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The Birds of Paradise in the Arabian Nights

I

A considerable experience among savage and barbarous peoples, and some acquaintance with the records of past ages and the beliefs of unlettered peasants in all parts of the world, have convinced me that, in the great majority of cases, beliefs or legends referring to natural phenomena are founded on facts, and are for the most part actual descriptions of what has been observed, though often misinterpreted, and sometimes overlaid with supernatural accessories. A few examples of these it may be interesting to note.

The enormous, almost double bills of some of the large Hornbills were only known to Pliny by exaggerated descriptions; and he therefore thought them to be altogether fabulous. If electric fishes had not been inhabitants of European seas, the powers of the electrical eels (Gymnoti) would certainly have been discredited when described by travellers in South America, as they were by many of the uneducated colonists. A Portuguese trader, with whom I lived on the Upper Rio Negro, told me one day about his experiences in handling one of these fishes, beginning by saying: "I know you won't believe me, I did not believe it till I felt it." And he added: "There is another thing you won't believe. If your fishing line is dry, the fishes can't hurt you; but if it is wet, you get struck through, almost the same as if you take hold of them." And he was very much surprised when I said that I did believe him.

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The manner in which the young cuckoo ejects the eggs and young nestlings of its foster-parents, as described by Jenner a century ago, has been disbelieved by many naturalists down to the present time; but the fact has been re-observed quite recently, and photographs have been taken of the act itself, showing it to agree very closely with the original description.

A somewhat similar case is that of the viper, whose young are said to run down the mother's throat in time of danger. This is believed by numbers of country people, who declare they have seen it take place; and some of these witnesses are educated persons. I have always believed this to be a fact, because there is no inherent impossibility or even difficulty in it, and because it is a kind of fact which is in itself easy to observe, and quite unmistakable. When residing in the city of Washington, in 1877,* I was told by the Assistant Librarian of the Congressional Library, that, when he was a schoolboy, in Chester Co., Pennsylvania, he and a companion one day saw a viper or snake about two feet long, basking on a smooth rock, with a number of small snakes, four or five inches long, playing round its head. On my friend's appearance, the large snake made a peculiar sound, and opened its mouth, when the small snakes immediately ran towards its head and disappeared, some being seen to go into the mouth of the mother. The snake was caught, its mouth tied up, and taken home. On the body being opened, nearly twenty little snakes, just like those seen, came out. My informant kindly signed his name to a statement of these facts, which he thought at the time were well known, and had never heard disputed. He is therefore an unprejudiced witness.

A few months since, a gentleman residing in Devonshire—Mr. J. H. Balkwill—sent me a paper which he had read at the Plymouth Natural History Society, under the title An Arabian Wallace, in which he shows that, in the story of Hasan of El Basrah, as given in Lane's translation of the Arabian Nights, there is an account of the hero's visit to the Aru Islands, while the whole story evidently rests upon myths and legends which grew around travellers' tales of the islands, and the plumes of some wonderful birds which were

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found there. I was at the time hard at work upon my last book, and did not pay much attention to the subject; but, as soon as I had some leisure, I read the story, which is long but very interesting, and was much struck by it, as it was quite new to me. This was because it was not included in the old edition of the Nights, which was familiar to me in my boyhood.

But, though the story was new to me, I felt sure that I was already acquainted with the suggestion that the Aru Islands were the "Islands of Wák-Wák" of the story, but had quite forgotten how or where I had obtained the idea. At my request, my friend, Professor Poulton, inquired of the Professor of Arabic at Oxford; and I learnt that my old friend, Mr. F. W. Kirby, had made the identification in the preface to his New Arabian Nights, published in 1883, and that Sir Richard Burton had quoted him in his translation, and had also quoted a private letter giving the same view. This identification rested in each case on the cry of the Great Bird of Paradise being, as nearly as can be expressed by letters: "Wák-wák" or "wawk-wawk," as stated, I believe for the first time, in my Malay Archipelago. As I had never seen Mr. Kirby's work, I feel sure I must have heard of the identification from himself in the course of conversation.¹

Mr. Balkwill arrived at his identification quite independently, after reading my book, and has besides traced out all Hasan's wanderings across Asia and the Eastern Archipelago with much ingenuity. There are, however, a few points of some importance on which I think I can give more detailed and more correct information; and as I am, so far as I know, the only person who has seen something of Eastern peoples, has travelled along a portion of Hasan's

1. Mr. Kirby has been so good as to send me a copy of Sir Richard Burton's elaborate note on the Islands of Wák-Wák. He states that the name has been applied to other islands on the east coast of Africa, and that in that region "Wák" means "God"; also, that a somewhat similar name has been applied to Japan. Colonel J. W. Watson merely gives his opinion that the name applies to New Guinea or the adjacent islands, where the Bird of Paradise is said to cry "Wák-Wák." Sir R. Burton concludes from his learned research: "Thus, like Ophir, Wák-Wák has wandered all over the world,"—a most unenlightening conclusion, and one that in no way affects the identification of the various parts of Hasan's story here set forth.

