The Malachite Box nuggets. The story of the brothers is continued in "The Snake Trail" (alternative translation: "The Serpent's Trail"), published in 1939. In this "skaz", a young the factory worker Stepan meets the legendary Mistress of the Copper Mountain. He passes her tests and is rewarded by a malachite casket filled with jewellery for his betrothed, Nastyona. Stepan dies, leaving the Malachite Casket to his widow Nastyona. Their daughter Tanyushka likes to play with it. With black hair and green eyes, Tanyushka does not look like her mother at all, as if she was born to different parents. When she grows up,
The Malachite Box been rewarded by them rarely live happily ever after. These characters usually die soon. Snakes live underground (according to the legends, in the underworld) and are traditionally associated with the Chthonic deities. Many scholars highlighted the potently ideological nature of "The Malachite Box", especially regarding the stories created at the end of the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945) and in the post-war years. Bazhov's work was supported by the Party. It was in high demand from the very beginning due to the shortage of the "workers' folklore", which should have represented the so-called class consciousness of the proletariat. The book conveys