroness Kzudener and of her extreme
mysticism, he despatched a special envoy to the Living
Buddha to ask about his destiny. The then Bogdo Khan,
quite a young man, told his fortune according to the
"black stone" and predicted that the White Czar would
finish his life in very painful wanderings unknown to all
and everywhere pursued. In Russia today there exists
a popular belief that Alexander I spent the last days of
his life asa wanderer throughout Russia and Siberia
under the pseudonym of Feodor Kusmitch, helping and
consoling prisoners, beggars and other suffering people,
often pursued and imprisoned by the police and finally
dying at Tomsk in Siberia, where even until now they
have preserved the house where he spent his last days
and have kept his grave sacred, a place of pilgrimages
and miracles. The former d}Tiasty of Romanoff was
deeply interested in the biography of Feodor Kusmitch
and this interest fixed the opinion that Kusmitch was
really the Czar Alexander I, who had voluntarily taken
upon himself this severe penance.
CHAPTER XLIII
THE BIRTH OF THE LIVING BUDDHA
THE Living Buddha does notHis soul some-

die.
times passes into that of a child born on the day

of his death and sometimes transfers itself to another
being during the life of the Buddha. This new mortal
Buddha almost always
dwelling of the sacred spirit of the
appears in the yurta of some poor Tibetan or Mongol
family. There is a reason of policy for this. If the
Buddha appears in the family of a rich prince, it could
result in the elevation of a family that would not yield
obedience to the clergy (and such has happened in the
past), while on the other hand any poor, unknown family
that becomes the heritor of the throne of Jenghiz Khan
acquires riches and is readily submissive to the Lamas.
Only three or four Living Buddhas were of purely Mon-
golian origin; the remainder were Tibetans.
One of the Councillors of the Living Buddha, Lama-
Khan Jassaktu, told me the following:
"In the monasteries at Lhasa and Tashi Lumpo they
are kept constantly informed through letters from Urga
about the health of the Living Buddha. When his human
body becomes old and the Spirit of Buddha strives to
extricate itself, special solemn services begin in the
Tibetan temples together with the telling of fortunes by
astrology. These rites indicate the specially pious Lamas
290
THE BIRTH OF THE LIVING BUDDHA 291
who must discover where the Spirit of the Buddha will

be re-incarnated. For this purpose they travel through-
out the whole land and observe. Often God himself gives
them signs and Sometimes the white wolf
indications.
appears near the yurta of a poor shepherd or a lamb with
two heads is born or a meteor falls from the sky. Some
Lamas take fish from the sacred lake Tangri Nor and
read on the scales thereof the name of the new Bogdo
Khan; others pick out stones whose cracks indicate to
them where they must search and whom they must find;
while others secrete themselves in narrow mountain ra-
vines to listen to the voices of the spirits of the moun-
tains, pronouncing the name of the new choice of the
Gods. When he is found, all the possible information
about his family is secretly collected and presented to the
Most Learned Tashi Lama, having the name of Erdeni,
"The Great Gem of Learning," who, according to the
runes of Rama, verifies the selection. If he is in agree-
ment with it, he sends a secret letter to the Dalai Lama,
who holds a special sacrifice in the Temple of the "Spirit
of the Mountains" and confirms the election by putting
his great seal on this letter of the Tashi Lama.
If the old Living Buddha be name of his
still alive, the
successor is kept a deep secret; Buddha

if the Spirit of
has already gone out from the body of Bogdo Khan, a
special legation appears from Tibet with the new Living
Buddha. The same process accompanies the election of
the Gheghen and Hutuktus in all the Lamaite monasteries
in Mongolia; but confirmation of the election resides with
the Living Buddha and is only announced to Lhasa after
the event.
CHAPTER XLIV
A PAGE IN THE HISTORY OF THE PRESENT
LIVING BUDDHA
THE present
Tibetan.
Bogdo Khan of Outer Mongolia
He sprang from a poor family living in
is a
the neighborhood of Sakkia Kure in western Tibet. From

earliest youth he had a stormy, quite unaesthetic nature.
He was fired with the idea of the independence and glori-
fication ofMongolia and the successors of Jenghiz Khan.
This gave him at once a great influence among the Lamas,
Princes and Khans of Mongolia and also with the Rus-
sian Government which always tried to attract him to
their side. He did not fear to arraign himself against
the Manchu dynasty in China and always had the help
of Russia, Tibet, the Buriats and Kirghiz, furnishing him
with money, weapons, warriors and diplomatic aid. The
Chinese Emperors avoided open war with the Living
God, because it might arouse the protests of the Chinese
Buddhists. At one time they sent to the Bogdo Khan
a skilful doctor-poisoner. The Living Buddha, however,
at once understood the meaning of this medical attention
and, knowing the power of Asiatic poisons, decided to
make a journey through the Mongol monasteries and
through Tibet. As his substitute he left a Hubilgan who
made friends with the Chinese doctor and inquired from
him the purposes and details of his arrival. Very soon
292
THE PRESENT LIVING BUDDHA 293
the Chinese died from some unknown cause and the Liv-
ing Buddha returned to his comfortable capital.
On another occasion danger threatened the Living God.
It was when Lhasa decided Bogdo Khan was
that the
carrying out a policy too independent of Tibet. The
Dalai Lama began negotiations with several Khans and
Princes with the Sain Noion Khan and Jassaktu Khan
leading the movement and persuaded them to accelerate
the immigration of the Spirit of Buddha into another
human form. They came to Urga where the Bogdo
Khan met them with honors and rejoicings. A great
feast was made for them and the conspirators already
felt themselves the accomplishers of the orders of the
Dalai Lama. However, at the end of the feast, they
had different feelings and died with them during the
night. The Living Buddha ordered their bodies sent with
full honors to their families.
The Bogdo Khan knows every thought, every move-
ment of the Princes and Khans, the slightest conspiracy
against himself, and the offender is usually kindly invited
to Urga, from where he does not return alive.
The Chinese Government decided to terminate the line
of the Living Buddhas. Ceasing to fight with the Pontiff

