4 The Rukh of Marco Polo 



between that of the phoenix and that of the pelican fed upon the 

 blood of its mother whose beak is tipped with red, or that of 

 the barnacle goose, of which the name suggests the mollusc,* the 

 barnacle, and which was said to proceed from the mollusc or 

 that of the bird of paradise, the feet of which were cut off by 

 the Malay traders who sold the skins, and which were commonly 

 reported never to have had feet, but to float perpetually in 

 the air. 



Thus two streams united into one floated the conception of 

 the rukh — a mythological stream taking its rise from the simourgh 

 of the Persians and a stream of fact taking its rise in the 

 observation of a real bird which visited certain islands off the 

 south-east coast of Africa, and which is said to have resembled 

 an eagle and may have been a sea-eagle. With commendable 

 reticence lexicographers tell us that ' rukh ' was the name of 

 a bird of mighty wing. 



* I.e., a fabulous mollusc j the barnacle is not now regarded as a mollusc. 



