PAINTED ELEPHANTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19298, 10 April 1926, Page 2 (Supplement)

PAINTED ELEPHANTS.

INDIAN FESTAL CUSTOM. INTRICATE PATTERNS USED. An elephant's toilet preparatory to a ceremonial function is a complicated affair, according to a special correspondent of the Times of India, who watched tho process of making ready the Gaekwar of Baroda's elephants for tho festivities connected with Lord Reading's visit. Tho painting of the face comes first, he says, and that operation is performed with care which would have done credit to Jezebel. Two men chalk on the outline of the design and apply tho water-colour paint with a speed aud certainty of touch which can only have been attained with long practice. mere were painted tigers which were so drawn up tho sides of tho face and head that the eyo of the elephant on each side coincided with the tiger's eye, giving to the painted animal an extraordinary air of vitality. Peacocks were painted in a similar way on another animal, and on others, which were presumably of lesser importance in the elephantine world, the designs were formal geometrical affairs. Painters who work on canvas or paper can have little idea of the joy of working with a large'brush on such a surface as is offered, for example, by an elephant's ear. „ The dressing room contains a vast variety of howdahs in gold and silver and ivory and wood. The State elephant must wear, also, earrings and collars, and decorations on his forehead, and bracelets and anklets. 11c is, in fact, adorned until there is not much loft to be seen of the original animal. An elephant's diet is almost as intricate as his toilet. He likos his halfpound of salt every day in addition to large quantities of black pepper and oil. These facts are duly recorded on tho menu card which hangs in each staQ of tho stables.