Above image is a Die-Cut from the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. below is information from the back of the Die-Cut Card copyright 1884

The recent purchase for $200,000 - by the highly enterprising and well-known showman Mr. P. T. Barnum--of a Chang Pouk, or white elephant.  The Siamese themselves never speak of a white elephant, but of a Chang Pouk, or "strange-colored elephant."   The hue varies from dull yellow to rose.  To the writer, who has seen the animal, both in Burmah and Siam, the color of the true white elephant has that delicate shade which distinguishes the nose of a white horse.  "White" elephants of all tints, including both the light and dark cream and the mahogany-colored, are albinos.   Most of the so-called white elephants have a yellowish or reddish- brown skin, accompanied either pink iris and scarlet-rimmed eyes, or white iris and white-rimmed eyes.  They are of ordinary size and shape, and specimens of either sex are captured.  Their color is simply a freak of nature, and not necessarily hereditary.  Under like conditions white and black are equally long-lived, whatever be the difference in shades, and whether roaming in the forests of Laos or residing in royal state in the cities of Mandalay, Bankok, or Panompin.

One may well say "in royal state"; for, partly on account of the superstition of the lower classes, who believe the white elephant divine, and partly on account of the prejudice of rulers, who believe that the presence of one brings national prosperity, the captured specimens live amid imperial splendor.  Their large and airy stables are within the palace enclosure, and close to the royal abode.  Beneath embroidered canopies they stand or lie, a fetter on the fore-leg being the only symptom of captivity.  Umbrellas in gold, white, and red occupy adjacent nooks in company with Roman-like fasces of silver-tipped spears and axes.  The stable floor is net-worked with silver, or even gold.  The Alps of the Buddhists-for so has the white elephant been called-relieves its thirst and hunger from water jars and eating-troughs of silver and of gold.   Fresh-cut grass and bananas are its staple diet, though it also delights in rice, sugar-cane, cocoa-nuts, cakes and candies.  The water it drinks is perfumed with flowers or tinctured with palm wine.  The average daily food is consumes reaches the modest weight of two hundred pounds.

Living amid such luxuries, this singular and sacred animal is harnessed sumptuously, and habited in woven scarlet cloth.  Gold chain nets and silver bells crown its head, gay and richly embroidered cushions rest upon its back, while here and there gleam strings of pearl and coin in miscellaneous decoration.  Its tusks glitter with massive rings of gold, studded frequently with dazzling jewels.

Each evening music allures it to sleep with the choicest melodies to Father India known.  Trumpets and drums and a large retinue precede it to the bath, whither it is conducted with a large red umbrella held over it by some of the highest dignitaries.  Young maidens strew its path with rarest flowers, which it picks up at will, first smelling them by virtue of its passionate delight in perfumes, and then conveying them to its mouth, where they are apt to be sacrificed to the grosser sense of taste.  Save for this occasional bath, however, It rarely leaves its palace cell, except upon great feast days, when it always heads the procession.  Amid these happy conditions-provided it does not die of astonishment or succumb to indigestion-it may live to be a centenarian, rejoicing in a weight measuring from one to three tons, and in a height varying from six to ten feet.  And so profound is the Indo-Chinese belief in omens that an unusual grunt form this potentate is quite sufficient to interrupt the most important affairs, and break the most solemn engagements.

The processions to which I have referred possess a civil and religious significance.  The Buddhist Bull (to employ again one of the several names of this unique brute) is held sacred by all the Indo-Chinese nations excepting the Anamese.   It is adored as a god while living, and its death is lamented as a national calamity.  At the present day, however, it is worshipped chiefly by the lower classes.  By the King and nobles it is revered, not so much on account of an imputed divinity, as because it is believed to bring prosperity to the country in peace and good fortune in war.  The extraordinary veneration offered by the people is  a traditional superstition of ancient date.  It is a portion of the general reverence, among Buddhists, of white quadrupeds.  The fact that the white elephant is found only in Buddhist countries, and but rarely even in them; probably gave rise to the belief that it must be the temporary abode of some mighty Budda in his progress toward perfection.  It was therefore agreed that to possess such a prize must be tantamount to enjoying the presence of Diety, with all concomitant blessings.  Consequently the kingdom where one of these blonde and cyclopean beasts resides is thought to be rich and not liable to change, and the King is congratulated on being long-lived and invincible.  Through his elephantine sympathies he believes himself a partaker of the divine nature.  In the Pali scriptures it is duly set forth that the form under which Buddha will descend to earth for the last time will be that of a beautiful young white elephant, open-jawed, with a head the color of cochineal, with tusks shining like silver, sparkling with gems, covered with a splendid netting of gold, perfect in organs an limbs, and majestic in appearance.  Are we, then who are to have a white elephant here, about to entertain an angel unawares!

From what I have said it is evident that in Farther India the more white elephants a state owns, the more powerful it is supposed to be.  The honors which the creature therefore enjoys are almost limitless.  One of the finest districts in the kingdom, for instance, is often set apart for its maintenance.  It takes rank immediately after the royal family and is treated by the nobility like a prince of the blood.  When sick, the King's physicians attend it, and the priests pray for its cure.  Royal honors await it when it dies and the entire people shave their heads, and mourn as for their dearest kinsmen.

When these facts are fully appreciated, it ceases to be a wonder that the rank of nobility is conferred upon this for court, and that among its high-flown titles are "Gem of the Sky," "Glory of the Land" "Radiance of the World." and "Leveller of the Earth.:  An old Jesuit missionary once declared that the King of Siam did not ride the white elephant because the latter was equal in greatness to the King.  The father of the present enlightened Siamese ruler addressed a pallid pachyderm he had loved and lost in poetic hyperbole, which reminds one more of certain passages in Solomon's Song than of anything else; as, for instance, "His tusks are like long pearls. his ears like silver shields, his trunk like a comet's tail," etc.  This homage and superstition are reflected in the very titles and offices of the rulers and great men.  In ancient Burmah the King assumed the title "Lord of the Spotted Elephants,"  At the present day the King of Cambodia is styled "First Cousin of the White Elephant";  the Foreign Minister of Anam, "Mandarin of Elephants";  while the Kings of Burmah and Siam, both enjoy the still higher appellations, "Lord of the Celestial Elephant" and "Master of Many White Elephants."  In Siam, too, everything associated with majesty and rank bears the images of this lordly leviathan, to whose proportions, when in repose and when a pure albino, Mrs. Browning might have appropriately referred in the paradoxical line which speaks of "thunders of white silence."  As the lion in the Persian banner or llama in the Peruvian, so the white elephant floats proudly in the banner of the Siamese.  A badge of distinction is similarly created, and has become a coveted native decoration.

First and Only Genuine Sacred White Elephant

Ever Permitted to Leave His Native Land