CAUGHT BETWEEN A ROC AND A HARD PLACE
The mythical roc is often characterized as a giant raptor located on islands in the South Pacific or off Africa on the island of Madagascar, capable of seizing animals, including small humans, flying with them high into the sky, dropping them to their death and eating their flesh. The roc is never seen, living high above the clouds, only the dead actually seeing them just before being caught and dying for the roc’s lunch. Over the years, mounting “proof” of their existence has come to light, first from the fossil records, second from the findings of mysterious human remains, then from actual sightings of its huge feathers, followed by the demonstration of their giant eggs, and finally from sightings of their chicks. It’s all very scientific. Let me explain.
There have been increasing discoveries of fossils of giant, reptilian-like, carnivorous “birds,” called collectively “pterodactyls” with up to thirty-six-foot wingspans discovered throughout the world. Not just a skull, or a foot bone, entire, intact skeletons, sometimes with impressions of their soft tissue “wings.” Some detractors say these fossils were created from mixtures of “old bones” by paleontologists desperately needing a “find” in order to get a grant to continue their fake diggings.
Human remains have been found throughout the world, both fossilized and non-fossilized. Some show signs of broken bones and skulls with holes “pecked” in them. It’s not at all difficult to believe that more than one set of human “cold case” remains can only be accounted for from death by roc. Detractors, on the other hand, claim every such case can be explained “without the need for rocs, if one simply had all the necessary facts.” Humbug, I say.
The intrepid discoverer and careful recorder of all that he saw, Marco Polo, reported the existence of roc feathers in Kublai Khan’s China, in his own words, “It was 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.” Polo claimed that the Great Khan sent messengers to the island from which it originated who returned with a feather (though detractors suggest it may have actually been a raphia palm frond).
Roc eggs were not unknown to sailors visiting Africa and the South Pacific. Some eggs they discovered were quite old and up to a foot in diameter, weighing in at well over three pounds. Some spoke of actually eating roc eggs, described as up to six inches in diameter, weighing in at three pounds. Detractors claim the former may have been produced by “elephant birds,” and the latter have been seen produced by ostriches.
Sailors to Africa and Australia frequently observed flightless roc chicks (later called by some detractors “ostriches”) up to 9 feet tall, with a 9 foot wingspan, weighing up to 320 pounds, implying adult rocs, still thought to be present in the late medieval times, would likely have been up to 25 feet tall, with 25 foot wingspans, easily big enough to seize a small elephant or large human and smash them into the ground to eat.
In summary, it’s clear from the huge amount of direct, observable evidence that rocs exist (or at least existed up to present day extinction) on remote islands in the South Pacific and near Africa. No matter what the detractors, many of them supposedly scientists, say. It’s always more important to believe in what we “know” to be true based on “common sense” proof. Even if it leaves one between a roc and a hard place.
Article by Raymond Gaynor, multi-award-winning author of THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020), an inspiring Sci-Fu (science-based futuring) novel of NewAmerica after the fall of “old democracy.”
The Edge of Madness
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
There have been increasing discoveries of fossils of giant, reptilian-like, carnivorous “birds,” called collectively “pterodactyls” with up to thirty-six-foot wingspans discovered throughout the world. Not just a skull, or a foot bone, entire, intact skeletons, sometimes with impressions of their soft tissue “wings.” Some detractors say these fossils were created from mixtures of “old bones” by paleontologists desperately needing a “find” in order to get a grant to continue their fake diggings.
Human remains have been found throughout the world, both fossilized and non-fossilized. Some show signs of broken bones and skulls with holes “pecked” in them. It’s not at all difficult to believe that more than one set of human “cold case” remains can only be accounted for from death by roc. Detractors, on the other hand, claim every such case can be explained “without the need for rocs, if one simply had all the necessary facts.” Humbug, I say.
The intrepid discoverer and careful recorder of all that he saw, Marco Polo, reported the existence of roc feathers in Kublai Khan’s China, in his own words, “It was 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.” Polo claimed that the Great Khan sent messengers to the island from which it originated who returned with a feather (though detractors suggest it may have actually been a raphia palm frond).
Roc eggs were not unknown to sailors visiting Africa and the South Pacific. Some eggs they discovered were quite old and up to a foot in diameter, weighing in at well over three pounds. Some spoke of actually eating roc eggs, described as up to six inches in diameter, weighing in at three pounds. Detractors claim the former may have been produced by “elephant birds,” and the latter have been seen produced by ostriches.
Sailors to Africa and Australia frequently observed flightless roc chicks (later called by some detractors “ostriches”) up to 9 feet tall, with a 9 foot wingspan, weighing up to 320 pounds, implying adult rocs, still thought to be present in the late medieval times, would likely have been up to 25 feet tall, with 25 foot wingspans, easily big enough to seize a small elephant or large human and smash them into the ground to eat.
In summary, it’s clear from the huge amount of direct, observable evidence that rocs exist (or at least existed up to present day extinction) on remote islands in the South Pacific and near Africa. No matter what the detractors, many of them supposedly scientists, say. It’s always more important to believe in what we “know” to be true based on “common sense” proof. Even if it leaves one between a roc and a hard place.
Article by Raymond Gaynor, multi-award-winning author of THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020), an inspiring Sci-Fu (science-based futuring) novel of NewAmerica after the fall of “old democracy.”
The Edge of Madness
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859
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