The hero of Mongolian folklore - a giant worm - lives in the desert sandy regions of the Gobi. In its appearance, it most of all resembles the insides of an animal. On his body it is impossible to distinguish neither the head nor the eyes. The Mongols call him olgoi-khorkha, and more than anything else they are afraid of meeting him. Not a single scientist in the world has had a chance to see with his own eyes the mysterious inhabitant of the Mongolian deserts. And therefore, for many years, the olgoi-khorkhoy was considered an exclusively folklore character - a fictional monster.
However, at the beginning of the 20th century, researchers drew attention to the fact that legends about the Olgoi-Khorkhoi are told everywhere in Mongolia, and in the most diverse and remote corners of the country, legends about a giant worm are repeated word for word and abound in the same details. And so scientists decided that the basis of ancient legends is true. It may very well be that a strange creature unknown to science lives in the Gobi Desert, perhaps a miraculously surviving representative of an ancient, long-extinct "population" of the Earth.
Translated from the Mongolian, “olgoi” means “large intestine”, and “khorkhoi” means a worm. According to legend, a half-meter worm lives in inaccessible waterless areas of the Gobi Desert. Olgoy-Khorkhoy spends almost all the time in hibernation - he sleeps in burrows made in the sands. The worm gets to the surface only in the hottest months of summer, and woe to the person who met him on the way: the olgoy-khorkhoy kills the victim at a distance, throwing out deadly poison, or strikes with an electric discharge upon contact. In a word, you won't get away from him alive….
The isolated position of Mongolia and the policy of its authorities made the fauna of this country practically inaccessible to foreign zoologists. That is why the scientific community knows almost nothing about the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. However, in 1926, the American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews, in the book "In the Footsteps of an Ancient Man," spoke about his conversation with the Prime Minister of Mongolia. The latter asked the paleontologist to catch the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. At the same time, the minister pursued personal goals: desert worms once killed one of his family members. But, to the great regret of Andrews, he could not only catch, but even just see the mysterious worm. Many years later, in 1958, the Soviet science fiction writer, geologist and paleontologist Ivan Efremov returned to the theme of the olgoi-khorkhoi in the book The Road of the Winds. In it, he recounted all the information that he had collected on this subject during reconnaissance expeditions to the Gobi from 1946 to 1949.
In his book, among other testimonies, Ivan Efremov cites the story of an old Mongol man named Tseven from the village of Dalandzadgad, who claimed that the Olgoi-Khorkhoi lived 130 kilometers southeast of the Aimak agricultural region. “No one knows what they are, but olgoi-khorkhoy is a horror,” said the old Mongol. Efremov used these stories about the monster of the sands in his fantastic story, which was originally titled “Olgoi-khorkhoi”. It tells about the death of two Russian explorers who died from the poison of desert worms. The story was entirely fictional, but it was based solely on the folklore evidence of the Mongols.
Ivan Makarle, Czech writer and journalist, author of many works about the mysteries of the Earth, was the next to follow the trail of the mysterious inhabitant of the Asian desert. In the 1990s, Makarle, together with Dr. Jaroslav Prokopets, a specialist in tropical medicine, and cameraman Jiri Skupen, led two expeditions to the most remote corners of the Gobi Desert. Unfortunately, they also failed to catch a single specimen of the worm alive. However, they received evidence of its real existence. Moreover, these evidences were so numerous that they allowed Czech researchers to make and launch a program on television, which was called: "The Mysterious Monster of the Sands."
This was far from the last attempt to unravel the mystery of the existence of the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. In the summer of 1996, another group of researchers, also Czechs, led by Petr Gorky and Mirek Naplava, followed the worm's tracks across a good half of the Gobi Desert. Alas, also to no avail.
Today almost nothing is heard about the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. So far, this Mongolian cryptozoological puzzle is being solved by Mongolian researchers. One of them, the scientist Dondogizhin Tsevegmid, suggests that there is not one kind of worm, but at least two. Again, folk legends forced him to draw a similar conclusion: local residents often also talk about shar-khorkhoi - that is, a yellow worm.
