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856
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1876.
her death. Thereupon the villagers resolved to is more probable than that which supposes them deprive him of his power of pronouncing incanta- to be either Japan or the Sunda Islands. In an tions; and with that end in view he was taken one extract from the works of Ibn ElWardi, an ex. day to another village by one of the accused. On planation of the origin of the name Wak-Wak is their way home they were met by five others, of given as follows:-"Here, too, is a tree that bears whom one proposed to Chinnadasari to go a-hunt- fruits like women, with bodies, eyes, limbs, &c., ing, and another asked him for a bit of tobacco. like those of women; they have beautiful faces, While he stopped to get the tobacco out, he was and are suspended by their hair. They come suddenly seized by both arms and thrown on the forth from integuments like large leathern bags, ground. His hands were tied behind his back, and when they feel the air and the sun they cry out and his legs bound fast with his waistcloth. One Wak! Wak! until their hair is cut; and when it of the accused sat on his legs, another on his is cut they die. The people of these islands waist, while a third held his head down by the understand this cry, and augur ill from it." This top-knot. His mouth was forced open with a account sufficiently shows the ignorance of this large pincers, and a piece of stick was thrust be- writer of the regions he was describing, and their tween the teeth to prevent the mouth closing. products; but it indicates, at least, that the name One of the assailants got a stone as big as a Wak-Wak comes from trees. I think that it is man's fist, and with it struck Chinnadâsari's an imitation of the abrupt caw of the common upper and lower teeth several times, till they Bird of Paradise (Paradisea apoda), which is one were loosened, thereby causing acate suffering. of the productions of those remote islands. This Then nine teeth--four incisors and one canine from sound is uttered in a short, snappish manner, very the lower jaw, and four incisors from the upper- loud and distinct, as I have heard hundreds of were pulled out one by one with the pincers. A times. The bird is found in the Aru Islands, quantity of milk-hedge (Euphorbia) juice was Wigion, and other islands near New Guinen, poured on the bleeding gums, and the unfortu- where it is most common; and when dried their nate man was left lying on his back, to free him bodies now form.& common article of trade self from his bonds as well as he could.
throughout the Archipelago, as they have done for The prisoners bore no individual personal a long time. It is not improbable, moreover, that grudge to the complainant, and, I do not doubt, the live bird was often sold, and its peculiar note thought that they were acting from laudable
has given this name found in the Arab writers of motives of public spirit when they thus under- a thousand years ago.-S. W. WILLIAMS, in Trüb. took to free their village from a scourge. The ner's Lit. Record. theory on which they acted was that after all his front teeth had been extracted it would be impos
EPIGRAM ON AN ATHEIST. sible for the sorcerer to pronounce his spells in
By Behd ed-din Zoheir. an effectual way, and so his power for mischief
A foolish atheist, whom I lately found, would be gone. That such is the result of this
Alleged Philosophy in his defence ; treatment is currently believed in this part of the
Says he, "The arguments I use are sound." country, and it would be interesting to know if
“Just so," said I, "all sound and little sense! the same belief in the necessity of distinct articulation to make charms efficacious is found to
“You talk of matters far beyond your reach, prevail in other parts of India.
"You're knocking at a closed-up door," said 1 H. J. STOKES.
Said he, "You cannot understand my speech." Krishnd District, 18th November 1876.
"I'm not King Solomon !" was my reply.
Prof. E. H. Palmer's Transl. WAK WAK In the story of Hasan of El-Basrah, given by INSCRIPTION OF THE KADAMBA FAMILY OF Mr. Lane in his translation of the Arabian Nights,
BALAGÅMVE. chap. xxv. (vol. iii. pp. 384-518), frequent mention
The accompanying plate gives a facsimile, is made of the islands of Wak or Wak-W a k, re
from Major Dixon's photograph, of No. II. of presented as lying in the remotest eastern regions.
Mr. Fleet's series of Sanskrit and Old Canarese In his carefully digested note (No. 32, page 523), Mr. Lane gives it as his own opinion that the
Inscriptions. A Canarese transcription of it, Arab geographers applied the name to all the
with translation and remarks, is given at vol. islands with which they were acquainted on the
IV. p. 208. The characters and language are east and south-east of Borneo ; and this conclusion | Old Canarese.
• Solomon is fabled to have understood the language of birds and beasts.
