THE ELEPHANT. 45 



probably have multiplied. The elephants are 

 generally aih-coloured, or blackifh. White ele- 

 phants, as formerly remarked, are extremely 

 rare * ; and authors are quoted who have feen 

 white and red elephants in different parts of In- 

 dia, where they are highly valued f . Befides, 

 / thefe 



* Some perfons who lived long in Pondicherry, feem to 

 doubt the exiftence of white and red elephants ; for they af- 

 firm, that, in this part of India, at leall, the elephants are ail 

 black. It is true, they remark, that, when thefe animals are 

 long neglected to be warned, the duft which adheres to their 

 oily and naked fkin gives them the appearance of a dirty 

 gray colour ; but, when walked with water, they become as 

 black as formerly. I believe that black is the natural colour 

 of elephants, and none of any other colour are to be found in 

 thofe parts of India which thefe people have had an oppor- 

 tunity of feeing. But, at the fame time, it feems not to admit 

 of a doubt, that, in Ceylon, Siam, Pegu, Cambaya, &c. fome 

 white and red elephants are accidentally to be met with. 

 For ocular witneffes of this fact, we might quote le Chevalier 

 Chaumont, l'Abbe de Choify, le P. Tachard, Vander Hagen, 

 Jooit Schuten, Thevenot, Ogilvy, and other travellers of lefs 

 note. Hortenfels, who has collected, in his Elephaniographia, a 

 great number of facts from different voyages, allures us, that 

 the white elephant has not only a white fkin, but that the 

 hair of its tail is alfo white. To thefe teftimonies, we might 

 add the authority of the ancients. iElian, lib. 3. cap. 46. 

 mentions a fmall white elephant in India, and feems to infi- 

 nuate that the mother was black. This variety in the colour 

 of elephants, though rare, is certain, and very ancient. It has, 

 perhaps, proceeded from their domeftic condition, to which - 

 the Indians have been long accuftomed to reduce thefe ani- 

 mals. 



f In the proceffion of the King of Pegu, two red elephants 

 are led before, harnafTed with filk and gold fluffs, which arc 

 followed by four white elephants, harnafTed in a fimilar man- 

 ner, with the addition of precious (tones, and the tufks cover- 

 ed 



