A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Curtin locates this story in Olzoni without naming its individual teller. An elderly shaman returning from a feast meets a woman carrying an infant on a red ox, a herd of three hundred cattle, and a mounted man whose head is as large as a haycock. The rider names himself Minga Nudite Milá, or Thousand Eyes, and declares that he has destroyed the district’s cattle. Finding his own livestock gone, the shaman seeks help from his five brothers. They refuse because they regard the enemy as beyond their authority.
The shaman and his horse then undertake a spirit journey while their bodies remain at home. Becoming a bee and shrinking his axe, he cuts the supports of the monster’s bridge, which is half silver and half gold. The cattle and woman fall into the Angara. Thousand Eyes and his enormous grey stallion remain on the water through three days of wind and three of rain. The horse’s hooves fall off, but return to its feet after it reaches land. Frightened by the storm, the monster vows to avoid Olzoni and cease killing people and destroying cattle, invoking the loss of his thousand eyes and the division of his own body if he breaks his oath.
The ending says that the district’s cattle are not stolen again. A subsequent episode follows the shaman’s revival of a child and eventual death; it does not describe the monster’s death or another attack. The woman is not explicitly identified as his wife, and the narrative does not locate or count visible eyes on his enormous head apart from his name and oath. Its spirit travel, restoration and disease-related setting remain attributed narrative claims.
Origins & earliest records
Historical English collection of Buryat religious narratives
Records & interpretation
Complete cited chapters and relevant comparative notes read with title, preface and collecting account; source versions distinguished.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
A Journey in Southern Siberia: The Mongols, Their Religion and Their Myths
IX, The Origin of Shamans: A Shaman Story, pp.111–113; comparative note p.306. Boston: Little, Brown. Transcription pagination; original page images and Buryat language not independently collated.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Primary records and illustrations
A Journey in Southern Siberia
Jeremiah Curtin; Boston LittleBrown1909; CharlesW.Eliot prefatorynote. IX, The Origin of Shamans: A Shaman Story, pp.111–113; comparative note p.306
Cachecurtin-siberia-13.txt/.html; context00/01/07 and notes29. Mangathai additionalcomplete15/16/17 and14. Native language and original images uncollated; version-specific sacred narrative, not current universal tradition or historical ethnicity.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Historical English primary collectionCurtin1909 — IX, The Origin of Shamans: A Shaman Story, pp.111–113; comparative note p.306Research access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.