 Glossary for Beasts, Men, and Gods. This glossary is provided so that you may understand some of the strange-sounding words that will be introduced during the narration of this book. These are taken from Russian and Mongolian, Chinese, and Tibetan words or places. I've extracted those from the written glossary which are most appropriate for your understanding. This part is optional and may be skipped, if you wish. Agrinom Russian for a Trained Agriculturalist Amor Sain means Goodbye Ataman, the Headman or Chief of the Cossacks Bandi, a pupil or student of the theological school in the Buddhist faith Buriat, the most civilized Mongol tribe living in the valley of the Selengah in Transbikalia Chahars, a warlike Mongolian tribe living along the Great Wall of China in Inner Mongolia Cheka, the Bolshevik Counter-Revolutionary Committee, the most relentless establishment of the Bolsheviki, organized for the persecution of the enemies of the communist government in Russia Chiang Chun, 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 Lahasa in Tibet Dijunggar, a West Mongolian tribe Dugun, Chinese Commercial and Military Post Fang Su, Chinese for House, Fatil, a very rare and precious root much prized in Chinese and Tibetan medicines Feltcher, assistant of a doctor or surgeon Gailong, Lamaite priest having the right to offer sacrifices to God Gaitul, the third rank in the Lamaite monks Goro, the High Priest of the King of the World Hatik, an oblong piece of blue or yellow silk cloth presented to honored guests, chiefs, llamas and gods also a kind of coin worth from 25 to 50 cents Hong, a Chinese mercantile establishment Hun, the lowest rank of princes Hung Hutsi, Chinese Brigand Hushun, a fenced enclosure containing the houses, paddocks, stores, stables, etc. of Russian Cossacks in Mongolia Hutuktu, the highest rank of Lamaite monks, the form of any incarnated God, Holy Kaumuk, a Mongolian tribe which migrated from Mongolia under Genghis Khan where they were known as the Olets or Eluths and now live in the Urals and on the shores of the Volga in Russia Kampo, the abbot of a Lamaite monastery, a monk, also the first rank of white clergy, not monks Kampo Gailong, the highest rank of Gailongs, an honorary title Karma, the Buddhist materialization of the idea of fate, a parallel with the Greek and Roman nemesis Khan, a king Kyrgyz, the great Mongol nation living between the river Ertysh in western Siberia like Balhash and the Volga in Russia Lama, the common name for a Lamaite priest Maramba, a doctor of theology Olm Manipadme Hung Olm has two meanings. It is the name of the first Goro and also means hail In this connection, hail, great Lama in the lotus flower Nagan Hushun, a Chinese vegetable garden or enclosure in Mongolia Noyan, a prince or Khan in polite address it means chief or excellency Obo, the sacred and propitiatory signs in all the dangerous places in Yuryanhai, Mongolia Orochans, a Mongolian tribe living near the shores of the Amir River in Siberia Urtan, a post station where the travelers change horses and ulacians Pandita, the high rank of Buddhist monks Pogrom, a wholesale slaughter of unarmed people, a massacre Paspa, the founder of the yellow sect predominating now in the Lamaite faith Sait, a Mongolian governor Taiga, a Siberian word for forest Talama, literally the great priest but it means now a doctor of medicine Tashur, a strong bamboo stick Tsa-gan, white Sa-ra, a document giving the right to receive horses and ulacians at the post stations Tsuren, a doctor poisoner Ulan, red Urga, the name of the capital of Mongolia, also a kind of Mongolian lasso Yurta, the common Mongolian tent or house made of felt Zahashin, a West Mongolian wandering tribe Zaberega, the ice mountains formed along the shores of a river in spring Zikarat, a high tower of Babylonish style It's not necessary to go over this glossary and try to memorize it For most of these words are again introduced in the text But being introduced to them here now will give you increased familiarity when you do run across them Chapter 1 of Beasts, Men, and Gods By Ferdinand Ossendowski This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org This recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina Beasts, Men, and Gods By Ferdinand Ossendowski 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 Attributed to Titus Livius Chapter 1 of Beasts, Men, and Gods In the beginning of the year 1920, I happened to be living in the Siberian town of Krasnyarsk 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 Sewing in this peaceful and rich land vengeance, hate, bloodshedding crimes that go unpunished by the law No one could tell the hour of his fate The people live 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 medieval 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 axe, 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 sabers 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 Ostracan 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 axe 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 gray 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 axe on the floor below What? Is it your wife? asked one of the drunken soldiers pointing to the axe 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 axe 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 unsettle 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 awaken the broad daylight and find my stranger gone I went outside the hut and discovered him settling 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 blackhawk 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 Yenisai 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 Come on Nuzhne et Tovarishi, 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 End of chapter Chapter 2 of Beasts, Men and Gods This LibriVox recording is in the public domain and is read