All the books of the Kalmucks speak of four great lands, which are sometimes spoken of as belonging to the same whole, sometimes as forming separate worlds. The first of these, lying eastward, is occupied by giants who are eight cubits high, and live for 150 years; the second, towards the west, has inhabitants eleven cubits high, whose lifetime is 500 years; the third, placed in the north, is still more favoured, for its inhabitants, though devoid of souls, live for 1000 years exempt from all infirmity. Their stature is 230 cubits. When the term of their existence is arrived, they assemble their families and their friends around them, and expire calmly at the call of a heavenly voice summoning them by their name. The fourth earth is that on which we dwell, and on which all the favours of the Deity are profusely lavished. It has four great rivers bearing the mystic names of Ganga, Schilda, Baktschou, and Aipura, which take their rise in the heart of four great mountains, where dwells an elephant two leagues long, white as snow, and named Gasar Sakitschin Koven (protector of the earth). This fabulous animal has thirty-three red heads, each furnished with six trunks, whence spout forth as many fountains, all surmounted with six stars. On each star sits a virgin always young and gracefully attired. These virgins are the daughters of the aerial spirits, one of whom, the most potent of all, sits astride on the middle of the elephant's head, when the animal thinks fit to change his quarters.[48]
In the beginning the inhabitants of this privileged earth lived 80,000 years, abounding in health, and incapable of forming a desire that was not instantly fulfilled. Their eyes shot forth rays of light that supplied the place of the sun and the stars, and invisible grace stood them instead of all nourishment. It was during this golden age that most of the secondary divinities were born, and 1000 Bourkhans were taken up from the earth to the abode of the blessed. But those blissful times came to an end, for, as in Genesis, an unlucky fruit, for which mankind imprudently conceived a liking, was the cause of their downfal. The human race lost all its precious privileges; its wings failed; physical wants tormented it; its gigantic stature dwindled down, and the span of life was contracted to 40,000 years, whilst the luminous rays of the eyes, the only light of that period, disappeared. Darkness then covered the face of the earth, until four powerful deities, touched with compassion, squeezed the mountain hard, and forced from it the sun and the moon, those two great luminaries which still exist in our day.
The evil did not stop here. To the physical woes that afflicted man was soon added moral depravation; adultery, homicide, and violence supplanted the primitive virtues, and disorder reigned over the whole face of the habitable earth. During this long period of decay the duration of life underwent successive curtailments, and many bourkhans descended on earth to correct and ameliorate mankind. The bourkhan Ebdekchi (the perturber) appeared at the time when the duration of life did not exceed 40,000 years. Altan Dohidakti, the bourkhan of incorruptible gold, appeared to the world when men only lived 30,000 years, and those whose years were but 20,000 were visited by the bourkhan Guerel Sakitchi (the guardian of the world). After him came Massouschiri. Lastly, the term of human, existence had been reduced to 100 years, when the celebrated bourkhan Dchakdchamouni, the founder of the existing sect, came upon the earth and preached the faith to one-and-thirty nations. A great moral revolution then took place in the world; but unfortunately the new law was variously interpreted, and thence resulted this great diversity of religions and languages.