“And yet,” continues Sir John, “after all, the white elephant is not _white_, nor anything like it. It is of a coffee-color; not of unburnt, but of burnt coffee--dull brownish yellow or yellowish brown--white only by contrast with his darker brother. The last which reached Bangkok was caught in the woods. The king and court went a long way out into the country to meet him, and he was conducted with a grand procession, much pomp and music, and flying banners, to the capital. There a grand mansion awaited him, and several of the leading nobility were appointed his custodians. The walls were painted to represent forests, no doubt to remind him of his native haunts, and to console him in his absence from them. All his wants were sedulously provided for, and in his ‘walks abroad,’ when ‘many men he saw,’ he was escorted by music and caparisoned by costly vestments. His grandest and farthest promenades were to bathe in the river, when other elephants were in attendance, honored by being made auxiliaries to his grandeur. Now and then the two sovereigns sought his presence, but I did not learn that his dignity condescended to oblige them with any special notice. But he wanted no addition to his dignity. Everything associated with majesty and rank bore his image. A white elephant is the badge of distinction. The royal flags and seals, medals and moneys--on all sides the white elephant is the national emblem, as the cross among Christians, or the crescent among Turks; and the Siamese are prouder of it than Americans, Russians, Germans or French are of their eagles, or Spaniards of the golden fleece. The Bourbon _Oriflamme_, the British Union Jack, show but faintly in the presence of the white elephant.” RUINS OF THE GREAT TEMPLE OF NAGKON WAT. Some of the most famous ruins of the world, and but little known to general readers, are those at Angkor, in Eastern Siam. The Frenchman, M. Mouhot, says the ruins of Nagkon Wat--a temple which must have rivaled the temple of Solomon in its splendor--might take a most honorable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece and Rome. Another writer says the ruins of Angkor are as imposing as the ruins of Thebes or Memphis, and more mysterious. Modern travelers have proved in their descriptions of these ruins that these are not words of fulsome praise. There are no certain answers to the questions who built it? when was it built? and what has become of the builders? But recent researches in Chinese history seem to show that it was built between the tenth and twelfth centuries A.D. [Illustration: RUINS OF THE GREAT TEMPLE OF NAGKON WAT.]