by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina Beasts, Men and Gods by Ferdinand Ossendowski Chapter 2 The Secret of My Fellow Traveler At the dawn of day we started forth, leaving my first place of refuge Into the bags we packed our personal estate and fastened them on one of the saddles We must go four or five hundred bursts 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 remarked 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 heath-cock flew from the trees very idly, hairs 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 bordered by heavy trees where we found fallen firs Cut them into logs for the fire and, having boiled our tea, dined Ivan dragged in two tree-trunks, squared them on one side with his axe 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 vis-à-vis Now there will be a fire in the morning, he announced This is the naïda of the gold prospectors We prospectors wandering the woods summer and winter always sleep beside this naïda 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 naïda Above our roof of boughs and our naïda 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 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 at all While through the branches of the fir trees and our roof glimmered the cold bright stars And just beyond the naïda raged a stinging cold from which we were cosely defended After this night I was no longer frightened by the cold Frozen during the days on horseback I was thoroughly warmed through by the genial naïda at night And rested from my heavy overcoat, sitting 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 Transpicalia 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 countries the richest gold mines While they themselves remain beggars He evaded telling me why he left Transpicalia 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 travelled 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 unsuspecting 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 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? 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 needed his brows but exceeded It was growing dark when we approached the hut surrounded 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 course 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 corner 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 consequently 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 Transpacalia 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 Yenisai and disappeared After five years we heard that he had found a very rich gold mine and had become a rich man Then later than 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 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 lured 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 suffering and crime And on the seventh day of our journey we came to the dense cedar wood growing on the foothills of a long chain of mountains From here, Ivan explained to me, it is eighty bursts to the next peasant settlement The people come to these woods to gather cedar nuts, but only in the autumn Before then you will not meet anyone Also you will find many birds and beasts and a plentiful supply of nuts So that it will be possible for you to live 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 knighta In that snow-covered den I spent two months like summer Without 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 companions 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 End of chapter Chapter 3 of Beasts, Men and Gods This LibriVox recording is in the public domain and is read by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina Beasts, Men and Gods By Ferdinand Ossendowski Chapter 3 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 Tiberian 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 people where Ivan could have safely left me 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 these forests which stretch 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 And there the squirrels were continually kicking up a row, jumping from tree to tree The nut-jobbers cried shrilly A flock of bullfinches with common breasts swept through the trees like a flame Or a small army of goldfinches broke in and filled the amphitheater of trees with their whistling 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 Carefully treading the hard-crusted snow approached 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 mountain Which reached up out of the forest and from which I could look away to the range of red on the horizon It was the red cliff on the farther bank 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 Yvonne had guided me here And as the days in this solitude slipped by I began to miss sorely this 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 bearing them I thought sometimes, if I had to meet my end in this place, that I would spend my last strength 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 reflection and yet more occupation for the physical side It was a continuous struggle for existence, hard and severe 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 away 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 falling 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 axe, 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 Blackcock 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 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 300 steps Stop on the slope of the mountain It was a splendid animal with dark gray 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 kilometers from my den There was a small swamp covered with grass and cranberries scattered through it Where the black cock and sand partridges usually came to feed on the berries I approached noiselessly behind the bushes and saw a whole flock of black cock scratching in the snow and picking out