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route, and is also acquainted with the birds themselves in their native haunts, I have thought it would be interesting to make a careful examination of the whole narrative, and to show how far it is found to agree with the actual knowledge of the period, and with the general facts of the geography and natural history of the countries referred to in it. To do this, it will be necessary to give rather a full abstract of the story, as it is told in Lane's translation, quoting the exact words in all the more important and critical portions of the narrative, and thus to become able to disentangle the substratum of fact underlying the imaginative and often magical superstructure.

The Story of Hasan of Bassorah.

Hasan is a young goldsmith of El Basrah (Bassorah) who was a good workman, and remarkable for his grace of figure and beauty of countenance. One day, when he was at work in his shop, a Persian addressed him, praising his skill, and after a time offered to adopt him as his son, and to teach him how to transmute any common metal into gold. To this Hasan agreed, it being universally believed at that period that such transmutation was possible; and the next day the Persian came to Hasan's house, and made gold before his eyes, out of some old copper which Hasan procured. Then they had a little feast together; and afterwards the Persian, while Hasan was not looking, put some powder into the sweetmeat on the table and offered it to Hasan, who ate it, and immediately fell down in a trance. Then the Persian put him into a large chest, which he locked, and went to the harbour, where he had a ship waiting for him, called some of his men, and carried the box on board. (Hasan's mother, after preparing the feast, had, at her son's suggestion, gone to visit a friend.) The Persian then ordered the anchors to be pulled up, and immediately sailed away.

The voyage is said to have lasted six months; but this is evidently one of those exaggerations we constantly meet with in these narratives, though it might perhaps have

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been as much as six weeks, allowing for contrary winds and numerous stoppages for trade, or to obtain provisions and water. The Persian, who was a fire-worshipper, had treated Hasan very cruelly, keeping him bound, and flogging him every day, calling him a vile heretic, and telling him he was going to sacrifice him, as he had sacrificed a young Mussulman every year for many years past, but offering, if he became a fire-worshipper, really to adopt him as his son, and teach him all his magic power. But of course Hasan preferred to die rather than give up his religion. At last, they landed on "a long coast" which, from what happened afterwards, must have been somewhere to the east of Ormuz, where there is a long straight coast, or perhaps even farther east, on the coast of Baluchistan.

The Persian told the captain to wait for them a month, and, taking Hasan with him, walked a little way inland. They then sat down under some palm trees, and the Persian, with a magic drum, summoned three camels, which soon appeared in a cloud of dust, one laden with provisions, the others saddled for riding. On these they travelled over deserts and rocky hills for seven days, when they reached a beautiful country, with verdant grass and spreading trees and fruit and flowers, while singing birds abounded, and gazelles sported in the shade. Here they rested all one day and the night. At some little distance, there appeared among the trees a magnificent palace, with glittering turrets and pinnacles; but when Hasan asked to whom it belonged, the Persian told him that it belonged to his enemies, who were evil genii, and he wished to avoid them.

Then they went on for another seven days, when they came to lofty mountains which rose far above the clouds. When they came close under them, there was a high precipice, and the Persian killed one of the camels, skinned it, and ordered Hasan to get inside the skin, giving him some food and water and a knife, and telling him that a Rukh would carry him to the top of the mountain, when he was to cut open the skin. The Rukh would then fly away, and he must collect some black sand that he would find on the ground and throw it down, and this would enable them

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both to transmute all metals into gold, and become wealthy for the rest of their lives. Hasan, being in the Persian's power, was obliged to consent, and it all happened as had been foretold; but when Hasan asked how he was to return, he was told to throw down the bags of black sand, and then he would be shown the way to descend. He did so, but the Persian then cursed him for an infidel, and told him he must remain and die there, and that his bones would be added to the bones of other young Muslims, which he could see around him. The name of the Persian was Bahrám the Magian; and he then mounted his camel and rode away. Mr. Balkwill calls attention to the fact that Bahrám, a fire-worshipper, appears in several stories as a kidnapper of young Muslims, and is always mentioned in terms of the greatest detestation.

