Note 127 — HASAN OF BASSORAH.[5] (continued 3)

These are the Puellæ Wakwakienses of whom Ibn Al-Wardi relates after an ocular witness, “Here too is a tree which bears fruits like women who have fair faces and are hung by their hair. They come forth from integuments like large leathern bags (calabash-gourds?) and when they sense air and sun they cry “Wak! Wak!” (God! God!) till their hair is cut, and when it is cut they die; and the islanders understand this cry wherefrom they augur ill.” The Ajáib al-Hind (chapt. xv.) places in Wak-land the Samandal, a bird which enters the fire without being burnt evidently the Egyptian “Pi-Benni,” which the Greeks metamorphised to “Phœnix.” It also mentions a hare-like animal, now male then female; and the Somal behind Cape Guardafui tell the same tale of their Cynhyænas.