of Urga, the Government contrived the following scheme
for accomplishing its ends.
Peking invited the Pandita Gheghen from Dolo Nor
and the head of the Chinese Lamaites, the Hutuktu of
Utai, both of whom do not recognize the supremacy of
the Living Buddha, to come to the capital. They decided,
after consulting the old Buddhistic books, that the present
Bogdo Khan was to be the last Living Buddha, because
that part of the Spirit of Buddha which dwells in the
Bogdo Khans can abide only thirty-one times in the
human body. Bogdo Khan is the thirty-first Incarnated
Buddha from the time of Undur Gheghen and with him,
therefore, the dynasty of the Urga Pontiffs must cease.
However, on hearing this the Bogdo Khan himself did
some research work and found in the old Tibetan manu-
scripts that one of the Tibetan Pontiffs was married and
his son was a natural Incarnated Buddha. So the Bogdo
Khan married and now has a son, a very capable and
energetic young man, and thus the religious throne of
Jenghiz Khan will not be left empty. The dynasty of
the Chinese emperors disappeared from the stage of
political events but the Living Buddha continues to be a
center for the Pan-Asiatic idea.
The new Chinese Government in 1920 held the Living
Buddha under arrest in his palace but at the beginning
of 192 1 Baron Ungern crossed the sacred Bogdo-Ol and
approached the palace from the rear. Tibetan riders
shot the Chinese sentries with bow and arrow and after-
wards the Mongols penetrated into the palace and stole
their "God," who immediately stirred up all Mongolia
and awakened the hopes of the Asiatic peoples and tribes.
In the great palace of the Bogdo a Lama showed me
a special casket covered with a precious carpet, wherein
they keep the bulls of the Dalai and Tashi Lamas, the
decrees of the Russian and Chinese Emperors and the
Treaties between Mongolia, Russia, China and Tibet. In
this same casket is the copper plate bearing the mysterious
sign of the "King of the World" and the chronicle of the
last vision of the Living Buddha.
1
CHAPTER XLV
THE VISION OF THE LIVING BUDDHA OF
MAY 17, 192
**T PRAYED and saw that which ishidden from the

-»• eyes of the people. A vast plain was spread before
me surrounded by distant mountains. An old Lama car-
ried a basket filled with heavy stones. He hardly moved.
From the north a rider appeared in white robes and
mounted on a white horse. He approached the Lama
and said to him:
" 'Give me your basket. I shall help you to carry them
to the Kure.'
"The Lama handed his heavy burden up to him but
the rider could not raise it to his saddle so that the old
Lama had to place it back on his shoulder and continue
on his way, bent under its heavy weight. Then from the
north came another rider in black robes and on a black
horse, who also approached the Lama and said :
" *Stupid ! Why

do you carry these stones when they
are everywhere about the ground?'
"With these words he pushed the Lama over with the
breast of his horse and scattered the stones about the
ground. When the stones touched the earth, they became
diamonds. All three rushed to raise them but not one
of them could break them loose from the ground. Then
the old Lama exclaimed:
295
" *Oh Gods! All my life I have carried
heavy this
burden and now, when there was left so little to go, I
!'
have lost it. Help me, great, good Gods
"Suddenly a tottering old man appeared. He collected
all the diamonds into the basket without trouble, cleaned
the dust from them, raised the burden to his shoulder and
started out, speaking with the Lama:
" 'Rest a while, I have just carried my burden to the
goal and I am glad to help you with yours.'
"They went on and were soon out of sight, while the
riders began to fight. They fought one whole day and
then the whole night and, when the sun rose over the
plain, neither was there, either alive or dead, and no trace
of either remained. This I saw, Bogdo Hutuktu Khan,
speaking with the Great and Wise Buddha, surrounded
by the good and bad demons! Wise Lamas, Hutuktus,
Kampos, Marambas and Holy Gheghens, give the answer
to my vision!"
This was written in my presence on May 17th, 1921,
from the words of the Living Buddha just as he came out
of his private shrine to his study. I do not know what
the Hutuktu and Gheghens, the fortune tellers, sorcerers
and clairvoyants replied to him but does not the answer
;
seem clear, if one realizes the present situation in Asia?

Awakened Asia is full of enigmas but it Is also full of
answers to the questions set by the destiny of humankind.
This great continent of mysterious Pontiffs, Living Gods,
Mahatmas and readers of the terrible book of Karma is
awakening and the ocean of hundreds of millions of
human lives is lashed with monstrous waves.
Part V
MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES— THE
KING OF THE WORLD
Part V
MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES—THE
KING OF THE WORLD
CHAPTER XLVI
THE SUBTERRANEAN KINGDOM
"QTOP!" whispered my old Mongol guide, as we were
^ one day crossing the plain near Tzagan Luk.
"Stop!"
He slipped from which lay down without
his camel
his bidding. The Mongol raised his hands in prayer
before his face and began to repeat the sacred phrase:
"Om! Mani padme Hung!" The other Mongols imme-
diately stopped their camels and began to pray.
"What has happened?" I thought, as I gazed round
over the tender green grass, up to the cloudless sky and
out toward the dreamy soft rays of the evening sun.
The Mongols prayed for some time, whispered among
themselves and, after tightening up the packs on the
camels, moved on.
"Did you see," asked the Mongol, "how our camels
moved their ears in fear? How the herd of horses on
299
;

the plain stood fixed in attention and how the herds of
sheep and cattle lay crouched close to the ground? Did
you notice that the birds did not fly, the marmots did
not run and the dogs did not bark? The air trembled
softly and bore from afar the music of a song which
penetrated to the hearts of men, animals and birds alike.
Earth and sky ceased breathing. The wind did not blow
and the sun did not move. At such a moment the wolf
that is stealing up on the sheep arrests his stealthy crawl
the frightened herd of antelopes suddenly checks its wild
course; the knife of the shepherd cutting the sheep's
throat falls from his hand the rapacious ermine ceases to
;
stalk the unsuspecting saiga. All living beings in fear

are involuntarily thrown into prayer and waiting for their
fate. So it was just now. Thus it has always been when-
ever the King of the World in his subterranean palace
prays and searches out the destiny of all peoples on the
earth."
In this wise the old Mongol, a simple, coarse shepherd
and hunter, spoke to me.
Mongolia with her nude and terrible mountains, her
limitless plains, covered with the widely strewn bones of
the gave birth to Mystery.
forefathers, Her people,
frightened by the stormy passions of Nature or lulled by
her deathlike peace,
feel her mystery. Her "Red" and
"Yellow Lamas" preserve and poetize her mystery. The
Pontiffs of Lhasa and Urga know and possess her
mystery.
On my journey into Central Asia I came to know for
the first time about "the Mystery of Mysteries," which
I can by no other name. At the outset I did not pay
call
much attention to it and did not attach to it such im-

