we rested soundly in the yurta after the two days of travel whichhad brought us one hundred seventy miles through the snow and sharpcold. round the evening meal of juicy mutton we were talkingfreely 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 mediumheight, very heavy set mongol in deerskin overcoat and cap withside flaps and the long, wide tying strings of the same material.
under his girdle lay the same large knife in the green sheath whichwe had seen on the departing horseman.
"amoursayn," we answered.
he quickly untied his girdle and laid aside his overcoat. he stoodbefore us in a wonderful gown of silk, yellow as beaten gold andgirt with a brilliant blue sash. his cleanly shaven face, shorthair, red coral rosary on the left hand and his yellow garmentproved clearly that before us stood some high lama priest,--with abig colt under his blue sash!
i turned to my host and tzeren and read in their faces fear andveneration. the stranger came over to the brazier and sat down.
"let's speak russian," he said and took a bit of meat.
the conversation began. the stranger began to find fault with thegovernment of the living buddha in urga.
"there they liberate mongolia, capture urga, defeat the chinesearmy and here in the west they give us no news of it. we arewithout action here while the chinese kill our people and stealfrom them. i think that bogdo khan might send us envoys. how isit the chinese can send their envoys from urga and kiakhta tokobdo, asking for assistance, and the mongol government cannot doit? 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 theground."he laughed again and glanced around peculiarly with his blazingeyes. only then did i notice that his cheekbones and eyes hadlines strange to the mongols of central asia. he looked more likea tartar or a kirghiz. we were silent and smoked our pipes.
"how soon will the detachment of chahars leave uliassutai?" heasked.
we answered that we had not heard about them. our guest explainedthat from inner mongolia the chinese authorities had sent out astrong detachment, mobilized from among the most warlike tribe ofchahars, which wander about the region just outside the great wall.
its chief was a notorious hunghutze leader promoted by the chinesegovernment to the rank of captain on promising that he would bringunder subjugation to the chinese authorities all the tribes of thedistricts of kobdo and urianhai. when he learned whither we weregoing and for what purpose, he said he could give us the mostaccurate news and relieve us from the necessity of going farther.
"besides that, it is very dangerous," he said, "because kobdo willbe massacred and burned. i know this positively."when he heard of our unsuccessful attempt to pass through tibet, hebecame attentive and very sympathetic 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 thenarabanchi hutuktu. with my laissez-passer you could have goneanywhere in tibet. i am tushegoun lama."tushegoun lama! how many extraordinary tales i had heard abouthim. he is a russian kalmuck, who because of his propaganda workfor the independence of the kalmuck people made the acquaintance ofmany russian prisons under the czar and, for the same cause, addedto his list under the bolsheviki. he escaped to mongolia and atonce attained to great influence among the mongols. it was nowonder, for he was a close friend and pupil of the dalai lama inpotala (lhasa), was the most learned among the lamites, a famousthaumaturgist and doctor. he occupied an almost independentposition in his relationship with the living buddha and achieved tothe leadership of all the old wandering tribes of western mongoliaand zungaria, even extending his political domination over themongolian tribes of turkestan. his influence was irresistible,based as it was on his great control of mysterious science, as heexpressed it; but i was also told that it has its foundationlargely in the panicky fear which he could produce in the mongols.
everyone who disobeyed his orders perished. such an one never knewthe day or the hour when, in his yurta or beside his gallopinghorse on the plains, the strange and powerful friend of the dalailama would appear. the stroke of a knife, a bullet or strongfingers strangling the neck like a vise accomplished the justice ofthe plans of this miracle worker.
without the walls of the yurta the wind whistled and roared anddrove the frozen snow sharply against the stretched felt. throughthe roar of the wind came the sound of many voices in mingledshouting, wailing and laughter. i felt that in such surroundingsit were not difficult to dumbfound a wandering nomad with miracles,because nature herself had prepared the setting for it. thisthought had scarcely time to flash through my mind before tushegounlama suddenly raised his head, looked sharply at me and said:
"there is very much unknown in nature and the skill of using theunknown produces the miracle; but the power is given to few. iwant to prove it to you and you may tell me afterwards whether youhave seen it before or not."he stood up, pushed back the sleeves of his yellow garment, seizedhis knife and strode across to the shepherd.
"michik, stand up!" he ordered.
when the shepherd had risen, the lama quickly unbuttoned his coatand bared the man's chest. i could not yet understand what was hisintention, when suddenly the tushegoun with all his force struckhis knife into the chest of the shepherd. the mongol fell allcovered with blood, a splash of which i noticed on the yellow silkof the lama's coat.
"what have you done?" i exclaimed.
"sh! be still," he whispered turning to me his now quite blanchedface.
with a few strokes of the knife he opened the chest of the mongoland i saw the man's lungs softly breathing and the distinctpalpitations of the heart. the lama touched these organs with hisfingers but no more blood appeared to flow and the face of theshepherd was quite calm. he was lying with his eyes closed andappeared to be in deep and quiet sleep. as the lama began to openhis abdomen, i shut my eyes in fear and horror; and, when i openedthem a little while later, i was still more dumbfounded at seeingthe shepherd with his coat still open and his breast normal,quietly sleeping on his side and tushegoun lama sitting peacefullyby the brazier, smoking his pipe and looking into the fire in deepthought.
