The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-05-11
SACRED ELEPHANTS.
Were Tattooed BY Lascars and a Sea
Tragedy Followed.
New York Evening Sum

amy MdSteTs ana sea captains,
ahoy! If you run across the carcas-
ses of couple of pink, green, white
and purple elephants afioat about due
northeast, of the Azores on your next
trip out, don't take them for sea SER
penis or anything like that, for they
aren't. They'll be just dead elephants,
that's all. Then maybe you'll see a
plain ordinary drab one awash some
where, but he'll be a dead elephant,
too. Just cross your fingers and pass
them by-they won't hurt you.
This is. probably the most unusual
warning ever given to mariners, but
it is deemed advisable, as the result Of
tale told by the crew of the tramp
steamship Barenfels, just in from Cal
cutta. These three elephants were
formerly part of the cargo of the
Barenfels, and it was from her that
they were thrown overheard off the
Azores.
No, the green, pink, white and pur,
pie elephants weren't born that way
They were painted that way, aboard
the ship, surreptitiously, and thereby
hangs the yarn.
The Barenfels left Calcutta on Mar.
10, and just before she sailed there
were hoisted aboard, to be delivered
to New York animal dealer Alice,
Bin and Joe, the three elephants, all
young ones and only about six feet in
height. Joe was an ordinary spongy
drab elephant, but Bill and Alice
they were extraordinary, two sleek
sacred white elephants from Burmah,
beloved of all Mohammedans.
1t was no wonder. then, that Jonah
bin allah, the serang, and the Lascar
crew under him kow-towed and sal
aamed until they bored holes in the
deck with their noses when Bill and
Alice came aboard. They were most
UNNECESSARILY honored at having their
sacred white elephantships Ia Such
close proximity to their sinful selves,
and there was nothing which they
would not do to show their most alb.
ject devotion. And the voyage was
bound to be fair one under the sub
lime protectorate of these two sacred
white beings.
All very well. The voyage was a
fair one, but along about the first week
in April, sometime after the Barenfels
had left Algiers and steamed through
the Straits of Gibraltar out and up in
to the cold Atlantic, Jonah bin Halah,
who had early obtained the consent of
the Captain to become the elephants
valet, made a sad discovery The
cold weather was getting into the side
of Bill and Joe and Alice, crinkling
and cracking it open like an earth
quake. The elephantine cuticle was
getting chapped
Jahab told Mr.. zimmerman, the Sec
ond officer, about it in horror-strick-
en- tones and Mr.. Ammermann advised
hot water and an oil massage So hot
water and oil it was, and the whole
| Lascar crew fighting for the honor of
doing the massaging. OF course Joe,
being an ordinary everyday, plebeian
elephant, got scant attention, and his
skin became as tender as baby's. He
roared and trumpeted of nights in
protest, but it didn't do any good, and
at last Joe just up and died. He was
buried at sea with no ceremony on
the same day. April 10. His death,
however, frightened the Lascars. They
had visions of the white pair going
the same way, and they were much
perturbed. Perhaps they hadn't shown
enough religious devotion to the
beasts, although Mr. Ammermann
says they prayed to, for and at the
elephants three times, a day. At any
rate something MUST be done.
, So the ,Lascars held council, and
after a. deal Of grave discussion, Joho ]
hab, the serang, was suddenly seized
with an inspiration. The. sacred white
elephant had never heep tatooed, he.I
, announced. That was what the mat
ter was They must be tatooed. All
very well, cried the others, but there
!. was. nothing, aboard the ship to do
the. tatooing with, - !. =.
] True, said Johab, there, was no tat !
t6oipg materials aboard, but there was
paint and lots of it in the storeroom,
and in all colors.
/ Fine! They would paint Bill and
Alice that night. So, at midnight |
Johab stole into the storeroom and got |
the paint and brushes and transferred |
them stealthily to the quarters of the !
: elephants between decks forward |
And then and there was perpetrated |
on the white skins of Bill and Alice |
the most wonderful specimens of Ma |
layan art that the Barnefels' officers /