"Arise!" the elephant master commanded.
Mukna again refused to arise. So the two bulls on the sides prodded him again, and forced him to arise.
This time Mukna stood only two more blows; then he fell again. The place where he was receiving the blows was now raw and bleeding. So the elephant master gave him a chance.
"Is it enough?" he asked.
But Mukna defiantly arose to his feet, without waiting to be prodded. And he defiantly held up his head and curled up his trunk.
"You may hit me as much as you like, but I won't give in!" he seemed to say.
At the next blow, which was the fourteenth, Mukna again fell. He was getting weaker and weaker, and now he could not stand more than one blow at a time.
Seeing his weakness, the elephant master allowed him to lie there for five minutes.
Then he asked Mukna, "Is it now enough?"
Slowly, painfully, Mukna got up. He looked around with bleary, bloodshot eyes; he thought, "Can I not yet escape?"