Chap. II.] 



THE ELEPHANT. 



93 



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 Armandi, Hist. Milit. des Ele- 



2 Pallegoix, Siam, $-c, vol. i. p. fhants, lib. ii. c. x. p. 380. Horace 

 152. mentions a white elephant as hav- 



3 Mahawanso, oh. xviii. p. 111. ing been exhibited at Kome: "Si ve 

 The Hindu sovereigns of Orissa, elephas albus vulgi converteret 

 in the middle ages, bore the style ora."-—HoR. Eg. n. 196. 



of Gaja-jpati, "powerful in ele- 