Hasan then walked along the flat top of the mountain to the other side, when he came to the edge of a precipice, below which was the sea. Having no other way of escape, he jumped into the sea, and a wave carried him to the shore. He then walked through the mountains for several days, living on wild fruits, when, to his delight, he saw the grand palace and beautiful trees and gardens, where he had been told that the Magian's enemies lived. Here he was well received by two young ladies who, hearing his story, adopted him as their brother, from his resemblance to one they had lost. They told him that they and five other sisters, who were out hunting, were daughters of a powerful king who was of the race of good genii, and that he could stay with them till he wished to return to Bassorah, to his mother.

Some months afterwards, the seven princesses were summoned to visit their father, and Hasan was left alone, but with servants to wait upon him, till their return. And now the adventure befel him that forms the central point of the story. He had been warned not to open a certain door; but, getting very wearied of his solitude, he one day opened it, and found it led to a beautiful room, opening to an enclosed garden with a fountain and a superb pavilion, which he had not yet seen. While resting here in a secluded spot, he saw, flying from the direction of the

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desert, ten birds which came and alighted upon a great and beautiful tree; they were of magnificent plumage, and one was of greater beauty than the rest, and all the others surrounded and appeared to wait upon it. Then they descended to the pavilion, ripped open their plumes or feather dresses with their beaks, and then appeared as ten young damsels "whose beauty was as the full moon." The one that was the finest of the birds became the most beautiful, and they all bathed in the pool of the fountain and disported themselves; and, after a while, got into their feather dresses again, and flew away. But the excessive beauty of the chief of these bird-damsels pierced Hasan's heart with love; for she was the most beautiful of all the creations of Allah. And when the seven princesses returned, they found Hasan in such distress and grief that they knew something great had happened, and, on hearing his story, they told him, that the damsels, the chief of whom he was in love with, were the daughters of one of the kings of the Ján, who had dominion over men and the Ján, over enchanters and diviners, and regions and cities in great numbers; their own father was one of his viceroys. They also told him, that this king had given his daughters a country a year's journey in length and breadth, a great river encompassing it, and that neither men nor Ján could enter into it. And as they found that Hasan was so madly in love that he must marry this princess of the Jáns or die, they told him that she came every month to visit that garden and to bathe in the fountain, and that if her feather dress could be stolen and concealed she could not return to her country, and they would help him to persuade her to accept him for her husband.

And so it all happened; and when the princess of the Ján found that her plumes were lost and that she could not fly back to her country, and that the seven damsels treated her with the greatest kindness and respect, while Hasan worshipped her, and joy and hope made him supremely handsome, she at length consented to marry him. The marriage accordingly took place with all the proper ceremonies, and, after living a few months in the palace of the seven princesses, the adopted sisters of Hasan, he and

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his wife went home to Bassorah, to his mother who had long grieved for him as dead. And the young princesses of the castle loaded many camels with gold and treasures, and accompanied them for three days on their way. And they traversed many deserts, and valleys, and rocky tracts, and at length arrived safely at Bassorah; where Hasan's mother rejoiced greatly at his arrival with so beautiful a wife, and so much riches. But, as soon as he could sell his business and his father's house, he removed with his wife and mother to Baghdad, passing for a rich merchant, and thus avoiding the danger of becoming suddenly rich in a town where he was known to have been a poor man.

We have now reached the central point of the story, and, as the great journey of Hasan starts from the palace of the seven princesses, it will be interesting to see if we can fix, approximately, the position of that earthly paradise. The clues are, that it was about a week's camel journey from the coast where the Magian landed after his six months' voyage from Bassorah; that it was also reached directly overland from Bassorah, and also, as we learn later, from Baghdad. Also, that the journey was mainly over thinly inhabited or desert country by all three routes. Lastly, that it was in the midst of a fertile and beautiful country, and near very lofty mountains, while beyond these mountains was a sea.

If we consider the character of the districts traversed on the three separate routes, and the conditions under which the first journey was made by Hasan with the Magian, we shall find that they point very clearly to one locality only—the south-eastern lower slopes of the Elburz Mountains. The Magian, having his own ship and men, would be desirous of getting his prisoner away to sea as soon as possible, in order to avoid discovery and pursuit; and he would sail to some part of the coast, whence his journey to the great mountain was over a route known to himself, and was not thickly inhabited, but also one on which water and provisions were obtainable. Such a route is that from Ormuz or its vicinity, whence there are still roads or tracks through Kerman and the western part of Khorassan, across a great salt desert, as described, to Damaghân, and thence

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through a pass in the mountain range to the Caspian Sea. The routes from this region to Bassorah and Baghdad agree sufficiently with the very meagre accounts given of them.

