The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 61

A pa.s.sage from Temple's Travels in Peru has been quoted as exhibiting exaggeration in the description of the condor surpa.s.sing anything that can be laid to Polo's charge here; but that is, in fact, only somewhat heavy banter directed against our traveller's own narrative. (See _Travels in Various Parts of Peru_, 1830, II. 414-417.)

Recently fossil bones have been found in New Zealand, which seem to bring us a step nearer to the realization of the Rukh. Dr. Haast discovered in a swamp at Glenmark in the province of Otago, along with remains of the _Dinornis_ or Moa, some bones (femur, ungual phalanges, and rib) of a gigantic bird which he p.r.o.nounces to be a bird of prey, apparently allied to the Harriers, and calls _Harpagornis_. He supposes it to have preyed upon the Moa, and as that fowl is calculated to have been 10 feet and upwards in height, we are not so very far from the elephant-devouring Rukh. (See _Comptes Rendus, Ac. des Sciences_ 1872, p. 1782; and _Ibis_, October 1872, p. 433.) This discovery may possibly throw a new light on the traditions of the New Zealanders. For Professor Owen, in first describing the _Dinornis_ in 1839, mentioned that the natives had a tradition that the bones belonged _to a bird of the eagle kind_. (See _Eng. Cyc._ Nat. Hist. sub. v. _Dinornis_.) And Sir Geo. Grey appears to have read a paper, 23rd October 1872,[4] which was the description by a Maori of the _Hokiol_, an extinct gigantic bird of prey of which that people have traditions come down from their ancestors, said to have been a black hawk of great size, as large as the Moa.

I have to thank Mr. Arthur Grote for a few words more on that most interesting subject, the discovery of a real fossil _Ruc_ in New Zealand.

He informs me (under date 4th December 1874) that Professor Owen is now working on the huge bones sent home by Dr. Haast, "and is convinced that they belonged to a bird of prey, probably (as Dr. Haast suggested) a Harrier, _double the weight of the Moa_, and quite capable therefore of preying on the young of that species. Indeed, he is disposed to attribute the extinction of the Harpagornis to that of the Moa, which was the only victim in the country which could supply it with a sufficiency of food."

One is tempted to add that if the Moa or Dinornis of New Zealand had its _Harpagornis_ scourge, the still greater Aepyornis of Madagascar may have had a proportionate tyrant, whose bones (and quills ?) time may bring to light. And the description given by Sir Douglas Forsyth on page 542, of the action of the Golden Eagle of Kashgar in dealing with a wild boar, ill.u.s.trates how such a bird as our imagined _Harpagornis Aepyornithon_ might master the larger pachydermata, even the elephant himself, without having to treat him precisely as the Persian drawing at p. 415 represents.

Sindbad's adventures with the Rukh are too well known for quotation. A variety of stories of the same tenor hitherto unpublished, have been collected by M. Marcel Devic from an Arabic work of the 10th century on the "_Marvels of Hind_," by an author who professes only to repeat the narratives of merchants and mariners whom he had questioned. A specimen of these will be found under Note 6. The story takes a peculiar form in the Travels of Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela. He heard that when ships were in danger of being lost in the stormy sea that led to China the sailors were wont to sew themselves up in hides, and so when cast upon the surface they were s.n.a.t.c.hed up by great eagles called gryphons, which carried their supposed prey ash.o.r.e, etc. It is curious that this very story occurs in a Latin poem stated to be _at least_ as old as the beginning of the 13th century, which relates the romantic adventures of a certain Duke Ernest of Bavaria; whilst the story embodies more than one other adventure belonging to the History of Sindbad.[5] The Duke and his comrades, navigating in some unknown ramification of the Euxine, fall within the fatal attraction of the Magnet Mountain. Hurried by this augmenting force, their ship is described as crashing through the rotten forest of masts already drawn to their doom:--

"Et ferit impulsus majoris verbere montem Quam si diplosas impingat machina turres."

There they starve, and the dead are deposited on the lofty p.o.o.p to be carried away by the daily visits of the gryphons:--

--"Quae grifae membra leonis Et pennas aquilae simulantes unguibus atris Tollentes miseranda suis dant prandia pullis."

When only the Duke and six others survive, the wisest of the party suggests the scheme which Rabbi Benjamin has related:--

--"Quaeramus tergora, et armis Vest.i.ti prius, optatis volvamur in illis, Ut nos tollentes ment.i.ta cadavera Grifae Pullis objiciant, a queis facientibus armis Et cute dissuta, nos, si volet, Ille Deorum Optimus eripiet."

