Note 176 — ABD AL-RAHMAN THE MAGHRIBI’S STORY OF THE RUKH.[176]

The older “Roc” which may be written “Rukh” or “Rukhkh.” Colonel Yule, the learned translator of Marco Polo, has shown that “Roc’s” feathers were not uncommon curiosities in mediæval ages; and holds that they were mostly fronds of the palm Raphia vinifera, which has the largest leaf in the vegetable kingdom and which the Moslems of Zanzibar call “Satan’s date-tree.” I need hardly quote “Frate Cipolla and the Angel Gabriel’s Feather.” (Decameron vi. 10.)