But the chief correspondence is in the descriptions of this region by both ancient and modern writers, and the consideration that, for a thousand miles south-east and east of it, there extend countries whose characteristics are more or less arid uplands, varied by a few fertile valleys and vast extents of absolute desert. The slopes of the Elburz Mountains in eastern Persia are, on the other hand, said to be exceptionally fertile; and the mountain sides are everywhere clothed with a luxuriant vegetation of trees, shrubs, and flowering plants. A recent traveller, Colonel C. E. Yate, went from Asterabad to Bandar-i-Gaz on the Caspian Sea, at the end of December, and says:—

"The country looked charming. The hills above were covered with oak and sprinkled with snow, and the road below ran through masses of bracken and brambles, with wild pomegranate bushes and thorns, interspersed with oaks and other trees. Hawthorns were both in flower and in berry at the same time. Robins, chaffinches, and other small birds abounded, and ploughing was in full swing."

This is only about forty miles from Damaghân, but on the north side of the mountains; and any one who has seen pomegranate bushes when their gorgeous crimson flowers are expanded, can understand how beautiful a country must be, where this evergreen shrub is abundant. In the same month, at Asterabad, a little farther east, Colonel Yate tells us, the country all around was wonderfully green, oak and other trees were in full leaf, while, in the gardens, roses were everywhere in flower, and the orange and lime trees all in fruit. About three hundred miles farther east, in the Nishapur hills, the same writer says that the eight miles from Gulistan to Jaghark was a pleasant march under shade almost the whole way.

"The sides of the gorge were steep, and the whole valley from side to side was one mass of vegetation. The trees were of many kinds: apple, pear, plum, quince, peach, apricot, mulberry, walnut, poplar, plane, ash, willow, hawthorn, and various others."

To supplement these brief notes from a traveller who rarely described such peculiarities of scenery and vegetation,

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I will give the general description of the province of Mazanderan, which includes most of the country here referred to, both north and south of the mountain range, from the article on Persia in Chambers' Encyclopædia.

"The provinces of Ghilan and Mazanderan are as beautiful as wood, water, and a moderately hot climate can make them—the mountain-sides being clothed with trees and shrubs, while the plain to the north is studded with mulberry plantations, rice-fields, vineyards, orchards, orange-grounds, and sugar and cotton plantations."

Marco Polo, too, states, that the Province of Timschain—identified by his editor, Mr. Thomas Wright, with the modern Damaghân—has a climate which "is not subject to extremes of either heat or cold"; that its towns "are well supplied with every necessary and convenience of life"; and that its women are, in his opinion, "the most beautiful in the world." For so restrained and matter-of-fact a writer, this embodies all that can be said in favour of any country.

When we consider that, from the centre of the Arab dominion at Baghdad, the country on the west towards Asia Minor and Europe was pre-eminently the known world; that towards the east and north-east was the direction of the comparatively unknown; that a large part of Eastern Persia, Turkistan, and Afghanistan were arid deserts, while, farther to the north-east, were the still more inhospitable and less known regions of equally arid but cold and snowy Tibet and Mongolia; we can imagine what a very Paradise must have seemed this well-watered, forest-clad, and fertile mountain-region, with its noble trees, its abundant fruits and flowers, and its numerous ever-flowing streams, with abundance of singing and game birds, as well as of deer, wild boars, gazelles, and wild beasts of all kinds, both in the mountains to the north, and the deserts to the south.

The most curious fact, however, which indicates this region as being that in which the princesses' castle was situated, is, that it was in a valley near the town of Damaghân, that the chief of the Mahometan sect of Mulehetites, commonly known as the "Old Man of the Mountain," is related by Marco Polo to have had a very similar palace and gardens, inhabited by beautiful young damsels, and carefully guarded against intrusion, to serve as

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a sample of the real "Paradise," and thus to induce his followers to throw away their lives in battle, if needful, in order to secure its enjoyments. Marco Polo thus describes what he heard about it:—

"In a beautiful valley enclosed between two lofty mountains, he had formed a luxurious garden, stored with every delicious fruit and every fragrant shrub that could be procured. Palaces of various sizes and forms were erected in various parts of the grounds, ornamented with works in gold, with paintings, and with furniture of rich silks. By means of small conduits contrived in these buildings, streams of wine, milk, honey, and of pure water, were seen to flow in every direction. The inhabitants of these palaces were elegant and beautiful damsels, accomplished in the arts of singing, playing upon all sorts of musical instruments, dancing, and other amusements. . . . At certain times he caused opium to be administered to a few of the youths who were serving him and being trained for his army, and, when half dead with sleep, had them conveyed to one of the palaces by a secret entrance, and when they awoke they found themselves in what they believed to be the veritable paradise. After a few days, they were again entranced and brought away in the same secret manner, and ever after believed that, by the favour of their chief, they had had a foretaste of the joys of heaven, and were the more ready to give their lives for him."

