300 WILD ANIMALS. 



Aleager of Pegu had a walled park, where he kept all sorts of 

 beasts, without regard to their cost, as was evidenced by the cruel 

 and costly war he undertook to obtain one animal of a particular 

 kind to dignify this oriental menagerie. In 1648 the King of 

 Siam possessed seven white elephants, which so raised the cupidity 

 of King Aleager that he imperiously demanded the gift of two or 

 even one especial animal, which, being refused, he determined 

 to obtain it by force and invaded the country with a million 

 men, two hundred- thousand horse, five thousand elephants, and 

 three thousand camels. " He sacked and ruined Siam or Lagi, 

 which was reputed twice as big as Paris. The siege lasted 

 twenty-two months. He took the king's treasure, wife and 

 children, and brought them and the white elephants to Pegu, 

 sixty-five days' journey, by camels. The King of Siam cast 

 himself, in despair, from a turret of his own palace. Some 

 of his daughters made away with themselves. . . . This fatal 

 white elephant hath cost five kings their lives and estates. The 

 last King of Pegu had it taken from him by the King of Aracan, 

 through the treachery of the King of Tangut, his brother-in-law. 

 The coach of the King of Pegu was drawn by four white elephants. 

 I believe that in all the Bast there were not more to be found." 



The intoxication of three hundred elephants is another very 

 curious episode narrated in the " History of Hindostan." In 

 1023, Mamood, Emperor of Ghizni, marched against Nunda, 

 the Prince of Callinger, with a great army. He besieged the city, 

 but agreed to terms of peace on Nunda offering him 300 elephants 

 and other presents. To try the bravery of the Sultan's troops, 

 the Prince intoxicated the animals before sending them into the 

 camp. Mamood, who saw them advancing, perceived the trick by 

 the extraordinary wildness of their motions, and ordered them to 

 be attacked, killed, or driven away, which was accordingly done ; 

 some were mounted by the Turks, emulous to display their 

 bravery, and others were driven into the adjacent woods, where 

 they were soon reduced to obedience. 



Vincent Le Blanc,^ in writing about Pegu, gives an account of 



' "The "World Surveyed, or the Famous Voyages and Travels of Vincent Le 

 Blanc," 1660. 



