Curiously enough, with the downfall of the infamous Theebaw came that of his white elephant. The king left Mandalay, Nov. 29, 1885, accompanied by his queen, Soopyalot. The day the city fell, the white elephant died; and its body was dragged out of the palace-yard by the British troops on the following day. It was reported that the king ordered its destruction rather than have such a prize fall into the hands of the British. This elephant, which was no whiter than the Barnum specimen, lived in great pomp in the palace enclosure, eating and drinking out of huge silver buckets. The finest white elephant caught in late years is described by Mr. Carl Bock, who states that it was brought into Bangkok with all the pomp and ceremony of an emperor. According to Mr. Bock, it was quite an albino, the whole body being of a pale reddish-brown color, with a few white hairs on the back. The iris of the eye, the color of which is held to be a good test of an albino, was a pale Naples yellow. The animal was blessed and baptized in presence of the king and the nobility. One of the high priests presented it with a piece of sugar-cane, on which was written the elephant’s name in full, and which it very readily ate. The following is a translation of its description painted on a red tablet, hung over one of the pillars of its stall: “An elephant of beautiful color; hair, nails, and eyes are white. Perfection in form, with all signs of regularity of the high family. The color of the skin is that of lotos. A descendant of the angels of the Brahmins. Acquired as property by the power and glory of the king for his service. Is equal to the crystal of the highest value. Is of the highest family of all in existence. A source of power of attraction of rain. It is as pure as the purest crystal of the highest value in the world.” As the white elephant is so highly esteemed in the Oriental countries, it would be surprising if obstacles were not laid in the way of their being taken to foreign lands. Hence a white elephant was never seen in a Western country before the advent of Mr. Barnum’s now famous Toung Taloung, whose passage from its native country to America was highly exciting and dramatic. The first white elephant ever seen out of its native land was one that was exhibited in Holland in 1633. The second was the Barnum elephant, which was brought to England in 1884, and from there shipped to America.[6]