Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1893 — The Sacred White Elephant. [ARTICLE]

The Sacred White Elephant.

The Buddhists venerate a white ele* phant. According to their religion a man lives twelve times on earth, his soul returning after each demise to some animal, beginning with some of the lower varieties, like a reptile, a crocodile or a wolf, and then each time he dies afterward returning to soma animal of a higher type. In this way there is a gradual progression of the soul until it reaches the animal representing the highest type of all, which is the white elephant. They claim that the founder of their religion came back to earth twelve times, and is the only one who eventually succeeded in getting to heaven. The last six times he was on earth hia spirit was incarcerated in one of these elephants, and his spirit, shining through the flesh of the animal, made it white, a color which the animal has retained up to the present time.