Read the excerpt from chapter 8 of The Travels of Marco Polo. Now that I have given you this second-hand account of the gryphon bird, let me add that the Great Khan sent special emissaries here to learn about these islands, and again to treat for the release of a previous emissary who had been detained as a captive. And these later emissaries, and the other who had been held captive, had much to tell him of the marvels of these strange islands. I assure you that they brought back with them the tusks of a wild boar of monstrous size. He had one of them weighed and found that its weight was 14 lb. You may infer for yourselves what must have been the size of the boar that had such tusks as this. Indeed they declare that some of these boars are as big as buffaloes. There are also giraffes in plenty, and wild asses too. Altogether their beasts and birds are so different from ours that it is a marvel to hear tell of them and a greater marvel to behold them. To return for a moment to the gryphon birds, I should explain that the islanders call them rukhs and know them by no other name and have no idea what a gryphon is. But I feel sure from the monstrous size they attribute to the birds that they cannot be anything but gryphons.

Which details from the text best support the author's purpose to inform the reader that the islands are amazing to him? Select three options.