*Ostrich Egg-Shell Cups of Mesopotamia and the Ostrich in Ancient and Modern Times* (1926) — The Public Domain Review

Laufer’s chapters are sorted by region and period. First up is Palestine, Syria, and Arabia. While Leviticus and Deuteronomy classed the bird as unclean, the North African Numidians feasted on the animal. (Citing one Dr. Duncan of the Department of Agriculture, Laufer suggests his contemporaries try ostrich “as a New Year or Easter bird”). Hebrew speakers once called the ostrich bath haya’anah (“daughter of the desert”); Arabic speakers used a similar epithet, naming the bird as the desert’s father, but also the magician, the strong one, the fugitive, the stupid one, and the gray. While writing his treatise, Laufer found ample supplies of ostrich feathers in the souks of Aleppo, Damascus, and Smyrna, and recounts an Islamic legend he heard about the bird’s lackluster wings: competing with a bustard, the ostrich forgot to evoke Allah’s assistance before flying close to the sun. The star scorched the bird’s pinions and the feathers of every generation thereafter.