36): -
- "I Capidogli co' vecchi marini
Vengon turbati dal lor pigro sonno."
The Spermaceti-whale is described under this name by Rondeletius, but from
his cut it is clear he had not seen the animal.
NOTE 4. - De Barros, after describing the dangers of the Channel of
Mozambique, adds: "And as the Moors of this coast of Zanguebar make their
voyages in ships and sambuks sewn with coir, instead of being nailed like
ours, and thus strong enough to bear the force of the cold seas of the
region about the Cape of Good Hope,.. they never dared to attempt the
exploration of the regions to the westward of the Cape of Currents,
although they greatly desired to do so." (Dec. I. viii. 4; and see also
IV. i. 12.) Kazwini says of the Ocean, quoting Al Biruni: "Then it extends
to the sea known as that of Berbera, and stretches from Aden to the
furthest extremity of Zanjibar; beyond this goes no vessel on account of
the great current. Then it extends to what are called the Mountains of the
Moon, whence spring the sources of the Nile of Egypt, and thence to
Western Sudan, to the Spanish Countries and the (Western) Ocean." There
has been recent controversy between Captain A.D. Taylor and Commodore
Jansen of the Dutch navy, regarding the Mozambique currents, and
(incidentally) Polo's accuracy. The currents in the Mozambique Channel
vary with the monsoons, but from Cape Corrientes southward along the coast
runs the permanent Lagullas current, and Polo's statement requires but
little correction. (Ethe pp. 214-215; see also Barbosa in Ram. I.
288; Owen, I. 269; Stanley's Correa, p. 261; J.R.G.S. II. 91;
Fra Mauro in Zurla, p. 61; see also Reinaud's Abulfeda, vol. i. pp.
15-16; and Ocean Highways, August to November, 1873.)
[Illustration: The Rukh (from Lane's "Arabian Nights"), after a Persian
drawing.]
NOTE 5. - The fable of the RUKH was old and widely spread, like that of the
Male and Female Islands, and, just as in that case, one accidental
circumstance or another would give it a local habitation, now here now
there. The Garuda of the Hindus, the Simurgh of the old Persians, the
'Angka of the Arabs, the Bar Yuchre of the Rabbinical legends, the
Gryps of the Greeks, were probably all versions of the same original
fable.
Bochart quotes a bitter Arabic proverb which says, "Good-Faith, the Ghul,
and the Gryphon ('Angka) are three names of things that exist nowhere."
And Mas'udi, after having said that whatever country he visited he always
found that the people believed these monstrous creatures to exist in
regions as remote as possible from their own, observes: "It is not that our
reason absolutely rejects the possibility of the existence of the Nesnas
(see vol. i. p. 206) or of the 'Angka, and other beings of that rare and
wondrous order; for there is nothing in their existence incompatible with
the Divine Power; but we decline to believe in them because their existence
has not been manifested to us on any irrefragable authority."
[Illustration: Frontispiece showing the Bird Rukh.]
The circumstance which for the time localized the Rukh in the direction of
Madagascar was perhaps some rumour of the great fossil Aepyornis and its
colossal eggs, found in that island. According to Geoffroy St. Hilaire,
the Malagashes assert that the bird which laid those great eggs still
exists, that it has an immense power of flight, and preys upon the greater
quadrupeds. Indeed the continued existence of the bird has been alleged as
late as 1861 and 1863!
On the great map of Fra Mauro (1459) near the extreme point of Africa
which he calls Cavo de Diab, and which is suggestive of the Cape of Good
Hope, but was really perhaps Cape Corrientes, there is a rubric inscribed
with the following remarkable story: "About the year of Our Lord 1420 a
ship or junk of India in crossing the Indian Sea was driven by way of the
Islands of Men and Women beyond the Cape of Diab, and carried between the
Green Islands and the Darkness in a westerly and south-westerly direction
for 40 days, without seeing anything but sky and sea, during which time
they made to the best of their judgment 2000 miles. The gale then ceasing
they turned back, and were seventy days in getting to the aforesaid Cape
Diab. The ship having touched on the coast to supply its wants, the
mariners beheld there the egg of a certain bird called Chrocho, which
egg was as big as a butt.[3] And the bigness of the bird is such that
between the extremities of the wings is said to be 60 paces. They say too
that it carries away an elephant or any other great animal with the
greatest ease, and does great injury to the inhabitants of the country,
and is most rapid in its flight."
G.-St. Hilaire considered the Aepyornis to be of the Ostrich family;
Prince C. Buonaparte classed it with the Inepti or Dodos; Duvernay of
Valenciennes with aquatic birds! There was clearly therefore room for
difference of opinion, and Professor Bianconi of Bologna, who has written
much on the subject, concludes that it was most probably a bird of the
vulture family. This would go far, he urges, to justify Polo's account of
the Ruc as a bird of prey, though the story of it's lifting any large
animal could have had no foundation, as the feet of the vulture kind are
unfit for such efforts. Humboldt describes the habit of the condor of the
Andes as that of worrying, wearying, and frightening its four-footed prey
until it drops; sometimes the condor drives its victim over a precipice.
Bianconi concludes that on the same scale of proportion as the condor's,
the great quills of the Aepyornis would be about 10 feet long, and the
spread of the wings about 32 feet, whilst the height of the bird would be
at least four times that of the condor.
