An article titled "Askul devilry" appeared in the newspaper "Present", which excited the entire regional inquisitive public. A certain journalist (sorry, but his surname is forgotten over the years) described how he was organized an excursion to the local witch's den. This lair was located in the village of Askula. And the spur of the journalist to visit these places was the fact that real "witch circles" and some strange tree appeared near Askul - alive, but with completely white foliage. In the description of this story there were elements of light horror that were mandatory for the genre - a powerful thunderstorm that broke out at the hour of departure, a crow that went into a heart-rending cry in front of the window, constantly baptized (either out of fright, or just in case) a stalker named Maxim, well, and similar details.
We were interested in the facts described in the article, and we decided to examine them - what if they really have an anomalous nature? Our "Niva" overcame not only the main asphalt road, but also several tens of meters of clay "slider" on the slope of the ravine, still wet after the last rain. Reaching the village was indeed not very easy. The same hard road there and now.
There was no need to resort to the help of the "stalker" - we easily found the described place a few hundred meters from the houses on the outskirts of Askul.
The circles were, as they say, “available”. On the herbaceous area of the slope of the next ravine, circular and semi-circular areas of grass were distinguished, which were denser, greener and higher than the surrounding grass, which was beginning to turn yellow. We assumed the nature of these "circles" at home, and there was nothing abnormal in it. Most often, the property of the mycelium, well known in science, is manifested in this way, which, growing from year to year from the central point (the one where the mushroom spore fell), forms a circle completely filled with thin mushroom threads. The outer part of this circle is usually more active, which manifests itself in a kind of increased grass growth. The mushroom, as it were, helps the grass to assimilate moisture and nutrients from the soil - that is how rings of more juicy, taller grass are obtained, sometimes up to several tens of meters in diameter.
There are both incomplete rings and figures formed by overlapping two or more rings. Moreover, the presence of mycelium cannot always be determined by eye until it forms fruiting bodies.
The presence of mycelium in the samples that we took in different points of this meadow was later confirmed by the analysis, which was kindly done at our request by an employee of the Institute of Ecology. We did not begin to determine the specific type of mushrooms - this is not so important.
Nothing abnormal: the reaction of grass to symbiosis with mycelium
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The situation with the birch was somewhat more complicated. Having strayed a little along the surrounding ridge and fighting off hordes of hungry horseflies along the way, we did find this tree. It really had an unusual appearance.
I hope that everyone remembers from school that the green color of the leaf is given by the green pigment in it - chlorophyll. So, we found that the leaves of this tree are not only discolored - they are sick and even begin to dry out. Why chlorophyll almost completely disappeared from its leaves could be shown by a chemical analysis of the soil, but it is complicated, and there was no one to make it in this period of time.
Two versions were most likely here. The first - this is how the lack of some trace elements affects the tree (for example, magnesium - it is he who is the "central link" in the composition of this pigment). However, everything that grew in the area, and even directly under this tree, looked completely healthy. It remains for us to assume that the root system of this tree is damaged by any animal or insect living in the soil - a mole, a bear … In any case, neither the local sorcerers nor the aliens had anything to do with this.
And at the same time, the facts show that the places there are not so simple. The village of Askula is firmly entrenched in local mythology, and, as they say, there is no smoke without fire. So what is said about him?
Legend number 1
There is a legend that the village of Askuly is guarded by spirits, and that those who come there with bad intentions will surely get lost and will not reach their destination. Tourists start to "go crazy" compasses and GPS does not work.
Birch with white foliage
Perhaps some geophysical anomalies are actually present here. Several fairly indicative cases of this category are known. Here at least this. About five years ago, in the area of the village of Askuly, a group of 7 experienced tourists came out towards the camp, to which it was only 15-20 minutes to walk. Before leaving, they checked their watches. On the road we constantly talked. At some point, two members of the group, walking slightly ahead of the others, turned to those walking behind, but those … were not there. At the same time, they had just talked with them, and there was nowhere to jump or leave the road - the place was empty. We looked around, did not understand anything. They got a compass, it showed "not there", that is, not to the north, the direction to which one of the group members knew very well.
Nevertheless, we followed the compass. Maybe that's why they wandered for an hour and a half, and on the way they buried themselves in some kind of rock - that is, they went completely to the wrong places to which they were supposed to come.
In the end, this group finally found their camp. Imagine their amazement before the fact that there was already the second part of the group in the camp (walking behind). This group came to the camp at the appointed time and could not understand in any way, where did these two, who were supposed to go in the vanguard, go? It is characteristic that the hours of one half of the group lagged behind the other half of the group by exactly 2 minutes. And at some point in time it seemed to them that there was a "dull" silence, and this is one of the most important signs of space-time anomalies.