THE SUBTERRANEAN KINGDOM 301
portance as I afterwards realized belonged to it, when

I had analyzed and connoted many sporadic, hazy and
often controversial bits of evidence.
The old people on the shore of the River Amyl re-
lated to me an ancient legend to the effect that a certain
Mongolian tribe in their escape from the demands of
Jenghiz Khan hid themselves in a subterranean country.
Afterwards a Soyot from near the Lake of Nogan Kul
showed me the smoking gate that serves as the entrance
to the "Kingdom of Agharti." Through this gate a
hunter formerly entered into the Kingdom and, after his
return, began to relate what he had seen there. The
Lamas cut out his tongue in order to prevent him from
telling about the Mystery of Mysteries. When he arrived
at old age, he came back to the entrance of this cave and
disappeared into the subterranean kingdom, the memory
of which had ornamented and lightened his nomad heart.
I received more realistic information about this from
Hutuktu Jelyb Djamsrap in Narabanchi Kure. He told

me the story of the semi-realistic arrival of the powerful
King of the World from the subterranean kingdom, of
his appearance, of his miracles and of his prophecies;
and only then did I begin to understand that in that
legend, hypnosis or mass vision, whichever it may be,
is hidden not only mystery but a realistic and powerful
force capable of influencing the course of the political
life of Asia. From that moment I began making some
investigations.
The favorite Gelong Lama of Prince Chultun Beyli
and the Prince himself gave me an account of the sub-
terranean kingdom.
"Everything in the world," said the Gelong, "is con-
stantly in a state of change and transition — peoples,
science, religions, laws and customs. How many great
empires and brilliant cultures have perished! And that
alone which remains unchanged is Evil, the tool of Bad
Spirits. More than sixty thousand years ago a Holyman
disappeared with a whole tribe of people under the
ground and never appeared again on the surface of the
earth. Many people, however, have since visited this
kingdom, Sakkia Mouni, Undur Gheghen, Paspa, Khan
Baber and others. No one knows where this place is.
One says Afghanistan, others India. All the people there
are protected against Evil and crimes do not exist within
its bournes. Science has there developed calmly and
nothing is threatened with destruction. The subterra-
nean people have reached the highest knowledge. Now
it is a large kingdom, miUions of men with the King of
the World as their ruler. He knows all the forces of

the world and reads all the souls of humankind and the
great book of their destiny. Invisibly he rules eight hun-
dred million men on the surface of the earth and they
will accomplish his every order."
Prince Chultun Beyli added: "This kingdom is Agharti.
It extends throughout all the subterranean passages of
the whole world. I heard a learned Lama of China re-
lating to Bogdo Khan that all the subterranean caves of
America are inhabited by the ancient people who have
disappeared underground. Traces of them are still found
on the surface of the land. These subterranean peoples
and spaces are governed by rulers owing allegiance to
the King of the World. In it there is not much of the
wonderful. You know that in the two greatest oceans
of the east and the west there were formerly two con-
—
tinents. They disappeared under the water but their

people went into the subterranean kingdom. In under-
ground caves there exists a peculiar light which affords
growth to the grains and vegetables and long life without
disease to the people. There are many different peoples
and many different tribes. An old Buddhist Brahman in
Nepal was carrying out the will of the Gods in making
a visit to the ancient kingdom of Jenghiz, Siam, —
where he met a fisherman who ordered him to take a
place in his boat and sail with him upon the sea. On
the third day they reached an island where he met a
people having two tongues which could speak separately
in different languages. They showed to him peculiar,
unfamiliar animals, tortoises with sixteen feet and one
eye,huge snakes with a very tasty flesh and birds with
teethwhich caught fish for their masters in the sea.
These people told him that they had come up out of the
subterranean kingdom and described to him certain parts
of the underground country."
The Lama Turgut traveling with me from Urga to
Peking gave me further details.
"The capital of Agharti is surrounded with towns of
high priests and scientists. It reminds one of Lhasa where
the palace of the Dalai Lama, the Potala, is the top of a
mountain covered with monasteries and temples. The
throne of the King of the World is surrounded by mil-
lions of incarnated Gods. They are the Holy Panditas.
The palace itself is encircled by the palaces of the Goro,
who possess all the visible and invisible forces of the
earth, of infernoand of the sky and who can do every-
life and death of man.
thing for the If our mad human-
kind should begin a war against them, they would be
able to explode the whole surface of our planet and
transform it into deserts. They can dry up the seas,
transform lands into oceans and scatter the mountains
into the sands of the deserts. By his order trees, grasses
and bushes can be made to grow; old and feeble men
can become young and stalwart; and the dead can be
resurrected. In cars strange and unknown to us they
rush through the narrow cleavages inside our planet.
Some Indian Brahmans and Tibetan Dalai Lamas dur-
ing their laborious struggles to the peaks of mountains
which no other human feet had trod have found there
on the rocks, footprints in the snow
inscriptions carved
and the tracks of wheels. The blissful Sakkia Mouni
found on one mountain top tablets of stone carrying
words which he only understood in his old age and after-
wards penetrated into the Kingdom of Agharti, from
which he brought back crumbs of the sacred learning
There in palaces of wonderful
preserved in his memory.
crystal live the invisible rulers of all pious people, the
King of the World or Brahytma, who can speak with
God as I speak with you, and his two assistants, Mahyt-
ma, knowing the purposes of future events, and
Mahynga, ruling the causes of these events."
"The Holy Panditas study the world and all its forces.
Sometimes the most learned among them collect together
and send envoys to that place where the human eyes have
never penetrated. This is described by the Tashi Lama
living eight hundred and fifty years ago. The highest
Panditas place tlieir hands on their eyes and at the base
of the brain of younger ones and force them into a deep
sleep, wash their bodies with an infusion of grass and
make them immune wrap

to pain and harder than stones,
them in magic them and then pray to the
cloths, bind
Great God. The petrified youths he with eyes and ears
open and alert, seeing, hearing and remembering every-
thing. Afterwards a Goro approaches and fastens a
long, steady gaze upon them. Very slowly the bodies
lift themselves from the earth and disappear. The Goro
sits and stares with fixed eyes to the place whither he
has sent them. Invisible threads join them to his will.

