Bent found that the Somalis were afraid of
the witchcraft of the natives of Socotra. Theo. BENT, Southern Arabia,
p. 361."
XXXIII., p. 412. Speaking of the bird Ruc at Madeigascar, Marco Polo says:
"It is so strong that it will seize an elephant in its talons and carry
him high into the air, and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces;
having so killed him the bird gryphon swoops down on him and eats him at
leisure."
Chau Ju-kwa writing of K'un lun ts'oeng' ki, on the coast of Africa,
writes, p. 149: "This country is in the sea to the south-west. It is
adjacent to a large island. There are usually (there, i.e., on the great
island) great p'oeng birds which so mask the sun in their flight that the
shade on the sundial is shifted. If the great p'oeng finds a wild camel
it swallows it, and if one should chance to find p'oeng's feather, he can
make a water-butt of it, after cutting off the hollow quill."
XXXIII., p. 421.
THE RUKH.
The Chinese traveller Chau Ju-kwa in his work Chu-fan-chi on the Chinese
and Arab trade in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, speaking of the
country of Pi p'a lo (Berbera), says:
