id that Mukna had disobeyed his order, not only once, but three times.

Then several other keepers came forward as witnesses, and gave evidence;
that is, they said that they _saw_ Mukna disobey the order.

Then the man who was appointed to defend Mukna spoke for him; he was
called the elephant counsel. The elephant counsel argued that Mukna must
have been ill-treated to make him disobedient. So he questioned all the
keepers. But all the keepers said that Mukna had not been ill-treated to
make him disobedient.

"He may not have been ill-treated just that minute," the elephant
counsel still argued. "But was he not ill-treated before? _An elephant
has a long memory; he never forgets an injury, or an act of kindness._
An elephant has been known to remember both injury and kindness for more
than twenty years. Then did not Mukna's keeper _ever_ ill-treat him?"

But all the other men who were in charge of all the elephants gave
evidence that Mukna's keeper had never ill-treated him; nor had anybody
else ill-treated him--except that Mukna had been punished before for bad
temper by being deprived of delicacies in his food. So Mukna had no true
cause for disobeying the order that day.

Thus the charge of disobedience was proved against Mukna.

Then came the second crime of which Mukna was accused, namely, attempted
murder. And that was very quickly proved, as everybody there had just
seen that crime.

So the elephant master, who was the judge, pronounced sentence of
punishment on Mukna. Mukna was ordered to receive ten blows for the
disobedience, and ten blows more for the attempted murder.

_The Infliction of the Punishment_

Now among the bull elephants forming the ring around Mukna was one who
had huge tusks. So the elephant master ordered him to give Mukna the
twenty blows. Of course the elephant could not _count_ the number of
blows he was to give. So the elephant master was to count for him, and
tell him when to stop.

The elephant who had the huge tusks stepped into the ring, and tried to
get behind Mukna, but Mukna turned around to prevent him from doing so.
Then the elephant master ordered two other elephants to step into the
ring. These two came and pointed their tusks at Mukna's ribs on each
side. So Mukna could not turn. In defiance he held up his head, and
curled his trunk tight before him.

"Hit me, if you like, but I won't give in!" he seemed to say.

Five blows he took from the other elephant's tusk