The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-13 00:00:00

PRESS, koca 13, 1858.

temples and the palaces of the Royal Family
and Ministers, consists chiefly of streets of
bamboo and brick huts, laid out with some
degree of regularity, and containing a popu-
lation of 90.000, of whom about 2,000 are
foreigners. During their stay at the capital
they were visited by one of the wonders of
Burmah, the " hairy woman," Maphoon :
The whole of Maphoon's face was more or less covered
with hair. On a part of the cheek, and between the
nose and mouth, this was confined to a short down,
hut over all the rest of the face was a thick silky hair
of a brown colour, paling about the nose and chin, four or
five inches long. At the alae of the nose, under the eye,
and on the cheekbone, this was very fully developed, but
it was in and on the ear that it was most extraordinary.
Except the extreme upper tip, no part of the ear was
visible. All the rest was filled and veiled by a large mass
of silky hair, growing apparently out of every part of the
external organ, and hanging in a dependent lock to a
length of eight or ten inches. The hair over her forehead
was brushed so as to blend with the hair of the head, the
latter being dressed (as usual with her countrywomen)
le Chinoise. It was not so thick as to conceal altogether
the forehead.

The nose, densely covered with hair as no animal's is
that I know of, and with long fine locks curving out and
pendent like the wisps of a fine Skye terrier's coat, had a
most sit Inge appearance. The beard was pale in colour,
and about four inches in length, seemingly very soft and
silky.

" Maphoon's manner' were," Mr. Yule assures
us, " good and modest, her voice soft and fe-
" minine, and her expression mild and not
" unpleasing, after the first instinctive repul-
" sion was overcome. Her appearance rather
" suggested the idea of a pleasant-looking
" woman masquerading than that of anything
brutal." Her neck, bosom, and arms ap-
peared to be " covered with a fine pale down,
" scarcely visible in some lights." According
to the Woondouk, the " King offered a reward
" to any man who would marry her, but it was
" long before any one was found bold enough
"or avaricious enough to venture." We are
bound to say that the portrait of Maphoon is
not encouraging.
No one would visit Burmah without seeking
an interview with the " Lot•d White Elephant,"
who has a palace to himself, is superbly capa-
risoned, and is maintained in state at the pub.
lie expense :
The present white elephant has occupied his post for
at least tifty years. I !Live no doubt he is the same which
Padre Sangermano mentions as having been c in
1806, to the great joy of the King, who had just lost the
preceding incumbent, a female which died after a year's
captivity.
He is a very large elephant, close upon ten feet high,
with as noble a heed and pair of tusks as I have ever seen.
But he is long-bodied and lanky, and not otherwise well
made as an elephant. He is sickly and out of condition,
and is in fact distempered during five months of the year,
from April to August. His eye, the iris of which is
yellow with a reddish outer annulus, and a small clear
black pupil, has an uneasy glare, and his keepers evidently
mistrust his temper. We were always warned against
going near his head. The annulus round the iris of the
eye is pointed out as resembling a circle of the nine gems.
His colour is almost uniform all over; nearly the
ground•tint of the mottled or freckled part of the trunk
and ears of common elephants, perhaps a little darker.
He also has pale freckles in the same parts. On the
whole he is well entitled to his appellation of white.
The possession of these elephantine aibinoes
derives its importance from the religious vene-
ration with which they are regarded by the
devotees of Buddha. It is held, too, as an
ensign of universal sovereignty, and the cap-
ture of a pure white elephant in the reign of
each Sovereign is regarded as a symbol of
lawful sovereignty. Less dignified, but more
entertaining, was an exhibition of dancing
elephants witnessed at Amarapoora

The larger animal, a tall lean tusker, was more accom-
plished. The words of command were bawled into his ear
by the mahout, and were accompanied apparently by a
great deal of comment or explanatory discourse, whilst at
every sentence the elephant responded by a loud grunt of
assent, which was intensely comical in effect. His great
step consisted in alternately lilting each fore lest, and
flourishing it with a circular swe-p, before rutting it again
to the ground. Not the least amusing part of the perform-
ance lay in the gestures of the mahouts, who on each aide
went violently through the actions and dances which they
intended the elephant to imitate, shouting and encouraging,
and urging and bravoing him, as he increased the apeed
and awkward agility of his movements in accordance with
the stimultuon applied. At last the hind legs also 'came
into play. They were flung up alternately in the air like
the legs of a kicking horse, but in • slow, disjointed, and
inappropriate manner, that seemed to have no connection
with the more rapid pas that was going on among the fore
legs. The grave aspect of the old elephant's head and eye,
all the time that his limbs were going through these un-
wonted gambols, was very comical, and the whole was
certainly a piece of admirable farce, which drew shouts of
laughter from English, Bengalees, and Burmese.