Mammoth (Great Underground Bull)

beast · Russia · Central Asia

In Yakut (Sakha) tradition the mammoth is the Great Underground Bull, a massive creature with huge tusks, thick shaggy fur, and a body that shakes the earth underground. Solitary and reclusive, it avoids sunlight; when it dies its body causes geological upheaval, and it is linked to tremors and mysterious giant bones. It explains frozen mammoth carcasses emerging from thawing permafrost.

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