The Cultivation Of This Plain Is Mostly Dependent On Rain And
Heavy Dews.
To the west of Dasht-bi-Dowlat is Chehel-Tan, a steep, rocky mountain,
13,000 feet high, in the ravines and valleys of which snow still lay
deeply.
Only two Europeans, Masson the traveller, and Sir Henry Green,
have ever succeeded in reaching the summit, on which is a "Zariat," or
shrine. The ascent is difficult and dangerous, as, the mountain
being said to be haunted, no native guides are procurable. The word
"Chehel-Tan" signifies in Baluch "Forty Bodies," and is derived from
the following legend.
A frugal pair, many years married, were unblest with offspring. They
therefore sought the advice of a holy man, who rebuked the wife,
saying that he had not the power to grant her what Heaven had denied.
The priest's son, however (also a moullah), felt convinced he could
satisfy her wishes, and cast forty pebbles into her lap, at the same
time praying that she might bear children. In process of time she was
delivered of forty babes - rather more than she wished or knew how
to provide for. The poor husband, at his wits' end, ascended to the
summit of Chehel-Tan with thirty-nine, and left them there, trusting
to the mercy of the Deity to provide for them, while the fortieth babe
was brought up under the paternal roof.
One day, however, touched by remorse, the wife, unknown to her
husband, explored the mountain with the object of collecting the bones
of her children and burying them.
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