Then the Brahmin priests baptised the sacred beast with holy water, and, after its purification, bestowed upon it the highest of the titles which the king can confer upon his subjects. The title was written on a piece of sugar-cane. Upon this cane there were also a number of sentences describing the virtues, qualities, and perfections of the new nobleman. When the baptismal ceremonies were over, the sugar-cane was handed to the beast, that he might eat it, a part of the ceremony which the elephant understood, and performed with noteworthy despatch. It was then lodged in the royal stables, with a few other brethren who had previously experienced the same fêting and reverence.
Old accounts tell us that the white elephants were treated, during their lives, with the greatest respect and care. Their stables were comfortable, and their food consisted of such dainties as were thought most likely to be appreciated by them. Their food was presented to them upon silver salvers, by servants who knelt as they offered the dish. Their eyes were reverently wiped; they received cool sponge baths at frequent intervals; and it might fairly be supposed that they led about as lazy and luxurious a life as any creature could desire. If they were ill the wisest of the court physicians were sent to them, and their ailments received as much weighty consideration as those of a king. At death they were deeply mourned for, their departure from this life being attended with the usual eastern pomp and ceremony.
They do not live in this condition now. As Henry Norman says in his book on "The Far East"—"they are in a plight that would shame the bear-cage of a wandering circus; tended by slouching ruffians who lie about in rags and tatters, eking out a scanty livelihood by weaving baskets, and begging a copper from every visitor in return for throwing a bunch of seedy grass or rotting bananas to the swaying beasts, which raise their trunks in anticipation of the much needed addition to their scanty diet."
Elephant stories are prevalent in the myths which cloud and hide the purer ideas of the Buddhist faith. Shortly before the birth of Buddha, his mother Queen Maia had a vision. The four kings of the world removed her to the Himalayan Forest, and there seated her on an immense rock. She was bathed, robed, and adorned by a number of queens, and was then led to a golden palace standing on a silver mountain, and requested to rest on a couch, with her face turned to the west. She did so, and beheld a golden mountain on which the future Buddha marched in the form of a white elephant. It descended the golden mountain, and bearing a white lotus flower in its trunk, and trumpeting loudly as it came, made its way to the couch of the astonished Queen Maia.
The birth of Buddha was attended by a number of portents which betokened that a most distinguished person had appeared on earth. Either he was a Buddha or a universal emperor—
"A Chakravartin, such as rise to rule
Once in each thousand years."[K]
If he were the latter, he would possess "seven gifts", tokens of his future universal power. One of them was
"... a snow white elephant,
The Hasti-Katna, born to bear his King."[L]
By the signs on his foot, which we have already described, he was known to be a Buddha. One of these signs is an elephant, named Chatthan. This is the three-headed elephant on which Indra rides, and is represented in many Siamese decorations, and in the royal coat of arms, but in all the sculptures which represent the sole of Buddha's foot, the elephant possesses only one head.
There is also in Siamese story a king of elephants, Chatthan or Chaddanta, who lives on the shores of the lake Chatthan in the Himalayas. Here he resides in a golden palace, attended by eighty thousand ordinary elephants. The elephant Chatthan is sometimes known as "the elephant of six defences," an allusion to his possession of six tusks.