Chap. II.] 
THE ELEPHANT. 
9S 
which it is sparsely covered. A white elephant is men- 
tioned in the Mahawanso as forming part of the retinue 
attached to the "Temple of the Tooth" at Anarajapoora, 
in the fifth century after Christ 1 ; 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 2 ; the sovereign of Ceylon being addressed as the 
"Lord of Elephants." 3 In 1633 a white elephant was 
exhibited in Holland 4 ; 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, Bes. xv. 253. 
254, a.d. 433. 4 Aemandi, Hist. Milit. des Ele- 
2 Paxlegoix, Siam, $c, vol. i. p. phants, lib. ii. c. x. p. 380. Horace 
152. mentions a white elephant as hav- 
3 Mahawanso, ch. xviii. p. 111. ing been exhibited at Eome: "Sive 
The Hindu sovereigns of Orissa, elephas albus vulgi converteret 
in the middle ages, bore the style ora." — Hoe. Ep. n. 196. 
of Gaja-pati, "powerful .in ele- 
