2, tom. xii. 235-236.)
I should note that the Geog. 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. 444; Cathay, p. clxxv.)
[1] Bretschneider, On the knowledge possessed by the Ancient Chinese of
the Arabs, etc. London, 1871, p. 21.
[2] Mas'udi speaks of an island Kanbalu, well cultivated and populous,
one or two days from the Zinj coast, and the object of voyages from
Oman, from which it was about 500 parasangs distant. It was conquered
by the Arabs, who captured the whole Zinj population of the island,
about the beginning of the Abasside Dynasty (circa A.D. 750). Barbier
de Meynard thinks this may be Madagascar. I suspect it rather to be
Pemba, (See Prairies d'Or, I. 205, 232, and III. 31.)
[3] "De la grandeza de una bota d'anfora." The lowest estimate that I
find of the Venetian anfora makes it equal to about 108 imperial
gallons, a little less than the English butt. This seems intended. The
ancient amphora would be more reasonable, being only 5.66 gallons.
[4] The friend who noted this for me, omitted to name the Society.
[5] I got the indication of this poem, I think, in Bochart. But I have
since observed that its coincidences with Sindbad are briefly noticed
by Mr. Lane (ed. 1859, III. 78) from an article in the "Foreign
Quarterly Review."
[6] An intelligent writer, speaking of such effects on the same sea, says:
"The boats floating on a calm sea, at a distance from the ship, were
magnified to a great size; the crew standing up in them appeared as
masts or trees, and their arms in motion as the wings of windmills;
whilst the surrounding islands (especially at their low and tapered
extremities) seemed to be suspended in the air, some feet above the
ocean's level." (Bennett's Whaling Voyage, II.
