A free download from http://manybooks.net Part I of PART I. DRAWING LOTS WITH DEATH CHAPTER<p> I. PART II. THE LAND OF DEMONS PART III. THE STRAINING HEART OF ASIA PART IV. THE LIVING BUDDHA PART V. MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES THE KING OF THE WORLD Part I<p> DRAWING LOTS WITH DEATH CHAPTER I<p> CHAPTER II<p> CHAPTER III<p> CHAPTER IV<p> CHAPTER V<p> CHAPTER VI<p> CHAPTER VII<p> CHAPTER VIII<p> CHAPTER IX<p> CHAPTER X<p> CHAPTER XI<p> CHAPTER XII<p> CHAPTER XIII<p> CHAPTER XIV<p> CHAPTER XV<p> CHAPTER XVI<p> Part II<p> THE LAND OF DEMONS CHAPTER XVII<p> CHAPTER XVIII<p> CHAPTER XIX<p> CHAPTER XX<p> 1 CHAPTER XXI<p> CHAPTER XXII<p> CHAPTER XXIII<p> CHAPTER XXIV<p> CHAPTER XXV<p> CHAPTER XXVI<p> CHAPTER XXVII<p> CHAPTER XXVIII<p> Part III<p> THE STRAINING HEART OF ASIA CHAPTER XXIX<p> CHAPTER XXX<p> CHAPTER XXXI<p> CHAPTER XXXII<p> CHAPTER XXXIII<p> CHAPTER XXXIV<p> CHAPTER XXXV<p> CHAPTER XXXVI<p> CHAPTER XXXVII<p> CHAPTER XXXVIII<p> Part IV. CHAPTER XXXIX<p> Part IV<p> THE LIVING BUDDHA CHAPTER XL<p> CHAPTER XLI<p> CHAPTER XLII<p> CHAPTER XLIII<p> CHAPTER XLIV<p> CHAPTER XLV<p> Part V<p> MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES THE KING OF THE WORLD CHAPTER XLVI<p> CHAPTER XLVII<p> CHAPTER XLVIII<p> CHAPTER XLIX<p> Beasts, Men and Gods Project Gutenberg Etext Beasts, Men and Gods, by F. Ossendowski Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! Please take a look at the important information in this header. We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** **Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* Beasts, Men and Gods 2 Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. 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 Part I of 6 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 CHAPTER 7 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 II. THE LAND OF DEMONS 8 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 PART IV. THE LIVING BUDDHA 9 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 CHAPTER I 10 [...]... the entrance to which was strewn 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 garments 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 documents and papers These were official papers addressed to the... people became toward us and the more hostile to the Bolsheviki At last we emerged from the forests and entered the spacious vastness of the Minnusinsk steppes, crossed by the high red mountain range called the "Kizill-Kaiya" and dotted here and there 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... 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... grass and cranberries scattered through it, where the blackcock and sand partridges usually came to feed on the 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, suddenly one of the blackcock jumped up and the rest of the frightened flock immediately flew away To my astonishment the... solitude Spring very quickly came into her rights and soon my mountain 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 One day during the hunt, I approached the bank of the river and noticed many very large fish with red backs,... 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... 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,... Siberia and its geography, I decided that the best way to safety was 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 CHAPTER VII 19 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. .. 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 his blouse Soon I noticed his forehead was wet with perspiration and that he was wiping it and his neck on his sleeves "Now it is good and warm!" he exclaimed In a short time I was also forced to take off my overcoat and soon lay down to sleep without any covering... gold mine and had become 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 in the bank and that he had been selling gold to the Government Here . XLVII<p> CHAPTER XLVIII<p> CHAPTER XLIX<p> Beasts, Men and Gods Project Gutenberg Etext Beasts, Men and Gods, by F. Ossendowski Copyright laws are changing. Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* Beasts, Men and Gods 2 Information on