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Roca
vb. criado em 09/05/2013, 23h03m.
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This is the time of year when people in the US are turning their thoughts to big birds. The turkey, as you may know, was almost our national bird, with Ben Franklin as its advocate. But this being a blog about fantasy, I'm not talking turkey. If you want a big bird, nothing less than a roc will do.
Detail from Ferdinand Magellan sailing through the straits, copper engraving by Andrianus Collaert from a drawing by Johannes Stradanus from Americae Retectio, c 1585;
Mythologies around the world have stories of monster-sized birds, and it's not hard to see why. From the power of actual giant raptors such as condors and eagles, to fossilized eggs of extinct birds that were even bigger, to the idea that such birds as ostriches might be the chicks of even huger birds, it's easy to imagine that a truly enormous bird was eminently plausible. The roc, or rukh, originated in the Middle East and India, apparently amalgamating various bits and pieces of mythology, as these things do. But here's what we know about the roc now.
Sindbad carried off by the Roc, illustration by H.J. Hunt, from The Arabian Nights Entertainments ed. by Andrew Lang, 1898;
Marco Polo reported in the 1290's that the roc is "for all the world like an eagle, but one indeed of enormous size; so big in fact that its quills were twelve paces long and thick in proportion. And it is so strong that it will seize an elephant in its talons and carry him high into the air and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces; having so killed him, the bird swoops down on him and eats him at leisure." Rocs can also destroy entire ships by dropping boulders on them - at least, they could destroy wooden sailing ships that way. I assume they have a harder time with modern steel ships, although I haven't heard any reports of recent roc attacks. Perhaps that's because the rocs build their nests in more inaccessible places now, so that humans are no longer found destroying roc eggs.
o pássaro roca
The roc's range is the China Seas, along the coasts and islands from Korea to Malaysia, though clearly those for whom elephants are a major portion of their diet must be concentrated at the southern end of that range. However, Madagascar is also a hot spot for rocs. Those, presumably, eat African elephants. I don't know whether the Madagascar roc is a separate subspecies, or whether the range is continuous. The roc is generally described as being white, although that would seem to make it harder for unscrupulous traders to pass off green or brown rafia palm fronds as roc feathers, as they have been known to do.
Whether you procure your roc in Madagascar or Korea, I recommend the following recipe this holiday season:
Dig a pit large and deep enough to hold the cleaned roc. Line the pit with large, fire-heated stones and cover them with about ten bushels of greens and a couple sacks of sweet potatoes. Rub the roc well with oil, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Get the roc into the pit somehow. A tow truck or backhoe might be useful, or you can do it the old fashioned way by gathering all your friends and family to help roll it. This can get messy, so don't wear your party clothes at this stage. Cover the roc with more greens, douse with a couple buckets of water (or barbecue sauce, if you prefer), spread a layer of very large cabbage leaves to protect the food, and then cover the entire thing with a layer of earth or sand. Let roast until done. You'd better start right away if you want it to be finished in time for Thanksgiving dinner. Bon appetit!
f.: b&w
2
Rocs are seemingly simple creatures, yet have a complex history. Essentially they are nothing more than large eagles. VERY large eagles. In his written account of his travels, Travels, c. 1294, Marco Polo told of a bird in Arabia so large that it could pick up an elephant and take it into the sky!
According to the report of those who have seen them... they are just like eagles but of the most colossal size.... They are so huge and bulky that one of them can pounce on an elephant and carry it up to a great height in the air. Then it lets go, so that the elephant drops to earth and is smashed to a pulp. Whereupon the gryphon bird perches on the carcass and feeds at its ease. They add that they have a wingspan of thirty paces and their wingfeathers are twelve paces long and of a thickness proportionate to their length.... I should explain that the islanders call them rukhs and know them by no other name.
For reference, thirty paces would be about seventy-five feet, and twelve paces would be about thirty feet.
Rukhs do have another name however, "rocs". It is in this guise that the large birds appear in The Arabian Nights, where Sindbad meets up with the rapacious elephant eating bird on his second voyage.
The Mahe Group of islands in Indian Ocean were once referred to on a map as the "Islands of the Rukh". This is probably so due to the writings of the Arab traveler Ibn Batuta, c. 1375, who wrote in his journal that, "What we took for a mountain is the rukh! If it sees us it will send us to destruction." The winds changed, however, and Batuta never got a good look at what the image was, much to his relief.
There was, in fact, an extinct gigantic bird whose bones have been found in Madagascar, called the Aepyornis maximus. At sixteen feet tall, commonly called the "elephant bird" due to roc lore, the aepyornis laid eggs that would have served an omelet for fifty people! Since the Aepyornis was alive during both Marco Polo and Ibn Batuta's times, it is most likely that this real creature is the base for the fantastic one.
f.: l. ext.
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