WHITE ELEPHANTS OF SIAM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 16 January 1928, Page 8

WHITE ELEPHANTS OF SIAM

ANCIENT SUPERSTITION

The capture of a young white ejephant in the jungles of Siam is regarded by the Siamese people as an omen of good luck. A white elephant is always transported lo Bangkok and installed in the Royal stables with much ceremony. First ho is taken from tho jungto to the nearest point of (he Meriain, (he great arterial river of Siam. A wide, straight path is cut for him through tho forest, and wherever lie rests he is entertained by singers, dancerSj musicians arid acrobats. On the river he has a floating house roofed with thatched flowers and hung with- scarlet curtains, where on a woven gold matting liis own gorgeous attendants bathe him with jasmin-scented water and feed him with rice cakes and sugar-cane. Jlis house is floated down to Ayudhia, tho ancient capital of Sihm, where the King and his Court and Brahmin priests come in gilded slate barges to greet him. He is towed to Bangkok by the Royal barges and installed in a magnificent coloured pavilion. He is then knighted with consecrated water poured from a conch shell. For nine days he is feted and feasted and viewed by al(, the people; his tusks arc fringed with gold and gold chains are hung round his neck. He is then led to his stable, where ho spends the rest of his life. A strange story is told of an eccentric King of Siam, who reigned last century. News was brought to him of a magnificent white elephant, and preparations on a very lavisli scale were made to receive him. The pavilion erected for him before (he Eastern gate of the Palace was to be the most gorgeous ever known. Every evening the king inspected the work of the Palace. Suddenly came tho news that, the elephant had died—and no man dared tell the King. But the Chief Minister had an idea of a way in which he could break the news lo the King. He summoned an army of workmen lo demolish the building, and by the evening it had disappeared. When the King came out lie guessed tho truth, and he wept like a child. When he had recovered lie wrote a description of the dead elephant: “Hia complexion was pinkish white; his tusks like long pearls; Ill's ears like silver shields; his trunk like a comet’s tail; his legs like the feet of the skies; his tread like the souiid of thunder; his looks full of meditation; his expression lull of tenderness; his voice the voice of a mighty warrior; and his bearing that of an illustrious monarch.”