Produced by Donald Lainson
BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
by Ferdinand Ossendowski
EXPLANATORY NOTE
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
extraordinary 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. Ossendowski to write his
story at this time and to assist him in rendering his experiences into
English.
LEWIS STANTON PALEN.
CONTENTS
PART I. DRAWING LOTS WITH DEATH
CHAPTER
I. INTO THE FORESTS
II. THE SECRET OF MY FELLOW TRAVELER
III. THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE
IV. A FISHERMAN
V. A DANGEROUS NEIGHBOR
VI. A RIVER IN TRAVAIL
VII. THROUGH SOVIET SIBERIA
VIII. THREE DAYS ON THE EDGE OF A PRECIPICE
IX. TO THE SAYANS AND SAFETY
X. THE BATTLE OF THE SEYBI
XI. THE BARRIER OF RED PARTISANS
XII. IN THE COUNTRY OF ETERNAL PEACE
XIII. MYSTERIES, MIRACLES AND A NEW FIGHT
XIV. THE RIVER OF THE DEVIL
XV. THE MARCH OF GHOSTS
XVI. IN MYSTERIOUS TIBET
PART II. THE LAND OF DEMONS
XVII. MYSTERIOUS MONGOLIA
XVIII. THE MYSTERIOUS LAMA AVENGER
XIX. WILD CHAHARS
XX. THE DEMON OF JAGISSTAI
XXI. THE NEST OF DEATH
XXII. AMONG THE MURDERERS
XXIII. ON A VOLCANO
XXIV. A BLOODY CHASTISEMENT
XXV. HARASSING DAYS
XXVI. THE BAND OF WHITE HUNGHUTZES
XXVII. MYSTERY IN A SMALL TEMPLE
XXVIII. THE BREATH OF DEATH
PART III. THE STRAINING HEART OF ASIA
XXIX. ON THE ROAD OF GREAT CONQUERORS
XXX. ARRESTED!
XXXI. TRAVELING BY “URGA”
XXXII. AN OLD FORTUNE TELLER
XXXIII. “DEATH FROM THE WHITE MAN WILL STAND BEHIND YOU”
XXXIV. THE HORROR OF WAR!
XXXV. IN THE CITY OF LIVING GODS, 30,000 BUDDHAS AND 60,000 MONKS
XXXVI. A SON OF CRUSADERS AND PRIVATEERS
XXXVII. THE CAMP OF MARTYRS
XXXVIII. BEFORE THE FACE OF BUDDHA
XXXIX. “THE MAN WITH A HEAD LIKE A SADDLE”
PART IV. THE LIVING BUDDHA
XL. IN THE BLISSFUL GARDEN OF A THOUSAND JOYS
XLI. THE DUST OF CENTURIES
XLII. THE BOOKS OF MIRACLES
XLIII. THE BIRTH OF THE LIVING BUDDHA
XLIV. A PAGE IN THE HISTORY OF THE PRESENT LIVING BUDDHA
XLV. THE VISION OF THE LIVING BUDDHA OF MAY 17, 1921
PART V. MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES--THE KING OF THE WORLD
XLVI. THE SUBTERRANEAN KINGDOM
XLVII. THE KING OF THE WORLD BEFORE THE FACE OF GOD
XLVIII. REALITY OR RELIGIOUS FANTASY?
XLIX. THE PROPHECY OF THE KING OF THE WORLD IN 1890
There 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.
BEASTS, MEN AND GODS
Part I
DRAWING LOTS WITH DEATH
CHAPTER I
INTO THE FORESTS
In the beginning of the year 1920 I happened to be living 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 Mongolia 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 peaceful 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 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 to
an 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
two soldiers started up in fright. They were Bolsheviki. On their big
Astrakhan 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 another 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 thinking
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 steam
settled, the figure of a tall, gaunt peasant impressively crowned with
the high Astrakhan cap and wrapped in the great sheepskin overcoat that
added to the massiveness 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 glimmering like those of a wild
beast, fixed themselves alternately 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 felt boots. His 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.”
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 between gulps of the
hot tea, then he turned his glass upside 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 soldiers were lying on the benches and thus left 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 thinking 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 did not ask him anything further and told him only that I would wait
for him. He took off the bags that 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 anyone
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 beyond 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. I knew that
nobody was near me to assist 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 corner.
“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,” laughingly he counted out. “In truth today I had a very
successful hunt.”
In astonishment I looked at him.
“What are you surprised at?” he laughed. “Komu nujny eti tovarischi?
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.”