The Gryphon Story Also Appears In
The Romance Of Huon De Bordeaux, As Well As In The Tale Called 'Hasan Of
El-Basrah' In Lane's Version Of The Arabian Nights.
It is in the China Seas that Ibn Batuta beheld the Rukh, first like a
mountain in the sea where no mountain should be, and then "when the sun
rose," says he, "we saw the mountain aloft in the air, and the clear sky
between it and the sea.
We were in astonishment at this, and I observed
that the sailors were weeping and bidding each other adieu, so I called
out, 'What is the matter?' They replied, 'What we took for a mountain is
"the Rukh." If it sees us, it will send us to destruction.' It was then
some 10 miles from the junk. But God Almighty was gracious unto us, and
sent us a fair wind, which turned us from the direction in which the Rukh
was; so we did not see him well enough to take cognizance of his real
shape." In this story we have evidently a case of abnormal refraction,
causing an island to appear suspended in the air.[6]
The Archipelago was perhaps the legitimate habitat of the Rukh, before
circumstances localised it in the direction of Madagascar. In the Indian
Sea, says Kazwini, is a bird of size so vast that when it is dead men take
the half of its bill and make a ship of it! And there too Pigafetta heard
of this bird, under its Hindu name of Garuda, so big that it could fly
away with an elephant.[7] Kazwini also says that the 'Angka carries off
an elephant as a hawk flies off with a mouse; his flight is like the loud
thunder.
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