“Several times the Pontiffs of Lhasa and Urga have sent envoys to the King of the World,” said the Lama librarian, “but they could not find him.  Only a certain Tibetan leader after a battle with the Olets found the cave with the inscription:  ‘This is the gate to Agharti.’  From the cave a fine appearing man came forth, presented him with a gold tablet bearing the mysterious signs and said: 

“’The King of the World will appear before all people when the time shall have arrived for him to lead all the good people of the world against all the bad; but this time has not yet come.  The most evil among mankind have not yet been born.

“Chiang Chun Baron Ungern sent the young Prince Pounzig to seek out the King of the World but he returned with a letter from the Dalai Lama from Lhasa.  When the Baron sent him a second time, he did not come back.”

CHAPTER XLIX

THE PROPHECY OF THE KING OF THE WORLD IN 1890

The Hutuktu of Narabanchi related the following to me, when I visited him in his monastery in the beginning of 1921: 

“When the King of the World appeared before the Lamas, favored of God, in this monastery thirty years ago he made a prophecy for the coming half century.  It was as follows: 

“’More and more the people will forget their souls and care about their bodies.  The greatest sin and corruption will reign on the earth.  People will become as ferocious animals, thirsting for the blood and death of their brothers.  The ‘Crescent’ will grow dim and its followers will descend into beggary and ceaseless war.  Its conquerors will be stricken by the sun but will not progress upward and twice they will be visited with the heaviest misfortune, which will end in insult before the eye of the other peoples.  The crowns of kings, great and small, will fall . . . one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. . . .  There will be a terrible battle among all the peoples.  The seas will become red . . . the earth and the bottom of the seas will be strewn with bones . . . kingdoms will 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.  The forgotten and pursued shall rise and hold the attention of the whole world.  There will be fogs and storms.  Bare mountains shall suddenly be covered with forests.  Earthquakes will come. . . .  Millions will change the fetters of slavery and humiliation for hunger, disease and death.  The ancient roads will be covered with crowds wandering from one place to another.  The greatest and most beautiful cities shall perish in fire . . . one, two, three. . . .  Father shall rise against son, brother against brother and mother against daughter. . . .  Vice, crime and the destruction of body and soul shall follow.