M. Marre states that rūḳ-rūḳ is applied by the Malays to a bird of prey of the vulture family, a circumstance which possibly may indicate the source of the Arabic name, as we know it to be of some at least of the legends. [See Skeat, Malay Magic, 124.]
In one of the notes just referred to it is suggested that the roc's quills, spoken of by Marco Polo in the passage quoted below (a passage which evidently refers to some real object brought to China), might possibly have been some vegetable production such as the great frond of the Ravenala of Madagascar (Urania speciosa), cooked to pass as a bird's quill. Mr. Sibree, in his excellent book on Madagascar (The Great African Island, 1880), noticed this, but pointed out that the object was more probably the immensely long midrib of the rofia palm (Sagus Raphia). Sir John Kirk, when in England in 1882, expressed entire confidence in this identification, and on his return to Zanzibar in 1883 sent four of these midribs to England. These must have been originally from 36 to 40 feet in length. The leaflets were all stript, but when entire the object must have strongly resembled a Brobdingnagian feather. These roc's quills were shown at the Forestry Exhibition in Edinburgh, 1884. Sir John Kirk wrote:
"I send to-day per S.S. Arcot ... four fronds of the Raphia palm, called here Moale. They are just as sold and shipped up and down the coast. No doubt they were sent in Marco Polo's time in exactly the same state—i.e. stripped of their leaflets and with the tip broken off. They are used for making stages and ladders, and last long if kept dry. They are also made into doors, by being cut into lengths, and pinned through."
Some other object has recently been shown at Zanzibar as part of the wings of a great bird. Sir John Kirk writes that this (which he does not describe particularly) was in the possession of the R. C. priests at Bagamoyo, to whom it had been given by natives of the interior, and these declared that they had brought it from Tanganyika, and that it was part of the wing of a gigantic bird. On another occasion they repeated this statement, alleging that this bird was known in the Udoe (?) country, near the coast. The priests were able to communicate directly with their informants, and certainly believed the story. Dr. Hildebrand also, a competent German naturalist, believed in it. But Sir John Kirk himself says that 'what the priests had to show was most undoubtedly the whalebone of a comparatively small whale' (see letter of the present writer in Athenaeum, March 22nd, 1884).
(c. 1000?).—"El Haçan fils d'Amr et d'autres, d'après ce qu'ils tenaient de maint-personnages de l'Inde, m'ont rapporté des choses bien extraordinaires, au sujet des oiseaux du pays de Zabedj, de Khmêr (Kumār), du Senf et autres regions des parages de l'Inde. Ce que j'ai vu de plus grand, en fait de plumes d'oiseaux, c'est un tuyau que me montra Abou' l-Abbas de Siraf. Il était long de deux aunes environs capable, semblait-il, de contenir une outre d'eau.
"'J'ai vu dans l'Inde, me dit le capitaine Ismaïlawéih, chez un des principaux marschands, un tuyau de plume qui était près de sa maison, et dans lequel on versait de l'eau comme dans une grande tonne.... Ne sois pas étonné, me dit-il, car un capitaine du pays des Zindjs m'a conté qu'il avait vu chez le roi de Sira un tuyau de plume qui contenait vingt-cinq outres d'eau.'"—Livre des Mervailles d'Inde. (Par Van der Lith et Marcel Devic, pp. 62-63.)
ROCK-PIGEON. The bird so called by sportsmen in India is the Pterocles exustus of Temminck, belonging to the family of sand-grouse (Pteroclidae). It occurs throughout India, except in the more wooded parts. In their swift high flight these birds look something like pigeons on the wing, whence perhaps the misnomer.
ROGUE (Elephant), s. An elephant (generally, if not always a male) living in apparent isolation from any herd, usually a bold marauder, and a danger to travellers. Such an elephant is called in Bengal, according to Williamson, saun, i.e. sān [Hind. sānḍ, Skt. shaṇḍa]; sometimes it would seem gunḍā [Hind. gunḍā, 'a rascal']; and by the Sinhalese hora. The term rogue is used by Europeans in Ceylon, and its origin is somewhat obscure. Sir Emerson Tennent finds such an elephant called, in a curious book of the 18th century, ronkedor or runkedor, of which he supposes that rogue may perhaps have been a modification. That word looks like Port. roncador, 'a snorer, a noisy fellow, a bully,' which gives a plausible sense. But Littré gives rogue as a colloquial French word conveying the idea of arrogance and rudeness. In the following passage which we have copied, unfortunately without recording the source, the word comes still nearer the sense in which it is applied to the elephant: "On commence à s'apperceuoir dés Bayonne, que l'humeur de ces peuples tient vn peu de celle de ses voisins, et qu'ils sont rogues et peu communicatifs avec l'Estranger." After all however it is most likely that the word is derived from an English use of the word. For Skeat shows that rogue, from the French sense of 'malapert, saucy, rude, surly,' came to be applied as a cant term to beggars, and is used, in some old English passages which he quotes, exactly in the sense of our modern 'tramp.' The transfer to a vagabond elephant would be easy. Mr. Skeat refers to Shakspeare:—
"And wast thou fain, poor father,
To hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn?"