Which scheme is successfully carried out. The wanderers then make a raft on which they embark on a river which plunges into a cavern in the heart of a mountain; and after a time they emerge in the country of Arimaspia inhabited by the Cyclopes; and so on. The Gryphon story also appears in the romance of Huon de Bordeaux, as well as in the tale called 'Hasan of el-Basrah' in Lane's Version of the _Arabian Nights_.

It is in the China Seas that Ibn Batuta beheld the Rukh, first like a mountain in the sea where no mountain should be, and then "when the sun rose," says he, "we saw the mountain aloft in the air, and the clear sky between it and the sea. We were in astonishment at this, and I observed that the sailors were weeping and bidding each other adieu, so I called out, 'What is the matter?' They replied, 'What we took for a mountain is "the Rukh." If it sees us, it will send us to destruction.' It was then some 10 miles from the junk. But G.o.d Almighty was gracious unto us, and sent us a fair wind, which turned us from the direction in which the Rukh was; so we did not see him well enough to take cognizance of his real shape." In this story we have evidently a case of abnormal refraction, causing an island to appear suspended in the air.[6]

The Archipelago was perhaps the legitimate habitat of the Rukh, before circ.u.mstances localised it in the direction of Madagascar. In the Indian Sea, says Kazwini, is a bird of size so vast that when it is dead men take the half of its bill and make a ship of it! And there too Pigafetta heard of this bird, under its Hindu name of _Garuda_, so big that it could fly away with an elephant.[7] Kazwini also says that the 'Angka carries off an elephant as a hawk flies off with a mouse; his flight is like the loud thunder. Whilom he dwelt near the haunts of men, and wrought them great mischief. But once on a time it had carried off a bride in her bridal array, and Hamd Allah, the Prophet of those days, invoked a curse upon the bird. Wherefore the Lord banished it to an inaccessible Island in the Encircling Ocean.

The Simurgh or 'Angka, dwelling behind veils of Light and Darkness on the inaccessible summits of Caucasus, is in Persian mysticism an emblem of the Almighty.

In Northern Siberia the people have a firm belief in the former existence of birds of colossal size, suggested apparently by the fossil bones of great pachyderms which are so abundant there. And the compressed sabre-like horns of _Rhinoceros tichorinus_ are constantly called, even by Russian merchants, _birds' claws_. Some of the native tribes fancy the vaulted skull of the same rhinoceros to be the bird's head, and the leg-bones of other pachyderms to be its quills; and they relate that their forefathers used to fight wonderful battles with this bird. Erman ingeniously suggests that the Herodotean story of the Gryphons, _from under which_ the Arimaspians drew their gold, grew out of the legends about these fossils.

I may add that the name of our _rook_ in chess is taken from that of this same bird; though first perverted from (Sansk.) _rath_, a chariot.

Some Eastern authors make the _Rukh_ an enormous beast instead of a bird.

(See _J.R.A.S._ XIII. 64, and _Elliot_, II. 203.) A Spanish author of the 16th century seems to take the same view of the Gryphon, but he is prudently vague in describing it, which he does among the animals of Africa: "The _Grifo which some call_ CAMELLO PARDAL ... 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' Inst.i.t. 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 Ta.s.sy, 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. Of course he did not pretend to know these things from his own experience, for he has never been inland, but he considered he had ample grounds to believe these stones from what he had been told of those who travelled. The Udoe country lies north of the River Wami opposite the island of Zanzibar and about two days going inland. The people are jealous of strangers and practise cannibalism in war. They are therefore little visited, and although near the coast we know little of them. The only members of their tribe I have known have been converted to Islam, and not disposed to say much of their native customs, being ashamed of them, while secretly still believing in them.

The only thing I noticed was an idea that the tribe came originally from the West, from about Manyema; now the people of that part are cannibals, and cannibalism is almost unknown except among the _Wadoe_, nearer the east coast. It is also singular that the other story of a gigantic bird comes from near Manyema and that the _whalebone_ that was pa.s.sed off at Zanzibar as the wing of a bird, came, they said, from Tanganyika. As to rocks falling in East Africa, I think their idea might easily arise from the fall of meteoric stones."]

[M. Alfred Grandidier (_Hist. de la Geog. de Madagascar_, p. 31) thinks that the Rukh is but an image; it is a personification of water-spouts, cyclones, and typhoons.--H.C.]

NOTE 6.--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 a.s.signs 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 a.s.signed 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.--H.C.] The fibres of the feather were equal in length and closely fitted, so that they could scarcely be parted without some exertion of force; and they were jet black, whilst the quill part was white. Those who had seen the bird stated that it was bigger than the bulk of a couple of elephants, and that hitherto n.o.body had succeeded in killing one. It rises to the clouds with such extraordinary swiftness that it seems scarcely to stir its wings. _In form it is like an eagle_.

