zagrandi at Zain Shabi. After destroying the
Chinese gamins who had killed the local Commandant, he had returned via
Van Kure. The new Commandment handed me the letter of Kazagrandi, who
very cordially asked me to visit him after I had rested in Zain. A
Mongolian document was enclosed in the letter giving me the right to
receive horses and carts from herd to herd by means of the "urga," which
I shall later describe and which opened for me an entirely new vista of
Mongolian life and country that I should otherwise never have seen. The
making of this journey of over two hundred miles was a very disagreeable
task for me; but evidently Kazagrandi, whom I had never met, had serious
reasons for wishing this meeting.

At one o'clock the day after my arrival I was visited by the local
"Very God," Gheghen Pandita Hutuktu. A more strange and extraordinary
appearance of a god I could not imagine. He was a short, thin young man
of twenty or twenty-two years with quick, nervous movements and with an
expressive face lighted and dominated, like the countenances of all the
Mongol gods, by large, frightened eyes. He was dressed in a blue silk
Russian uniform with yellow epaulets with the sacred sign of Pandita
Hutuktu, in blue silk trousers and high boots, all surmounted by a white
Astrakhan cap with a yellow pointed top. At his girdle a revolver and
sword were slung. I did not know quite what to think of this disguised
god. He took a cup of tea from the host and began to talk with a mixture
of Mongolian and Russian.

"Not far from my Kure is located the ancient monastery of Erdeni Dzu,
erected on the site of the ruins of Karakorum, the ancient capital
of Jenghiz Khan and afterwards frequently visited by Kublai Kahn for
sanctuary and rest after his labors as Emperor of China, India, Persia,
Afghanistan, Mongolia and half of Europe. Now only ruins and tombs
remain to mark this former 'Garden of Beatific Days.' The pious monks of
Baroun Kure found in the underground chambers of the ruins manuscripts
that were much older than Erdeni Dzu itself. In these my Maramba
Meetchik-Atak found the prediction that the Hutuktu of Zain who should
carry the title of 'Pandita,' should be but twenty-one years of age, be
born in the heart of the lands of Jenghiz Khan and have on his chest
the natural sign of the swastika--such Hutuktu would be honored by the
people in the days of a great war and trouble, would begin the fight
with the servants of Red evil