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 showed that he used vague folkloric beliefs and molded then into an original mythology. When asked whether his early stories were closer to folklore sources, Bazhov agreed. As time went by, he became less depended on the folklore and more independent as a writer. The current consensus among the folklore specialists is that he used the fragments of legends and bound them together by his own creative imagination. The first edition of "The Malachite Box" was released on 28 January 1939. It consisted of an introduction titled "The Watchhouse on Dumna Mountain" and 14 stories, based on the oral lore