But there was another and far less selfish reason ascribed for the partiality of these birds to iron—a reason so philanthropic, indeed, that it puts mankind to the blush; for there are few, indeed, who would convert their interiors into a marine-store shop for the benefit of their fellow creatures. In a singular book by Thomas Scott, published in 1616, a merchant meets with an ostrich in the desert, in the act of swallowing a heavy meal of iron, and gazing on him with astonishment, inquires,
“‘What nourishment can from these mettals grow?’
The ostrich answers: ‘Sir, I do not eate
This iron, as you think I do, for meate;
I only keep it, lay it up in store,
To helpe my needy friends the friendlesse poore,
I often meete (as farre and neere I goe)
Many a foundred horse that wants a shoe,
Serving a master that is monylesse,
Such I relieve and helpe in their distresse.’”