Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/130

122 carries him to the land of Camphor, opposite the islands of Wak-wak. These islands are inhabited by monsters of all kinds; and trees grew there bearing fruits like the heads of women, suspended by the hair, which cry out wak-wak at sunrise and sunset. This is the cry of the great bird of Paradise, in the Aru Islands, near New Guinea; and ever since reading the account of the bird in Wallace's Malay Archipelago I have regarded these islands as the islands of Wak-wak. Sir Richard Burton (vol. viii. p. 60, note) says that there are two Wak-waks, one being the peninsula of Guadafui (where the calabash-tree bears gourds resembling a man's head), and the other in the East Indies, about the location of which he seems in doubt.

Hassan, the king of the land of Camphor, sends Hasan in a ship across the strait, and on arriving on the shore of the territories of Wak-wak, the old woman, Shawahi Umm-ed-Dawahi, the leader of the army of amazons, takes him under her protection. When the army marches, they traverse three regions rendered almost impassable by swarms of birds, hosts of wild beasts, and legions of devils respectively; and at length arrive at the territories of the eldest of the seven daughters of the king of the islands of Wak-wak. Hasan recognises in this queen a great resemblance to his wife; and the queen, Noor El Huda, sends to her father for her sister (Menar-es-Sena). When Noor El Huda is convinced of her sister's mésalliance, she casts her into prison, and drives out Hasan, who wanders into the country, where he meets with two boys, the sons of a magician, who are quarreling over two talismans which their father has left them; a cap of darkness and a rod which gives the possessor power over seven tribes of the Jinn. With these talismans, which Hasan steals from the boys, he releases his wife and children, and escapes, accompanied by the old woman, Shawahi. They are pursued by Queen Noor El Huda, who is defeated after a three days' battle; but her sister begs her life, and makes peace between her and Shawahi. The queen and