264 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
And here I may remark that I am convinced that great light 
would probably be thrown on the former state of the world in 
historic times by the study of Oriental literature by scientific 
men. There has been much discussion among Orientalists 
about the identification of the islands of Wak-wak, mentioned 
by Arab geographers, as well as in the “Arabian Nights.” 
These are the islands, seven years’ journey from Baghdad, where 
the trees hear fruit in the shape of female heads, suspended by 
the hair, which cry out, “ Wak-wak ” at sunrise and sunset. 
Then, to connect these islands more distinctly with birds, they 
are inhabited by jinneeyehs, who fly about in feather-dresses, 
which are sometimes stolen by some enterprising hero. Wallace 
describes the great bird of Paradise ( Paradisea apoda) as 
being very abundant in the Aru Islands, and settling on the 
trees in flocks at sunrise, uttering a loud and shrill note audible 
at a great distance, which sounds like “ wawk-wawk-wawk-wok- 
wok-wok.” Anyone who will consult Lane’s “ Arabian Nights,” 
vol. iii. chap. 25, note 32, and Wallace’s account of the Great 
Bird of Paradise, in his “ Malay Archipelago,” chap. 38, will, I 
think, be convinced, like myself, of the identity of the Aru 
Islands with the islands of Wak-wak of the Arabian writers.* 
But even when animals are spoken of under their proper names, 
it will often be no easy matter to identify them in a transla- 
tion ; for I have generally found that the English, French, and 
German equivalents for the vernacular names of common 
animals or plants are rarely to he ascertained with any accu- 
racy from the best existing dictionaries; and this difficulty 
would he greatly increased in the case of Oriental or ancient 
writings, in which animals, perhaps now extinct, would fre- » 
quently be described in very hyperbolical language. 
To return from this digression to Europe, we need not 
wonder that its present fauna is so much poorer than in post- 
glacial times, or even than a few centuries ago. The advance 
of cultivation, the felling of forests, and the draining of 
marshes have exterminated many species, even in our own day, 
while others have been destroyed as noxious creatures, as the 
wolf in Britain, and the lion in Germanyf and Greece. Others 
were exterminated for food, as the great auk in the northern 
regions; and the urus and aurochs, both now almost extinct, 
the former only existing as Bos scoticus , and the other in 
Lithuania and the Caucasus, the last being the only locality 
where it is still actually wild. As, however, these wild cattle 
* I am not aware that the reputed occurrence of this bird in New Guinea 
has been confirmed; and the islands of Wak-wak are always spoken of in 
the plural. 
t Which it is believed to have inhabited during the heroic age. 
