162 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT
are
the work of malignant spirits, just as they fancy it to be the case
with human diseases. There is a popular native treatise on this
subject, with many curious illustrations, of which Colonel Hendley
writes as follows:*
"Rheumatism
is represented by four small animals like rats biting the elephant's
legs; headache by a huge monster with four heads gnawing the forehead;
and, in inflammatory affections of the chest and abdomen, tearing and
holding on to these important sections of the body. The monster in a
case of pleurisy has his huge scaly tail thrown round the chest of his
victim. In a case of fever, four lighted ghostly fires surround the
poor beast. A deadly cobra is twisted round the body of another
tortured individual. A tiger-headed creature sprawls along the back of
another victim. Lastly, a bad attack of colic is caused by the tight
folds of a long serpent."
Although
because of its huge proportions an elephant always makes a striking
impression upon the beholder, this impression is certainly not one of
beauty or grace, but rather of power and strength. And yet, when decked
out with all the gorgeous caparisons which Hindu luxury has evolved for
this animal in the course of centuries, the splendour of its appearance
is such that one is fairly overwhelmed by the sight. This is more
especially the case when, as at the Durbars, neither expense nor pains
are spared by the Hindu potentates to unfold before the wondering eyes
of European visitors the full extent of their wealth in objects of
adornment and luxury. The effect produced at such times upon qualified
judges of things artistic is shown in the following impassioned words
used by Mortimer Menpes in chronicling the happenings of the Durbar of
1903, on the
*Col. T. H. Hendley, "The Elephant in State Ceremonies," in Journal of Indian Art and Industry, Vol. XVI, new series, pp. 19, 20; No. 123, July, 1913. See also No. 123, Plate I, Figs, d, e.
Flickr
Stumbleupon
Scribd
