WHITE ELEPHANTS.
The White Elephant is not what the word implies—white. It is grey with the distinctive marks of the albino, that is, light coloured iris of the eye, white toenails, white or reddish body hairs and pink skin near the end of the trunk and underneath the body. White elephants, so-called, are comparatively rare (writes Sir George Pratt Ingersoll, former U-S. Minister to Siam). Only a few are in captivity. Years ago, according to accounts, there was a good deal of ceremony attending the capture of one; but there are a good many fairy tales. There are four or five white elephants now at Bangkok. I found them Comfortably but not gaudily housed, with a stout teak-wood fence enclosing a small space about their stables- The white elephants at Ehingkok are secured by ropes and chains indoors most of the time, hut, notwithstanding, they look fat and nealthy.
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Bibliographic details
Star (Christchurch), Issue 12707, 31 July 1919, Page 4
Word Count
149WHITE ELEPHANTS. Star (Christchurch), Issue 12707, 31 July 1919, Page 4
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