186 Captain Low’s Dissertation on White Elephants. 
red mixed. It is of a distinct species from the black buffalo. The Malays 
do not relish its flesh, although not apparently differing from that of the 
other, and say it is unwholesome.* 
From inquiries made amongst the Siamese, I find that they are not aware, 
and indeed do not believe, that a herd of white elephants has ever been met 
with. Those which, at wide intervals of time, their hunters have secured in 
Cambaya and Laos, are termed by them Priya p,ho-ak chang, or “kings of 
herds ;” because found singly amid herds of the common black elephant, 
or chang dam. In 1823 one of the white elephants in the king’s stable was 
a female. 
The curiosity as well as the cupidity of the Siamese would have led them 
to an endeavour at rearing a variety in such high request amongst them- 
selves and several Indo-Chinese nations, had not their religion opposed an 
insuperable obstacle. As these white elephants are sacred, the Siamese 
believe that dreadful calamities would overtake their country, were they to 
allow the males to copulate with the females. 
That the elephant will breed in a domestic state is now sufficiently ascer- 
tained, and it is only surprising that it was not so very long since. ‘The 
Quidah people, in the neighbourhood of Prince of Wales’ Island, are in the 
habit of keeping brood elephants, and find no difficulty in rearing the 
young. 
The Siamese informed me that one of their male white elephants came 
from Phok,hiau, a mountain in South Laos; another from J/atta bang, a 
term applied by the Siamese to part of Cambaya; and a third came from 
Che-ung Mai, in North Laos. 
The exceeding degree of veneration in which the Siamese hold the white 
elephant will be best explained by my giving an account of their treatment 
* Mr. Kendall, in the 87th No. of the Asiatic Journal, in treating of the true history of the 
wild sheep, has made some remarks which may be applied to this subject. He observes, that in 
every species of animal of which the usual colour is not white, nature occasionally presents us 
with white specimens; thus we have white oxen, white deer, white ravens, and white sparrows, 
&c.; and even amongst the human species Albinos and white negroes. 
This occasional whiteness produced in a state of nature is the result of a faulty constitution of 
the individual animal. 
In so far as respects the white buffalo we cannot apply Mr. Kendall’s remarks, but they may 
with propriety be considered applicable to the white elephant, until facts shall be adduced to 
establish it as a distinct species. 
