Is called by the
Arabs Yfrit(!), and is made just in that fashion in which we see it
painted in pictures." (Marmol, Descripcion General de Africa, Granada,
1573, I. f. 30.) The Zorafa is described as a different beast, which it
certainly is!
(Bochart, Hierozoica, II. 852 seqq.; Mas'udi, IV. 16; Mem. dell'
Acad. dell' Instit. di Bologna, III. 174 seqq., V. 112 seqq.; Zurla
on Fra Mauro, p. 62; Lane's Arabian Nights, Notes on Sindbad; Benj.
of Tudela, p. 117; De Varia Fortuna Ernesti Bavariae Ducis, in
Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum of Martene and Durand, vol. III. col. 353
seqq.; I.B. IV. 305; Gildem. p. 220; Pigafetta, p. 174; Major's
Prince Henry, p. 311; Erman, II. 88; Garcin de Tassy, La Poesie
philos. etc., chez les Persans, 30 seqq.)
[In a letter to Sir Henry Yule, dated 24th March 1887, Sir (then Dr.) John
Kirk writes: "I was speaking with the present Sultan of Zanzibar, Seyyed
Barghash, about the great bird which the natives say exists, and in doing
so I laughed at the idea. His Highness turned serious and said that indeed
he believed it to be quite true that a great bird visited the Udoe
country, and that it caused a great shadow to fall upon the country; he
added that it let fall at times large rocks.
