Bulgaria is an Iron Curtain country next to the Black Sea. It has forests and mountains as well as farm land. In the forests live bears, wild-cats, and wild boars. The ibex, a kind of wild goat, lives there too. And in the mountains there is a goat-like antelope called the chamois. We get our name for chamois or “shammy” cloths, used for washing automobiles, from this animal. Once chamois cloths were really soft leather from the skin of the chamois, but now we make the cloths from other materials.

An important business of the Bulgarians is perfumery. They raise fields of roses from which they make a very fine and expensive perfume called “attar of roses.” It takes a whole roomful of rose petals to make only a tiny bottle of attar of roses, so you can see why attar of roses is expensive.

Albania is a little country where most of the people raise farm crops or cattle and sheep. In parts of Albania the men wear skirts that reach to their knees and stick out all around like a dancer’s. The skirts that the men wear in Scotland are made of dark-colored cloths but the skirts worn by Albanian men are white.

Jugoslavia is a country just across the Adriatic Sea from Italy. It has many forests. It also has copper mines. In fact more copper is mined in Jugoslavia than in any other European country.

When I hear the name of a place or a person, some one thing usually pops into my head, though that thing may not be at all important.

If I hear “George Washington,” the first thing that pops into my head is “cherry-tree.”

If I hear “New York,” the first thing I think of is “sky-scrapers.” So when I hear “Finland,” I think of marshes.

When I hear “Poland,” I think of music.

When I hear “Austria,” I think of Vienna rolls.

When I hear “Hungary,” I think of the Blue Danube.

When I hear “Romania,” I think of Gypsies.

When I hear “Bulgaria,” I think of chamois and perfumes.

When I hear “Albania,” I think of men with skirts.

When I hear “Czechoslovakia,” I think of china and glass.

When I hear “Jugoslavia,” I think of copper.