Moung H. Pay, District Elder.
A CERTIFICATE OF IDENTITY.
In the year 1245, month of Ta Sung Mong, fifth increase at Mandalay, I, Moung Thee, minister of royal elephants, hereby certify that the elephant named Toung Taloung is the species of white sacred elephant, and possesses the qualifications and attributes of such.
By order of
HPOUNGDAW GYEE HPAYAH,
King and Lord of all White Elephants, Moung Thee.
(Signed)
W. MALLING,
Translator.
Other papers and testimonials from prominent people accompanied these documents, testifying to its identity; and, every thing being in readiness, the march was commenced from Mandalay overland to Rangoon, a distance of seven hundred miles. This trip was one of no little danger. They were continually stopped in native towns; and rumors followed them to the effect that King Theebaw had changed his mind, fearing that ill luck would follow the loss of one of the animals. But finally the little band, which consisted of several white men and natives, Toung Taloung, and four black elephants, upon which were three white monkeys, the images of the Buddhist god Gautama, the golden umbrellas, etc., reached the Irrawaddy River, four hundred miles from Mandalay. In one village they were nearly mobbed; in another imprisoned, and a lawsuit commenced. But finally they were released; and the white elephant was placed on the steamer “Tenasserim,” and, guarded day and night, crossed the Bay of Bengal, and safely reached Liverpool, from where it was shipped to the United States. I was invited to go down the bay on the special steamer to be among the first to see a white elephant on American shores; and I well remember the smile of satisfaction that illumined the face of the genial Barnum, when an ex-United-States minister to one of the Eastern countries, who was of the party, spoke up, and said, as we all stood around the sacred beast in the hold of the “Lydian Monarch,” “I have seen all the white elephants of the kings of Burmah and Siam, and consider this an exceptionally fine example of what is known as the sacred white elephant.”
The general public, however, expected to see a pure white elephant, and naturally much criticism was provoked. I believe that Mr. Barnum now claims as much credit in educating the American public as to what constitutes a white elephant, as he did in bringing the historic animal from its native country.