In one of his books, Dondogizhin Tsevegmid mentions the story of a camel driver who met face to face with such shar-khorkhoys in the mountains. At one far from perfect moment, the driver noticed that yellow worms were climbing out of holes in the ground and crawling towards him. Mad with fear, he rushed to run, and then found that almost fifty of these disgusting creatures were trying to surround him. The poor fellow was lucky: he still managed to escape ...
So, today, researchers of the Mongolian phenomenon are inclined to believe that we are talking about a living being, completely unknown to science. However, the zoologist John L. Claudsey-Thompson, one of the most famous specialists in the desert fauna, suspected a species of snake in the Olgoi-Khorkhoi, which the scientific community has yet to get acquainted with. Claudsy-Thompson himself is sure that the unknown desert worm is related to the Oceanian viper. The latter is distinguished by no less "attractive" appearance. In addition, like the olgoy-khorkhoy, the viper is capable of destroying its victims at a distance, splashing poison.
A completely different version is held by the French cryptozoologist Michel Raynal and the Czech Jaroslav Mares. Scientists attribute the Mongolian desert dweller to two-way reptiles that lost their paws during evolution. These reptiles, like desert worms, can be red or brown in color. In addition, it is extremely difficult to distinguish between their head and neck. Opponents of this version, however, rightly point out that no one has heard that these reptiles were poisonous or had an organ capable of producing an electric current.
According to the third version, the olgoi-khorkhoi is an annelids that acquired a special protective skin in desert conditions. Some of these earthworms are known to be capable of squirting venom in self-defense.
Be that as it may, the Olgoi-Khorkhoy remains a mystery to zoologists, which has not yet received a single satisfactory explanation.
If you happen to read the fantastic novel "Dune" by F. Herbert, then you know such a character as Shai-Hulud. It is a giant sandworm capable of absorbing not only people, but also vehicles. Who would have thought that an analogue of such a creature is found on our planet?
Any Mongol will tell you that the dangerous worm Olgoi-Khorkhoi exists, but so far no one has managed to catch it. The search for this "sausage stump" in the Gobi desert has been going on for several decades, but the result is still zero. What kind of creature is this, which, according to rumors, kills its victim with an electric discharge or a poisonous jet?
Kills from afar
The story of the writer and scientist I. Efremov "Olgoi-Khorkhoy" tells about a strange and mysterious animal, whose homeland was the Gobi desert. With its appearance, this work of nature resembles a piece of thick sausage, one meter long. Both of its ends are equally blunt, it is impossible to see the eye or mouth, as well as to determine where the head is and where the tail is. This fat, writhing worm only causes disgust.
In the 70s, the story of I. Efremov was perceived by most readers as fantastic. But after some time, many residents of Mongolia started talking about the existence of Olgoi-Khorkhoi. There were rumors that this creature is capable of killing its prey from a distance. Olgoi-Khorkhoy is translated into Russian as "intestinal worm", and it must be said that the mysterious animal really resembles a fragment of the large intestine.
According to some eyewitnesses, the worm produces, others claim that it strikes its opponent with a high-power electric discharge. Even a hardy camel cannot withstand such an attack, and dies on the spot.
There is another type of worm, which is distinguished by a yellow color. The Mongols call her Shar-Khorkhoy. According to eyewitnesses, these creatures become especially active in the heat of summer, they spend the rest of their lives in burrows.
First evidence of a killer worm
The history of this unusual creature is rooted in the distant past. One could read about it in the stories of our compatriot N. Przhevalsky, and N. Roerich did not leave the worm unattended. Traveling in Tibet, the latter made acquaintance with a lama (this title is given to local religious figures). Lama told Roerich that in his youth he was a member of a caravan sent to study at a local university.
Some of the young people traveled on short Mongolian horses, the rest on camels. Once, after stopping for the night, an incomprehensible chirp was heard, followed by human screams. The Lama looked around and noticed that the camp was surrounded by incomprehensible blue lights. An exclamation was heard: “Olgoi-Khorkhoi!”. People rushed in all directions, some fell dead for no reason.
In 1926, the American writer and scientist R. C. Andrews published a book entitled "In the Footsteps of Ancient Man." And that's when the killer worm became widely known. The American paleontologist heard about the existence of this mystery of nature even before the start of the trip from the Mongolian leaders who issued him permission to travel. He was warned of the danger and asked, if the opportunity presented itself, to catch and bring back a specimen of this animal.
