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NAMES OF BIRDS OF UNCERTAIN ORIGIN OR 

 MEANING. 



By J. R. McClymont. 



Rue is doubtless a French equivalent of rukh, which is a 

 Persian, and perhaps also an Arabic word having sundry mean- 

 ings ; it is, for example, " the name of a bird of mighty wing." 

 The word is employed by Marco Polo, who tells us that at some 

 seasons of the year the rue visited certain islands or mountainous 

 places near that part of the coast of Southern Africa which is 

 under the influence of a strong sea current, owing to which it is 

 almost impossible for vessels to return thence to India. The 

 allusion is evidently to the Mozambique current. The rue which 

 Marco Polo describes certainly possessed some characters which 

 are purely fabulous, unless, indeed, the text of the narrative be 

 grievously corrupted, or the narrative itself be mistranslated. 

 Other of the attributes of the rue are credible enough. As, for 

 example, that it resembled an Eagle — we are not told which of 

 the Eagles — that it fed upon flesh, and that it possessed the 

 power of flight in a remarkable degree. Its wings were thirty 

 pas, its beam-feathers twelve pas in length. Pas may perhaps 

 be an error in transcription ; the word which was written by the 

 amanuensis may have been pous, a Provencal word which has 

 the same meaning as pouce and pouces. If this be the case, 

 thirty paces shrink to thirty thumbs, and twelve paces to twelve 

 thumbs — " II prent un olifans a ses pies."* For prent we ought 

 perhaps to have had apprent, meaning learns (understand, " the 

 existence of"), discerns — "Et le porte mOult haut, et puis le 

 laisse cheoir et ainsi le tue et descent sus lui." If we read se 

 instead of le before porte and laisse, assume that the Elephant is 



* ' Le Livre de Marco Polo publie d'apres trois manuscrits inedits par 

 Pauthier,' p. 678. 



