This view is to an extent strengthened by Wák Wák being the home of the lovely maiden captured by Hasan (in the charming story of Hasan of El Basrah in the _Arabian Nights_), after she had divested herself of her bird skin, and to which he had to make so weary a pilgrimage from island to island, and sea to sea, in search of her after her escape from him. It is evident that among the wonders related by navigators of islands so remote and unfrequented, not the least would be the superavian loveliness of the Birds of Paradise, and from the exaggerated narratives of travellers may have arisen the beautiful fable incorporated in the _Arabian Nights_, as well as that other recorded by Eesa or Moosa the son of El Mubarak Es Serafee.[118] "Here, too, is a tree that bears fruit like women with bodies, eyes, limbs, &c. like those of women; they have beautiful faces, and are suspended by the hair; they come forth from integuments like large leathern bags; and when they feel the air and the sun they cry out 'Wák Wák' until their hair is cut, and when it is cut they die; and the people of these islands understand their cry, and augur ill from it." This, after all, is not more absurd than the story of the origin of the barnacle duck, extant and believed in Europe until within the last century or so. El Edrisi, who, in common with the geographers of the period, believed in a great antarctic continent, after describing Sofala with its mines of gold, abundance of iron, &c., jumps at once to the mainland of Wák Wák, which he describes as possessing two towns situated on a great gulf (Carpentaria?), and a savage population.[119] The two small towns may very well have been encampments of the aborigines, or trading stations of Malay merchants. It may be noted that this identification of Wák Wák is in opposition to the view entertained by some commentators; for example, Professor de Goeje of Leyden has recently identified the Silâ islands (which had previously been considered as being Japan) with Corea, and Wák Wák with Japan; but this does not agree with El Edrisi's account of the people being black, unclothed, and living on fish, shell, and tortoises (turtles), without gold, commerce, ships, or beasts of burden. Elsewhere El Edrisi says the women are entirely naked, and only wear combs of ivory ornamented with mother of pearl.