Some of them course among the stars, observe their
events, their unknown peoples, their life and their laws.
They listen to their talk, read their books, understand
their fortunes and woes, their holiness and sins, their
piety and evil. Some are mingled with flame and see the
creature of fire, quick and ferocious, eternally fighting,
melting and hammering metals in the depths of planets,
boiling the water for geysers and springs, melting the
rocks and pushing out molten streams over the surface
of the earth through the holes in the mountains. Others
rush together with the ever elusive, infinitesimally small,
transparent creatures of the air and penetrate into the
mysteries of their existence and into the purposes of their
life. Others slip into the depths of the seas and observe
the kingdom of the wise creatures of the water, who
transport and spread genial warmth all over the earth,
ruling the winds, waves and storms. ... In Erdeni Dzu
formerly lived Pandita Hutuktu, who had come from
Agharti. As he was dying, he told about the time when
he lived according to the will of the Goro on a red star
in the east, floated in the ice-covered ocean and flew
among the stormy fires in the depths of the earth."
These are the tales which I heard In the Mongolian
yurtas of Princes and in the Lamaite monasteries. These
stories were all related in a solemn tone which forbade
challenge and doubt.
Mystery. . . „
CHAPTER XLVII
THE KING OF THE WORLD BEFORE THE
FACE OF GOD
DURING my stay in Urga I tried to find an explana-

tion of this legend about the King of the World.
Of course, the Living Buddha could tell me most of all
and so I endeavored to get the story from him. In a

conversation with him I mentioned the name of the King
of the World. The old Pontiff sharply turned his head
toward me and fixed upon me his immobile, blind eyes.
Unwillingly I became silent. Our silence was a long one
and after it the Pontiff continued the conversation in
such a way that I understood he did not wish to accept
the suggestion of my reference. On the faces of the
others present I noticed expressions of astonishment and
fear produced by my words, and especially was this true
of the custodian of the library of the Bogdo Khan. One
can readily understand that all this only made me the
more anxious to press the pursuit.
As I was leaving the study of the Bogdo Hutuktu, I
met the librarian who had stepped out ahead of me and
asked him if he would show me the library of the Living
Buddha and used a very simple, sly trick with him.
"Do you know, my dear Lama," I said, "once I rode
in the plain at the hour when the King of the World spoke
307
with God and I felt the impressive majesty of this
moment."
To my astonishment the old Lama very quietly an-
swered me: "It is not right that the Buddhist and our
Yellow Faith should conceal it. The acknowledgment
of the existence of the most holy and most powerful man,
of the blissful kingdom, of the great temple of sacred
science is such a consolation to our sinful hearts and our
corrupt lives that to conceal it from humankind is a sin.
. . . Well, listen,*' he continued, "throughout the whole

year the King of the World guides the work of the
Panditas and Goros of Agharti. Only at times he goes
to the temple cave where the embalmed body of his pre-
decessor lies in a black stone coffin. This cave is always
dark, but when
King of the World enters it the
the
walls are striped with fire and from the lid of the coffin
appear tongues of flame. The eldest Goro stands before

him with covered head and face and with hands folded
across his chest. This Goro never removes the cover-
ing from his face, for his head is a nude skull with living
eyes and a tongue that speaks. He is in communion with
the souls of all who have gone before.
"The King of the World prays for a long time and
afterwards approaches the coffin and stretches out his
hand. The flames thereon burn brighter; the stripes of
fire on the walls disappear and revive, interlace and form
mysterious signs from the alphabet vatannan. From the
coffin transparent bands of scarcely noticeable light begin
to flow forth. These are the thoughts of his predecessor.
Soon the King of the World stands surrounded by an
auriole of this light and fiery letters write and write upon
the walls the wishes and orders of God. At this moment
THE KING OF THE WORLD 309
the King of the World is in contact with the thoughts

of all the men who influence the lot and life of all human-
kind: with Kings, Czars, Khans, warlike leaders, High
and other strong men. He realizes all
Priests, scientists
their thoughts and plans. If these be pleasing before
God, the King of the World will invisibly help them;
if they are unpleasant in the sight of God, the King
will bring them to destruction. This power is given to

Agharti by the mysterious science of 'Om,' with which
we begin all our prayers. *0m' is the name of an ancient
Holyman, the first Goro, who lived three hundred thirty
thousand years ago. He was the first man to know God
and who taught humankind to believe, hope and struggle
with Evil. Then God gave him power over all forces
ruling the visible world.
"After his conversation with his predecessor the King
of the World assembles the 'Great Council of God,*
judges the actions and thoughts of great men, helps them
or destroys them. Mahytma and Mahynga find the place
for these actions and thoughts in the causes ruling the
world. Afterwards the King of the World enters the
great temple and prays in solitude. Fire appears on the
altar, gradually spreading to all the altars near, and
through the burning flame gradually appears the face of
God. The King of the World reverently announces to
God the decisions and awards of the 'Council of God'
and receives in turn the Divine orders of the Almighty.
As he comes forth from the temple, the King of the
World radiates with Divine Light."
CHAPTER XLVIII
REALITY OR RELIGIOUS FANTASY?
**T TAS anybody seen the King of the World?" I

•*• asked.
"Oh, yes!" answered the Lama. "During the solemn
holidays of the ancient Buddhism in Siam and India the
King of the World appeared five times. He rode in a
splendid car drawn by white elephants and ornamented
with gold, precious stones and finest fabrics ; he was robed
in a white mantle and red tiara with strings of diamonds
masking his face. He blessed the people with a golden
apple with the figure of a Lamb above it. The blind
received their sight, the dumb spoke, the deaf heard, the
crippled freely moved and the dead arose, wherever the
eyes of the King of the World rested. He also appeared
five hundred and forty years ago in Erdeni Dzu, he was
in the ancient Sakkai Monastery and in the Narabanchi
Kure.
"One of our Living Buddhas and one of the Tashi
Lamas received a message from him, written with un-
known signs on golden tablets. No one could read these
signs. The Tashi Lama entered the temple, placed the
golden tablet on his head and began to pray. With this
the thoughts of the King of the World penetrated his
brain and, without having read the enigmatical signs, he
understood and accomplished the message of the King."
310
REALITY OR RELIGIOUS FANTASY? 311
"How many persons have ever been to Agharti?" I
questioned him.
"Very many," answered the Lama, "but all these
people have kept secret that which they saw there. When
the Olets destroyed Lhasa, one of their detachments in
the southwestern mountains penetrated to the outskirts
of Agharti. Here they learned some of the lesser mys-
terious sciencesand brought them to the surface of our
earth. This is why the Olets and Kalmucks are artful
sorcerers and prophets. Also from the eastern country
some tribes of black people penetrated to Agharti and
lived there many centuries. Afterwards they were thrust
out from the kingdom and returned to the earth, bring-
ing with them the mystery of predictions according to
cards, grasses and the lines of the palm. They are the
Gypsies. . . . Somewhere in the north of Asia a tribe
exists which is now dying and which came from the cave
of Agharti, skilled in calling back the spirits of the dead
as they float through the air."
The Lama was silent and afterwards, as though an-
swering my thoughts, continued.
"In Agharti the learned Panditas write on tablets of
stone all the science of our planet and of the other worlds.
The Chinese learned Buddhists know this. Their science
is the highest and purest. Every century one hundred
sages of China collect in a secret place on the shores of
the sea, where from its depths come out one hundred
eternally-living tortoises. On their shells the Chinese
write all the developments of the divine science of the
century."
As I write I am involuntarily reminded of a tale of
an old Chinese bonze in the Temple of Heaven at Peking.
He told me that tortoises live more than three thousand
years without food and air and that this is the reason
why all Temple of Heaven were
the columns of the blue
set on wood from decay.
live tortoises to preserve the
"Several times the Pontiffs of Lhasa and Urga have

