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.—­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 nobody 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 glass 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.)