Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-07-12
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society


About SlmDlrSk
Simbirsk, Russia, to be the site
of an American memorial school
may De unknown to American ears
though the name of its northern
neighbor, Kazan, rings in the inn
agination like distant temple bells"
and Nizhni Novgorod Is al aromat-
is as sandalwood."
The city, Simbirsk, according to
a National Geographic Society bull
letin, rides like saddlebags on the
spine of a hill that rears its back
between two rivers, only a few miles
apart. flowing in opposite directions.
lone is the shallow Sviyaga, the
other the matronly Volga, the Mis-
sissippi Of Russia. In its commerce
today, as well as a frontier city when
the Tatars were the Red Indians
of Russia, Simbirsk Is a miniature
st. Louis.
The Tatar Dead Line
"History's effect on geography is
apparent in the location on the
! eastern Volga bank of every impor-
tant city from Simbirsk to the Vol
gas multi-channel mouth, below
Astrakhan. Syrian, Saratov, Ka-
! mishin and Tsaritsin bear witness
( of the last stand Of the barbarian
| hordes. Kazan, once the tented city
of the Tatars, and the venerable
Mizhni Novgorod, famed for fairs,
still farther up the Volga, were the
frontier cities which Ivan the Terri
BILE wrested from the enemy and held
against their blows. fortunately fu-
tile, to recross the Volga.
"Simbirsk is the first important
city above the great loop of the Vol
| ga, at Samara. 1t Is the chief city
of the government of the same name.
In it live the Mordvinians, among
the most interesting aboriginal Rus
slams, whose women are conspicuous
for their embroidered dresses, ear-
rings made of rodents tails, and
necklaces by the scores which make
of each wearer's bosom a veritable
museum of ornaments.
Primative Spiritualism
"Nominally accepting the Christ
pagan customs, almost defy the
honey bee, still go through the form
of kidnapping brides, and have a
ritual of the resurrection of the
dead which is especially interesting.
On the fortieth day after death the
spirit Of the dead is supposed to re-
turn to the home of his relatives
one of the family undertakes to be
his m~outhpiece and speaks his name.
In many homes of Simbirsk the
traveller will find an altar of stone
covering a pit dug to receive the
blood of slaughtered sacrifoial ami
mails. In the more primitive COM
munities young girls have been re-
ported killed for such offerings.
Bee Keeping Taught In Schools
The bee is in evidence in Mord-
vim literature and lore; to this day
the province might well account
ltself a land of milk and honey.
Grain Is its agricultural mainstay
but the importance of bee keeping
was reflected in the prewar educ
ational system by the course in that
subject taught in fifty schools in
the government. Most schools had
gardens and many had farms.
irregular river courses, irregular
hills, and Irregular climate mark
this eastern sector of Russia's great
central plateau. In the city of Sim
birsk the extreme range within one
year was from lis degrees above
to AZ degrees below zero. Fertility
OF the soil often succumbs to adj
verse weather and famine follows.
rms nroVincc was one where The
communal farming caused no shock;
Tor peasant villages already held, as
community tracts. more than 40 per
cent OF the land"