sent envoys to the King of the World," said the Lama
librarian, "but they could not find him. Only a certain
Tibetan leader after a battle with the Olets found the
cave with the inscription: 'This is the gate to Agharti.'
From the cave a fine appearing man came forth, pre-
sented him with a gold tablet bearing the mysterious signs
and said:
" 'The King of the World will appear before all people
when him to lead all the
the time shall have arrived for
good people of the world against all the bad; but this
time has not yet come. The most evil among mankind
have not yet been born.'
"Chiang Chiin Baron Ungern sent the young Prince
Pounzig to seek out the King of the World but he re-
turned with a letter from the Dalai Lama from Lhasa.
When the Baron sent him a second time, he did not come
back."
CHAPTER XLIX
THE PROPHECY OF THE KING OF THE

WORLD IN 1890
THE me,
Hutuktu of
when to
Narabanchi related the following
visited him in his monastery in the
I
beginning of 1921:
"When the King of the World appeared before the
Lamas, favored of God, in this monastery thirty years
ago he made a prophecy for the coming half century.
It was as follows:
" 'More and more the people will forget their souls
and care about their bodies. The greatest sin and cor-
ruption will reign on the earth. People will become as
ferocious animals, thirsting for the blood and death of
their brothers. The 'Crescent' will grow dim and its fol-
lowers will descend into beggary and ceaseless war. Its

conquerors will be stricken by the sun but will not pro-
gress upward and twice they will be visited with the
heaviest misfortune, which will end in insult before the
eye of the other peoples. The crowns of kings, great
and small, will fall . . . one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight. . . . There will be a terrible battle among
all the peoples. The seas will become red . . . the earth
and the bottom of the seas will be strewn with bones . . .
kingdoms will be scattered whole peoples will die . . .
. . . hunger, disease, crimes unknown to the law, never

before seen in the world. The enemies of God and of
313
the Divine Spirit in man will come. Those who take
the hand of another shall also perish. The forgotten and
pursued and hold the attention of the whole
shall rise
world. There and storms. Bare mountains
will be fogs
shall suddenly be covered with forests. Earthquakes will
come. Millions will change the fetters of slavery
. . .
and humiliation for hunger, disease and death. The

ancient roads will be covered with crowds wandering
from one place to another. The greatest and most beauti-
ful cities shall perish in fire . . . one, two, three. . . .
Father shall rise against son, brother against brother and

mother against daughter. Vice, crime and the de-
. . .
struction of body and soul shall follow. Families . . .
shall be scattered. Truth and love shall disappear.

. . .
. .From ten thousand men one shall remain he shall be

. ;
nude and mad and without force and the knowledge to

build him a house and find his food. He will howl . . .
as the raging wolf, devour dead bodies, bite his own flesh
and challenge God to fight. . . . All the earth will be

emptied. God away from it and over it there
will turn
will be only night and death. Then I shall send a people,
now unknown, which shall tear out the weeds of mad-
ness and vice with a strong hand and will lead those who
still remain faithful to the spirit of man in the fight
against Evil. They will found a new Hfe on the earth
purified by the death of nations. In the fiftieth year
only three great kingdoms will appear, which will exist
happily seventy-one years. Afterwards there will be
eighteen years of war and destruction. Then the peoples
of Agharti will come up from their subterranean caverns
"
to the surface of the earth.'
THE PROPHECY OF THE KING 315
Afterwards, as I traveled farther through Eastern

Mongolia and to Peking, I often thought:
"And what if .? What if whole peoples of differ-
. .
ent colors, faiths and tribes should begin their migration

toward the West?"
And now, as I write these final lines, my eyes involun-
tarily turn to this limitless Heart of Asia over which the
trails of my wanderings twine. Through whirling snow
and driving clouds of sand of the Gobi they travel back
to the face of the Narabanchi Hutuktu as, with quiet
voice and a slender hand pointing to the horizon, he
opened to me the doors of his innermost thoughts:
"Near Karakorum and on the shores of Ubsa Nor I
see the huge, multi-colored camps, the herds of horses
and cattle and the blue yurtas of the leaders. Above
them I see the old banners of Jenghiz Khan, of the Kings
of Tibet, Siam, Afghanistan and of Indian Princes; the
sacred signs of all the Lamaite Pontiffs the coats of arms ;
of the Khans of the Olets; and the simple signs of the

north Mongolian tribes. I do not hear the noise of the
animated crowd. The singers do not sing the mournful
songs of mountain, plain and desert. The young riders
are not delighting themselves with the races on their fleet
steeds. There are innumerable crowds of old men,
. . .
women and children and beyond in the north and west,

as far as the eye can reach, the sky is red as a flame,
there is the roar and crackling of fire and the ferocious
sound of battle. Who is leading these warriors who there
beneath the reddened sky are shedding their own and
others* blood? Who is leading these crowds of unarmed
old men and women? I see severe order, deep religious
understanding of purposes, patience and tenacity ... a
!
3i6 BEASTS, MEN AND GODS

new great migration of peoples, the last march of the
Mongols. . .
."
Karma may have opened a new page of history

