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Updated: June 29, 2025
Mukna looked frantically this way and that way; but he saw a ring of elephants all round him, a dozen yards away; and the tusks of all were pointed toward him like a row of bayonets. Then the elephant master and the royal party came and stood just outside the ring, at the back of the elephants. The Trial of the Criminal Elephant as in a Court of Law
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.
As he had just arrived from America, he did not know much about elephants; so the young American did not notice that Mukna was chained up to the tree by the hind leg, and that he was the bad elephant they had come to punish. Instead, the young American thought that Mukna was just one of the ordinary tame elephants working there.
So as the royal party happened to pass about ten yards in front of Mukna, the young American stepped aside and said, "Hello, I must pat you!" Saying that, he raised his hand and stepped toward Mukna to pat him. But meanwhile, when Mukna had seen the elephant master arrive with the royal party, he knew that the moment of his punishment had come!
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
Step by step the three police elephants went backward till Mukna's hind legs came against the trunk of a tree. There Mukna was held for a moment, so that he could not wriggle away. For the elephant in front prevented him from moving forward, and the tree prevented him from moving backward; and the two elephants on the sides prevented him from moving sideways.
But Mukna would not yet obey. He merely stood still. Then all the other elephants looked up from their work, just as grown-up men in a workshop look up if they hear the foreman scolding a bad workman. Those other elephants knew what an awful crime disobedience was. Then in a deep and stern voice Mukna's keeper said to him, "I command you for the third and last time to lift that log!"
So Mukna's keeper called a messenger and sent him to the palace to report Mukna's disobedience. The messenger had to ride on another elephant to go that distance. Mukna saw that elephant going toward the palace with the messenger. Mukna knew why! It was to fetch the elephant master, who would punish him!
So they did not notice Mukna at once. Meanwhile Mukna had been brooding all day. He knew that his punishment would come very soon. "I will do it I will do it!" he must have been saying to himself all the time. In that way he had worked himself into a fury. When the royal party entered the open space, the young American happened to be nearest to Mukna.
Duntar is a fellow with large tusks, and mukna is an elephant with small downward growing tusks. Many of the old fashioned howdahs are far too heavy; a firm, strong howdah should not weigh more than 28 lbs. In most of the old fashioned ones, there is a seat for an attendant. If your attendant be a Mussulman, he hurries down as soon as you shoot a deer, to cut its throat.
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