the berries While I was surveying this scene suddenly one of the black cock jumped up and the rest of the frightened flock immediately flew away To my astonishment the first bird began going straight up in a spiral flight and afterwards dropping directly down dead When I approached there sprang from the body of the slaying 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 moral 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 water appeared Another day I saw a fly or a spider awakened after the hard winter The spring was coming I realised that in spring it was impossible to go out from the forest Every river overflowed 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 rites 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 anthills The river in places broke its covering of ice And was coursing full with foam and bubbles End of chapter Chapters four and five of Beasts, Men and Gods This LibriVox recording is in the public domain And is read by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina Beast, Men and Gods By Ferdinand Ossendowski Chapter four, A Fisherman One 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 swimming 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 upstream For the spawning season in the smaller rivers I thought to use a plundering method of catching 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 upstream side a high basket Plated from soft willow twigs Into which the fish came as they passed the hole Then I stood cruelly by and hit them On the head with a strong stick All my catch were over thirty pounds Some more than eighty This variety of fish is called the Taiman is of the trout family And is the best in the Innoci After two weeks the fish had passed And my basket gave me no more treasure So I began anew the hunt Chapter five A dangerous neighbor The hunt became more and more profitable And enjoyable as spring animated everything In the morning at the break of day The forest was full of voices Strange and undesernable to the inhabit Of the town There the heathblock clucked And sang his song of love As he sat on the top branches of the cedar And admired the gray 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 Going out was and euthanasia For he was in love and heard nothing Out in the clearing the blackcocks With their widespread 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 the short and broken voice Of the mountain buck Among the bushes frolicked the hairs And often near them a red fox lay flattened To the ground watching his chants 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 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 I stopped in 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 asked a 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 axe 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 hybridating place He was the so-called ant eater 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 making dumb-dums out of them A sufficiently intelligible argument For so unwelcome a guest Putting on my coat I went to the place Where I had first met the bear In the woods I made a detour of the whole mountain Looked in all the ravines But nowhere found my collar Disappointed and tired I was approaching my shelter Quite off my guard When I suddenly discovered the king Of the forest himself Just coming 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 But immediately dragging the leg And endeavouring 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 steaks Which I rolled and roasted on hot stones Watching them swell out into great balls That were as light as the finest souffle omelettes Used to have at the MedVed in Petrograd On this welcome addition 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 Wither Yvonne had directed me Ever travelling 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 Forting the small streams And wading through the swamps That lay across my path After fifty odd miles of this I came to the country called Sivkova Where I found the cabin of a peasant named Tropov Located closest to the forest That came to be my natural environment With him I lived for a time Now in these unimaginable surroundings Of safety and 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 sufficient science And willpower to carry him through But the price that the cultured man Must pay is that for him 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 a man In conditions incident to the struggle Against nature for existence It is the single normal way To develop a new generation of strong Healthy iron men With at the same time Sensitive souls Nature destroys the weak But helps the strong Awakening in the soul emotions Which remain dormant Under the urban conditions of modern life End of chapter Chapter 6 Men and Gods This LibriVox recording Is in the public domain And is read by Mark Smith Of Simpsonville, South Carolina Beasts, men and gods By Ferdinand Ossendowski Chapter 6 A river in travail My presence in the Sifcova 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 trustworthy To my friends in the town That I had left and received from them Men in boots, money And a small case of first aid materials And essential medicines And what was most important A passport and 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 Sifcova The people heard that the Bolshevik commissar Would come for the requisition of cattle For the Red Army It was dangerous to remain longer I waited only until the Enesai 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 rubles 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 magnificent scene The river had brought down The great volume of ice That had been dislodged in the south And was carrying it northward Under the thick layer Which still covered parts of the stream Until finally its weight had broken And left and released the whole