The American promised to comply with the request, while observing all the necessary precautions. However, he did not believe in the veracity of the story he heard. Unfortunately, the scientist failed to find the worm, but he described it in his work. After that, the worm Olgoy Khorkhoy gained worldwide fame.
How does a worm kill
So how does this fiend kill its victim? Usually we are talking about poison, but the possibility of the worm generating electrical discharges of high power should not be ruled out. The locals have an interesting story to tell...
At the end of the last century, Western geologists carried out work in Mongolia. One of the researchers stuck a metal rod into the sand, then his body convulsed, and at the same moment. A moment later, an eerie worm emerged from the sand. There is no doubt that the death of the geologist came from an electrical discharge that passed through the metal.
Apparently, the desert-dwelling Olgoi-Khorkhoi is capable of killing with both poison and electric shock. Such deadly activity is not hunting or sustenance for him. This is just a way of protection, carried out without warning.
Olgoi-Khorkhoi was never caught
Attempts to catch the intestinal worm have been made many times. In the middle of the last century, a scientist of American origin A. Nisbet decided to find the creeping villain without fail. It took several years to obtain permission for the expedition from the Mongolian authorities. In two jeeps, American explorers rushed into the desert and quickly disappeared.
At the request of the American government, the search for an unsuccessful expedition began. Dead scientists were found in a remote area, their bodies were located near cars that were in good condition. The cause of death of the researchers has not been established.
There is an assumption that scientists stumbled upon a cluster of worms, and they went on the attack. Recall that the cars are in excellent condition, the property remained in place, there were no notes with complaints of illness or lack of water. Most likely, death came instantly - it is with such a speed that the intestinal worm kills.
In the 90s of the last century, Czech specialists were engaged in the search for a mysterious creature. The subject of the research itself was not discovered, but it was possible to collect the necessary material proving the reality of the existence of Olgoi-Khorkhoy.
Members of the Russian expedition caught a small yellow worm, presumably a calf. Around the mouth opening, he had several paws, with the help of which Olgoy Khorkhoy instantly buried himself in the sand.
by Notes of the Wild MistressThe hero of Mongolian folklore - a giant worm - lives in the desert sandy regions of the Gobi. In its appearance, it most of all resembles the insides of an animal. On his body it is impossible to distinguish neither the head nor the eyes. The Mongols call him olgoi-khorkha, and more than anything else they are afraid of meeting him. Not a single scientist in the world has had a chance to see with his own eyes the mysterious inhabitant of the Mongolian deserts. And therefore, for many years, the olgoi-khorkhoy was considered an exclusively folklore character - a fictional monster.
However, at the beginning of the 20th century, researchers drew attention to the fact that legends about the Olgoi-Khorkhoi are told everywhere in Mongolia, and in the most diverse and remote corners of the country, legends about a giant worm are repeated word for word and abound in the same details. And so scientists decided that the basis of ancient legends is true. It may very well be that a strange creature unknown to science lives in the Gobi Desert, perhaps a miraculously surviving representative of an ancient, long-extinct "population" of the Earth.
Translated from the Mongolian, “olgoi” means “large intestine”, and “khorkhoi” means a worm. According to legend, a half-meter worm lives in inaccessible waterless areas of the Gobi Desert. Olgoy-Khorkhoy spends almost all the time in hibernation - he sleeps in burrows made in the sands. The worm gets to the surface only in the hottest months of summer, and woe to the person who met him on the way: the olgoy-khorkhoy kills the victim at a distance, throwing out deadly poison, or strikes with an electric discharge upon contact. In a word, you won't get away from him alive….
The isolated position of Mongolia and the policy of its authorities made the fauna of this country practically inaccessible to foreign zoologists. That is why the scientific community knows almost nothing about the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. However, in 1926, the American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews, in the book "In the Footsteps of an Ancient Man," spoke about his conversation with the Prime Minister of Mongolia. The latter asked the paleontologist to catch the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. At the same time, the minister pursued personal goals: desert worms once killed one of his family members. But, to the great regret of Andrews, he could not only catch, but even just see the mysterious worm. Many years later, in 1958, the Soviet science fiction writer, geologist and paleontologist Ivan Efremov returned to the theme of the olgoi-khorkhoi in the book The Road of the Winds. In it, he recounted all the information that he had collected on this subject during reconnaissance expeditions to the Gobi from 1946 to 1949.
