Vera Petrovna, the oldest geologist, shared this story with me. In the fifties of the last century, their family lived in Bokson, Buryatia. There, detailed exploration of bauxite - aluminum ore was carried out.
This region of the Eastern Sayan is harsh. Long frosty winter; short cool summer; sparse vegetation: dwarf birch, low larch and dwarf cedar.
Vera was in her tenth year, and she could not imagine another world with quiet rivers, light oak forests and noisy cities. Later, when she saw how the cabbage was growing, she was amazed at its green beauty. At the mine in those days, the only common products were dried vegetables: potatoes, carrots and onions. Vera's childhood dream was to eat plenty of real fried potatoes.
Sometimes this happened when her uncle, Aleksey Ivanovich, came to the village. With a wagon train, he brought along the ice of the Boksonka River and equipment, and fuel, and household goods, and food. With his arrival, a holiday always came to the house. It would be! He brought frozen sea buckthorn, pine nuts, frozen in round hainak milk (a cross between a yak and a cow!), And, of course, fresh potatoes wrapped in a sheepskin coat.
From the severe frost, Aleksey Ivanovich first of all warmed himself with zaturan (tea seasoned with toasted barley flour, milk, butter and salt). After such a drink and dinner, Aleksey Ivanovich perked up, sat by the stove and told tales from his hunting youth. Once he told about his meeting with the Boss - as he called "Bigfoot".
- I used to be with my father (Vera's grandfather) in the family artel. That was a long time ago. Now there is no such number of animals. We rode on the factory horses for the protein. They took various supplies with them in their souks - they had to live in the taiga for more than one month. We got to the hut, cut from larch, without incident. And then the hunt began. They beat everything that came into sight of the rifles. And foxes, and lynxes, and wolves, and wild boars, and musk deer, and sables, and elk, and red deer. But everything goes away. By the time of the First World War, even squirrel had become scarce, so I already went to the protein one.
In the twelfth year before the feast of the Nativity of Christ, I walked along the Kitoy River. My dog (husky) named Pirate quickly found a “lip” (dry mushrooms) in the crowns of larch or cedar, which means, somewhere nearby, and a squirrel. You knock on the tree trunk: a curious animal will jump out. Don't yawn here. I got a dozen squirrels and went out into the open.
Suddenly I saw a herd of red deer (deer) and among them a "prince", completely white, with a silvery tint of stag. He was so handsome that I completely forgot about the rifle. And when he realized it, it was already too late. Manchurians jumped off and rushed off into the rocks. In those days, getting a "prince" was considered an extraordinary success, according to legend, this brought the family constant wealth. The skin of the "prince" of the red deer or the skin of the white wolf was sacredly kept in the family.
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Then the Pirate, who was sniffing something in the distance, barked. I ran up to him, I looked and couldn't believe my eyes: in the crown of the cedar was a sable. As soon as I raised the rifle, a cunning, intelligent animal hid behind the barrel, then flew down and rushed into the rubble. The pirate and I follow him. Sable, on the other hand, slipped into a crack in a stone placer.
Night fell quickly. Now the sable could only be obtained in the morning. Looked around. What could you see in the impenetrable darkness? And then I got such a shiver that, not remembering myself from fear, I started to run. Suddenly he stumbled over something and flew into the snow. I hurt myself a little, but got up. The pirate licked my face, and that calmed me down a bit. My faithful friend often helped me out on the hunt: when I met a wolf, and even a bear. Boldly rushed into battle, diverting the beast to myself, which gave me the opportunity to shoot accurately.
“We’ll spend the night here,” I said, and the dog understood me, rubbed his muzzle on my leg: they say, where to go in the dark.
I picked up the brushwood by touch, lit a fire. He warmed up a borsh ice in a kettle (hunters took borscht in winter, freezing it in advance), cooked a dumpling. Then he cleaned the pot and boiled water in it. The water turns out to be tasty from the snow … The heat comes from the fire, and the frost is fierce behind the back. The pirate lies nearby.
I took off my sheepskin coat, put it on my shoulders and continue to indulge in tea. There is such silence around, only in the forest sometimes trees crackle from frost. The warmth drew me to sleep. Suddenly the Pirate whined, pressed himself to my feet.
And suddenly someone tore off my sheepskin coat. I jumped up, looked around - no one. I thought I was freaking out from fatigue. He picked up his sheepskin coat, sat down by the fire, and began drinking tea again. Suddenly the Pirate gave a pitiful bark again, the fur on his back standing on end. And at the same moment some unknown force lifted me into the air and threw me away from the fire. I got up, rushed to the fire and grabbed my rifle.
At that moment, the moon peeped out from behind the clouds, ten meters from me I saw a furry creature resembling a huge man. "Master" - flashed through my brain. And the monster turned and slowly moved towards the rocks. I raised my rifle, but it sounded in my head: don't you dare shoot! Yes, it sounded so menacing that I dropped the rifle.
Meanwhile, the Master disappeared behind the trees. And suddenly I thought that I could offend him in some way. I remembered the hunting rule - under no circumstances to make fires on the animal paths. I scolded myself and in the light of the moon dragged the dry forest to another place. He re-lit the fire, boiled tea, and sat all night without a wink of sleep. And in the morning in the sky I saw a round shiny contraption that looked like a bowl, which suddenly suddenly disappeared before my eyes. Yes, a hundred meters from the fire began traces of large bare feet, which led to the abyss.
Vera Petrovna then heard from her father how he called the monster Gigantopithecus. And her uncle then objected that he did not know such a word and that it was the Master. He protects the forest and the animals.
And the old hunter told a story about his friend Fedka Busygin:
- My friend was a hunter, what to look for. Once he boasted that the "prince" had got a red deer. In the same year he was whitewashing in distant forests and disappeared. We looked for him, looked for him, but we could not find any traces. Fedka disappeared … The old hunters said: “He was greedy for the beast. Sometimes he killed for fun. So the Boss took him away so he wouldn't play tricks. " It was rumored that the Boss was connected with that round plate, but only I did not believe.
- Well, then at dawn, - continued Alexey Ivanovich, - I got ready and left the lost place. I didn’t get anything that time, except for a dozen squirrels. The forest seemed to kick me out.
Vladimir Konstantinov