And what if the King of the World be with them?
But this greatest Mystery of Mysteries keeps its own
deep silence.
GLOSSARY
Agronome. —Russian for trained agriculturalist.
Amour sayn.—Good-bye.
Ataman. —Headman or chief of the Cossacks.
Bandi.—Pupil or student of theological school in the Buddhist faith.
Buriat — The most Mongol

civilized tribe, living in the valley of the
Selenga in Transbaikalia.
Chahars. —A warlike Mongolian tribe living along the Great Wall
of China in Inner Mongolia.
Chaldje. —A high Lamaite priest, but not an incarnate god.
—
Chcka. The Bolshevik Counter-Revolutionary Committee, the
most relentless establishment of the Bolsheviki, organized for the per-
secution of the enemies of the Communistic government in Russia.
Chiang Chiin. —Chinese for " General "—Chief of all Chinese troops
in Mongolia.
—
Dalai Lama. The first and highest Pontiff of the Lamaite or
" Yellow Faith," living at Lhasa in Tibet.
Djungar.—A West Mongolian tribe.
Dogun. —Chinese commercial and military post.

Dzuk. — Lie down!
Fang-tzu.—Chinese for " house."
—A very rare and precious root much prized in Chinese and
Fatil.
Tibetan medicines.
Felcher.—Assistant of a doctor (surgeon).
Gelong. —Lamaite having the right to
priest oflFer sacrifices to God.
Getul. — The third rank in the Lamaite monks.
Goro.— The high priest of the King of the World.
Hatyk. —An oblong piece of blue yellow)
(or silk cloth, presented
to honored guests, chiefs, Lamas and gods. Also a kind of coin, worth
from 25 to 50 cents.
317
3i8 GLOSSARY
Hong.— Chinese mercantile establishment.
Â
Htm.—The lowest rank of princes.

Hunghutze.—Chinese brigand.
Hushun. — fenced enclosure, containing the
Â houses, paddocks,
stores, stables, etc., of Russian Cossacks in Mongolia.
Hutuktu. —The highest rank of Lamaite monks; the form of any
incarnated god; holy.
— small rodent a gopher.
Imoiu-an. Â like
—The American
Izubr. elk.
Kabarga.— The musk antelope.

Kalmuck.—A Mongolian which migrated
tribe, from Mongolia
vinder Jenghiz Khan (where they were known as the Olets or Eleuths),
and now Hve in the Urals and on the shores of the Volga in Russia.
—
Kanpo. The abbot of a Lamaite monastery, a monk; also the
first rank of " white " clergy (not monks).
Elanpo-Gelong. —The highest rank of Gelongs (q.v.) ; an honorary

title.
Karma. — The Buddhist materialization of the idea of Fate, a par-

allel with the Greek and Roman Nemesis Qustice).
Khan.—A king.
Khayrus.— kind of trout.
Â
KMrghiz. —The great Mongol nation living between the river

Irtish in western Siberia, Lake BaUiash and the Volga in Russia.
Kuropatka. — Â partridge.
Lama. — The common name for a Lamaite priest.
Lan. —A weight of or gold equivalent to about one-eleventh

silver
of a Russian pound, or 9/1 loths of a pound avoirdupois.
—A round bottle of
Lanhon. clay.
Maramba. — doctor of theology.

Â
Merin. — The chief of police in every

civil district of the Soyot
country in Urianhai.
" Om! Mani padme Hnngl".—" Om " has two meanings. It is
the name of the first Goto and means: " Hail! " In this con-
also
"
nection: " Hail! Great Lama in the Lotus Flower!
Mende. —Soyot greeting— " Good Day."

GLOSSARY 319
Nagan-hushun. — Â Chinese vêtable garden or enclosure in Mon-

golia.
Naida. —A form oi used by fire woodsmen.Siberiaxi
Noyon. —A Prince or Khan. In polite address: " Chief," " Excel-

lency."
Obo. — The sacred and propitiatory signs in all the dangerous places
in Urianhai and MongoHa.
Olets.— Vid: Kalmudc.
Om. — The name of the first Goro (q.v.) and also of the mysterious,
"
magic science of the Subterranean State. It means, also: " Hail!
—
Orochons. Â Mongolian living near the shores of the Amur
tribe,
River in Siberia.
Oulatchen. —^The guard for the post horses; guide. official
Ourton. — post station, where the travelers change horses and

Â
otdatchens.
Pandlta. — The high rank of Buddhist monks.

Panti. — Deer horns in the velvet, highly prized as a Tibetan and
Chinese medicine.
Pogrom. — wholesale slaughter of unarmed people; a massacre.
Â
Paspa. —The founder of the Yellow Sect, predominating now in

the Lamaite faith.
Salt —A Mongolian governor.
Saiga. — sand partridge.
Â
Sayn.— " Good day! " " Good morning! " " Good evening! " All
right; good.
Taiga. —A Siberian word for forest.
Taimen. — species of big trout, reaching 120 poimds.

Â
Ta Lama. — Literally: "the great priest," but it means now "a

doctor of medicine."
Tashur. —A strong bamboo stick.
Turpan. —The red wild goose or Lama-goose.

Tzagan. —White.
Tzara. — A document, giving the right to receive horses and otdatchens
at the post stations.
—Mongolian soldiers mobilized by levy.

Tsirik.
Tzuien. —A doctor-poisoner.
320 GLOSSARY
Ulan.—Red.
Urga. —The name of the capital of Mongolia; (2) a kind of Mon-
golian lasso.
Vatannen. —The language of the Subterranean State of the King
of the World.
Wapiti.—The American elk.
Yurta.—The common Mongolian tent or house, made of felt.
Zahachine. — West Mongolian wandering

Â tribe.
Zaberega. — The ice-mountains formed along the shores of a river

in spring.
Zikkurat. —Â high tower of Babylonish style.

