This time our mystery is set in the large and craggy regions of the Gobi Desert. Though the Gobi is the largest desert in Asia, it is also quite a unique desert as most of it is made up of rocky cliffs and cold regions.

It was home to many ancient people and tribes, especially in the southern part known as Mongolia. Many ancient ruins and burial sites are found there and the vast area is also home to many legends due to its huge size and location.

The most interesting ancient legend is of the ‘Mongolian death worm’. What is most interesting is that this creature which is supposed to be a cryptic, which means just existing in legends, is supposed to be a living and quite dangerous beast. How can a worm be such a thing of horror?

Well, we are not talking about our harmless earthworms or the friendly green caterpillar, but a feared creature about four to five feet long and thick as a human arm. It is described as red in colour and poisonous without having a mouth or visible eyes, as narrated by the nomadic tribes that live in parts of southern Mongolia.

In theosophical terms, the interesting part of the Gobi desert is its geographical aspect. Though Gobi means ‘very large and dry’, legend says it was once a fertile land with a river inlet or lake and was home to a ‘Sacred Island’, where enlightened people lived and took refuge when the world was overtook by sinful and materialistic people hundreds of centuries ago. The mystic tale also says that the holy refugees still live somewhere in an unknown oasis in “the dreadful wilderness of the great desert of Gobi”.

The last time the Gobi desert was changed into a sea was 10 or 12 thousand years ago, but the wars between the prophets of good and the evil forces and the bad treatment meted out to the prophets of the ‘right’ path by the people of the ‘left’, drained the land of its water and turned it into the dry arid region that it is today. The result was the world turning into the materialistic aspect of life. With such a rich ancient past and mystery, it is no wonder that the region is home to many interesting folklores and stories.

Coming back to our controversial Mongolian death worm, it is said that in these parts of intriguing ancient stories, this particular creature of ancient times, still exists. People who claim sightings of the creature say that it is capable of spraying its prey with poison by spitting at a good distance. Not only that, it is said that if any part of its body is touched, the person or animal can immediately die. It is said to emit and acid-like substance, which can even corrode metallic surfaces. Its habitat is underground where it hibernates most of the time. But when it rains or when the ground is wet, it surfaces from its home beneath the sand dunes. It is most active in the months of June and July and moves by either slithering side ways or by rolling around. According to some legends, its body is covered with spikes, but most say that it has a strange kind of short tail that looks like it has been cut off.

Though all these tales were just hearsay, in the early part of the 20th century explorers and nature lovers got interested in the legend. In 1920 naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews wrote about the Mongolian death worm in his book On The Trail Of Ancient Man in the 1920s in which his description of the creature is as told to him by the Prime Minister Damdinbazar: “It is shaped like a sausage about two feet long, has no head nor leg and it is so poisonous that merely to touch it means instant death. It lives in the most desolate parts of the Gobi desert”.

Moreover, many people who claimed to have seen the creature were so accurate in their descriptions and had such fear in their eyes that it was difficult not to believe them. The natives called it ‘olgoi khorkoi’, meaning “death worm”. What was most curious about the whole thing was how could a creature of ancient legends be said to exist in present day? Thus many expeditions were undertaken in 2005, 2007 and 2009, to look for the fearsome creature, but none of the explorers found the beast.

While speaking to the locals, they found that while some did not believe it existed, those who claimed to have seen it all gave the same description.

Could this be true? Could such an animal be alive today? Possibly, because as more unknown places are explored, whether on land or under the dark waters of the planet; species previously thought to have died thousands of years ago are found alive.

Even though there are many claimed sightings of Mongolian death worm, no one has real proof. Could people have mistaken a species of poisonous snake for the legendary creature?

There are cobras that can spit venom at a distance. Or could it be an electric eel that finds its way on ground from shallow waters in the rainy season? But electric eels do not spit venom. And cobras are not covered with a shield of poison on their bodies. Lastly, is it possible that the legend of the creature is kept alive today as a “magical thought form” to keep hidden the secrets of lost ancient civilisations of the once fertile desert where underground tunnels, ancient burial grounds, treasures and hidden scrolls lie untouched? Till someone actually finds and captures this deadly animal, the myth continues.