"I don't think I ever heard of one in our country," said Fred; "and if there ever was one there, it is news to me."
"Don't you remember," Frank responded, smiling, "that your uncle Charles was said to have bought a white elephant a year or two ago?"
"Yes, I remember it perfectly," was the reply. "It was not a white elephant that he bought, but only a large house. It was three times as big as he needed; and after losing a great deal of money in repairing it, and hiring a crowd of servants to keep it in order, he sold it for much less than he gave. Of course, I understand that when a man has bought something he does not need, and which involves him in a ruinous expense, he is said to have bought a white elephant. I wonder where the expression came from."
Just then Doctor Bronson entered the room to look for something he needed, and the boys appealed the question to him. Both of them had heard the allusion to "buying a white elephant," and knew its meaning. What they now wished to find was where it originated.
The Doctor explained that it was said to be the custom in certain Eastern countries for the king to give a white elephant to any nobleman whom he wished to ruin. As the present came from the king, it could not be sold or given away: the expense of keeping the animal was enormous, as he required a great number of attendants, and consumed vast quantities of food. In a little while the nobleman would be a beggar, as his estate would be entirely consumed in maintaining the elephant; and so it came to be understood that when a man received such a present, it was a polite way of driving him into bankruptcy. "There is also a story," said the Doctor, "of a man who drew a white elephant in a lottery; he could not give his prize away, as nobody would accept it, and he could not kill him, as such an act was a crime of the highest character. It would not do to turn him loose, as he would then be responsible for all the damage caused by the elephant; and if he kept the beast it would soon eat him into poverty. Consequently, when a man has something in his possession difficult to get rid of and costly to keep, he is said to have drawn a white elephant."
The Doctor found what he wanted and retired, and the boys proceeded with their story. With Fred's assistance, Frank wrote as follows:
"The white elephant is not white by any means. He is only a sort of cream or flesh color; and anybody who expects him to rival the snow in the purity of his complexion will be disappointed. But, after all, he is not so dark as a good many men whom we call white, and so I suppose his name is quite proper. He is very scarce, and this is one reason why he is prized so highly.
"Siam is not the only country where the white elephant is regarded with special honor; the animal receives great attention, and is very much prized in Burmah and other Buddhist lands; and it is said that some of the wars between Burmah and Siam have arisen from disputes about the possession of white elephants. Money cannot buy them, and no king who possessed one would dare to sell it for any price, as his people would think he had defied the powers of Heaven, and would be sure to bring the severest calamities upon them. Sir John Bowring says that when he came to Siam at the head of an embassy from the Queen of England in 1855, the king sent some presents for Her Majesty, and among them was a golden box locked with a golden key. It was said to be more precious than all the other presents; but it contained nothing beyond a few hairs from the tail of the white elephant.
"The Buddhists have great reverence for anything that is white; and when whiteness is combined with great rarity, and also with magnificence, it is easy to see why the white elephant is above all other animals. 'It is believed,' Sir John Bowring says, 'that Buddha, the divine emanation from the Deity, must necessarily, in his multitudinous metamorphoses or transmissions through all existences and through millions of æons, delight to abide for some time in that grand incarnation of purity which is represented by the white elephant. While the priests teach that there is no spot in the heavens above, nor in the earth below, or the waters under the earth, which is not visited in the peregrinations of the divinity, they hold that his tarrying may be longer in the white elephant than in any other abode, and that in the possession of the sacred creature they may possess the presence of Buddha himself.'
"The white elephant is considered of equal rank with the king, and is treated with all possible dignity; he has a stable to himself, and ten or twelve keepers to look after his wants. The first one we saw was standing on a platform which was being swept by a priest; and we were told that none but priests were allowed to serve the sacred animal. He was chained to a couple of posts, so that he could not step away from the platform; and the interpreter told us not to go near him, as he was not of a pleasant temper, and might hurt us. The keeper gave him a few bananas, which he appeared quite willing to take; the fact is, the elephant is very fond of bananas, and the wild ones in the forest will often run considerable risk to get them. After he had swallowed the bananas he reached for a truss of hay, but for some reason the keeper did not think proper to let him have it. He showed some temper, and the keeper brought him to a sense of his duty by pricking his foot with a sharp iron till drops of blood came from it. This seemed to us a funny way to treat a king, and we wondered how his majesty liked it.