Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1878 — Funeral of a White Elephant. [ARTICLE]

Funeral of a White Elephant.

A curious ceremony has recently taken place at Siam, on the occasion of the death of the eldest of the white elephants—one of the idols of the Siamese. He was bom in 1770, and died in his temple at Bangkok. A whole people bow down before this famous Albino divinity; it is the emblem of the kingdom of Siam. The most beautiful presents are given to these animals, because, influenced by a belief in a metempsychosis, the Indians believe, even at the present day, that so majestic an animal cannot but be animated by the spirit of a god or an Emperor. Every white elephant possesses its own palace, gold dishes and harness studded with precious stones. Several mandarins are appointed to wait upon it, and they feed it with cakes and sugar-canes. The King of Siam is the only person before whom it bends its knee, and the monarch returns this salutation. Magnificent obsequies were prepared for the defunct idol. Some hundreds of Buddhist priests officiated at the funeral ceremony. The three surviving white elephants, preceded by trumpeters and followed by an immense concourse of people, accompanied the funeral car to the banks of the Menam, whither the King and the dignitanes of the state had come to receive the mortal remains. They were then transported to the other side of the river, and there buried. A procession of thirty vessels, decked with flags, formed a part of this curious ceremony. All the floating houses, which are ranged in a double line, on the Menam, numbering upward of 60,000, were ornamented with flags of all colors and other symbolic attributes.— Galignani' 8 Messenger. There was a big fire in Huntington, Mass., and Alfred Wells refused to have the goods removed from hie store, believing that the risk of thieves was greater than of the flames. So the stuff was burned. The insurance company refuses to pay, because the policy required Wells to use all possible means to save the property. Wells holds that he did what seemed best for that purpose. The question is to be tried in court.