- H.C.]
NOTE 6. - Sir Thomas Brown says that if any man will say he desires before
belief to behold such a creature as is the Rukh in Paulus Venetus, for
his own part he will not be angry with his incredulity. But M. Pauthier is
of more liberal belief; for he considers that, after all, the dimensions
which Marco assigns to the wings and quills of the Rukh are not so
extravagant that we should refuse to admit their possibility.
Ludolf will furnish him with corroborative evidence, that of Padre
Bolivar, a Jesuit, as communicated to Thevenot; the assigned position will
suit well enough with Marco's report: "The bird condor differs in size in
different parts of the world. The greater species was seen by many of the
Portuguese in their expedition against the Kingdoms of Sofala and Cuama
and the Land of the Caffres from Monomotapa to the Kingdom of Angola and
the Mountains of Teroa. In some countries I have myself seen the
wing-feathers of that enormous fowl, although the bird itself I never
beheld. The feather in question, as could be deduced from its form, was one
of the middle ones, and it was 28 palms in length and three in breadth. The
quill part, from the root to the extremity, was five palms in length, of
the thickness of an average man's arm, and of extreme strength and
hardness. [M. Alfred Grandidier (Hist. de la Geog. de Madagascar, p. 25)
thinks that the quill part of this feather was one of the bamboo shoots
formerly brought to Yemen to be used as water-jars and called there
feathers of Rukh, the Arabs looking upon these bamboo shoots as the quill
part of the feathers of the Rukh. - H.C.] The fibres of the feather were
equal in length and closely fitted, so that they could scarcely be parted
without some exertion of force; and they were jet black, whilst the quill
part was white. Those who had seen the bird stated that it was bigger than
the bulk of a couple of elephants, and that hitherto nobody had succeeded
in killing one. It rises to the clouds with such extraordinary swiftness
that it seems scarcely to stir its wings. In form it is like an eagle.
But although its size and swiftness are so extraordinary, it has much
trouble in procuring food, on account of the density of the forests with
which all that region is clothed. Its own dwelling is in cold and desolate
tracts such as the Mountains of Teroa, i.e. of the Moon; and in the valleys
of that range it shows itself at certain periods. Its black feathers are
held in very high estimation, and it is with the greatest difficulty that
one can be got from the natives, for one such serves to fan ten people,
and to keep off the terrible heat from them, as well as the wasps and
flies" (Ludolf, Hist. Aethiop. Comment, p. 164.)
Abu Mahomed, of Spain, relates that a merchant arrived in Barbary who had
lived long among the Chinese. He had with him the quill of a chick Rukh,
and this held nine skins of water. He related the story of how he came by
this, - a story nearly the same as one of Sindbad's about the Rukh's egg.
(Bochart, II. 854.)
Another story of a seaman wrecked on the coast of Africa is among those
collected by M. Marcel Devic. By a hut that stood in the middle of a field
of rice and durra there was a trough. "A man came up leading a pair of
oxen, laden with 12 skins of water, and emptied these into the trough. I
drew near to drink, and found the trough to be polished like a steel
blade, quite different from either glass or pottery. 'It is the hollow of
a quill,' said the man. I would not believe a word of the sort, until,
after rubbing it inside and outside, I found it to be transparent, and to
retain the traces of the barbs." (Comptes Rendus, etc., ut supra; and
Livre des Merveilles de L'Inde, p. 99.)
Fr. Jordanus also says: "In this India Tertia (Eastern Africa) are
certain birds which are called Roc, so big that they easily carry an
elephant up into the air. I have seen a certain person who said that he
had seen one of those birds, one wing only of which stretched to a length
of 80 palms" (p. 42).
The Japanese Encyclopaedia states that in the country of the Tsengsz'
(Zinjis) in the South-West Ocean, there is a bird called pheng, which in
its flight eclipses the sun. It can swallow a camel; and its quills are
used for water-casks. This was probably got from the Arabs. (J. As.,
ser. 2, tom. xii. 235-236.)
I should note that the Geog. Text in the first passage where the
feathers are spoken of says: "e ce qe je en vi voz dirai en autre leu,
por ce qe il convient ensi faire a nostre livre," - "that which I have
seen of them I will tell you elsewhere, as it suits the arrangement of
our book." No such other detail is found in that text, but we have in
Ramusio this passage about the quill brought to the Great Kaan, and I
suspect that the phrase, "as I have heard," is an interpolation, and that
Polo is here telling ce qe il en vit. What are we to make of the story?
I have sometimes thought that possibly some vegetable production, such as
a great frond of the Ravenala, may have been cooked to pass as a Rukh's
quill. [See App. L.]
NOTE 7. - The giraffes are an error. The Eng. Cyc. says that wild asses
and zebras (?) do exist in Madagascar, but I cannot trace authority for
this.
