Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1921-10-21

prepared by. 1.-THE National Geographic sor
ciety. Washington. d. CD ,,..f
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 Its entity
through an ebb and flow of fortune,
down to the present day. And ppY
the World war may be said to- have
caused the "rediscovery" of this his
foric country. though its recent align
ment with soviet Russia holds out
possibilities that it may not receive
from the Western world the rejuve-
nation that was promised. ! - ~"
Darius would fail to recognize as
his mighty empire the marrow limits
of modern Iran, its borders now far
Oxus and the Indus, from the shores
of the Mediterranean and the wide,
spread Mescpotamian plains. but the.
nucleus still is there In territory, race,
languages and. 'castefns. 'Wt.l
Persia of today includes within a
|
France, ancient Media, mountainous
Parthiar apd 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. shsHi.'i 10
The majority Of the present inhabi-
tants, Although tfnged with the blood
Of Greek, Arab, Turk and Mongol con-
querors, are the lineal descendants Of
the original Irapiap, or .,Aryan, spopu-
lation, and speak language which
has for its basic element the ancient
Persian tongue. '",s'it'i 'sps
Sultan Ahmed Shah, the one hun
dred fifty-sixth "king OF kings sits
on the tottering Persian throne, while
the future, Of his kingdom rests In the
hands of outside powers.
Vast Deset+ Fiateau with Gases.
Modern Persia, with the exception
of the prosperous northwest province
of Turkish-speaking Azerbaijan and
/ the semistroplcLIregidn between the
\ Elburz mountains and the y Caspian
sea, can be characterized as a vast,
lmountdin.fiBbetf desert plateau, st,id-
ded lfeirsee and there with bases Which
most Frequently form ribbons of fer
tile gresn fringing. the desert at the
bases of sterile mountain slopes from
whose snosv-eltid SUBMITS comes. the
Illife-giving moisture. S,p.F'.iato'.si /.
| The encircling mountain wallis shut
out, the rain from the central table
land. Rivers wifi sources but no
mouths flow ham the year and lose
themselves In the parched i desert
Iiwastes. ..alf.i A4l
/ The density Of population is less
than that Of Texas, and more than
! half the country Is an .nnihhabited
Sahara, SOME Of It nnexplored, Much
of the remainder is suitable only fol-
safeguarding part of the year, thus
forcing upon fourth of her ten mil
lion people a semi-nomadic existence
between theehfgh,s %ell!watered noun
tain valleys in the summer and the
warm plains in the brief winter sea
son. aail athin ..sl
Some of these tribes, like the Kurds
rarely leave their mountain homes
where they exist Independently of
central government control. Others
lfketf the Gliashgais and Bakhtaris
sometimes by coercion and sometimes
through necessity of political alliance
are vassals of the state. although the.
allegiance only to their chiefs
WHO. ARRANGE with regal authority TO
their Followers The matters of take
Al MINEssssy !; IEsa'lssj Av;S0p small,
there being but two or three 6f NOR
'l1tl1||is Is n ~ III: III 9. :: ::
ldS6ituTslaf ppyls tiaRs end. ne wonder
: full fertility of these scaftered areas
sratd6 lid i1Gdh the blighting efasp Q
, the desert, forms the basis for tn
startling contrasts in the clfpate q
il selIiss5 AssslrI i ii
ri Psf5ldh peasdf7t: wheT<veF=he cal
= l -