too early
for me to die. . . ."

Djam Bolon came back with a little woman of middle years, who squatted
down eastern style before the brazier, bowed low and began to stare at
Baron Ungern. Her face was whiter, narrower and thinner than that of a
Mongol woman. Her eyes were black and sharp. Her dress resembled that of
a gypsy woman. Afterwards I learned that she was a famous fortune teller
and prophet among the Buriats, the daughter of a gypsy woman and a
Buriat. She drew a small bag very slowly from her girdle, took from it
some small bird bones and a handful of dry grass. She began whispering
at intervals unintelligible words, as she threw occasional handfuls of
the grass into the fire, which gradually filled the tent with a soft
fragrance. I felt a distinct palpitation of my heart and a swimming in
my head. After the fortune teller had burned all her grass, she placed
the bird bones on the charcoal and turned them over again and again with
a small pair of bronze pincers. As the bones blackened, she began to
examine them and then suddenly her face took on an expression of fear
and pain. She nervously tore off the kerchief which bound her head and,
contracted with convulsions, began snapping out short, sharp phrases.

"I see . . . I see the God of War. . . . His life runs out . . .
horribly. . . . After it a shadow . . . black like the night. . . .
Shadow. . . . One hundred thirty steps remain. . . . Beyond darkness.
. . . Nothing . . . I see nothing. . . . The God of War has
disappeared. . . ."

Baron Ungern dropped his head. The woman fell over on her back with her
arms stretched out. She had fainted, but it seemed to me that I noticed
once a bright pupil of one of her eyes showing from under the closed
lashes. Two Buriats carried out the lifeless form, after which a long
silence reigned in the yurta of the Buriat Prince. Baron Ungern finally
got up and began to walk around the brazier, whispering to himself.
Afterwards he stopped and began speaking rapidly:

"I shall die! I shall die! . . . but no matter, no matter. . . . The
cause has been launched and will not die. . . . I know the roads this
cause will travel. The tribes of Jenghiz Khan's successors are awakened.
Nobody shall extinguish the fire in the heart of the Mongols! In Asia
there will be a great State from the Pacific and Indian Oceans to the
shore of the Volga. The wise religion of Buddha shall run to the north
and the west. It will be the victory of