In his book, among other testimonies, Ivan Efremov cites the story of an old Mongol man named Tseven from the village of Dalandzadgad, who claimed that the Olgoi-Khorkhoi lived 130 kilometers southeast of the Aimak agricultural region. “No one knows what they are, but olgoi-khorkhoy is a horror,” said the old Mongol. Efremov used these stories about the monster of the sands in his fantastic story, which was originally titled “Olgoi-khorkhoi”. It tells about the death of two Russian explorers who died from the poison of desert worms. The story was entirely fictional, but it was based solely on the folklore evidence of the Mongols.
Ivan Makarle, Czech writer and journalist, author of many works about the mysteries of the Earth, was the next to follow the trail of the mysterious inhabitant of the Asian desert. In the 1990s, Makarle, together with Dr. Jaroslav Prokopets, a specialist in tropical medicine, and cameraman Jiri Skupen, led two expeditions to the most remote corners of the Gobi Desert. Unfortunately, they also failed to catch a single specimen of the worm alive. However, they received evidence of its real existence. Moreover, these evidences were so numerous that they allowed Czech researchers to make and launch a program on television, which was called: "The Mysterious Monster of the Sands."
This was far from the last attempt to unravel the mystery of the existence of the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. In the summer of 1996, another group of researchers, also Czechs, led by Petr Gorky and Mirek Naplava, followed the worm's tracks across a good half of the Gobi Desert. Alas, also to no avail.
Today almost nothing is heard about the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. So far, this Mongolian cryptozoological puzzle is being solved by Mongolian researchers. One of them, the scientist Dondogizhin Tsevegmid, suggests that there is not one kind of worm, but at least two. Again, folk legends forced him to draw a similar conclusion: local residents often also talk about shar-khorkhoi - that is, a yellow worm.
In one of his books, Dondogizhin Tsevegmid mentions the story of a camel driver who met face to face with such shar-khorkhoys in the mountains. At one far from perfect moment, the driver noticed that yellow worms were climbing out of holes in the ground and crawling towards him. Mad with fear, he rushed to run, and then found that almost fifty of these disgusting creatures were trying to surround him. The poor fellow was lucky: he still managed to escape ...
So, today, researchers of the Mongolian phenomenon are inclined to believe that we are talking about a living being, completely unknown to science. However, the zoologist John L. Claudsey-Thompson, one of the most famous specialists in the desert fauna, suspected a species of snake in the Olgoi-Khorkhoi, which the scientific community has yet to get acquainted with. Claudsy-Thompson himself is sure that the unknown desert worm is related to the Oceanian viper. The latter is distinguished by no less "attractive" appearance. In addition, like the olgoy-khorkhoy, the viper is capable of destroying its victims at a distance, splashing poison.
A completely different version is held by the French cryptozoologist Michel Raynal and the Czech Jaroslav Mares. Scientists attribute the Mongolian desert dweller to two-way reptiles that lost their paws during evolution. These reptiles, like desert worms, can be red or brown in color. In addition, it is extremely difficult to distinguish between their head and neck. Opponents of this version, however, rightly point out that no one has heard that these reptiles were poisonous or had an organ capable of producing an electric current.
According to the third version, the olgoi-khorkhoi is an annelids that acquired a special protective skin in desert conditions. Some of these earthworms are known to be capable of squirting venom in self-defense.
Be that as it may, the Olgoi-Khorkhoy remains a mystery to zoologists, which has not yet received a single satisfactory explanation.
Not only forests and the underwater world are fraught with mysteries and hide unusual creatures. It turns out that hot deserts have also become a haven for unusual inhabitants.
The hero of Mongolian legends and legends - olgoy-khorkhoy - a giant terrible worm will be the topic of today's article.
For the first time, the public heard the name of this monster thanks to the story of I. Efremov with the same name. But, despite the fact that many years have passed, the Olgoi-Khorkhoy remains just a character in a fantastic story: it has not yet been possible to prove his existence.
Appearance
Why was the worm given such an unusual name - olgoy-khorhoy?