1
INDEX
Abakan Tartars, 47 Blagoveschensk, 163
Adair River, 130, 146 Bobroff, 141, 168
Afghanistan, 302 Bogdo Khan, 10 1, 107, e/ seq.
Agharti, Kingdom of, 118, 301, et Also called: Buddha,

Living
seq. Bogdo Gheghen, Bogdo Djebt-
Alexander I., Czar, 289 sung Damba, Hutuktu Khan.
Algiak, 41 Bogdo-01 Mountain, 231, 294
Altai Region, 83 Boldon, Hun, 119, 171, 175, et seq.
Altyn Tag Mountains, 88 Bolsheviki, 5, 16, et seq.
Amida, Statues of, 259 Boro Mountains, 84

Amitabha, Buddha, 273 Bourdukoflf, 166
Amursana, Khan of the Olets, 285 Boyagol River, 126
Amyl River, 33, 36, 38 Brahmans, 273
AnnenkoflF, Ataman, 166 Brahmaputra River, 84
Arctic Ocean, 3, 27 Brahytma (see King of the World)
Aroung Nor, 92 Buddha, 179, et seq.
Buddha, The, Living (see Bogdo
Baber, Sultan, 265, 302 Khan)
Baga Nor, 1 1 Buret Hei, 57
Bakitch, General, 6r, 166 Buriats, 108
Balir, EHstrict of,
84 Buyantu, Hutuktu, 188
Balma Dorji, Hon., 230
Barga, 207 Chahars, 114, et seq.
Baroim Kure, 198 Chan-ra-zi, 273

Barsky, Captain, 168 Cheka, The, 28, 34, et seq.
Barun Abaga Nar, Lama, 278 Cheng Yi, General, 108
Batur Hun Taiga, Khan, 273 ChestiakofiF, 267
Baysei, Prince, 135 Chien Men of Peking, 128
Bei Kem River, 275 Chita, 105
Belotzarsk, 52 Chu Chi-hsiang, General, 108
Beltis Van, Prince, 188 Chultim Beyle, Prince, 109, 165,
Bezrodnoff, Captain, 158, et seq. 168, el seq.
Biisk, 143 Cossacks, 5, 28, 150

321
1
322 INDEX
Daban, 51 Hargana, 124
Daichin Van, 218 Hotel, 259
Dalai Lama, 96, 177, 199 Hoto-Zaidam, 201
Damcharen, 202 Hubilgan, 200, 201, 278, 292
Darkhat Ola Mountains, 75 Hubsugul (Lake Kosogol) 147
Daunichi-Buddha, 259 Huntu Mountains, 231
Djam Bolon, Prince, 108, 263, et Hutuktu, 96, et seq.
seq.
Djirgalantu, 194 Irkutsk, 79, 104

Djonkapa, loi Ivanoflf, Lieutenant, 155
Djungar, 270
Dolo Nor, 277 Jagisstai Pass, 126, et seq.
DomojirofE, Colonel V. N., 171, Jahantsi, Hutuktu, 259, 278, et
173, 182, et seq. seq.
Doptx:hin Djamtso, Hun, 204 Jahantsi Kure, 127, 139, et seq.
Dorchiul-Jurdok, Lama, 278 Jap Lama, Hun, 168, 170, et seq.
Dorogostaisky, Prof., 148 Jassaktu Khan, Lama, 83, 84, 169,

Dulan Kitt, 90 290
Dzain, Monastery of, 168 Jdanoff 267
,
Dzaphin River, 1 1 Jelyb Djamsrap, Hutuktu, 86, 97,

172
Egingol River, 80, 147, 152 Jenghiz Khan, 32, 62, loi, 119,
Emil River, 61 127, 193
Erdeni Dzu, 198, 305 Jukoflf, Colonel, 61
Ero River, 85
Kaigorsdoff, 83, 112, 166
Freimann, 166, 168 Kalgan, 187
Fu Hsiang, Chinese advisor, 109, Kameneff, 183
167 Kanine, 140, 168
Kanpo-Gelong, 261
Gangyn Mountains, 231 Kansu, Province of, 83
Gavronsky, 13, 17 Karakhorum Mountains, 88
Gay, Dr. V. G., 149, 220 Karakorum, 138, 198, 283
Gegyl Mountains, 231 Karasu Togol, 193
Gelong Lama, 301 Karatuz, 35, 36
Gobi Desert, 83, et seq KarUk Tag Mountains, 87
Goto, The, 303 Karma, 266, 269, 296, 316
Gorokoff, 141 Kazagrandi, Colonel, 83, 108, 122,
Gushi, Khan, 273, 284 143, 148, 154, 167
Kemchik, 62, 275
Hamshan Mountain Pass, 91 Kerulen River, 108
INDEX 323
Khalkha, 106 Minnusinsk, 27, 28-34

Khara Moiintains, 84 Moon, Island of, 219
Khara-Bolgasun, 201 Muren Kure, 79, et seq.
Kharga River, 63
Khathyl, 79, 140, et seq. Nansen, 3
Khazahudvik, 268 Nan Shan Movintains, 88
Kiakhta, 83, 105, et seq. Narabanchi, Monastery of, 86,
King of the World, 179, 303, et seq. 104, et seq.
{see Brahytma) Naron Khuhu Gobi, 84

Kirghiz, 114 Nogan Kul, Lake, 301
Klizill-Kaiya Mountains, 32 Noskoff, 248
Kobdo, 61, 104, et seq. Novak, 166, 168
Koko Nor, 84, 104 Novontziran, Prince, iii
Kolchak, Admiral, 28, 143
Kolchak Government, 30 Olets, 188
Kosogol Lake, 56, 105, et seq. Olufsen, E, V., 263, 267
Krafciieno, 33 Orgarkha Ola Moimtains, 79
Krasnoyarsk, 3, 27, 33 Orkhon River, 213, 228
Kublai Khan, loi, 194, 198 Orochons, 275
Kuku-Hoto, 125, 187 Ostrovsky, Colonel, 52, 76
Kuldja, 166 Oyna River, 64
Kusmitch, Feodor, 289
Kwannon, 259 Pamir, 88, 204
Kweihuacheng, 187 Pandita Gheghen of Dolo Nor,
Kzudener, Baroness, 289 277
Pandita Hutuktu, Gheghen, 198
Lhasa, 96, 115, et seq. Paspa, loi, 274, 302
Living Buddha, The, {see Bogdo Pepelaieff, General, 32
Khan) Petrograd, 24
Colonel N. N., 183,
Philipofif, et
Ma-Chu River, 92 seq.