Such oddities were noted in the vicinity of the village more than once and not only in our times. In the fifties of the twentieth century, a peasant - a resident of the village of Askuly - went somewhere on his business through the Askul ravine. Walked - walked, but in the middle of the way rested his forehead on something. This "something" to the touch gave the impression of a dense, smooth wall, slightly springy under the pressure of the hands. The peasant could not find its upper border - he did not have enough height, he also could not get around from the side. It seemed that the barrier had no boundaries. However, with his eyes he could not see anything, as if there was nothing in front of him at all. Bumping into this invisible wall, the man returned home to the village. And the next day he went the same route as nothing happened.
Legend number 2
Another legend connects all the oddities with the fact that, allegedly, witches and sorcerers have long settled in the village, having created their own witchcraft den there. They also say that there are some secret villages in the Zhiguli, hidden from human eyes. You can walk two steps past such a village and not notice anything. And strange inhabitants live in them - either people or gnomes. Sometimes, for some reason, they even look into the city.
Yeti - artistic reconstruction of the appearance
Such a "wheelchair" was noticed at the threshold of one of the Togliatti apartments - a very hunched over, literally crooked by a wheel, a short woman. Something dangled from her clothes. The arms also dangled, and they were too long for a person. At three in the morning this strange creature rang at the door of the apartment - they say, there is news, open the door. The hostess answered her - I won't open it, speak through the door, what's the news in the middle of the night? No, it was necessary to open it … But there is such a sign that if you open the door, you will let the bad news on the threshold - that's the hostess and was afraid. Just from the window I saw how the strange grandmother quickly and nimbly, despite her hunched figure, ran away towards the forest. And if such a case were an isolated one - no, there are a lot of them.
There are known cases that suggest that such a view has some real basis. The researcher of local folklore Kirill Serebrenitsky, having talked to some local residents, learned from them completely mystical things. In one of the Samara villages, a peasant was forced to become a servant to the same old hunchbacked man. The peasant refused, but he was threatened - they say, no matter how sorry he had to … Literally two or three days later, this peasant's wife died prematurely, for no reason and quickly. In another case, the same "woman" bent by a wheel stole a very angry dog from a summer resident neighbor, which usually did not let anyone near her. Immediately, the dog whined pitifully, tucking its tail, and obediently followed the woman who was leading her by the collar, freeing her from the chain (and this dog was left alone to guard the dacha, and the situation was seen by a peasant neighbor who constantly lived there).
In fairness, it should be noted that similar strange inhabitants are found in other areas of Samarskaya Luka.
Anuryevsky spring
By the way, remember the legends about the legendary Tibetan Shambhala, the passage to which the uninitiated will not find either.
Legend number 3
And another legend tells that some creatures live in the vicinity of Askul - shishigs, something like hedgehogs, and that all the dirty tricks are their handiwork. These shishigs (also called gobies and leshenkos), according to local residents, live in the forest, sometimes knocking on windows or going out onto the road. Local grandmothers tell how one day shishiga frightened a drunken company that came on motorcycles from the neighboring village of Sosnovy Solonets to fry barbecue. According to an eyewitness, the guys hooked up and turned the well frame. It may have been done unintentionally, but in the waterless Ascules it is a serious offense. All its severity will be understood by someone who had to drag a heavy flask on a cart to boil a kettle or wash clothes. Apparently, for edification, on the way back, at the legendary footbridge at the bottom of the Taibak ravine, a shishiga appeared to the hooligans. I didn't do anything, just stood by the road, but one kind of forest monster was enough for the sober company to quickly get home.
All the numerous descriptions of the Askul shishigas agree on one thing: this is a woman of enormous height and powerful build, shaggy with long hair.
I advise the curious to re-read "The Bigfoot in the Samara Region" and "How the Little Mermaid turned out to be Snow Baba - an attempt at a cryptobiological investigation" "to make sure that these stories have all real grounds for their origin, and their basis is their stay (or residence) on Samarskaya Luka a relict hominoid - "Bigfoot".
Having visited Askuly, one cannot ignore the famous Askul ravine with a length of about 25 kilometers. You can get there by going through the whole village to the east, in the direction of the Shiryaevskaya valley. This ravine was dug in ancient times by a deep river. For millions of years, it washed out from under itself and carried to the mouth all the waterproof clays and washed the bottom to the very Permian limestones, through which it went underground. There is still a huge artesian basin somewhere in the depths. The ancient river is reminded once a year by spring streams falling into bottomless gaps, and fontanels, in some places murmuring from under the stones. In the lower part, the ravine ends with the picturesque Anuryevka (or Anurovka) tract, named after the now disappeared village, which existed until the end of the 19th century. The main attraction of the tract is the spring.
Once he supplied water to the entire village, and now it is considered the most powerful in Samarskaya Luka. There are many unusual things associated with the ravines. Take at least the Charokaysky ravine.
Tatiana Makarova