If these words are translated from Mongolian, then everything becomes extremely clear: “olgoy” is a large intestine, “khorkhoy” is a worm. This name is quite consistent with the appearance of the monster.
A few eyewitness accounts say that he is a stump of intestine or sausage.
The body has a dark red color, and its length is from 50 cm to 1.5 meters. There is no visible difference between the ends of the body: the head and tail parts look approximately the same, and have small processes or spikes.
The worm has no eyes or teeth. However, it is considered extremely dangerous even without these organs. The inhabitants of Mongolia are sure that the Olgoi-Khorkhoy is capable of killing at a distance. But how does he do it?
There are 2 versions:
- I. The monster releases a stream of potent substance, hitting its victims.
- Electric current discharge.
It is possible that the killer worm is able to use both options, alternating them or using them simultaneously, enhancing the effect.
The mysterious creature lives in the sand dunes, appearing on the surface only in the hottest months after the rain, when the ground becomes wet.
Obviously, he spends the rest of the time in hibernation.
Expeditions
The broad masses were able to learn about olgoi-khorkhoi only in the second half of the 19th century after the famous traveler and scientist N. M. Przhevalsky mentioned the worm in his works.
But inquisitive scientists and researchers from different countries could not pass by an unusual creature. Therefore, several expeditions were undertaken, not all of which ended successfully.
Roy Andrews
In 1922, Andrews led an excellently equipped numerous expedition, which worked for 3 years in Mongolia, devoting much time to exploring the Gobi Desert.
Roy's memoir tells how the Prime Minister of Mongolia once approached him with an unusual request. He wanted Andrews to catch the killer worm, giving it to the government of the country.
Later it turned out that the prime minister had his own motives: a monster from the desert once killed one of his family members.
And, despite the fact that it is not possible to prove the reality of this underground inhabitant, almost the entire country unquestioningly believes in its existence.
Unfortunately, the expedition was not successful: Andrews did not manage to catch or see the worm.
Ivan Efremov and Tseven's story
The Soviet geologist and writer, I. Efremov, also published some information about the Olgoi-Khorkhoi in the book “The Road of the Winds”, collected during expeditions to the Gobi Desert in 1946-1949.
In addition to standard descriptions and attempts to prove the existence of an underground monster, Efremov cites the story of the Mongolian old man Tseven, who lived in the village of Dalandzadgad.
Tseven argued that such creatures are real, and you can find them by heading 130 km southeast of the Aimak region.
Talking about the Horkhoi, the old man described them as the most disgusting and creepy creatures.
It was these stories that formed the basis of a fantastic story, originally called "Olgoi-Khorkhoy", about Russian explorers who died from the poison of giant worms.
The work is a fiction from beginning to end, and it is based only on Mongolian folklore.
Ivan Makarle
The next explorer who wanted to find the monster of the Gobi desert was Ivan Makarle, a Czech journalist, writer, author of works about the mysteries of the Earth.
In the early 90s of the 20th century, together with Dr. J. Prokopets, a specialist in tropical medicine, and cameraman I. Skupen, he made 2 research expeditions to remote corners of the desert.
Oddly enough, they failed to catch the worm, like previous scientists, but Makarla was lucky enough to get solid evidence of the monster's existence.
There was so much data that Czech scientists launched a television program, calling it "The Mysterious Monster of the Mongolian Sands."
Describing the appearance of the olgoi-khorkhoi, I. Makarle said that the worm looked like a sausage or an intestine. The body length is 0.5 m, and the thickness is about the size of a human hand. It is difficult to determine where the head is and where the tail is due to the lack of eyes and mouth.
The monster moved in an unusual way: rolled around its axis or wriggled from side to side, while moving forward.
It is amazing how the legends and myths of the peoples of Mongolia coincided with the description of Czech researchers!
Expedition of Pyotr Gorky and Mirek Naplava
In 1996, another attempt was made to unravel the mystery of the Olgoi-Khorkhoi. Czech researchers led by Petr Gorky and Mirek Naplava followed the trail of the mysterious desert dweller, but, alas, to no avail.
The disappearance of the American research team
A. Nisbet, an American scientist, like his colleague R. Andrews, set himself the goal of finding the killer worm at all costs.
