The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) TUESDAY, JUNE 17th, 1924. MAN' AND MYSTERY IN ASIA.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 June 1924, Page 2

The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) TUESDAY, JUNE 17th, 1924. MAN' AND MYSTERY IN ASIA.

Op Dr. Ferdinand Ossendowski, whose “Man and Mystery in Asia” has jnst appeared, a writer in a Sydney paper says the Doctor lias had a very eventiul career. He is a Polish scientist, and a recognised nnthoritv on the geology of Siberia. During the RussoJapanese war he was Fuel Administrator for the Russian armies under Kuropatkin. In 190fi. disgusted at the Czar’s repudiation of the 1905 manifesto, he consented to load the abortive revolution in the East, and was condemned to death. Through the in. tervention of Count TjVJtte. thp set}-

telloc wns commuted to one ol two vonr.s’ imprisonment. This episode does not seem to have counted against him, tot- afterwards lie occupied important official positions in Siberia. He was in that country during the 1!)17 revolution, and subsequently joined Admiral Kolchak. When the hitter was defeated and killed, Dr. Ossendowski became a refugee, hut ultimately made his way to safety by the remarkable journey described in “Beasts, Men. and finds.” He is now a professor in a Polish university, and in this volume recalls Koine of his pre-war experiences in Biberia. At ono time the author was engaged in biological investigations in the Yenesei Valiev, under the Great Altai Mountains. and In' met some queer characters there. Ilis guide and henchman was an ex-convict who, though ho had committed fourteen murders wns quite an amiable person with the simplicity of a child. This fellow had a pocket in his own body, made liy cutting a sort of flap or fold, in the skin where the abdomen joins the hip. In this he kept a. very thin, sharp knife in a diminutive sheath. Most of the old convicts, he said, used to undergo this operation. Another worthy whose acquaintance the author made concocted a drug out of the venom of tarantulas. This was of two kinds: tho strong, which induced madness followed h.v death, and the weak, which had valuable medicinal properties. Tho enterprising manufaeturer would supply his clients with whichever variety they wanted, and did a thriving trade in both until the carelessness of a lady who had bought the poison for the purpose of putting her husband out of tin' way, led to Ilis detection. Ibissing eastward, Dr. Ossendowski traversed a weird region where towered huge dolmens. These were quilc a. feature of tlie liindsc.a|v, and were the barrows where in Tamerlane, tlie lame, the terrible Genjrhez Khan, and other early conquerors had buried their hecatombs of victims. The spirits of tho dead are supposed to haunt those mounds, and the author found their atmosphere distinctly uncanny. The nomad tribes avoid them, believing them to possess supernatural attributes, and in this connection Dr Ossendowski mentions a curious incident. He took several photographs of one of these dolmens. which lay in a en]i-sliaped depression. hut when he canto to develop the negatives that night the plates were blank. He thought that the latter were at fault, so next morning lie tried again, using fresh plates out of a now box. Again there was no result. The only explanation he could offer was that in the valley wher the dolmen stood there might be sonio interference in the rays which prevented the waves of light from making any impression on the plate. Some time afterwards ho heard several strange stories about Ihsi dolmen which was. according to local tradition, the grave of one Abide Khan. A Russian artist had endeavoured in vain to paint it; always, when he approached it, it was concealed from view liy thick clouds that roso from the earth. The author, now on his mettle, returned, overhauled his camera, and took a number of photographs of the dolmen in what appeared to he a perfect light. On his way hack the waggon in which he was riding was upset. Dr. Ossendowski was injured, and his camera and the plates were smashed to atoms. He. came to tho conclusion that Akhuh Khan shares the common Oriental distaste for being photographed or painted ! Some of tho most arresting chapters in the hook describe the penal .settlements in tho island of tSaghalien. To there only the very worst- class of criminals were sent, and tho officials were also of the worst type, broken men who had got into trouble, and had been stationed here as :t punishment. Their careers Mere over: there was nothing for them to do. no social life and no rational amusements. In consequence hard drinking and excess were the order o* the day. One of their diversions was provided by an institution known as “The Tiger Club”. Its niemliers met by night in a barn. After large quantities of vodka had been consumed lots were drawn to see who should start tho game. One player was given a boll, another a revolver. Then The ft-e.st climbed into a loft, the lights were extinguished, and the fun began. Tho pair stole about in the darkness until an incautious movement on the part of tlie “tiger” made the hell jingle. The “hunter” immediately fired in the direction of the sound. If he missed, the roles were exchanged; if he hit, lots were drawn again. And so it wont on until a sufficient number of rounds had been played or a sufficient “bag” secured. Deaths were not infrequent. and were officially reported as being caused by “tho careless handling of firearms.” When their custodians were men of such kidney out' can imagine that the convicts were treated with the utmost- brutality. During tho war tunny of them escaped, took to the woods, and terrorised the villages. After the Devolution in 1917 tho Kerensky Government declared a general amnesty to these, who came to the towns, and under the Bolshevik regime were tho heads of the Cheka and tlie revolutionary tribunals in Siberia. Then these judges “half-men. halfboasts.’' as Dr. Ossendowski calls them, avenged their own sufferings by mt\a-

sacring hundreds of thousands of innocent people.