Grand mass in one last rush For the arctic The Yenisai Father Yenisai Hero Yenisai Is one of the longest rivers in Asia Deep and magnificent Especially through the middle range Of its course Where it is flanked and held In canyon-like by great towering ranges The huge stream had brought down Whole miles of ice fields Breaking them up on the rapids Twisting them with angry swirls Throwing up sections of the black winter roads Carrying down the tepees built For the use of passing caravans Which in the winter always go from Minyu Sinksk to Krasnoyarsk On the 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 and 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 Gifts and banks Tearing out boulders, earth and trees High up the sides All along the low embankments This giant of nature Flung upward with a suddenness That leaves man but a pygmy Enforce a great wall of ice Fifteen to twenty feet high Which the peasants called Saburega And through which they cannot get to the river Without cutting out a road One incredible feat I saw The giant perform The ice hurled through the air And dropped to crush saplings And little trees more than 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 Enesai bore away In this annual retreat These were the bodies of the Executed counter-revolutionaries Officers, soldiers And Cossacks of the former army Of the superior governor Admiral Kolchak They were the results of the bloody work Of the Chaika at Minusinsk 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 Looking for their graves Or turning in the furious whirlpools 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 sandbars I passed the whole length Of the middle Enesai 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 burst 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 shapes and attitudes With a semblance of naturalness Which made an everlasting picture Of 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 fisherman and his son Put me and my luggage into their dugout Made from an aspen tree And polled upstream along the bank Polling 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 cliffs And making headway only by clutching And dragging along slowly Sometimes it took us a long while To do five or six meters 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 Super-intended 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 Knowing the position in Siberia And its geography I decided that the best way to safety Was through Uryanhai The northern part of Mongolia On the headwaters of the Yenisai Then through Mongolia And out to the Far East I had received a commission To investigate Uryanhai 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 End of chapter Chapters 7 and 8 Of Beasts, Men, and Gods This LibriVox recording Is in the public domain In the center of Simpsonville, South Carolina Beasts, Men, and Gods By Ferdinand Asandosky Chapter 7 Through Soviet Siberia After several days We started through the forest On the left bank of the Yenisai Avoiding 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 In the skies And we saw that they hated the Bocheviki Who had destroyed many of their villages In one place we were told That a detachment of red troops Had been sent out from Minusynx To chase the whites We were forced to work far back From the shore of the Yenisai And to hide in the woods and mountains Here we remained nearly a fortnight Because all this time The red soldiers were traversing the country And capturing in the woods Half dressed, unarmed officers With the atrocious vengeance of the Bocheviki Afterwards, by accident We passed a meadow Where we found the bodies of 28 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 Bocheviki To prevent this We had our weapons And a supply of cyanide of potassium Passing along one branch of the Yenisai Once we saw a narrow, myery pass 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 was 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 They were called Popoleev 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 conserved tins The tale of the bantering feast That had preceded the destruction of this life The further we went to the south The more pronouncedly hospitable The people became toward us And the more hostile to the Bolsheviks At last we emerged from the forests And entered the spacious vastness Of the Minyusinsk steppes Crossed by the high red mountain range Called the Kizilkaya And dotted here and there with salt lakes It is a country of tombs And thousands of large and small dolmens The tombs of the earliest proprietors Of this land Pyramids of stone ten meters high The mark set by Genghis Khan Along his road of conquest And afterwards by the cripple Tamerlane Timur Thousands of these dolmens And stone pyramids stretch An endless rose to the north In these plains the Tartars now live They were robbed by the Bolsheviks 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 Yenisai Upon the first steamer, the Oriole From Krasnoyarsk to Minyusinsk Laid in with red soldiers Soon we came to the mouth Of the river Tuba Where we were to follow straight east To the Sayan Mountains We thought the stage along the Tuba And its branch, the Amil The most dangerous part of our course Because the valleys of these two rivers Had a dense population Which had contributed large numbers Of soldiers to the celebrated Communist partisans Shatynkin and Kravcheno A Tartar ferried us And our horses over to the right bank Of the Yenisai And afterwards sent us some Cossacks At Daybreak Where we spent the whole day in rest Gratifying ourselves with a feast Of wild black currents and cherries Chapter 8 Three days on the edge of a precipice Armed with our false passports We moved along up the valley of the Tuba Every ten or fifteen bursts We came across large villages Of from one to six hundred houses Where all administration