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On the Translation of Myths Between the Old And: Paradise

While there can be little question that the islands and land of Wák Wák are respectively some of the Sunda islands, New Guinea, and the adjacent portion of Australia, it does not appear to have struck any of the commentators on this question that the name "islands of Wák Wák" may be assumed to signify simply "Bird of Paradise islands." Wallace, in his Malay Archipelago, emphatically remarks that in the interior of the forests of New Guinea the most striking sound is the cry "Wok Wok" of the great Bird of Paradise, and we may therefore reasonably speculate on the bird having been known as the Wok Wok, and the islands as the Wok Wok islands, just as we ourselves use the imitative names of Cuckoo, Morepork, or Hoopoe for birds, or Snake islands, Ape Hill, &c. for places.