The first mention of the Rukh bird we find in the Arabian tales "A Thousand and One Nights", which also says that the Rukh has been known for over a thousand years. On the 404th night, Scheherazade tells the story of Abd al-Rahman, who, as a result of a shipwreck, finds himself on a desert island, where he sees a giant bird with a wingspan of a thousand fathoms and its chicks. From this journey, he brings down the feathers from the wing of a leopard chick.
On the 405th night, a story follows that while traveling to the Chinese seas, Abd al-Rahman goes ashore and there he sees a white dome one hundred cubits high, which turns out to be the egg of the Rukh bird. Abd al-Rahman and his companions break an egg and carry away the unhatched chick. On the way, they are overtaken by Rukh with a huge piece of rock in its claws, fortunately, Rukh misses. The sailors, who have tasted the meat of the chick, miraculously return to youth.
On the 543rd night, the queen tells about Sinbad's second journey. The mutinous team disembarks Sinbad on an uninhabited island, where he finds a huge dome with a circumference of 50 steps. Suddenly a huge bird appears, covering the sun with its wings. Sinbad recalls the story of the Rukh bird feeding its chicks with elephants, which he heard before, and realizes that the dome is nothing more than the bird's egg. He ties himself to the clutches of a sleeping Roc, hoping to escape from the island. In the morning Rukh transports Sinbad to another island inhabited by huge snakes.
Finally, on the 556th night, the story is told about how, on his fourth voyage, Sinbad moors by ship to the island and again sees the towering white dome. Despite Sinbad's warnings, his fellow merchants break the egg, kill the chick and cut off large pieces of meat from it. In the sea, a pair of monstrous Rukh birds with huge stones in their paws approaches the ship. The birds crash the ship, and everyone on it ends up at sea. Sinbad ties himself to a board and swims on it to land.
The Thousand and One Nights is not the only Arabic source that mentions the roc bird. About her in the XIII century. the geographer al-Kaswini and the naturalist al-Wardi report in their books.
Myths similar to the Arabic ones, in which the name of the bird is not specified, are captured in the "Jatakas" - collections of Indian legends of the 4th century. BC. Egyptian priests told Herodotus (5th century BC) about a giant bird capable of lifting a person into the sky.
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Her image can be associated with the Arabian Anka bird, the Persian simurgh, the Egyptian phoenix, the Jewish ziz bird, and giant birds from European and North American legends. According to various descriptions, the white roc bird resembles an eagle, condor or albatross, but it is much larger than each of these birds.
According to legend, her wingspan is "60 steps", and each of her feathers is "8 steps" long. It takes "more than fifty steps" to get around the bird's egg. The roc is large enough and strong enough to lift in its claws high into the air not only a man, but also three elephants.
In the XIII century. the roc bird was described by Marco Polo in his diaries. In the chapter on the island of Madagascar, he writes that, according to the natives, Rukh appears once a year in the south of the island. The bird looks like an eagle, but is much larger than it. The roc lifts the elephants into the air and kills them by throwing them on the rocks.
Those who saw the bird said that the roc is known in Europe under the name "griffin", although it does not look like the classic griffin - a bird with the body of a lion. Marco Polo said that to his questions, the inhabitants of Madagascar replied that the roc was a real bird. The Indian ruler, hearing about the bird, sent his people to Madagascar, from where they brought back a huge feather, nine spans long.
In 1658, a book by the French traveler Etienne de Flacour "The History of the Big Island of Madagascar" was published. The author of the book was laughed at: no one believed the stories written by Flacour from the words of local residents. How could one believe, for example, that a bird almost the size of an elephant lives on the island?
Years passed, new messages appeared. Those who visited the island reported that an unknown bird of enormous size really lives there and it lays such large eggs that the inhabitants use their shells as vessels for water … Around this time, Europe got acquainted with Arab fairy tales - with the amazing world of powerful wizards, incomparable oriental beauties and wise jinn. And these tales also mention a mysterious bird!
What is this animal? Did it even exist in nature?
In 1834, the French traveler Gudo found half an egg-shell in Madagascar of such size that it could actually be used as a bowl for water. The traveler sent a sketch of the shell to the Parisian ornithologist Verro. On the basis of the drawing, the scientist christened the bird that laid the egg, "great-growing" - epyornis.