In 1954, he nevertheless received permission from the Mongolian government to conduct the expedition. Two jeeps with team members who went to the desert disappeared.
Illustration for Ivan Efremov's story "Olgoi-khorkhoy"
Later they were discovered in one of the remote and little explored regions of the country. All employees, including Nisbet, were dead.
But the mystery of their death still worries the compatriots of the team. The fact is that 6 people were lying next to the cars. And no, the cars weren't broken, they were in perfect working order.
All belongings of the group members were intact, there were also no injuries or any injuries on the body.
But due to the fact that the bodies were in the sun for a long time, unfortunately, it was not possible to establish the true cause of death.
So what happened to scientists? Versions with poisoning, illness or lack of water are excluded, and no notes were found.
Some experts believe that the entire team died almost instantly.
Could the Nisbet expedition have been able to find the Olgoi-Khorkhoi who had killed them? This question will remain unanswered.
Versions of scientists
Of course, the scientific community around the world has been studying this phenomenon. But scientists have not been able to come to a consensus on what kind of creature this is.
There are several versions of who the Olgoy-Khorkhoy is.
- mythical animal
- John L. Cloudsey-Thompson, a zoologist, believes that the killer worm is a type of snake that can infect its victims with poison.
- Michel Raynal, a French cryptozoologist, and Jaroslav Mares, a Czech scientist, believe that a surviving two-legged reptile is hiding in the desert, which, in the course of evolution, has lost its legs.
- Dondogizhin Tsevegmid, Mongolian explorer, there are 2 varieties of the sand monster. He came to such conclusions because of the stories of some eyewitnesses who claimed that they had seen a yellow worm - a shar-khorkhoy.
To date, the Olgoi-Khorkhoy remains a mystical creature, the existence of which has not been proven. Therefore, all these theories will remain theories until the researchers manage to get a photo or the sandworm itself from the Gobi Desert.
Deadly worm olgoi-khorkhoi
Many people claim to have seen them. We are talking about giant worms that can kill at a distance, throwing out deadly poison or battling their prey with an electric discharge on contact. For a long time, this animal was considered part of Mongolian folklore, but recent expeditions to the desert regions of the south of the Gobi seem to have found confirmation that this mysterious creature really exists.
It emerges from large cracks in the ground quite unexpectedly. With its unusual appearance, it resembles the insides of an animal. On the body of this creature, it is impossible to distinguish any head, mouth or eyes. But still - a living and deadly creature! We are talking about the olgoi-khorkhoi, the death worm, an animal that has not yet been studied by science, but left its numerous traces on the path of several expeditions of scientists from the Czech Republic.
This is how it was portrayed by the Belgian artist Peter Dirks
Ivan Makarle, Czech writer and journalist, author of many works on the mysteries of the Earth, was one of those who followed the trail of this mysterious creature, so little known that most cryptozoologists and nature researchers still do not consider it to be something real.
In the 1990s Makarle, together with Dr. Jaroslav Prokopets, a specialist in tropical medicine, and cameraman Jiri Skupen, led two expeditions in the footsteps of the Olgoi-Khorkhoy. They did not manage to catch a single instance of the worm alive, but they received numerous evidence of its real existence, which even made it possible to conduct an entire program on Czech television called "The Mysterious Monster of the Sands."
That was not the only attempt to unravel the mystery of the existence of this creature; In the summer of 1996, another group, also Czechs, led by Petr Gorkiy and Mirek Naplava, followed in the footsteps of the Olgoi-Khorkhoi a good part of the Gobi Desert.
In 2003, the deadly worm was searched for by the British Adam Davis and Andrew Sanderson, who head the company Extreme Expeditions. Although none of them managed to catch the mysterious monster, numerous evidences of its existence have been collected.
Olgoi-khorkhoy in Mongolian means "intestinal worm", and this name indicates its appearance, very similar to intestines, dark red, a little more than half a meter long. Locals claim that he is able to kill at a distance, throwing out a caustic poison, as well as in direct contact with the unfortunate victim - with the help of an electric shock.
The Mongolian researcher Dondogizhin Tsevegmid even suggests that there is not one variety of this worm, but at least two, since local residents often talk about shar-khorkhoi, a yellow worm.
