CURIOUS CREATURES. 181 



The Maoris aver that at times they still hear the 

 gigantic Moa in the scrub and, even, if extinct, we 

 know, by the state of the bones found, that its extinction 

 must have been of comparatively recent date. But no 

 one credits the Moa with the power of flight, whilst 

 the Griffin, which must not be confounded with the 

 gold-loving Arimaspian Gryphon, was a noble bird. 

 Mandeville knew him: "In this land (Bactrid) are 

 many gryffons, more than in other places, and some 



say they have the body before as an Egle, and behinde 

 as a Lyon, and it is trouth, for they be made so ; but 

 the Griffen hath a body greater than viii Lyons, and stall 

 worthier (stouter, braver) than a hundred Egles. For 

 certainly he wyl beare to his nest flying, a horse and a 

 man upon his back, or two Oxen yoked togither as they 

 go at plowgh, for he hath longe nayles on hys fete, as 

 great as it were homes of Oxen, and of those they make 

 Cups there to drynke of, and of his rybes they make 

 bowes to shoote with." 



Olaus Magnus says they live in the far Northern 



