Lesser Known Fact:

Deep inside Balochistan, shrouded within the rugged mountains of the Sulaiman range there lies a peak known as Koh-i-Chiltan.

A name derived from Chehel-tan, from the 40 dead who haunt it.

Thread on the Chiltan peak in Baloch/ Brahui folklore! 1/n

Now before I begin, let me clarify that this is folklore and exists in multiple versions, so you’ll read different versions to the one in narrating. It’s also linked to both Balochs and Brahui people so I’ll mention both.

It is said in Baloch/Brahui folklore, that a couple once lived in the Sulaiman mountain range who even after years of marriage could not manage to be blessed with children.

This unfortunate circumstance cast a dark cloud on their life which they found difficult to cope with.

Now 2 versions exist of what happened next, one version says that the couple were suddenly blessed with not 1 or 2 but 40 Children!

Whereas the other version recorded by Harry De Wint in 1891 is recorded such that the couple went to a saint whose son performed a task -

In which he dropped 40 pebbles in the lap of the woman, praying for a child with each.

The irony of life was such that the couple who had dealt for so long with the lack of children suddenly were blessed with 40 offspring!

These children were much greater in number than what a poor couple in the Sulaiman mountains could manage and their mouths were way more than what the poor couple could feed.

Being forced by circumstances once again, the made a mischievous plan to -

To visit a nearby empty mountain and abandon 39 of their children over there.

They followed their plan and soon enough their family of 40 was cut down to just 1 child whereas the others were Abandoned in the wilderness of the mountains.

Then one day, many years later, the mother for some reason could not shake off her sense of guilt. A mother’s sense of love for her children is the strongest feeling in the world, and even after abandoning her children, the mother couldn’t bear it anymore.

So going with her instincts and against the wishes of her husband, one day under the strong pangs of guilt she ran off to the mountain again to see what had become of her abandoned children, of her pieces of soul that she had so cruelly left behind.

But to her surprise upon arriving, she did not see any infant corpses, rather she was welcomed by the sight of 39 living children running here and there, perched on trees and going about.

Not being able to control her happiness, she ran back and fetch her 1 child,

So she could take it back and unite it with his siblings.

Her joy couldn’t be measured and overwhelmed by this very joy she left her child there that night to make up with its siblings and made her way back to her home hoping to visit the next day with her husband.

When the next day arrived and her husband discovered everything, he lost his mind and at once grabbed her and took off for the mountains.

Her assurances to him meant nothing because when they once again arrived at the mountain, there were no children, it was empty.

The 39 infants that she had seen the previous day weren’t her children, they were the dead souls of the 39 infants that she had left behind

Those were the 39 spirits of the 39 bodies which had lost their lives in that mountains, 39 shadows waiting for revenge.

And they did take their revenge, they took off and killed their last living sibling to once again make whole the 40 children.

They say they still haunt the Chiltan peak and no traveller can make it out alone from the mountain.

They still live and haunt and lead astray any traveler, the 40 children still with their child like faces and their infant like voices tease and torture travellers until they go insane in those mountains.

The Chehel-tan is still the Chehel-tan because of them.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, the role of leading travelled astray is of the Pichalpehri and though I have many stories of them, let’s keep those for another day.

In Chitral this is the role of the Deo, who turn into glowing orbs of fire and lead travellers astray.

My dad apparently saw many in his days https://twitter.com/mhuzaifanizam/status/1301404266716950528