In one of his books, this scientist mentions the story of a camel driver who met face to face with such shar-horkhoys in the mountains of Tost. Surprised rider. suddenly noticed with horror that yellow worms were climbing out of holes in the ground and crawling towards him. Mad with fear, he rushed to run and then found that almost fifty of these worm-like creatures were trying to surround him. Fortunately, the poor fellow still managed to escape from them.
The isolated position of Mongolia and the policy of its authorities have made the fauna of this country practically inaccessible to foreign zoologists, except for Soviet ones, and therefore we know very little about this creature. But nevertheless, in 1926, the American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews told in the book “In the Footsteps of an Ancient Man” about his conversation with the Prime Minister of Mongolia, who asked him to catch one Olgoi-Khorkhoi (which he called Allergokhai-Khokhai), because they killed one of the family members of this Eastern dignitary.
Many years later, in 1958, the Soviet science fiction writer, geologist and paleontologist Ivan Efremov returned to the theme of the olgoi-khorkhoi in his book The Road of the Winds. He recounted in it all the information that he had collected on this subject when he took part in geological exploration expeditions in the Gobi from 1946 to 1949. In his book, among other testimonies, Ivan Efremov cites the story of an old Mongol man from the village of Daland-zadgad named Tseven, who claimed that these creatures live 130 km southeast of the Aimak agricultural region. But you can see them in the dunes only in the hottest months of the year, because the rest of the time they are immersed in hibernation. “No one knows what they are, but olgoi-khorkhoy is a horror,” said the old Mongol.
However, another member of those expeditions, a close friend and colleague of I.A. Efremova, Maria Fedorovna Lukyanova, was skeptical about these stories: “Yes, the Mongols told, but I never saw him. Probably, these worms used to be electric ... electrified, and then died out. I saw other worms there - small ones. They do not crawl on the sand, but jump over. Spin and - jump, spin and - jump!
How can one not recall a line from a fantastic story by I.A. Efremov "Olgoi-khorkhoy", written on the basis of the story of the monster of the sands: "It moved with some kind of convulsive jerks, then bending almost in half, then quickly straightening up." It tells about the death of two Russian explorers from the poison of these creatures. The plot of the story was fictitious, but based on the numerous testimonies of the local Mongols about these mysterious creatures inhabiting the sandy areas of the desert.
Many researchers who have studied this evidence and data collected by various expeditions believe that we are talking about an animal completely unknown to science. The zoologist John L. Claudsey-Thompson, one of the specialists in the desert fauna, some features of the Olgoi-Khorkhoi led to the assumption that this is an unknown species of snake, which is clearly related to the vibora mortale australiana, a species of the Oceanian viper. Her appearance is similar to that of a creature from the Gobi desert, and, in addition, she too can kill her victims by spraying poison from a distance.
Another version, defended by the French cryptozoologist Michel Raynal and the Czech Jaroslav Mares, says that the olgoi-khorkhoi may refer to two-legged reptiles that lost their legs during evolution. These reptiles can be red or brown in color, and it is very difficult to distinguish between the head and neck. True, no one has heard that these reptiles were poisonous or had an organ capable of producing an electric current.
Another version admits that we are talking about an annelids, which has acquired a special protective function in the desert. Some of these earthworms are known to be capable of squirting venom in self-defense.
Be that as it may, the Olgoi-Khorkhoy remains a mystery to zoologists, which has not yet received a satisfactory explanation.
This text is an introductory piece. From the book Guns, germs and steel [The fate of human societies] by Diamond JaredCHAPTER 11 The Deadly Gift of Domestic Animals At this point we have seen the emergence of food production in several centers and its uneven distribution throughout the rest of the regions. The revealed geographical differences allow us to answer the worm sharpens the leaf. Let us turn to another manifestation of "traditional friendship" - the territorial issue. In this area, during the period of perestroika and "radical reforms", in particular, the following "progress" took place. During the Gorbachev period, the Central Committee of the CPSU, in order to "normalize
From the book The Fourth Ingredient author Brook MichaelWORM CREATIVE. The whims of the great. The mysterious disappearance of marl. Torture with cold, heat and ... music. Soil architects. Quartz sand and other tricks. Overnight in a Roman villa. It would seem that why should specialists studying the life of elephants, rhinos, tigers and
