BEASTS, MEN AND GODS

by Ferdinand Ossendowski




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.