It is the Navam Full Moon Poya Day today. I saw decorated elephants walking around the park yesterday, in preparation for the ‘Pereheras’ today. Elephants in Yala have also been in the news, jeep drivers have been feeding wild elephants in the park and the elephants have turned aggressive during 'musth'. These are but signs of the times but since elephants are newsworthy I found this old news report rather amusing:
On May 28, 1873 the New York Times published an article called “White Elephants”
that starts with the following paragraph
When a Siamese despot takes a grudge against one of his poorer subjects,
and determines on his ruin, he does not cut off the delinquent’s head and
confiscate his property. On the contrary, he makes him a present – he sends
him the handsomest and healthiest white elephant he can find. The luckless
recipient knows at once that his fate is sealed. He knows that the beast
will eat him out of house and home without the possibility, on his part, of
resistance. He cannot sell or give away the fatal gift, for no one would accept
it, and the attempt to get rid of it even would be direct treason and sacrilege.
He sits down with Oriental resignation to submit to the inevitable, and the
white elephant devours his substance.
