The Malachite Box them are keepers of hidden underground riches. The Mistress, described as either a beautiful green-eyed woman in malachite gown or a lizard with the crown on her head, is the keeper of gemstones. Poloz is the master of every existing piece of gold. The miners believed that if a gold-bearing lode disappeared, it meant that the Great Snake moved it to a different place. Bazhov introduced numerous daughters of Poloz, including Golden Hair from the tale of the same name. The relationship between Poloz and the Mistress is unclear. Bazhov commented that he asked some story-tellers about it, but they
The Malachite Box underdeveloped, at that time there were no specific criteria of distinguishing literature from folklore. The question of authorship arose every time a new story was released, and is still discussed nowadays. Before the stories were released as a single volume on 28 January 1939, the issue became urgent. The publisher was concerned with the title of the book and the author's name. It was suggested to release the book as "The Tales from Grandpa Slyshko" (), as if Vasily Hmelinin was the author. It was eventually published as "The Malachite Box". Bazhov was not certain of the authorship himself. He