tori"; they rise above the water level in the Volg and Ok by almost 60 fathoms. Intersecting with deep, picturesque ravines, they descend to the Volg and Ok, sometimes in terraces, sometimes in steep drops, leaving between their base and the water a narrow strip of low coast, on which an embankment with steamship piers is built. The general size of the city can be determined as follows: by its length it stretches for 5 versts, but in width, if you count from the bridge or embankment to the city limits, it is 21/ versts. The cape formed by the junction of the Oka and the Volga is called the “arrow”. The Makaryevskaya part of the city, located in the lowlands, barely rises from the arrow to Kunavin. In the spring, a large area of this part is covered with water, and the fair is flooded in many snowstorms; the sandy island on the Ok, for all the significance of its size, completely disappears under water. The surrounding lowlands and nearby islands are sometimes flooded for more than a dozen miles, and then the Volga, washing the steep banks of the Dyatlov Mountains, is in
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
The legend about the foundations of Nizhny reads as follows.
In ancient times, there lived at the mouth of the Oka a Mordvin, a friend and assistant of the “Nightingale the Robber,” nicknamed “Starling.” Skvorets had 18 wives and 70 sons. His whole family lived together, diligently engaged in cattle breeding. Huge herds of Starlings grazed along the green slopes and terraces of the coastal mountains, and in the evening they descended to drink at the mighty river. Next door to Starling lived another friend of Nightingale the Robber—the sorcerer “Woodpecker.” And there was great mutual friendship between the Starling and the Woodpecker.
One day the Starling asked the Woodpecker what fate awaited his children and his entire large family in the future. “They will live in peace and harmony,” answered the Woodpecker, “and will be strong, and will forever rule over these lands, and when they quarrel among themselves, the enemy will come, conquer them, and At the mouth of the Oka he will put a traditional stone and a hook for evil.” I remembered the words of Skvorets and in gratitude for
He later predicted and honestly buried the dead Woodpecker in the mountains, and the mountains were nicknamed “Woodpeckers.” Dying himself, Starling bequeathed to the children to live in peace and harmony and to forever remember Dyatlov’s prophecy. But the old man’s sons did not listen, strife and discord arose between them, and the enemy came, and the Mordovian force perished.
The enemy, of course, was the Russians. About how the Mordovian land of Skvorts conquered them and how the Russian settlements arose on the Volga coast, the Mordovian story goes as follows.
“Russian Prince Murza walked along the Volga and you can see him on the mountains - Mordovians in white robes praying to God; the prince asks his warriors: “What kind of birch tree is this, wandering and staggering, bowing to the mother earth to the east?” The warriors answer: “It’s not the birch tree that is shaking and staggering, but the Mordovians are worshiping their God; they have sweet beer in their tubs, scrambled eggs hang on the levers, and there are priests in the cauldrons.”
: EE: then they cook the beef.” The elders of Mordovia, having learned about the Russian prince, sent in peace he was welcomed with his youth, beer and beef; and the youth ate that beef, drank beer, and brought Prince Murz some land and water. Prince Murza was delighted with such a gift; he took it as a sign of the submission of the Mordovian people. Prince Murza swam further along the Volga River and began, without pity, to Mordovian
I threw such earth on the fence; where will throw a burner there should be a city where he’ll throw a pinch’
there to be selenno.
In all likelihood, the name of Prince Murza means Great! th Prince Andrei Bogolyubev, who drove the Mordovians away from the mouth of the Oka, or his nephew, the founder of Nizhny Novgorod, Yuri P. Be that as it may, the prediction of the sorcerer Woodpecker came true exactly, and Prince Murza, obviously, scattered the Mordovian land along the shore with a generous hand, judging by the number of settlements that grew up along the banks of the Volga.