BEASTS, MEN AND GODS.* SURELY this is the most astonishing
" true " story ever put before the present generation ! Either that, or Dr. Ossen-
dowski is one of the world's most colossal liars ! It begins tamely enough : a mere escape at a moment's notice from the Bolsheviki in a remote Siberian town on the Yenisei, and the life of an outlaw, in company with a murderer, in the forests. But then Dr. Ossendowski determined to make his
• Beane, Men and Coda. By Ferdinand Onendowski. London : Arnold. 112s. ed.] way South and East through China to the Pacific. On his way he gradually collected a small army of other refugees and fought regular pitched battles with Red troops. He pierced through the no-man's-land of Urianhai into Outer Mongolia, only to find the road to China barred. His company divided, and he determined with a few companions to make his way through Central Asia and Tibet to India I He successfully crossed the Gobi Desert, and almost won through, but was turned back by the hostility of the Tibetans—indeed, barely escaped with his life. The remains of the party retraced their steps hundreds of miles to the north : and in Mongolia for some time Dr. Ossendowski remained, enjoying incredible adventures, and taking a more and more prominent part in the affairs of that mysterious country and of the " White " troops operating there against the Chinese, and ultimately made his way to Peking. Of the people he met two stand out : the mysterious '1 Avenging Lama," who combined the quali- ties of ascetic and miracle-worker with those of a terrific murderer ; and General Baron Ungern Von Sternberg. The Baron came of a family part Teuton part Magyar that had been Buddhist for the last three generations and lived somewhere in the Lithuanian direction. He was obviously perfectly mad, his two ideals being the conquest of the Bolsheviks and the spreading of Buddhism through Europe with fire and sword. His power and his cruelty were almost unbelievable : the Mon- golians regarded him as the God of War himself or a reincarna- tion of Jenghiz Khan. Fortunately he regarded Dr. Ossen- dowski with favour, for few strangers survived their first introduction to him, and through his help the author was introduced to the Living Buddha of Urga, spiritual and tem- poral ruler of Mongolia, second only to the Living Buddha of Lhasa himself.
It would be difficult to imagine anything more thrilling than this mysterious and astounding book. Whether Dr. Ossen- dowski is a liar or not (the suggestion is made in no derogatory sense to his morals, but out of compliment to the hair-raising nature of his adventures and revelations), he is, at any rate, a thoroughly efficient writer from the technical point of view. Indeed, it is partly his evident skill in the art of narrative that renders him suspect.
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