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.
The great boar's teeth were indubitably hippopotamus-teeth, which form a
considerable article of export from Zanzibar[8] (not Madagascar). Burton
speaks of their reaching 12 lbs in weight. And Cosmas tells us: "The
hippopotamus I have not seen indeed, but I had some great teeth of his
that weighed thirteen pounds, which I sold here (in Alexandria). And I
have seen many such teeth in Ethiopia and in Egypt." (See J.R.G.S.
XXIX.