Mahomed Spirin, 97 Rsarjev^cy, Lieut., 97
Mahynga, 304 Plavako, Colonel, 154
Mahytma, 304 Poletika, Colonel, 183, 187, et seq.
Maimachen, 109 Potala {see Lhasa)

Maklakoff, Colonel, 154 Poimzig, Prince, 96, 312
Mana River, 12 PouzikofiF, 143, 168
Mang:u, Khan, 202
Meetchik-Atak, Maramba, 198 Rama, loi
Michailoff, Lieut. Col. M. M., 109, Revolutionary Committee, 4
168, 171, et seq. Rezukhin, General, 219, rt seq.
324 INDEX
Sain Noion Khan, 169, 293 Tisingol Lake, 139, et seq.
Sakkia Mouni, loi, 283, 302 Todji, Noyon of, 58
SaltikoflF, 166, 168 Tola River, 109
Samgaltai, 56, 141, 145 Tomsk, 289
Sayan Mountains, 33, 38, loi Toupsei in the Caucasus, 203
Schetinkin, 33 Transbaikalia, 12, 13, 108, et seq.
Selenga River, 82, 105 Tropoff 24

,
Sepailoff, Colonel, 233, 234, et Tsinilla, wife of Khan Mangu,

seq. 202
Seybi River, Battle of the, 42, 49, Tuba River, 33, 34, 124, et seq.
et seq. Turgut, Lama, 263

Sharkhe, Monastery of, 89, 90 Turguts, 84, 105
Sifkova, 24, 26 Turjo Gamba, Lama, 283. Also
Sinkiang, 166 called: Pandita Lama
Soldjak, Principality of, 62, 64 Turkestan, 166
Soukhoum K^le in the Caucasus, Turoff, Captain,
97
203 Tushegoun Lama, 115, 124, 164-5,
Soyots, 42, ei seq. 167
Strigine, Lieut. 176, 182, 183 Tzagan Luk, 299
Strongtsan, King of Tibet, 274, Tzeren, no, 169
284
Suchow, Chinese town of, 84 Ubsa Nor, 315
Sutunin, Ataman, 82 Ugadai Khan, 201, 265
Ukraine emigrants, 35
Ta Kure, loi, 232, et seq. (see Ulankom 83, 104
Urga) Ulan Taiga Mountains, 79, 226
Tamerlane-Temur, 32, 204 Uliassutai, 84, 104, et seq.
Tangri Nor, 291 Undur Dobo, 268
Tannu Ola Mountains, 56 Undur Gheghen, 284, 302
Tarbagatai Mountains, 126 Ungem von Sternberg, Baron
Ta-Rimpo-Cha, Maramba, 277 Halsa, 238
Tashi Lama, 118, 178, 277, 290, —General Baron, 83, 104, 108, et
291, 304. Also called: Tashi seq.
Lumpo, Erdeni. —Heinrich, 239

Ta Sin Lo, 127, et seq. —Peter, 239
Tassoun Lake, 90 —Ralph, 238
Tatsa Gol, 204 —Wilhelm, 239
Teri Nor, 71 Urga, 61, 104, et seq (see Ta Kure)
Tetemikoff, D. A., 153, 154 Urga, Traveling by, 211, et seq.
Tian Shan Motmtains, loi The word, 212
Tibet, 83, et seq. Urianhai, 30, 33, et seq.
INDEX 325
Usinsky District, 50 Wang Tsao-tsun, Chinese Com-

Ut River, 51 missioner, 109, 123, 160, 165, et
Utai, Hutuktu of, 293 seq.
Ujook, Khan, 201

Yaga River, 80
Vandaloflf, Buriat OflBcer, 187 Yakutsk District, 151
Van Kure, 79, 154, 167, et seq. Yangtze River, 84
Captain, 151
VasiliefiF, Yenisei River, 3, 8, et seq.
Vernigora, Cossack, 97
Vesseloffsky, Captain, 219, et seq. 2^ganluk, 84
Vladmirovka, 58 Zagastai Mountain, 103
Volga River, 265 Zaia Shabi, 187, 200, et seq.
Vroubel, The painter, 103 Zuboflf, Captain, 97
Vulfovitch, Ofl&cer, 246 Zvmgaria, Western, loi
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Hi

OF CALIFORNIA fl *v .4; / NOR, V /2^S^> ^

GIFT RUMCHI / \ jLj \

^ HAM, -v_^^.;j:^ ^-^

SIBERIA THE ROUTE

"Set the imagination of thousands of readers

MAN AND MYSTERY IN ASIA

"Each arresting episode contributes towards

"Dr. Ossendowski's adventures rival Defoe

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

First Edition . . Aug., lOgt

Nineteenth Edition June, 1923

Twentieth Edition .June, 1023

Printed in the United States of America

When one of the leading publicists in America, Dr.

and thrilling experiences recorded seems in places too highly

II. The Secret of My Fellow Traveler 10

III. The Struggle for Life 16

VI. A River in Travail 26

VII. Through Soviet Siberia 31

VIII. Three Days ON THE Edge OF A Precipice 34

XIII. Mysteries, Mir.\cles and a New Fight 71

XIV. The River of the Devil 79

PART II. THE LAND OF DEMONS

XVIII. The Mysterious Lama Avenger 113

XIX. Wild Chahars 122

XX. The Demon of Jagisstai 126

XXI. The Nest of Death 136

XXVI. The Band of White Hunghutzes 173

PART HI. THE STRAINING HEART OF ASIA

XXXI. Traveling by " Urga " 211

XXXII. An Old Fortune Teller 218

XXXIV. The Horror of War! 227

XXXVI. A Son of Crusaders and Privateers 238

XXXVII. The Camp of Martyrs 250

PART IV. THE LIVING BUDDHA

-XLII. The Books of Miracles 287

XLIII. The Birth of the Living Buddha 290

XLV. The Vision of the Living Buddha of May 17,

PART V. MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES—THE KING OF THE

DRAWING LOTS WITH DEATH

DRAWING LOTS WITH DEATH

INTO THE FORESTS

the beginning of the year 1920 happened to be

revolution raging all over Russia, sowing in this peace-

bought a rifle, three hundred cartridges, an ax, a knife,

I penetrated into the heart of the wood toan abandoned

two up in fright. They were Bolsheviki.

noticed the locks of grey in his shaggy head. Lines of

soldiers, pointing to the ax.

He began to drink tea very greedily, while his eyes

had been hanging on his saddle, put them away out of

was engaged in splitting wood for my stove. Suddenly,

one was approaching my hut but everything was still.

In astonishment I looked at him.

THE SECRET OF MY FELLOW TRAVELER

personal estate and fastened them on one of the saddles.

this I was destined to spend in the year and a half of

bordered by heavy where we found fallen firs,