The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-27
EASTERN PRODIGIES.

F,O1a the Year ROund.
OF one Eastern city, in which ] lived for
some time, the Turks told me that at the
creation of the world Allah provided three
sacksful or bags of lies, and that he appro-
priated two of the three to that particular
place. and one to all the rest of the world. |
had strong reason to believe this legend
What the Mussulmen want in inventive
power they make up for in capacity of belief.
Numerous are the cities on the surface, more
numerous still according to them) are the
cities beneath The precise situation Of most
of these is unknown, but in one case it is
known and the entrance to it is visible; |
have seen it, in fact
This entrance is in the face of mountain
not many miles from the city of Ephesus 1t
is a flat niche. which looked to me as if some
one had begun a small tunnel or driftway, and
then stopped No doubt l must be wrong
If we could get the key of the door, (and that
is perhaps in the keeping of some African
magician), we should find it readily swing on
its hinges, and the population would stream
forth. Their carriages and horses, however,
they could not possibly bring with them, for
the door granting an invisible door is too
low. There, within that mountain, is vast
people in large city, with all the establish
ments needful for such a concourse. They
are within a few feet of us. | wonder how
IllClf SIIG6lS anu )tNldCSp uLS ApSN' iitSNN
been over that mountain range, but | never
could find a clue to this mystery.
1t is enchanted ground, however. | re-
member once passing there on horseback;
none but my own party in sight. High above
in the air. we heard the ringing of bells andof
cathedral chimes, like some carlton of Flan-
ders! 1t came from no fixed station; but
fioated up and down in the air above us.
There, we clearly heard it, awakening old
thoughts of our Western cities, when on Sun
day or holiday, or in the summer evening, the
bells cheerily rang forth from the spires l
| could see no more; but l have little doubt
| that this sound from the subterranean city
was an echo of the bells of strings of camels
moving in the distance.
The city is closed: but it may yet give
| forth its men. In holy Ephesus, near by,
did not the seven sleepers take shelter in a
cave, and did they not there remain for one
hundred years, when they and their dog came
out, and hardly found the way to their own
neighborhood, when, what they thought had
| been the hurried sleep of a night, had been
the long epoch of revolutions in religion, and
in the State? The street boys, who Knocked
at them, were their great grandchildren. Old
men, to whom they appealed for information
and protection, were their own grandsons
Their boards had turned grey, and their dog
had become decrepit; as well he might
at time of life unknown to dogs be-
fore. The citizens of Ephesus could be
little surprised to see men of past ages reap
pear, and treated them with honor; but the
sleepers found none whom they knew, of
wives, or infants late or early friends. The
seven sleepers went into convent with their
dog, and after further lease of mortal life,
were buried in holiness in their own cave, in
truthful commemoration of the event.
heard of two aged men near Mecca, who
We're bn9Wp 10 many MQalem pilgrims "a Reina