of the group of Poletika. In
Uliassutai Bezrodnoff shot Chultun Beyli for the violation of the treaty
with the Chinese, and also some Bolshevist Russian colonists; arrested
Domojiroff and sent him to Urga; and . . . restored order. The
predictions about Chultun Beyli were fulfilled.

I knew of Domojiroff's reports regarding myself but I decided,
nevertheless, to proceed to Urga and not to swing round it, as Poletika
had started to do when he was accidentally captured by Bezrodnoff. I was
accustomed now to looking into the eyes of danger and I set out to meet
the terrible "bloody Baron." No one can decide his own fate. I did not
think myself in the wrong and the feeling of fear had long since ceased
to occupy a place in my menage. On the way a Mongol rider who overhauled
us brought the news of the death of our acquaintances at Zain Shabi. He
spent the night with me in the yurta at the ourton and related to me the
following legend of death.

"It was a long time ago when the Mongolians ruled over China. The
Prince of Uliassutai, Beltis Van, was mad. He executed any one he wished
without trial and no one dared to pass through his town. All the other
Princes and rich Mongols surrounded Uliassutai, where Beltis raged,
cut off communication on every road and allowed none to pass in or out.
Famine developed in the town. They consumed all the oxen, sheep and
horses and finally Beltis Van determined to make a dash with his
soldiers through to the west to the land of one of his tribes, the
Olets. He and his men all perished in the fight. The Princes, following
the advice of the Hutuktu Buyantu, buried the dead on the slopes of the
mountains surrounding Uliassutai. They buried them with incantations and
exorcisings in order that Death by Violence might be kept from a further
visitation to their land. The tombs were covered with heavy stones and
the Hutuktu predicted that the bad demon of Death by Violence would
only leave the earth when the blood of a man should be spilled upon the
covering stone. Such a legend lived among us. Now it is fulfilled. The
Russians shot there three Bolsheviki and the Chinese two Mongols. The
evil spirit of Beltis Van broke loose from beneath the heavy stone and
now mows down the people with his scythe. The noble Chultun Beyli has
perished; the Russian Noyon Michailoff also has fallen; and death has
flowed out from Uliassutai all over our boundless plains. Who shall be
able to stem it now? Who shall tie