But although its size and swiftness are so extraordinary, it has much trouble in procuring food, on account of the density of the forests with which all that region is clothed. Its own dwelling is in cold and desolate tracts such as the Mountains of Teroa, i.e. of the Moon; and in the valleys of that range it shows itself at certain periods. Its black feathers are held in very high estimation, and it is with the greatest difficulty that one can be got from the natives, for _one_ such serves to fan ten people, and to keep off the terrible heat from them, as well as the wasps and flies" (_Ludolf, Hist. Aethiop._ Comment, p. 164.)

Abu Mahomed, of Spain, relates that a merchant arrived in Barbary who had lived long among the Chinese. He had with him the quill of a chick Rukh, and this held nine skins of water. He related the story of how he came by this,--a story nearly the same as one of Sindbad's about the Rukh's egg.

(_Bochart_, II. 854.)

Another story of a seaman wrecked on the coast of Africa is among those collected by M. Marcel Devic. By a hut that stood in the middle of a field of rice and _durra_ there was a trough. "A man came up leading a pair of oxen, laden with 12 skins of water, and emptied these into the trough. I drew near to drink, and found the trough to be polished like a steel blade, quite different from either gla.s.s or pottery. 'It is the hollow of a quill,' said the man. I would not believe a word of the sort, until, after rubbing it inside and outside, I found it to be transparent, and to retain the traces of the barbs." (_Comptes Rendus_, etc., ut supra; and _Livre des Merveilles de L'Inde_, p. 99.)

Fr. Jorda.n.u.s also says: "In this _India Tertia_ (Eastern Africa) are certain birds which are called _Roc_, so big that they easily carry an elephant up into the air. I have seen a certain person who said that he had seen one of those birds, one wing only of which stretched to a length of 80 palms" (p. 42).

The j.a.panese Encyclopaedia states that in the country of the _Tsengsz'_ (Zinjis) in the South-West Ocean, there is a bird called _pheng_, which in its flight eclipses the sun. It can swallow a camel; and its quills are used for water-casks. This was probably got from the Arabs. (_J. As._, ser. 2, tom. xii. 235-236.)

I should note that the _Geog. Text_ in the first pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.s as a Rukh's quill. [See _App._ L.]

NOTE 7.--The giraffes are an error. The _Eng. Cyc._ says that wild a.s.ses 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 Aba.s.side 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 b.u.t.t. 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. 71-72.)

[7] An epithet of the _Garuda_ is _Gajakurmasin_, "elephant-c.u.m-tortoise-devourer," because said to have swallowed both when engaged in a contest with each other.

[8] The name as p.r.o.nounced seems to have been _Zangibar_ (hard _g_), which polite Arabic changed into _Zanjibar_, whence the Portuguese made _Zanzibar_.

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF ZANGHIBAR. A WORD ON INDIA IN GENERAL.

Zanghibar is a great and n.o.ble Island, with a compa.s.s of some 2000 miles.[NOTE 1] The people are all Idolaters, and have a king and a language of their own, and pay tribute to n.o.body. They are both tall and stout, but not tall in proportion to their stoutness, for if they were, being so stout and brawny, they would be absolutely like giants; and they are so strong that they will carry for four men and eat for five.

They are all black, and go stark naked, with only a little covering for decency. Their hair is as black as pepper, and so frizzly that even with water you can scarcely straighten it. And their mouths are so large, their noses so turned up, their lips so thick, their eyes so big and bloodshot, that they look like very devils; they are in fact so hideously ugly that the world has nothing to show more horrible.

Elephants are produced in this country in wonderful profusion. There are also lions that are black and quite different from ours. And their sheep and wethers are all exactly alike in colour; the body all white and the head black; no other kind of sheep is found there, you may rest a.s.sured.[NOTE 2] They have also many giraffes. This is a beautiful creature, and I must give you a description of it. Its body is short and somewhat sloped to the rear, for its hind legs are short whilst the fore-legs and the neck are both very long, and thus its head stands about three paces from the ground. The head is small, and the animal is not at all mischievous. Its colour is all red and white in round spots, and it is really a beautiful object.[NOTE 3]

**The women of this Island are the ugliest in the world, with their great mouths and big eyes and thick noses; their b.r.e.a.s.t.s too are four times bigger than those of any other women; a very disgusting sight.

The people live on rice and flesh and milk and dates; and they make wine of dates and of rice and of good spices and sugar. There is a great deal of trade, and many merchants and vessels go thither. But the staple trade of the Island is in elephants' teeth, which are very abundant; and they have also much ambergris, as whales are plentiful.[NOTE 4]