EXPLANATORY NOTE
When one of the leading publicists in America, Dr. Albert Shaw of the Review of Reviews, after reading the manuscript of Part I of this volume, characterized the author as “The Robinson Crusoe of the Twentieth Century,” he touched the feature of the narrative which is at once most attractive and most dangerous; for the succession of trying and thrilling experiences recorded seems in places too highly colored to be real or, sometimes, even possible in this day and generation. I desire, therefore, to assure the reader at the outset that Dr. Ossendowski is a man of long and diverse experience as a scientist and writer with a training for careful observation which should put the stamp of accuracy and reliability on his chronicle. Only the extraordinary events of these extraordinary times could have thrown one with so many talents back into the surroundings of the “Cave Man” and thus given to us this unusual account of personal adventure, of great human mysteries and of the political and religious motives which are energizing the “Heart of Asia.”
My share in the work has been to induce Dr. Ossendowski to write his story at this time and to assist him in rendering his experiences into English.
LEWIS STANTON PALEN.
CONTENTS
[ Part I: DRAWING LOTS WITH DEATH ]
[ Part II: THE LAND OF DEMONS ]
[ Part III: THE STRAINING HEART OF ASIA ]
[ Part IV: THE LIVING BUDDHA ]
[ Part V: MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES—THE KING OF THE WORLD ]
There are times, men and events about which History alone can record the final judgments; contemporaries and individual observers must only write what they have seen and heard. The very truth demands it.
TITUS LIVIUS.