The palace of the king stands in the middle of this city, and is walled
and ditched all round, all the houses within being of wood very
sumptuously gilded, and the fore-front is of very rich workmanship, all
gilded in a very costly manner.
The pagoda, or house in which his idols
stand, is covered with tiles of silver, and all the walls are gilt over
with gold. Within the first gate of the palace is a very large court, on
both sides of which are the houses for the king's elephants, which are
wonderfully large and handsome, and are trained for war and for the
king's service. Among the rest, he has four white elephants, which are a
great rarity, no other king having any but he; and were any other king
to have any, he would send for it, and if refused would go to war for
it, and would rather lose a great part of his kingdom than not have the
elephant. When any white elephant is brought to the king, all the
merchants in the city are commanded to go and visit him, on which
occasion each individual makes a present of half a ducat, which amounts
to a good round sum, as there are a vast many merchants, after which
present you may go and see them at your pleasure, although they stand in
the king's house. Among his titles, the king takes that of king of the
white elephants. They do great honour and service to these white
elephants, every one of them having a house gilded with gold, and
getting their food in vessels of gilt silver. Every day when they go to
the river to wash, each goes under a canopy of cloth of gold or silk,
carried by six or eight men, and eight or ten men go before each,
playing on drums, _shawms_, and other instruments. When each has washed
and is come out of the river, he has a gentleman to wash his feet in a
silver basin, which office is appointed by the king. There is no such
account made of the black elephants, be they never so great, and some of
them are wonderfully large and handsome, some being nine cubits high.
The king has a very large place, about a mile from Pegu, for catching
wild elephants, in a great grove or wood, having a fair court in the
middle. There are many huntsmen, who go into the wilderness with
she-elephants, trained for the purpose, each huntsman having five or six
which are anointed with a certain ointment to entice the wild males to
follow them. When they have brought a wild elephant within their snares,
the hunters send word to the town, on which many horsemen and footmen go
out, and force the wild elephant to enter into a narrow way leading to
the inner inclosure, and when the he and she are in, then is the gate
shut upon them.
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