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Memoirs of a White Elephant

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<h5><SPAN name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</SPAN></h5> <h4>THE DOWRY OF THE PRINCESS</h4> <p>One day my Mahout, who like all others of his class, had the habit of making long discourses (which I finally grew to understand), came and stood before me, as he always did when he wished me to listen.</p> <p>I at once became attentive, for I saw from his agitated air that something of importance was concerned.</p> <p>"King-Magnanimous," said he, "ought we to rejoice—or ought we to weep? Is a new life for us a good, or an evil thing? Should one dread change, or should one welcome it? These are questions which are being balanced in my mind, like the weights in a pair of scales! You, who are now an elephant, but were once a King could tell me, if only you could speak. You could tell me if the numerous transformations, the changes, have brought you most joy or sorrow. Your wisdom could put an end to my anxiety, perhaps; But perhaps, on the other hand, you can look no further into the future than I; and you would say to me, "<i>Let us resign ourselves to what we cannot help</i>, <i>and wait to either weep or rejoice</i>, <i>till events prove good or ill.</i>"... Well! so will we do. We will resign ourselves, and wait.</p> <p>"That which is about to happen you know not—and that is what I am going to tell you.</p> <p>"Our great King, <i>Phra, Puttie, Chucka, Ka, Rap, Si, Klan, Si, Kla, Mom, Ka, Phra, Puttie, Chow</i> (for I cannot mention the King's name without giving him all his titles—I who am only a simple Mahout—when the Prime Minister, himself durst not do so!)—our great King is the father of several Princes, and also of a Princess—a beautiful Princess—who is of a marriageable age.... <i>Well! that is it!</i> She is about to be married. The King <i>Phra, Puttie, Chucka</i> has bestowed the hand of the Princess Saphire-of-Heaven upon a Hindu, the Prince of Golconda: and this marriage, which at first would seem of little interest to us, is going to overturn our whole existence.</p> <p>"Know, King-Magnanimous, that your glorious person is to form part of the Dowry of the Princess. Yes! even so. Without asking your pleasure in this affair, they have made a gift of you to a stranger Prince, who may not have for your Majesty the respect due you.</p> <p>"And I—poor Mahout—what am I without the noble elephant whom I attend? And what is your Majesty without me?</p> <p>"Therefore they have also made a gift of me, and I am now a fragment of the royal dowry. We are bound to each other till death—we are but one! You go where I conduct you, and I must go where you go. Oh! King-Magnanimous, <i>ought we to weep or rejoice</i>?"</p> <p>Really, I could not say. And I was greatly disturbed at what had been told me.</p> <p>To leave this life, so sweet and tranquil, but which sometimes wearied me by its monotony and inaction.... Abandon this beautiful home so abundantly provided with good things!... Surely this was cause for weeping! But then, to see new countries, new cities, meet with new adventures—that was perhaps something to rejoice at! ...</p> <p>Like my Mahout, I concluded the best way was to wait—and for the present to be resigned.</p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/eleph_002.jpg" width-obs="300" alt="" /></div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />

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