There is a legend about a horseman riding a hairy monster, and that monster was a mammoth.
The action took place in 1838, when the sailor Stepan, who was lagging behind due to illness from the expedition of Alexander Kashevarov, found himself on the Mikhailovsky Redoubt in western Alaska.
He went for berries and roots to feed himself and saw a flat stone the size of a palm. And on the stone was depicted a mammoth with a rider. Stepan boasted of the find to his comrades. One Creole reported that he had heard from their ancestors about the "Mountain Beast" and about the tribe that tamed these animals.
And the crazy thought of finding this beast was kindled in Stepan's head. But no one wanted to think of such a reckless expedition. They had enough of their own affairs.
And Stepan went in search of one. He asked the Creole about the possible habitats of the mammoth. He pointed to the east and gave no further information. With this meager knowledge, Stepan began his search.
And then he was gone. He was gone for several months, and then months stretched out for years, and it was clear to everyone that he was no longer alive. In these harsh lands, it is difficult to imagine a different outcome in the event of a long absence of a person.
But two years later, an extraordinary reality, or a legend, appeared.
Somehow, the Indians from the headwaters of the Yukon River caught Orthodox Yakut residents to sacrifice them to their patron spirits.
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The young Indian woman took pity on the prisoners and slipped them an idol, a bone mammoth. She whispered: "Call the Beast Mountain, he will come to the rescue."
The Orthodox prisoners forgot about their rejection of paganism and their new, less magical, faith. They began to frantically rub the statue and call upon the Beast Mountain.
After some time, a strong roar of a terrible beast was heard. They fainted from such a loud sound. We woke up when the whole settlement was in fog, there were no Indians nearby, and in the distance the ghostly silhouette of a horseman riding a mammoth could be seen.
The rider addressed the former captives, but they could not hear his words, so they were stunned.
Having returned to their place, the dumbfounded travelers told about the incident. As proof of the truthfulness of the story, they presented a bone statue. Not everyone believed them, but word of their adventures quickly spread throughout the neighborhood. The legend has reached the Mikhailovsky Redoubt. There, for inexplicable reasons, almost everyone unanimously decided that it was the ghost of the missing Stepan.