was in the Hands of Soviets And where spies scrutinized all passersby 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 Minyusinsk Where we should have sung our last song Secondly, in his documents My fellow traveler was granted Permission to use the government Post relays for forwarding him On his journey We were forced to visit the village Soviets and change our horses Our own mounts we had given to the Tartar and Kossak Who helped us at the mouth of the Tuba And the Kossak brought us in his wagon To the first village Where we received the post-horses All except a small minority of the 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 management Those who helped us chiefly Were the old dissenters and the Kossaks Sometimes we came across villages Entirely communistic But very soon we learned to distinguish them When we entered a village Where their 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 But if the peasants approached And greeted us with pleasure Calling 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 Keratuz It is rather a town In the year 1912 Two colleges were opened here And the population reached 15,000 people It is the capital of the South Yenisei Kossaks But by now it is very difficult To recognize this town The peasant emigrants and red army Murdered all the Kossak 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 Menusynk 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 It is great good fortune That among the Bolsheviks The good for nothing shoemaker of yesterday Is the governor of today And scientists sweep the streets Or clean the stables of the red cavalry I can talk with the Bolsheviks Because they do not know the difference Between disinfection and diphtheria Anthracite and 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 About the Cheka Rounded to everything that we wanted We presented to them a bright scheme For the future development of their district When we would build the roads and bridges Which would allow them to export the wood From Yurianhai Iron and gold from the Sayon 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 Amil Happiness smiled on us Near the ferry we met a member Of the militia from Keratuz He had on his wagon several rifles And automatic pistols Mostly Mausers For outfitting an expedition In quest of some Kossak 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 militia man 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 militia man If you have no other trousers I remarked Reflecting upon my plan of attack Against my new friend No, he explained with sadness The Soviet does not furnish trousers They tell me they also go without trousers And my trousers are absolutely worn out Look at them With these words He threw back the corner of his overcoat And I was astonished how he could keep himself Inside these trousers For they had 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 afterwards, approaching me, said Let us go outdoors and talk Here it is Inconvenient We went outside Now, what about it? He began You are going into Yurianhai There the Soviet banknotes 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 We do 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 outright Ah, that's it, is it? But it's very little for those trousers Nowhere in Russia Can you now find trousers All Russia goes without trousers And for your rifle I should receive a sable And what used to me is one skin Word by word I attain 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 Amel Toward the Siyan Mountains On the border of Yuryanhai There we hoped not to meet Bolsheviki Either Sly or Silly In three days from the mountain In three days from the mouth of the tuba We passed the last Russian village Near the Mongolian-Yuryanhai border Three days of constant contact With a lawless population Of continuous danger And of the ever-present possibility Of fortuitous death Only iron willpower, presence of mind And dogged tenacity Brought us through all the dangers And saved us from rolling back down Our precipice of adventure At whose foot lay so many others Who had failed to make the 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, bridges and gold mines Or perhaps they simply had no spare trousers End of chapter Chapter nine of Beasts, Men and Gods This LibriVox recording is in the public domain And is read by Mark Smith Of Simpsonville, South Carolina Beasts, Men and Gods By Ferdinand Ossendowski Chapter nine To the scyands and safety Dense virgin wood surrounded us In the high already yellow grass The trail wound hardly noticeable in Among bushes and trees Just beginning to drop their many colored leaves It is the old, already forgotten Amill Pass Road Twenty-five years ago it carried the provisions, machinery And workers for the numerous, now abandoned Gold mines of the Amill Valley The road now wound along the wide and rapid Amill 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 looking down at the ground Would say, three riders on horses with shoes on Have passed here, perhaps they were soldiers His anxiety was terminated 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 travelling company 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 watchmen lived at the mine In continuing danger and privation They told us that in this forest region Were wandering about a band of reds Who were robbing anything 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 Siyan chain Passed the border river Algyak And after this day were abroad In the territory of Yuryanhai This wonderful land Rich in most diverse forms of natural wealth Is inhabited by a branch of the Mongols Which is now only 60,000 And which is gradually dying off Speaking a language quite different From any of the other dialects of this folk And holding as their life ideal The tenet of eternal peace Yuryanhai long ago became the scene Of