- 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.
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