The death of this chief, and the destruction of his palaces and gardens, appear to have occurred only a few years before Marco Polo visited the country, and about the time when the Arabian Nights, as we now have them, are supposed to have been written. And this will explain the resemblance of the palace visited by Hasan to that of the Chief of the Mulehetites. In Lane's translation of the story, the youngest princess relates to Hasan the history of their palace.

"The king, our father, summoned his Wezeers and companions, and said to them: 'Do ye know any place for me that no one can invade, neither any of mankind nor any of the Jinn, and that aboundeth with trees and fruits and rivers?' So they said to him: 'What would'st thou do there, O King of the Age?' He answered: 'I desire to place in it my seven daughters.' And thereupon they said to him: 'O King, the Palace of the Mountain of the Clouds, which an Efreet of the refractory Jinn founded, and which palace, after that Efreet perished, none inhabited after him, neither any of the Jinn nor any of mankind, will be suitable for them; for it is separated from the rest of the world. None gain access to it; and around it are trees and fruits and rivers, and running water sweeter than honey and cooler than snow; no one having the leprosy or other diseases ever drank of it without being cured immediately.'"

This description, and that of Marco Polo, are so strikingly alike in their main features, while the grand

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mountain ranges to the north, from 12,500 to 13,500 feet high, which may well have acquired the name of Mountains of the Clouds, are actually surrounded by such a delightful country as is described, that we can hardly doubt that the one is derived from the other, and that the site of the Palace of the Seven Princesses was intended to be located in this very region. We may now, therefore, go on with our story.

After living three years at Baghdad, during which time his wife gave him two sons, Hasan determined to pay a long-promised visit to his adopted sisters, the princesses, in the beautiful palace. Before going, he strictly charged his mother to take the greatest care of his wife, not to allow anyone to see her, and above all to keep secret the hidden feather-dress in a large chest buried in the garden, lest, finding it, his wife might fly away with her children to her own country. And he added: "If anything happen to her, I shall slay myself on her account." But, unknown to them, his wife heard all that he said.

Then he went away, and travelled night and day on swift camels, traversing the valleys and the mountains, and the plains and the rugged tracts, for the space of ten days, and on the eleventh day he arrived at the palace, and went in to his sisters, who were greatly rejoiced to see him. He remained with them three months, "passing his time in joy and happiness, and comfort and cheerfulness, and in hunting." And when he left them they again gave him "rich presents, and provisions, and five camels' load of gold and five of silver." And in due time he arrived again at Baghdad.

But, during his absence, sad events had happened. On the third day after his departure his wife said to his mother: "Extolled be the perfection of God! Do I reside here three years and not enter the bath?" And she wept. And in the end she wept so much and cursed her hard fate, and became so melancholy and ill, that Hasan's mother gave way, and took her to the bath. And her beauty astonished every one. And among the women at the bath was a slave-girl of the Khaleefeh, who saw her, and took back a report of her marvellous beauty to the Lady Zubeydeh. And she

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desired to see her, and sent to her mother-in-law to bring her. And when she came, with her two sons, all in the palace were amazed at her beauty; and the Lady Zubeydeh dressed her in magnificent robes and jewels. Then Hasan's wife said: "O my mistress, I have a dress of feathers, and thou would'st see a thing of the most beautiful make; and every one who would see it would talk of its beauty generation after generation. It is in the possession of the mother of my husband, buried in a chest; so demand it of her for me." Hasan's mother tried to deny it, but it was no use. Slaves were sent with her, and it was brought, and Hasan's wife put it on, having her two children wrapt in it, and walked about, and played and danced, and said: "O my mistresses, is this beautiful?" And they all answered, "Yes, O mistress of beauties; all that thou hast done is beautiful." And she then said to them: "And this that I am about to do will be more beautiful, O my mistresses." And she expanded her wings and flew up above the cupola, and stood upon the roof of the saloon. Then she repeated some verses, and afterwards spoke thus: "O my mistress, O mother of Hasan, when thy son hath come, and the days of separation have become tedious to him, and the winds of love agitate him, let him come to me in the Islands of Wák-Wák." And she flew away with her children, and sought her country.