administrative attempts by Russians, Mongols and Chinese All of whom claim sovereignty In a region whose unfortunate inhabitants The Siyots had to pay tribute To all three of these overlords It was due to this that the land Was not an entirely safe refuge for us We had heard already from our militia man About the expedition Preparing to go into Yuryanhai 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 62 officers Attempting to pass Yuryanhai 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 a way to get back Before the snows should block his road Over the Siyons The master of the establishment Agreed to guide us to the Sabai river For 10,000 rubles in Soviet notes Our horses were tired And we were forced to give them a rest So we decided to spend 24 hours here We were drinking tea When the daughter of our host cried The Siyots 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 Their 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 About Bolsheviki We will help you I thanked him And presented him with a thick silk cord Which I was wearing as a girdle Before night they left us Saying that they would return in the morning 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 Something unpleasant and cold Rolled up into my throat And my heart hammered We knew the reds as our enemies These men had the red stars On their Ostracan caps And red triangles on their sleeves They were members of the detachment That was out to look for Cossack officers Scowling at us They took off their overcoats Down We first opened the conversation Explaining the purpose of our journey And 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 Seibai River Where they thought the Cossack officers Must be hidden Immediately I remarked that our affairs Were moving fortunately And that we must travel along together One of the soldiers replied That that would depend upon the comrade officer During our conversation The Soyut governor entered Very attentively He studied again the new arrivals And then asked Why did you take from the Soyuts The good horses and leave bad ones The soldiers laughed at him Remember that you are in a foreign country Answered the Soyut With a threat in his voice God and the devil Cried one of the soldiers But the Soyut Very calmly took a seat at the table And accepted the cup of tea The hostess was preparing for him The conversation ceased The Soyut finished the tea Smoked his long pipe And standing up said If tomorrow morning the horses Are not back at the owners We shall come and take them And with these words he turned And went out With 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 Soyut He knitted his brows and said It's a bad mess We must travel through the swamp Where a Soyut will be behind Every mound watching us He seemed really very anxious And paying much attention to us I began to calm him And promised on the morrow To arrange this matter with the Soyuts 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 Soyut Could prevent him from reaching the Sabai At daybreak We started together with the red detachment When we had made about 15 kilometers We discovered behind the bushes Two riders They were Soyuts On their backs were their flint rifles Wait for me I said to the officer I shall go for a parlay with them I went forward with all the speed Of my horse One of the horsemen was the Soyut Governor Who said to me Remain behind the detachment And help us All right I answered After a moment I shook the hand of the Soyut And returned to the soldiers All right I exclaimed We can now continue our journey No hindrance will come from the Soyuts We moved forward And when we were crossing a large meadow We aspired at a long distance Two Soyuts riding at full gallop Right up the side of a mountain Step by step I accomplished the necessary maneuver To bring me and my fellow traveler Somewhat behind the detachment Their backs remained only one soldier Very brutish in appearance And apparently very hostile to us I had time to whisper to my companion Only 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 soldiers Excellent woodsmen as they were Would not attempt to go to the Sabai Without a guide All the country between the Algiac And the Sabai 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 and the quagmiers Then falling and pinning us under their sides Breaking parts of their saddles and bridles Then we would go in up to the rider's knees My horse went down once With his whole breast and head Down to 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 Some were dimly and gloomily A crow-cod Later the road became worse still The trail followed through the same Myri swamp but everywhere the road Was blocked with fallen tree trunks The horses jumping over the trunks Would land in an unexpectedly deep hole In flounder We and all the soldiers were covered With blood and mud And were in great fear of exhausting 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 quagmiar with apparently no bottom The whole surface of the meadow was but a thin layer of turf Covering a lake with black putrefying water When we finally learned to open our column And proceed at big intervals We found that 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 Flaubert rifle But they were 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 raised his rifle and aimed right at me However my Mauser out strode 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 scyots Stripping the fallen, dividing the spoils And recapturing their horses In some forms of warfare It is never safe to leave any of the enemy To renew hostilities 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, scyots are not a too peaceful people I remarked, approaching the governor He looked at me very sharply and replied It was not scyots who did the killing He was right It was the abacan tartars and scyot clothes Who killed