WHITE ELEPHANTS.

Te Aroha News, Volume XII, Issue 1752, 20 July 1895, Page 3

WHITE ELEPHANTS.

Held Sacred In the Orient—Probably a IteaUy Wiilto One Never Existed. 1': The white elephant has been an emblem Of royalty ever since early ages, and in the sixteenth oeaturyvthey were so valued that the nations of Eegu in‘ Siam quarreled for years k'foat ope—a quarrel, indeed, that may morexigbtly be named a war. Before tbl« war was Over five kings were killed and (03&iny thousands of men. All this because of a white elephant. . .. It has often been questioned whether in Burmah or Siam the white elephant is worshiped or’not, but it has boon concluded by the most'intelligent peqpje of these ooun- • tv'*® thatjt Is considered but as an adjunct 'Jk i&alty, and that only the lower classes ■ Wwiifeipit. The animal itself ia associated with Buddha and undoubtedly was held in high veneration by devout Buddhists, and the Siamese, who ore very superstitiouo, consider that when a white elephant grunts it has a vwy meaning. What this meaning »is not divulged. , 4 .Ms*. Holder, ia me book on elephants, quotes Vincent; who, in hie turn, nays that She white elepU/mt “is held to 1» sacred by all .the Indo-Chinese nations except the : Apfthaeaa. "Jfcla revevedosagod while / livks* and its death is regarded as » nail muu calamity, Even at the present day ta» white „ olephaat .Is worshiped by the lower classes, b«t by the king and nobles it to cvrfsed and valued, not so much for its (Urine character being the abode of a trans- . migrating Buddha, as because it is believed to bring godd fortune in war. . The more are of them the more grand nod pawerfql the rtate is supposed to be.” •Jo Hindoo mythologywe find therotaught that eight elephants support the earth, and it was supposed ia China that all elephants frotahlped the etuf. ■ ’ Y-- , , Whetk wqojwak of white elephants, we ■ mhsfc rfiSiembeir that a perfectly puee .white elephant never really existed, or, at ail events, was never caught. A white elephant h not) really white atetji- but it is oaJlcd. so if it is at ail like on albino. A white elephant is one who really Is, an albino—that It, lacks coloring matter. A dork, mease .colored elephant, yathcr lighter than ordlv H»ry elephants, withpinldch-splashesahoui ,tim head end body, is called a white dojlrtmfc. /Sometimes their eyes are pink, and altogether they have sufficient light coloring to give them their distinguishing nain e, though their papeete may have been black, tie spots, etc., being in no way hereditary. Certainly the honor paid to white elephants is remarkable. The king of Cambodia, whose anaeetora. are said to have owned 70,€00 elephants, is called “the first •attain of the white elephant.” The prime Minister of Siam is honored by being called general of the olepbaut&j” the foreign mt&lfber of-Cochin China, “the mandarin of the elephants,*’ while the late king of iffem was Called “king of the celestial elephants” and. “master of many white ele* jkants.” -: ’■ §s£l< The’lland of the Macliinlat. It hm often been said in 6Deakln2 of 8 tnan who is very precise ana cnac&i m nio method* that he would split a hair. The difficulty of such aiiy operation can bo imagined when wc are told that an ordinary human haiir is about two and a half thousandths of an inch in diameter, -. But an exchange tells us that the hand of

|fhe machinist becomes by lopg training to delicately accurate in touch that tMbgscan b* done by it which almost surpass the hair splitting operation. , - , - ■ who, by the impression carried through a pair of calipers and ends, can determine how much pressure must be exerted by a. hydraulic press In order to force mi to its shaft a’-loco- . bahtlve driving wheel or an engine crank. In making sfich a calculation the thouedadth port of an inch variation in diameter would cause muon more variation in pwssure,than is permissible. • - jfivea smaller variations of size can be detected by the trained sense of touch, cr, rather, by tfca variation in res-istaooe o-l a pair of c.'Uig-ifß. The sensitiveness of the finger ends fci relation to magnitude can V' eiso be wonderfully developed; A Faithful Dog Saves His Master. I In the year 1738, when the English made an attack upon St. Malo, a French shepherd-was compolledto act as guide to the Coldstream guards and purposely led them astray. •• General Vernon ordered him to be hanged. That officer- used to say that he never .- witnessed anything moro affecting than the efforts of the shepherd’s dog to hinder / the men from putting the rope round his neck. The executioner had no email difficulty in keeping the affectionate animal off, although assisted by two drumm'jri who enjoyed the reputation of havisi; been practiced dog- stealers in - 'Westminster. ' ' .

' v “But John Bull is a poor creature ■p'hen it comes to, the pinch,” General. Yerpon used to add when telling the stbryV “and I could not find it in my heart to put tho stubborn fellow to death fbr his patriotism. . So after well frightening him and almost breaking his heart V, by threatening to have his dog destroyed I let him. gc and the faithful creature , With him.—“ Naval and Military Sketch y Book.” The Electrical Age.; Electricity is how used 'in traction, in il- - V IcaalUation; in telegraphy, submarine and - ■ terrene; in engineering, in medicine and surgery, in agriculture, horticulture and . > in'many kinds of mechanism, , in?. in heating, in cooking and in yet Other service. There are thousands of, miles of electric railways, anew electric ship is nearly completed at one of our Paciflc,ports, add we have a promise of ~ a new kind of .electrical' balloon. This is : ..fche electrical ageas well as the age of steam, &£s£ the Now York Sun. ■ ,’ I ’’ v Harnessing the Wind. Referring to the various attempts that ,iSi have.been made,to “harness the wind,” M. "?iax de Nansouty suggests that next time an attempt is made in: this direction it , r woald. be as'well to tty the effect of surrounding the “atmospheric turbines” by strong towers and directing the wind onto the vanes by nozzles in much the same ■ Way as tie water is directed, onto the buckles o£& Pelton wheel. -• “ j ■,■■■' Fresh Air r>nd Heat. ; : One of the strongest recommendations , for heating a building by an inflow of warmed air is that the . air already in a building must get out to make room for it. Even if no special provision is made to get !fche air out, the fact that the building is .warm shows conclusively that it has been disposed of or the warm air could not get Jp to ralec the temperature to a comfortable point. '