The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1921-12-07

prepared oy the National Geographic 30.
ciety. Washington. D. CO.
Unlike Babylonia. Assyria and
Chaldea, which existed little longer
than during their periods Of great
power, Persia, once the peer Of any
Of them, has maintained It's entity
through an ebb and flow of fortune,
down to the present day. And now
the World war may be said to have
caused the "rediscovery" Of this his
toric country, though it's recent align
ment with soviet Russia holds out
possibilities that it may not receive
from the Western world the rejuve-
hation that was promised.
Darius would fail to recognize as
his mighty empire the narrow limits
Of modern Iran, Its borders now far
withdrawn from the waters Of the
Oxus and the Indus, from the shores
Of the Mediterranean and the wide
spread Mesopotamian plains; but the
nucleus still is there in territory, race,
language and customs.
Persia Of today includes within a
territory still three times the size Of
France, ancient Media, mountainous
Parthia and the province of Ears,
whence sprang her first great dynasty.
Such monuments to the glory Of the
great kings as the ruined capitals Of
Susa, Persepolis and Ekbatana still
stand on Persian soil.
The majority Of the present inhabi-
tants, although tinged with the blood
Of Greek, Arab, Turk and Mongol con-
querors, are the uneal descendants of
the original Iranian, or Aryan, popu-
lation, and speak a language which
has for its basic element the ancient
Persian tongue.
Sultan Ahmed Shah, the one hun.
bred ffty-sixth king Of kings" sits
on the tottering Persian throne, while
the future of his kingdom rests In the
hands Of outside powers.
Vast Desert Plateau With Gases.
Modern Persia, with the exception
If the prosperous northwest province
Of Turkish-speaking Azerbaijan and
the semi-tropical region between the
Elburz mountains and the Caspian
sea, can be characterized as a vast,
mountain-ribbed desert plateau, stud
ded here and there with cases which
most frequently form ribbons Of fer
tile green fringing the desert at the
bases Of sterile mountain slopes from
whose snow-clad SUBMITS comes the
life-giving moisture.
The encircling mountain walls shut
out the rain from the central table
land. Rivers with sources but no
mouths flow half the year and lose
themselves in the parched desert
wastes.
The density Of population Is less
than that Of Texas, and more than
half the country Is an uninhabited
Sahara, some Of it unexplored. Much
II the remainder Is suitable only for
Incorporating part Of the year, thus
forcing upon a fourth Of her ten MIL
lion people a semi-nomadic existence
between the high, well-watered noun
tain valleys in the summer and the
warm plains In the brief winter sea-
son.
Some Of these tribes, like the Kurds,
rarely leave their mountain homes,
where they exist independently Of
central government control. Others,
like the Ghashgais and Bakhtiaris,
sometimes by coercion and sometimes
through necessity Of political alliance,
are vassals Of the state, although they
pay allegiance only to their chiefs,
who arrange with regal authority for
their followers the matters of taxes
and military service.
Cities are naturally few and small,
there being but two or three Of more
than 100000 Inhabitants. The lower
mountain valleys and the GASES are
the centers for both town and agri-
cultural population, and the wonder
full fertility Of these scattered areas.
matched from the blighting grasp of
the desert, forms the basis for the
startling contrasts In the climate Of
this unusual country.
Water il the chief concern Of the
Persian peasant. Wherever he can
divert the flow Of Q mountain stream
or build a crude canal from q well
or spring. q small portion Of the des-
ert becomes . paradise and he pros