When I looked towards the sea, I could see nothing but sky
and water; but, on looking towards the land, I saw something
white; coming down from the tree I took up what provisions I had
left, and went towards it, the distance being so great that I
could not distinguish what it was.
When I came nearer, I thought it to be a white bowl, of a
prodigious height and bigness; and when I came up to it, I
touched it, and found it to be very smooth. I went round to see
if it was open on any side, but saw it was not, and it was so
smooth that there was no climbing to the top of it. It was at
least fifty paces round.
By this time the sun was ready to set, and all of a sudden the
sky became as dark as if it had been covered with a thick cloud.
I was much astonished at this sudden darkness, but much more when
I found it occasioned by a bird of monstrous size, that came
flying towards me. I remembered a fowl called *roc, that I had
often heard mariners speak of, and conceived that the great bowl,
which I so much admired, must needs be its egg. In short, the
bird lighted, and sat over the egg to hatch it. As I perceived
her coming, I crept close to the egg, so that I had before me one
of the legs of the bird, that was as big as the trunk of a tree;
I tied myself strongly to it with the cloth that went round my
turban, in hopes that when the roc[Footnote: Mark Paul in his
Travels, and Father Martini in his History of China, speak each
of this bird, and say it will take up an elephant and a
rhinoceros.
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