The Two Giants
Two giants lived in the Altai Mountains in Kazakhstan. They were brothers. The
younger brother loved music and singing, so one day he made himself an
instrument out of wood. He gave it a long neck and two strings. He played his
new instrument all day and sang. It made him very happy.
The older brother didn't like music. He wanted to be famous. He decided to
build an enormous stone bridge across the big river. It was a fast and
dangerous river and no one could cross it.
"My bridge can make me famous," he thought. So he started to build.
It was hard work, but he was strong. He carried many heavy stones from the
mountain to the river, but his younger brother didn't help him. He didn't want
to be famous. He only wanted to play his instrument and sing.
The older brother became very angry.
"You never help me!" he shouted. "You only play your silly music all day long!"
He snatched the instrument from his brother's hands and smashed it against a
rock. He hit the rock so hard that you could see the instrument's shape on the
surface. The beautiful instrument broke. The younger brother was so sad that
he never played music or sang again.
Years passed, until one day, some people found the shape on the rock. They
used it to make a musical instrument. They called it a 'dombra' and they used
it to play the wonderful music of the steppe.​