Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat: In the U. S. Sloop-of-war Peacock, David Geisinger, Commander, During the Years 1832-3-4Roberts, Edmund
History
Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat: In the U. S. Sloop-of-war Peacock, David Geisinger, Commander, During the Years 1832-3-4
Roberts, Edmund
Southeast Asia -- Commerce; Southeast Asia -- Description and travel
We landed, on the thirteenth, near the walls of the city, at the point
where one of the white elephants is confined: he was in a large, airy
stable, and had a great number of attendants. His colour is dusky, or
rather yellowish white, and he was far from being clean; his skin was
scurfy, and his eye very small, and of a bluish or light-gray tinge. On
account of his unruly temper, he is secured by a cable around his right
fore leg; the two fore feet are also well secured. One tusk is entirely
broken, and the other partly destroyed. He is annually confined, for
about three months, during the rutting season. We entered the city,
and saw part of the king’s elephants. In one place were six noble
animals, males and females; two of the largest sized males had several
massive silver rings on their tusks; they were kept clean, and were in
fine order. There were many other elephant-stables, bordering on two
streets, which we visited.
The streets, through which we passed, were from sixty to eighty feet in
breadth; the houses, generally, ordinary in appearance, built of boards
or brick, stuccoed, with tile roofs, or with bamboo with attap roofs.
Most of them are raised on posts, and stand five or six feet from the
ground. The streets are paved with very large-sized bricks. Stalls are
kept in front of most of the buildings, where are sold fowls and pork,
fruit and vegetables. The China, and Indian, and European goods, are
sold mostly in the floating bazars. There were few people to be seen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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