Several years passed, and two whole eggs were delivered to Paris. And then in the swamps of the island, several giant bones were found, which at first were mistaken for the remains of an elephant or rhino. But the bones belonged to a bird! And that bird had to weigh at least half a ton.
Not so long ago, French zoologists again discovered the remains of epyornis in Madagascar. Now, of course, they didn't surprise anyone. Another sensation became: a bronze ring (!) Was attached to the bird's leg, and even with some mysterious signs. Experts came to the conclusion that the signs on the ring are nothing more than an imprint of the seal of the era of the most ancient urban civilization in India - Mohenjo-Daro. This means that the seal was made about 5 thousand years ago. Radiocarbon analysis of the bird's bones helped to establish its age: it is equal to five millennia!
For specialists who carefully compared many facts, something became clear. In the 3rd millennium BC. the inhabitants of Hindustan made bold sea expeditions. By this time, they had gained experience in sailing ships - now scientists know seaports, built in the 5th millennium BC. The Indians also visited Madagascar. The island amazed travelers with a variety of flora and fauna.
At that time, there were abundant epyornis here. Among the sailors there were probably fans of fantastic stories who had a fervent imagination, so the stories of the sailors who returned home were overgrown with additional details, the wingless bird began to fly, noticeably increased in size, and acquired a predatory disposition. This image of the Rukh bird entered the most ancient epic. From there she migrated to the Persians, Arabs and other peoples. Of course, this is just an assumption, and new finds can either confirm or refute it.
Zoologists are concerned not only with the history of the image of a mysterious bird. Eggs found on the sand dunes and swamps in the southern part of the island looked suspiciously fresh. It seemed that they had been demolished quite recently … The locals are sure that giant birds still live in the densest forests of the island, but it is not easy to see them. Indeed, relatively recently, European missionaries heard the muffled, uterine cries of an unknown bird, coming from the depths of the forest swamps.
At the same time, local legends do not say a word about the hunt for epyornis, which means that the inhabitants did not exterminate them for meat. Of course, the reduction in the number or even the disappearance of outlandish birds could have occurred in the process of the development of the island - deforestation, drainage of swamps. But in Madagascar there are still huge tracts of protected jungle and untouched swamps. In a word, there is enough space for an animal epyornis …
By the way, they knew this monstrous bird in Russia as well, they called it Fear, Nog or Nogoy, and gave it even new fabulous features. “The leg-bird is so strong that it can lift an ox, it flies through the air and walks with four legs on the ground,” says the ancient Russian ABC of the 16th century.
In the legends of the Chukchi, a huge bird Noga is mentioned, devouring deer, elk, whales and people. Similar myths existed among the Aleuts of the Pacific Islands. The folklore of the North American Apache Indians speaks of a huge eagle carrying people away. Legends about the birds of giants were spread among the prairie Indians of North America.
In Persian, the word "ruh" also means "chess boat" and - sometimes - "rhino".
The legends of the Rukh are closely related to the Arab myths of the anka bird. Created by God as a bird of perfection, it then turned into a real disaster for people. Anka is also described as a huge bird capable of raising an elephant; she lives for 1700 years, which makes her akin to the Egyptian phoenix. In some Arabic books, the ankh is called an extinct bird. According to legend, during the Fatimid dynasty (X-XII centuries), Ankas were often kept in the zoological gardens of the Caliphs.
After the translation of Arabic fairy tales, the Rukh bird became a widespread character in European painting and literature. The 16th-century Dutch artist Johann Stradanus' engraving "Magellan Discovers the Straits" depicts a bird with a huge beak, twice the size of an elephant, which it holds in its talons.
Particularly interesting is the mention of the Roc in Michael Drayton's poem "The Flood", in which Noah collects on his ark "a pair of each creature" - from a little lark to a huge Roc, the greatest of birds. In his novel Moby Dick (1851), the American writer Herman Melville compares the huge albatross to the roc bird.
The Brothers Grimm mention the big bird twice in their tales. In "White and Rose", two girls rescue a dwarf from a huge bird that wanted to carry him away in its claws, and in the fairy tale "The Foundling Chick" the hunter meets a boy who was brought by a large bird in its beak to a nest at the top of a huge tree.
