Cuar. II.] THE ELEPHANT. 93 
which it is sparsely covered. A white elephant is men- 
tioned in the Mahawamso as forming part of the retinue 
attached to the “Temple of the Tooth” at Anarajapoora, 
in the fifth century after Christ}; but it commanded no 
religious veneration, and like those in the stud of the 
kings of Siam, it was tended merely as an emblem of 
royalty ?; the sovereign of Ceylon being addressed as the 
“Lord of Elephants.”> In 1633 a white elephant was 
exhibited in Holland‘; but as this was some years before 
the Dutch had established themselves firmly in Ceylon, 
it was probably brought from some other of their eastern 
possessions. 
1 Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. phants.”—Asiat, Res. xv. 253. 
254, av. 433. 4 Armannl, Hist. Milit. des Ele- 
2 Patizcorx, Siam, §e., vol. i.p. phants, lib. ii.c. x. p. 380. Horacz 
152. mentions a white elephant as hay- 
3 Mahawanso, ch. xviii. p. 111. ing been exhibited at Rome: “Sive 
The Hindu sovereigns of Orissa, elephas albus vulgi converteret 
in the middle ages, bore the style ora.”—Hor. Ep. u. 196, 
of Gaja-pati, “powerful in ele- 
