Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/228

206 wife is not here, but in the seventh of the Wac Islands, and between us and it is seven months’ journey, night and day. From here we go to an island called the Land of Birds, wherein, for the loud clamour of the birds and the flapping of their wings, one cannot hear other speak.

Therein we journey, night and day, eleven days, after which we come to another land, called the Land of Wild Beasts, where, for the roaring of the lions and howling of wolves and the screaming of hyænas and other beasts of prey, we shall hear nothing; and therein we travel twenty days’ journey. Then we come to a third country, called the Land of Jinn, where, for the greatness of the crying of the Jinn and the noise of their groaning and the flaming of fires and the flight of sparks and smoke from their mouths and their arrogance in blocking up the road before us, our ears will be deafened and our eyes blinded, so that we shall neither hear nor see, nor dare any look behind him, or he perishes: but there the horseman bows his head on his saddle-bow and raises it not for three days. After this, we come to a vast mountain and a running river, bordering on the Wac Islands, which are seven in number and the extent whereof is a whole year’s journey for a diligent horseman. And thou must know, O my son, that the ruler over us is a woman of these islands and that these troops are all virgin girls.

On the bank of the river aforesaid is another mountain, called Wac, and it is thus named by reason of a tree [which grows there and] which bears fruits like human heads. When the sun rises on them, the heads cry out all, saying, “Wac! Wac! Glory be to the Creating King!” And when we hear their crying, we know that the sun is risen. In like manner, at sundown, the heads set up the same cry, and so we know that the sun hath set. No man may abide with us or win to us or tread our earth. Moreover, betwixt us and the abiding-place of the queen who