A long time ago, giants lived in the Sayan Mountains. Most of all they loved to drink tea. And everyone had a favorite cup or glass and saucer. Then the giants died out like mammoths, and the dishes remained lying here and there under the mountain passes. Next to it, there are still mountains of black or white crackers, or fragments of cookies, or lumps of sugar.
This is what Alpan told people about early in the morning on the banks of the Shumak River. Their eyes lit up and they wanted a sweet freebie. But the alpan warned that the path there was not short, higher and higher along the stream into the mountains, through stone barriers. But can you stop the people now? They realized that there was no need for them to carry Artek waffles and refined sugar upstairs, they threw everything they needed into bags, threw it into the fox hole and rushed upstairs. The only thing they didn’t know was that they had blocked the exit to the outside with their kind fox and family. And she, because of the natural taiga delicacy, did not dare to touch someone else’s property - she almost moved the horses along with the children. The warriors and warriors did not think about this, they hurried to the tea table. Elon Orange Overalls alone was in no hurry; in her bag made of the skin of a young red deer, over many days of voluntary fasting, a lot of sweets and waffles had accumulated.
Whether they walked for a long time or for a short time, they got tired and decided to finally drink their cocoa, so as not to share it with anyone, and take firewood with them, so as not to ask anyone there. We went further and saw two snowflakes on the bank of the stream, like two pieces of meringue. We rose even higher - here it is a giant bowl - the walls of mountains around, and the gouged edges - the passes. There was once tea at the bottom of the bowl, but everything turned green with age. Then Alpan’s companions realized that they were late for tea, they began setting up yurts, cooking stew, washing and rinsing, and swimming at the bottom of a stone bowl.
Only the strict Alpan Big Beard polished the bowler to a shine, looked into it (this is the tradition) and ordered him to climb onto the edge of the bowl - the one that people called Windy. Behind the pieces of stone, green-covered bread, they saw a lake-saucer, from the broken edge of which a weak herbal tea, unfinished by the giant, flowed and shimmered. They climbed up the hard stone pieces, the old vessel crumbled under their hands and feet, they had no time for feasts anymore, they scratched themselves to the edge of the cup. We walked along it back and forth, almost got blown away, and then dashingly slid down. And the spirits, who used to serve with the giants, went overboard and began pouring rain from the teapot on top of the guests and sprinkling them with hail-sugar. The tea-makers ran, unable to feel their feet beneath them, to their native tents. We drank to the last thread, warmed up by digging for a golden root... And in the evening we saw how, next to a stone bowl, a seven-colored rainbow handle of antique porcelain grew in the sky and went behind the ridge. Apparently the spirits dragged the candy bowl with treats to another valley.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru