the hutuktu of narabanchi related the following to me, when ivisited him in his monastery in the beginning of 1921:

"when the king of the world appeared before the lamas, favored ofgod, in this monastery thirty years ago he made a prophecy for thecoming half century. it was as follows:

"'more and more the people will forget their souls and care abouttheir bodies. the greatest sin and corruption will reign on theearth. people will become as ferocious animals, thirsting for theblood and death of their brothers. the 'crescent' will grow dimand its followers will descend into beggary and ceaseless war. itsconquerors will be stricken by the sun but will not progress upwardand twice they will be visited with the heaviest misfortune, whichwill end in insult before the eye of the other peoples. the crownsof kings, great and small, will fall . . . one, two, three, four,five, six, seven, eight. . . . there will be a terrible battleamong all the peoples. the seas will become red . . . the earthand the bottom of the seas will be strewn with bones . . . kingdomswill be scattered . . . whole peoples will die . . . hunger,disease, crimes unknown to the law, never before seen in the world.

the enemies of god and of the divine spirit in man will come.

those who take the hand of another shall also perish. theforgotten and pursued shall rise and hold the attention of thewhole world. there will be fogs and storms. bare mountains shallsuddenly be covered with forests. earthquakes will come. . . .

millions will change the fetters of slavery and humiliation forhunger, disease and death. the ancient roads will be covered withcrowds wandering from one place to another. the greatest and mostbeautiful cities shall perish in fire . . . one, two, three. . . .

father shall rise against son, brother against brother and motheragainst daughter. . . . vice, crime and the destruction of bodyand soul shall follow. . . . families shall be scattered. . . .

truth and love shall disappear. . . . from ten thousand men oneshall remain; he shall be nude and mad and without force and theknowledge to build him a house and find his food. . . . he willhowl as the raging wolf, devour dead bodies, bite his own flesh andchallenge god to fight. . . . all the earth will be emptied. godwill turn away from it and over it there will be only night anddeath. then i shall send a people, now unknown, which shall tearout the weeds of madness and vice with a strong hand and will leadthose who still remain faithful to the spirit of man in the fightagainst evil. they will found a new life on the earth purified bythe death of nations. in the fiftieth year only three greatkingdoms will appear, which will exist happily seventy-one years.

afterwards there will be eighteen years of war and destruction.

then the peoples of agharti will come up from their subterraneancaverns to the surface of the earth.'"* * * * * *afterwards, as i traveled farther through eastern mongolia and topeking, i often thought:

"and what if . . . ? what if whole peoples of different colors,faiths and tribes should begin their migration toward the west?"and now, as i write these final lines, my eyes involuntarily turnto this limitless heart of asia over which the trails of mywanderings twine. through whirling snow and driving clouds of sandof the gobi they travel back to the face of the narabanchi hutuktuas, with quiet voice and a slender hand pointing to the horizon, heopened to me the doors of his innermost thoughts:

"near karakorum and on the shores of ubsa nor i see the huge,multi-colored camps, the herds of horses and cattle and the blueyurtas of the leaders. above them i see the old banners of jenghizkhan, of the kings of tibet, siam, afghanistan and of indianprinces; the sacred signs of all the lamaite pontiffs; the coats ofarms of the khans of the olets; and the simple signs of the northmongolian tribes. i do not hear the noise of the animated crowd.

the singers do not sing the mournful songs of mountain, plain anddesert. the young riders are not delighting themselves with theraces on their fleet steeds. . . . there are innumerable crowds ofold men, women and children and beyond in the north and west, asfar as the eye can reach, the sky is red as a flame, there is theroar and crackling of fire and the ferocious sound of battle. whois leading these warriors who there beneath the reddened sky areshedding their own and others' blood? who is leading these crowdsof unarmed old men and women? i see severe order, deep religiousunderstanding of purposes, patience and tenacity . . . a new greatmigration of peoples, the last march of the mongols. . . ."karma may have opened a new page of history!

and what if the king of the world be with them?

but this greatest mystery of mysteries keeps its own deep silence.

glossaryagronome.--russian for trained agriculturalist.

amour sayn.--good-bye.

ataman.--headman or chief of the cossacks.

bandi.--pupil or student of theological school in the buddhistfaith.

buriat.--the most civilized mongol tribe, living in the valley ofthe selenga in transbaikalia.

chahars.--a warlike mongolian tribe living along the great wall ofchina in inner mongolia.