the Bolsheviks These tartars were running their herds Of cattle and horses down out of Russia Through Yeryanhai to Mongolia They had as their guide and negotiator A Kalmak Lamaite And they had as their guide and negotiator A Kalmak Lamaite The following morning we were approaching A small settlement of Russian columnists 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 Izuber Which the Russian columnists 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 End of chapter Chapter 10 Of Beast's Men and Gods This LibriVox recording is in the public domain And is read by Mark Smith Of Subserville, South Carolina Beast's Men and Gods By Ferdinand Ossendowski Chapter 10 The Battle on the Sabie 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 mouser 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 attentivise And did not leave me and my friend alone With the host We could not, however, make out anything But then the soyaet governor came in And noticing our strained relations Began explaining in the soyaet language To the host all about us I beg your pardon, the columnist said But you know yourself that now For one honest man We have ten thousand men And robbers With this we began chatting more freely It appeared that our host knew That a band of Bolsheviki would attack him In the search for the band of Cossack officers Who were living in his house on and off He had heard also about the total loss Of one detachment However, 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 out of the house Of the old man But he did not know The large detachment of reds That was coming from the border Of the Yusinski 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 soyaet has come in And announced that the reds Are already crossing the Sabi And the Tartars are prepared for the fight We immediately went out to look over Our saddles and packs 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 the beating of the horses' hoofs And the brutish cries of the soldiers In a moment three of them burst 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 mousers And successfully For only one soldier in the rear By the door escaped And that merely to fall 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 Several soldiers ran to the house To help their comrades But this time we heard the regular Volley of the workman of our host They fired as though in a maneuver Calmly and accurately Five Reds soldiers lay on the road While the rest now kept to their ditch Before 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 sabie The workman of our host Eight in number Turned out to be officers Hiding from the Bolsheviks They asked permission 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 Sabie 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 And into a valley hidden from us By the intervening foothills There behind these hills flowed The little Yenisai The last large river before Reaching Mongolia proper About ten kilometers from the river We spied a column of smoke Rising up out of the wood Two of the officers slipped away To make an investigation For a long time that did not return And we, fearful lest something Had happened, moved off carefully In the direction of the smoke We were 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 teabees of branches And around these a crowd of fifty Or sixty men When we broke out of the forest All of them rushed forward Were the joyful welcome for us It appeared that it was a large Escape from Siberia Had lived in the houses of the Russian Colonists and rich peasants In Yuriyanhai What are you doing here? We asked with surprise Oh, you know nothing at all About what has been going on? Replied a fairly old man Who called himself Colonel Ostrowski In Yuriyanhai an order had been Issued from the military commissioner To mobilize all men over twenty-eight Years of age and everywhere Toward the town of Beletsartsk Are moving detachment 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 tarter Who was travelling with his Kalmak guide to his herds In western Mongolia We explained the aim of our journey And our intention to pass through This port on the Pacific The officers asked me to bring Them out with us I agreed Our reconnaissance proved to us That there were no partisans near The house of the peasant who was To ferry us over the little Yenisai We moved off at once in order To pass as quickly as possible This dangerous zone of the Yenisai And to sink ourselves into the Forest beyond It snowed but immediately thawed Before evening a cold north wind Late in the night our party reached The river Our colonists welcomed us And offered it once to ferry us over And swim the horses Although there was ice still floating Which had come down from the headwaters Of the stream During this conversation there was Present one of the peasants' workmen Red-haired and squint-eyed He kept moving around all the time And suddenly disappeared Our host noticed it and with fear 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 colonists 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 Yenisai in this place Is about 300 meters The stream is very rapid And the shore breaks away abruptly To the full depth of the stream The night was 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 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 meters 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 At last we reached the middle of the river Where the current became 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 suffering 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 in 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 Suddenly 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 reigned 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 lips 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 it 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 