Siam : The Land of the White Elephant as It Was and IsBacon, George B. (George Blagden)
History
Siam : The Land of the White Elephant as It Was and Is
Bacon, George B. (George Blagden)
Thailand -- Description and travel; Thailand -- History
"I heard many instances of sagacity which might furnish interesting
anecdotes for the zoölogist. The elephants are undoubtedly proud of
their gorgeous trappings, and of the attentions they receive. I was
assured that the removal of the gold and silver rings from their tusks
was resented by the elephants as an indignity, and that they exhibited
great satisfaction at their restoration. The transfer of an elephant
from a better to a worse stabling is said to be accompanied with marks
of displeasure."
If the elephant is in Siam the king of beasts, the white elephant is the
king of elephants. This famous animal is simply an albino, and owes his
celebrity and sanctity to the accident of disease. He is not really
white (except in spots); his color is a faded pink, or, as Bowring
states of the specimen he saw, a light mahogany. In September, 1870,
however, a very extraordinary elephant arrived in Bangkok, having been
escorted from Paknam with many royal honors. A large part of the body of
this animal was really white, and great excitement and delight was
produced by its arrival at the capital. The elephant which Bowring saw
and described died within a year after his visit. She occupied a large
apartment within the grounds of the first king's palace, and not far
off, in an elevated position, was placed a golden chair for the king to
occupy when he should come to visit her. "She had a number of
attendants, who were feeding her with fresh grass (which I thought she
treated somewhat disdainfully), sugar-cane, and plantains. She was
richly caparisoned in cloth of gold and ornaments, some of which she
tore away and was chastised for the offence by a blow on the proboscis
by one of the keepers. She was fastened to an upright pole by ropes
covered with scarlet cloth, but at night was released, had the liberty
of the room, and slept against a matted and ornamented partition,
sloping from the floor at about an angle of forty-five degrees. In a
corner of the room was a caged monkey, of pure white, but seemingly very
active and mischievous. The prince fed the elephant with sugar-cane,
which appeared her favorite food; the grass she seemed disposed to toss
about rather than to eat. She had been trained to make a salaam by
lifting her proboscis over the neck, and did so more than once at the
prince's bidding. The king sent me the bristles of the tail of the last
white elephant to look at. They were fixed in a gold handle, such as
ladies use for their nosegays at balls."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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