The Sultan’s Elephant by Guest Blogger Kiril Goring Siebert

I have just arrived home in Sydney after spending 2 weeks overseas. One of the highlights was encountering a mammoth sized mechanical elephant and giant girl in London. I had been visiting the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square and was  
aking my way back to my hostel when I heard the sound of music playing a couple of streets away. I made a detour and wandered towards the music.

There were people standing on the street corner pointing and taking pictures. Around the corner of a building, I was shocked to see the giant puppet of a girl dressed in a green smock walking down the street towards me. Her head was peered into the windows on the first floor and I could see people leaning out of the upper stories to have a look at her.

She was operated by about 15 puppeteers. She was almost tripping over the crowds of people gathering around her. I was engulfed by the crowd and we followed her at a brisk pace to Horse guards - a large parade ground at the end of St James Park. We were stunned by the sight that met us there.

A huge mechanical elephant was standing in the square, its ears flapping and its trunk sniffing out the crowd. On the elephants back was perched a wooden house with decking and there were people in oriental costumes parading on the deck, observing the crowd as a tourist would. The crowd was mesmerized by the spectacle and I had never seen anything like it.

The giant girl approached the giant elephant and they greeted each other - the girl stroked the elephant’s head as its trunk felt her face. It was as though they had been lost from each other and were now reunited. The elephant trumpeted its joy across the city and pigeons flew startled from the rooftops.

The elephant and girl went on a parade through the streets of Central London followed by a huge crowd. The streets had been closed off to vehicles so people had the novel experience of walking in the middle of the normally congested roads. Some of the streets were eerily deserted as though the city had been evacuated. But turning a corner, I would come across a throng of people running towards the puppets as they moved, tall, amongst the buildings.

In the afternoon, the elephant and girl made their way to Trafalgar Square where a crowd had gathered. People had been awaiting their arrival for hours and they were not disappointed. The elephant walked into the top of the square in front of the Gallery and let out a deafening trumpet. Children covered their ears yet laughed. Adults had big grins and waved. It was one of the most memorable events Londoners would witness for many years.

I was to find out later that the visit of the Sultan’s elephant and the giant girl had been to commemorate Jules Verne and that these were characters in one of his short stories.

posted to Fusion View by Guest Blogger: Kiril Goring Siebert