first sent an embassy to An-si, a country of Western Asia, which, according to the description given of it, can only be identified with ancient Parthia, the empire of the dynasty of the Arsacides.  In this country, the Chinese chronicler records, a large bird from 8 to 9 feet high is found, the feet, the breast, and the neck of which make it resemble the camel.  It eats barley.  The name of this bird is ta ma tsio (the bird of the great horse).  It is further stated that subsequently the ruler of An-si sent an embassy to the Chinese emperor, and brought as a present the eggs of this great bird.  In the Hou Han shu, ch. cxviii., an embassy from An-si is mentioned again in A.D. 101.  They brought as presents a lion and a large bird.  In the History of the Wei Dynasty, A.D. 386-558, where for the first time the name of Po-sz’ occurs, used to designate Persia, it is recorded that in that country there is a large bird resembling a camel and laying eggs of large size.  It has wings and cannot fly far.  It eats grass and flesh, and swallows men.  In the History of the T’ang (618-907) the camel-bird is again mentioned as a bird of Persia.  It is also stated there that the ruler of T’u-huo-lo (Tokharestan) sent a camel-bird to the Chinese emperor.  The Chinese materia medica, Pen ts’ao Kang mu, written in the 16th century, gives (ch. xlix.) a good description of the ostrich, compiled from ancient authors.  It is said, amongst other things, to eat copper, iron, stones, etc., and to have only two claws on its feet.  Its legs are so strong that it can dangerously wound a man by jerking.  It can run 300 li a day.  Its native countries are A-dan (Aden) Dju-bo (on the Eastern African coast).  A rude but tolerably exact drawing of the camel-bird in the Pen-ts’ao proves that the ostrich was well known to the Chinese in ancient times, and that they paid great attention to it.  In the History of the Ming Dynasty, ch. cccxxvi., the country of Hu-lu-mo-sz’ (Hormuz on the Persian Gulf) is mentioned as producing ostriches.”—­H.C.]

[1] Reinaud (Abulf. I. 81) says the word Interior applied by the Arabs
    to a country, is the equivalent of citerior, whilst by exterior
    they mean ulterior.  But the truth is just the reverse, even in the
    case before him, where Bolghar-al-Dakhila, ‘Bulgari Interiores,’ are
    the Volga Bulgars.  So also the Arabs called Armenia on the Araxes
    Interior, Armenia on Lake Van Exterior (St. Martin, I. 31).

[2] Thus (2) the Homeritae of Yemen, (3) the people of Axum, and Adulis or
    Zulla, (5) the Bugaei or Bejahs of the Red Sea coast, (6) Taiani or
    Tiamo, appear in Salt’s Axum Inscription as subject to the King of Axum
    in the middle of the 4th century.

[3] Muir’s Life of Mahomet, I. cclxiii.