The tallest peak in the Chiltan range of Balochistan is said to be haunted by the ghosts of 40 dead children. The local legend of the peak is about a couple who once left 40 babies on the peak to survive on their own. It is these children that they say can be heard crying in despair in the night when the winds blow strong, carrying down their voices calling to people to come up.
The story of the couple is fairly simple, poor and without a child, they sought the help of many clerics and healers. One such cleric’s son said he would be able to help them even though others couldn’t. He spent many nights praying and the couple was not only blessed with one but forty children.
Being unable to care for so many the husband decided to leave 39 on the mountain top to fend for themselves. They say the wife was drawn to the wails of the 39 and taking the 40th child she saw that all were alive, she left her last child there to tell her husband the good news. Upon returning, all of them were gone.
Now it is said that these 40 children still haunt the forest of Chiltan today and misguide tourists who stop by their cryings. Many believe that these children, who are still alive, have been raised by mother nature and now misguide tourists on purpose to make sure they would never find their way back. There have been numerous cases when people have not returned from the mountains of Chiltan.
The “children of the forest” from Game of Thrones give a striking resemblance to the Chehel-Tan myth of Balochistan.
