prince djam bolon asked a maramba to show us the library of theliving buddha. it is a big room occupied by scores of writers whoprepare the works dealing with the miracles of all the livingbuddhas, beginning with undur gheghen and ending with those of thegheghens and hutuktus of the different mongol monasteries. thesebooks 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 avalley in which many thousands of thousands of warriors fought oneagainst another. . . .""the wise and favored-of-the-gods living buddha burned incense in abrazier and prayed to the gods to reveal the lot of the princes.
in the blue smoke all saw a dark prison and the pallid, torturedbodies of the dead princes. . . ."a special book, already done into thousands of copies, dwelt uponthe miracles of the present living buddha. prince djam bolondescribed to me some of the contents of this volume.
"there exists an ancient wooden buddha with open eyes. he wasbrought here from india and bogdo gheghen placed him on the altarand began to pray. when he returned from the shrine, he orderedthe 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 appeared; and the bogdo said:
"'woe and joy are awaiting me. i shall become blind but mongoliawill be free.'
"the prophecy is fulfilled. at another time, on a day when theliving buddha was very much excited, he ordered a basin of waterbrought and set before the altar. he called the lamas and began topray. suddenly the altar candles and lamps lighted themselves andthe water in the basin became iridescent."afterwards the prince described to me how the bogdo khan tellsfortunes with fresh blood, upon whose surface appear words andpictures; with the entrails of sheep and goats, according to whosedistribution the bogdo reads the fate of the princes and knowstheir thoughts; with stones and bones from which the living buddhawith great accuracy reads the lot of all men; and by the stars, inaccordance with whose positions the bogdo prepares amulets againstbullets and disease.
"the former bogdo khans told fortunes only by the use of the 'blackstone,'" said the maramba. "on the surface of the stone appearedtibetan inscriptions which the bogdo read and thus learned the lotof whole nations."when the maramba spoke of the black stone with the tibetan legendsappearing on it, i at once recalled that it was possible. insoutheastern urianhai, in ulan taiga, i came across a place whereblack slate was decomposing. all the pieces of this slate werecovered with a special white lichen, which formed very complicateddesigns, reminding me of a venetian lace pattern or whole pages ofmysterious runes. when the slate was wet, these designsdisappeared; and then, as they were dried, the patterns came outagain.
nobody has the right or dares to ask the living buddha to tell hisfortune. he predicts only when he feels the inspiration or when aspecial delegate comes to him bearing a request for it from thedalai lama or the tashi lama. when the russian czar, alexander i,fell under the influence of baroness kzudener and of her extrememysticism, he despatched a special envoy to the living buddha toask about his destiny. the then bogdo khan, quite a young man,told his fortune according to the "black stone" and predicted thatthe white czar would finish his life in very painful wanderingsunknown to all and everywhere pursued. in russia today thereexists a popular belief that alexander i spent the last days of hislife as a wanderer throughout russia and siberia under thepseudonym of feodor kusmitch, helping and consoling prisoners,beggars and other suffering people, often pursued and imprisoned bythe police and finally dying at tomsk in siberia, where even untilnow they have preserved the house where he spent his last days andhave kept his grave sacred, a place of pilgrimages and miracles.
the former dynasty of romanoff was deeply interested in thebiography of feodor kusmitch and this interest fixed the opinionthat kusmitch was really the czar alexander i, who had voluntarilytaken upon himself this severe penance.
