WHITE MONKEY IN ELEPHANT STABLES.
"We saw two white elephants, and each had a stable to himself, or rather a palace. Their tusks were encircled with hoops or rings of pure gold, and there were golden or gilded canopies above them, and ornaments of great value in other parts of the stable. In one of the stables there was a white monkey, and the interpreter told us that the white monkey is an object of great veneration among the Siamese, and is kept in the elephant stables to prevent the presence of evil spirits. The one we saw was a very quiet and dignified monkey of a perfectly pure white; he was above the ordinary size, and had a long tail, and they told us that he was caught in the forests on the upper waters of the Menam River.
"When a white elephant is caught, there is great rejoicing throughout Siam. The king and court go out to meet him as he is brought towards the capital, and there is a grand procession with banners and music. Meantime a house has been prepared for him, and some of the members of the noble families of Siam are appointed to wait on him. He has everything he can possibly want except his liberty; and when he goes to the river to bathe he is escorted by other elephants, who are supposed to be highly honored by admission to his presence. But, in spite of all attentions, he sometimes takes sick and dies, and then the rejoicing is changed to mourning. The whole nation is wrapped in deep grief, and the funeral ceremonies are of an elaborate character. Fortunately for the Siamese, the elephant is an animal of long life, and so they are not often called upon to mourn the loss of one of these sacred beasts.
"After we had seen the white elephants, we went to the stables of the common ones. There were a dozen or more of them in a shed that was quite open to the weather on all its sides, and they had only the ground to lie upon. They were chained up by the forefeet, and when we went to the stable they had just been fed. Each of them had a bundle of freshly-cut grass; and we were told that a healthy elephant consumes every day not less than seven or eight hundred pounds of this food. These elephants are kept for working about the palace-grounds; and their occupation at present is in hauling timber from the bank of the river to the places where it is wanted in the construction of a new wing to the king's residence.
HOW AN ELEPHANT FEEDS.
"We were much interested in seeing the way the elephant eats.