"it is wonderful!" i confessed. "i have never seen anything likeit!""about what are you speaking?" asked the kalmuck.
"about your demonstration or 'miracle,' as you call it," ianswered.
"i never said anything like that," refuted the kalmuck, withcoldness 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 oftushegoun lama; but i preferred this to seeing an innocentmongolian die, for i had not believed that tushegoun lama, afterslashing open the bodies of his victims, could repair them again soreadily.
the following day we took leave of our hosts. we decided toreturn, inasmuch as our mission was accomplished; and tushegounlama explained to us that he would "move through space." hewandered over all mongolia, lived both in the single, simple yurtaof the shepherd and hunter and in the splendid tents of the princesand tribal chiefs, surrounded by deep veneration and panic-fear,enticing and cementing to him rich and poor alike with his miraclesand prophecies. when bidding us adieu, the kalmuck sorcerer slylysmiled and said:
"do not give any information about me to the chinese authorities."afterwards he added: "what happened to you yesterday evening was afutile demonstration. you europeans will not recognize that wedark-minded nomads possess the powers of mysterious science. ifyou could only see the miracles and power of the most holy tashilama, when at his command the lamps and candles before the ancientstatue of buddha light themselves and when the ikons of the godsbegin to speak and prophesy! but there exists a more powerful andmore holy man. . .""is it the king of the world in agharti?" i interrupted.
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 oneman knows his holy name; only one man now living was ever inagharti. that is i. this is the reason why the most holy dalailama 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 thehighest priest in lhasa nor reach that which has come down fromjenghiz khan to the head of our yellow faith. i am no monk. i ama warrior and avenger."he jumped smartly into the saddle, whipped his horse and whirledaway, flinging out as he left the common mongolian phrase of adieu:
"sayn! sayn-bayna!"on the way back tzeren related to us the hundreds of legendssurrounding tushegoun lama. one tale especially remained in mymind. it was in 1911 or 1912 when the mongols by armed force triedto attain their liberty in a struggle with the chinese. thegeneral chinese headquarters in western mongolia was kobdo, wherethey had about ten thousand soldiers under the command of theirbest officers. the command to capture kobdo was sent to hunbaldon, a simple shepherd who had distinguished himself in fightswith the chinese and received from the living buddha the title ofprince of hun. ferocious, absolutely without fear and possessinggigantic strength, baldon had several times led to the attack hispoorly armed mongols but each time had been forced to retreat afterlosing many of his men under the machine-gun fire. unexpectedlytushegoun lama arrived. he collected all the soldiers and thensaid to them:
"you must not fear death and must not retreat. you are fightingand dying for mongolia, for which the gods have appointed a greatdestiny. see what the fate of mongolia will be!"he made a great sweeping gesture with his hand and all the soldierssaw the country round about set with rich yurtas and pasturescovered with great herds of horses and cattle. on the plainsappeared numerous horsemen on richly saddled steeds. the womenwere gowned in the finest of silk with massive silver rings intheir ears and precious ornaments in their elaborate head dresses.
chinese merchants led an endless caravan of merchandise up todistinguished looking mongol saits, surrounded by the gaily dressedtzirik or soldiers and proudly negotiating with the merchants fortheir wares.
shortly the vision disappeared and tushegoun began to speak.
"do not fear death! it is a release from our labor on earth andthe path to the state of constant blessings. look to the east! doyou see your brothers and friends who have fallen in battle?""we see, we see!" the mongol warriors exclaimed in astonishment, asthey all looked upon a great group of dwellings which might havebeen yurtas or the arches of temples flushed with a warm and kindlylight. red and yellow silk were interwoven in bright bands thatcovered the walls and floor, everywhere the gilding on pillars andwalls gleamed brightly; on the great red altar burned the thinsacrificial candles in gold candelabra, beside the massive silvervessels filled with milk and nuts; on soft pillows about the floorsat the mongols who had fallen in the previous attack on kobdo.
before them stood low, lacquered tables laden with many dishes ofsteaming, succulent flesh of the lamb and the kid, with high jugsof wine and tea, with plates of borsuk, a kind of sweet, richcakes, with aromatic zatouran covered with sheep's fat, with bricksof dried cheese, with dates, raisins and nuts. these fallensoldiers smoked golden pipes and chatted gaily.
this vision in turn also disappeared and before the gazing mongolsstood only the mysterious kalmuck with his hand upraised.
"to battle and return not without victory! i am with you in thefight."the attack began. the mongols fought furiously, perished by thehundreds but not before they had rushed into the heart of kobdo.
then was re-enacted the long forgotten picture of tartar hordesdestroying european towns. hun baldon ordered carried over him atriangle of lances with brilliant red streamers, a sign that hegave up the town to the soldiers for three days. murder andpillage began. all the chinese met their death there. the townwas burned and the walls of the fortress destroyed. afterwards hunbaldon came to uliassutai and also destroyed the chinese fortressthere. the ruins of it still stand with the broken embattlementsand towers, the useless gates and the remnants of the burnedofficial quarters and soldiers' barracks.
