THE name * emu ' has an interesting history. It occurs in 

 the forms ' emia ' and ' eme ' in Purchas his Pilgrimage, in 

 1 613. 'In Banda and other islands,' says Purchas, * the bird called 

 emia or eme is admirable.' We should probably pronounce ' eme * 

 in two syllables, as e-m6. This eme or emia was doubtless a 

 cassowary — probably that of Ceram. The idea that it was a 

 native of the Banda Group appears to have existed in some 

 quarters at the beginning of the seventeenth century, but the 

 idea was assuredly an erroneous one. So large a struthious bird 

 as the cassowary requires more extensive feeding-grounds and 

 greater seclusion than was to be found in any island of the Banda 

 Group, and, as at the present day so in the past, Ceram was the 

 true home of the Malayan cassowary, which found and which 

 finds in the extensive forests of that island the home adapted to 

 its requirements. It is, however, equally certain that at an early 

 date the Ceram cassowary was imported into Amboyna and 

 probably into Banda also, and we know of an early instance of 

 its being introduced into Java, and from Java into Europe. 

 When the first Dutch expedition to Java had reached that island, 

 and when the vessels of which it was composed were lying at 

 anchor off Sindaya, some Javans brought a cassowary on board 

 Schellenger's ship as a gift, saying that the bird was a rare one 

 and that it swallowed fire. At least, so they were understood to 

 say, but that they really did say so is somewhat doubtful. 



