MARCO POLO 37 



seas contained no fewer than 12,700 islands. He heard 

 of the unhappy island where there were men without 

 women ; and of the perhaps still more unhappy island 

 where there were women without men all " baptized 

 Christians, but holding the law of the Old Testament." 

 He heard also of the very large island of Socotra, where 

 all the people were Christians, and did big business in 

 " ambergris voided from the entrails of whales." And he 

 heard also of the great island of Madagascar, in circuit 3,000 

 miles, " one of the largest and most fertile in the world," and 

 of " numerous islands lying further South," which however 

 were not frequented, in consequence of the current running 

 so strongly to the Southward as to render the return 

 impossible ! " Beyond Madagascar again lies the island 

 of Zanzibar, 2,000 miles in circuit, peopled by naked 

 blacks, with hair so crisp that even when dipped in water 

 it can with difficulty be drawn out, with large mouths, 

 turned-up noses, long ears, and eyes so large and frightful 

 that they have the aspect of demons " a vivid, though 

 somewhat heightened, portrait of the negroes of the African 

 Continent. Marco's Arab friends told him also that the 

 people of Madagascar spoke of "an extraordinary kind 

 of bird which they call a rue," in form resembling an eagle, 

 but incomparably greater in size, being so large and strong 

 as to seize an elephant with its talons, lift it in the air, 

 as jackass 1 lifts snake, letting it fall to the ground, 

 in order that it may prey upon the carcase. Marco 

 thought the creatures must be griffins, such as are repre- 

 sented in paintings, half birds half lions ; but it was in- 

 sisted that they were wholly birds, like eagles. The 

 Great Kaan had sent messengers all the way to inquire 

 into this extraordinary phenomenon ; " and, when they 

 returned to the presence of his Majesty, they brought 

 with them (as I have heard) a feather of a rue, positively 

 affirmed to have measured ninety spans, and the quill 

 part to have been two palms in circumference. This sur- 

 prising exhibition afforded his Majesty extreme pleasure." 

 The science of zoology has made attempts to account 

 1 The Australian Kookooburra, or Laughing Jackass. 



