- "Travels in Canada and the United
States," by Lieut. F. Hall.
"Oh fy!" said the king.
"'No sooner had we got rid of these birds, which occasioned us great
annoyance, than we were terrified by the appearance of a fowl of
another kind, and infinitely larger than even the rocs which I met
in my former voyages; for it was bigger than the biggest of the
domes on your seraglio, oh, most Munificent of Caliphs. This
terrible fowl had no head that we could perceive, but was fashioned
entirely of belly, which was of a prodigious fatness and roundness, of
a soft-looking substance, smooth, shining and striped with various
colors. In its talons, the monster was bearing away to his eyrie in
the heavens, a house from which it had knocked off the roof, and in
the interior of which we distinctly saw human beings, who, beyond
doubt, were in a state of frightful despair at the horrible fate which
awaited them. We shouted with all our might, in the hope of
frightening the bird into letting go of its prey, but it merely gave a
snort or puff, as if of rage and then let fall upon our heads a
heavy sack which proved to be filled with sand!'"
"Stuff!" said the king.
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