chaidje.--a high lamaite priest, but not an incarnate god.

cheka.--the bolshevik counter-revolutionary committee, the mostrelentless establishment of the bolsheviki, organized for thepersecution of the enemies of the communistic government in russia.

chiang chun.--chinese for "general"--chief of all chinese troops inmongolia.

dalai lama.--the first and highest pontiff of the lamaite or"yellow faith," living at lhasa in tibet.

djungar.--a west mongolian tribe.

dugun.--chinese commercial and military post.

dzuk.--lie down!

fang-tzu.--chinese for "house."fatil.--a very rare and precious root much prized in chinese andtibetan medicines.

felcher.--assistant of a doctor (surgeon).

gelong.--lamaite priest having the right to offer sacrifices togod.

getul.--the third rank in the lamaite monks.

goro.--the high priest of the king of the world.

hatyk.--an oblong piece of blue (or yellow) silk cloth, presentedto honored guests, chiefs, lamas and gods. also a kind of coin,worth from 25 to 50 cents.

hong.--a chinese mercantile establishment.

hun.--the lowest rank of princes.

hunghutze.--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 anyincarnated god; holy.

imouran.--a small rodent like a gopher.

izubr.--the american elk.

kabarga.--the musk antelope.

kalmuck.--a mongolian tribe, which migrated from mongolia underjenghiz khan (where they were known as the olets or eleuths), andnow live in the urals and on the shores of the volga in russia.

kanpo.--the abbot of a lamaite monastery, a monk; also the firstrank of "white" clergy (not monks).

kanpo-gelong.--the highest rank of gelongs (q.v.); an honorarytitle.

karma.--the buddhist materialization of the idea of fate, aparallel with the greek and roman nemesis (justice).

khan.--a king.

khayrus.--a kind of trout.

khirghiz.--the great mongol nation living between the river irtishin western siberia, lake balhash and the volga in russia.

kuropatka.--a partridge.

lama.--the common name for a lamaite priest.

lan.--a weight of silver or gold equivalent to about one-eleventhof a russian pound, or 9/110ths of a pound avoirdupois.

lanhon.--a round bottle of clay.

maramba.--a doctor of theology.

merin.--the civil chief of police in every district of the soyotcountry in urianhai.

"om! mani padme hung!".--"om" has two meanings. it is the name ofthe first goro and also means: "hail!" in this connection:

"hail! great lama in the lotus flower!"mende.--soyot greeting--"good day."nagan-hushun.--a chinese vegetable garden or enclosure in mongolia.

naida.--a form of fire used by siberian woodsmen.

noyon.--a prince or khan. in polite address: "chief,""excellency."obo.--the sacred and propitiatory signs in all the dangerous placesin urianhai and mongolia.

olets.--vid: kalmuck.

om.--the name of the first goro (q.v.) and also of the mysterious,magic science of the subterranean state. it means, also: "hail!"orochons.--a mongolian tribe, living near the shores of the amurriver in siberia.

oulatchen.--the guard for the post horses; official guide.

ourton.--a post station, where the travelers change horses andoulatchens.

pandita.--the high rank of buddhist monks.

panti.--deer horns in the velvet, highly prized as a tibetan andchinese medicine.

pogrom.--a wholesale slaughter of unarmed people; a massacre.

paspa.--the founder of the yellow sect, predominating now in thelamaite faith.

sait.--a mongolian governor.

salga.--a sand partridge.

sayn.--"good day!" "good morning!" "good evening!" all right;good.

taiga.--a siberian word for forest.

taimen.--a species of big trout, reaching 120 pounds.

ta lama.--literally: "the great priest," but it means now "adoctor of medicine."tashur.--a strong bamboo stick.

turpan.--the red wild goose or lama-goose.

tzagan.--white.

tzara.--a document, giving the right to receive horses andoulatchens at the post stations.

tsirik.--mongolian soldiers mobilized by levy.

tzuren.--a doctor-poisoner.

ulan.--red.

urga.--the name of the capital of mongolia; (2) a kind of mongolianlasso.

vatannen.--the language of the subterranean state of the king ofthe world.

wapiti.--the american elk.

yurta.--the common mongolian tent or house, made of felt.

zahachine.--a west mongolian wandering tribe.

zaberega.--the ice-mountains formed along the shores of a river inspring.

zikkurat.--a high tower of babylonish style.