That brought all their burdens over Much farther down Our colonists landed with the supplies Without a moment's loss We tracked our things on the horses And continued our journey The wind was growing 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 we travelled on to put as much space As we could between ourselves And the partisans Passing about fifteen kilometres Through the forest To an open valley From which we could see 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 transport We dismounted and hid in the bushes In order to avoid attracting their attention All the day with a thermometer At zero and below We continued our journey At night reaching the mountains Covered with larch forests Where we made big fires Dried our clothes And warmed ourselves thoroughly The hungry horses did not leave the fires But stood right behind us With drooped heads and slept Very early in the morning Several soyats came to our camp Ulan Red Asked one of them No, no Exclaimed all our company Asked the question Yes, yes Said the tartar All our 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 Tanu Ola Occupied with their outposts All the border of Mongolia To stop and seize the peasants And soyats driving out their cattle I saw only one way To turn sharp to the southeast Past the swampy valley of the Buret Hei And reach the south shore of Lake Kosugol Which is already in the territory Of Mongolia proper It was very unpleasant news To the first Mongol post in Samgaltai Was not more than 60 miles from our camp While to Kosugol by the shortest line Not less than 275 The horses my friend and I were riding After having traveled more than 600 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 determined not to attempt To pass the Tanu 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 consulted with my friends And decided to go to Kosugol Our Khabni agreed to follow us After luncheon Consisting of soup with large lumps of meat Dry bread and tea We moved out About two o'clock The mountains began to rise up before us The southeast outspurs of the Tanu Ola Behind which lay the valley of Buret Hai End of chapter Chapter 11 of Beasts, Men and Gods This LibriVox recording is in the public domain And is read by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina Beasts, Men and Gods By Ferdinand Ossendowski Chapter 11 The Barrier of Red Partisans In 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 Toji had ordered them to drive the herds along the Buret Hai Into Mongolia Apprehending the pillaging of the red partisans They proceeded but were informed by some soyot hunters That this part of the Tanu Ola Was occupied by the partisans From the village of Vladmirovka Consequently they were forced to return We inquired from them the whereabouts Of these outposts And how many partisans were holding the mountain pass Over into Mongolia We sent out the tartar and the cowmuck For our reconnaissance While all of us prepared for the further advance By wrapping the feet of our horses in our shirts And by musling 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 yurtas 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 near to the top of this mountain I left our party and Taking with me my friend the tartar The cowmuck and two of the young officers Advanced From the mountain I saw about five hundred yards Ahead two fires At each of the fires Sat a soldier with his rifle And the others slept I did not want to fight with the partisans But we had to do away with these outposts And that without firing Or we should never get through the pass I did not believe the partisans Could afterwards track us Because the whole trail was thickly marked With the spurs of horses and cattle I 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 four feet 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 distinctly The fire and 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 outpost 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 Flashed through the air As my companion had seized him by the throat And swung him clearing to the bushes Where both figures disappeared In a second he reappeared 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 It is done, God and the devil When I was a boy I 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 Tanu Ola And descended again into a valley Covered with dense bushes And rivers and streams It was the headwaters of the burette high 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 soyaats Confirmed our supposition Here behind the Tanu Ola The soyaats had not seen the red soldiers We presented to these soyaats a brick of tea And saw them depart happy And sure that we were Sagan, a good people While our horses rested And grazed on the well-preserved 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 colonel Who with four officers Were so impressed by the absence Of reds south of the Tanu Ola That they determined to work westward to Kabdu And then on to the camp on the Emel River Where the Chinese authorities had interned Six thousand of the forces of General Bakic 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 Kosigal And thence out to the far east As neither side could persuade the other To abandon its ideas Our company was divided And the next day at noon We took leave 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 the warmest feelings of friendship The other group under Colonel Zhukov 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 pack horses Moved up the valley of the burette high We floundered in the swamps Passed innumerable mirey streams We're frozen by the cold winds And we're soaked through by the snow and sleet But we persisted indefatigably Toward the south end of Kosugol As a guide our charter led us confidently Over these trails well marked By the feet of many cattle Being run out of Yuryanhai To Mongolia End of chapter