Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-09-11
THE SEVEN snEErEES.
Thc Legend as Told by the sayedsi in
Afghanista

Atshani&tan
From the Pau lUfE & ,seta.
A correspondent with the AnglO-Rus-
elsn Commission on the frontier OF Al
gaanistan sends the following variant
upon :he story of the Seven oleepers oil
rEphesus. II seems that the grave OF the
Seven Sleepers, which in the Koran Is To-
Gated at Ephesus, is in reality in the Ill
rak valley, on the Afghan frontier, some
four miles to the southwest OF The Anglo
Russian camp at Chahar Samba. Inc
version of the Koran (says the CORE
spondent) is that seven men, firm III their
faith in their own God, separated from the
rest OF their tribe who had taken TO other
gods and taking refuge IN cave We're
caused TO sleep there, with tnelr dog, Ior
300 years. The Eshans of hhwalah Aital
Azizan change the scene from hphesus TO
Turkestan. and tell very olneren. story.
Tue King Dakian;is, they say, was orlgi-
nRlly a shepherd OF Shibhargan ana tend
sd his flock III the hills for twelve years,
till one dav he found a slab of stone with
an inscription on it. Not being able TO
decipher the latter be showed it to
moollah, who told him that IL was record
of hidden treasure. Having possessed
himself OF the treasure and killed the
moolah, Dakianus took service with the
King. aud AFTER some time rose To the
command OF an army. He soon got the
army on his side, seized the Kingdom ana
eventually conquered the world. When
thus in supreme power the devil appeared
before Dakianus in tae form OF the angel
Gabriel, and tempted him by telling bin
that God mad sent him to say that He was
God of the heavens, but that Dakianus
was god OF the earth. Dakianus, wEO
was a worshlper of one God, refused to
believe the devil, and told the latter that
he was not the true angel Gabriel. Inc
devil then offered To prove that he was by
proposing, as a test, that If certain hsh
on top of the water went down on his APP
proach he was the true Gabriel, but that
ii it renamed up he WAS an impostor.
Accordingly Dakianus and the devil went
together 10 the bank OF the river, ana no
sooner d ID the fish see the devil than 1t at
once dived down. Da6lanus believed tue
test, acknOw ledged the devil as the angel
Gabriel. left of the worship OF the true
God and, at the DEVILS tempting him, set
himself up as god on his own account.
one day, however, when eating his food,
Dakianus was bothered by flies, which,
do what he would, he could not get rid OF.
His servants said to themselves: "He calls
himself God and yet cannot even get rid
God" And they determined to leave him.
Six men went off and on the second day
fell In with shepherd, from whom they
begged bread and water. The shepherd
gave them all he had, and asked them
where they came from and where they
were going to. They told him their story
and how they were fleeing from Dakianus
and wished to hide, and the shepherd
agreed to accompany them In their flight.
As.l 4
ter and the men told him TO drive the dog
back lest he should betray their where
a5Outs. The shepherd objected, saying
the dog had been his faithfu companion
for years; but the Others insisted and the
shepherd at last struck the dog with mis-
stick, breaking one of its legs. The dog
still followed and the shepherd struck it
again, breaking another ley, but tue dog
still continued to crawl after them, and
the men, struck with pity, eventually took
1t in turns to carry 1t on with them. The
shepherd guided them all TO this very cave
that he knew of, and once there they all
went to sleep and never awoke tor 800
years.
In the Koran it is distinctly stated that
the sleepers were seven IN number and
the eighth was their dog, but either thp
Arabic OF the Koran is beyond the Sayeds
or they prefer IA story of their own. W hich-
ever IL is, there ia no doubt OF the realism
of the latter portion of their tale, as any
one who knows the affection the shepherds
here have for their great, savage, shaggy
coated dogs and the huge sticks that the
shepherds ALWAYS carry will testify. Fur
tuef on in the story, however, the worthy
Sayeds get more confused sin and they
have IL that the sleepers awoke twice
once in the time OF lIazrat Esa, or Christ,
and again in the time OF the Prophet. The
story is, they say, That when these three
men and the shepherd awoke they felt
hungry and sent one OF their mum Der to
go 10 the city near by, called Shahr-i-Af-
sog, to buy bread. Ga arrival be found
the place mVch altered and the first baker
he went to refused 10 accept his money.
Another to " hom be applied asked MIN
where he got his money from. The man
Eald that 1t was mis- own and from bis own
house. he was then told to point out his
house, hut be could not at first and event
ually recognized it by q mulberry tree,
and, going IN, he told them to dig in a GER
tam place, aud there they found, sure
enough, bis store, a Jar iull of Dakianus'
coins. The then owner OF the house r.
tested and claimed the house and the CONS
as his, and eventually both the man and
The coins were taken before the King.
When the king, VINO was a Christian,
heard the mans story and found that he
had been asleep for 800 years, be looked
on the man as supernatural and offered to
resign the throne in his favor. The man
declined and stated that all he wished
was to be allowed to return to his COM
paniOns in the cave. The King thereupon
accompanied him. With tue King were
"A hawk and dog; and deer being start
ed on the road, was caught by these two
and brought in, thus making third ami
NAL in the party. On arrival at the cave
not only the original slX friends, the Atai
A2izan and the shepherd, but the King
and the dog ana the hawk and The deer,
all went of TO sleep and never woke again
for some 100 years, when they were awoke
by the arrival OF the chdbdr B0T, or the
four friends OF the Prophet-that is, Omar,
Osman, Abubakr and Ali--who, repeating
the Mohammedan creed, at once awoke
the sleepers. The latter got up, repeated
the creed and then fell asleep again and
there they still remain.
All this was told me by the SRyeds in
the cave and they pointed triumphantly
TO the relics in proof OF their story. Hold
ing our lighted candles between the pal
lngs Of the wooden screen which debars
nearer approach 10 the sleepers, we were
shown some cloths on the floor, appar-
eutly rough common sheet with a dark
colored lringed cloth above II, which was
said TO cover the sleepers. Wei asked If It
was allowed to look under the cloth. but
that, they said, was impossible. Even
they themselves, they said, knew not
what was there. One man had once tried