One Such Execution Took Place While I Was At Ampanam, But
I Took A Long Walk Into The Country To Be Out Of The Way Until It
Was All Over, Thus Missing The Opportunity Of Having A Horrible
Narrative To Enliven My Somewhat Tedious Story.
One morning, as we were sitting at breakfast, Mr. Carter's
servant informed us that there was an "Amok" in
The village - in
other words, that a man was "running a muck." Orders were
immediately given to shut and fasten the gates of our enclosure;
but hearing nothing for some time, we went out, and found there
had been a false alarm, owing to a slave having run away,
declaring he would "amok," because his master wanted to sell him.
A short time before, a man had been killed at a gaming-table
because, having lost half-a-dollar more than he possessed, he was
going to "amok." Another had killed or wounded seventeen people
before he could be destroyed. In their wars a whole regiment of
these people will sometimes agree to "amok," and then rush on
with such energetic desperation as to be very formidable to men
not so excited as themselves. Among the ancients these would have
been looked upon as heroes or demigods who sacrificed themselves
for their country. Here it is simply said - they made "amok."
Macassar is the most celebrated place in the East for "running a
muck." There are said to be one or two a month on the average,
and five, ten, or twenty persons are sometimes killed or wounded
at one of them. It is the national, and therefore the honourable,
mode of committing suicide among the natives of Celebes, and is
the fashionable way of escaping from their difficulties. A Roman
fell upon his sword, a Japanese rips up his stomach, and an
Englishman blows out his brains with a pistol. The Bugis mode has
many advantages to one suicidically inclined. A man thinks
himself wronged by society - he is in debt and cannot pay - he is
taken for a slave or has gambled away his wife or child into
slavery - he sees no way of recovering what he has lost, and
becomes desperate. He will not put up with such cruel wrongs, but
will be revenged on mankind and die like a hero. He grasps his
kris-handle, and the next moment draws out the weapon and stabs a
man to the heart. He runs on, with bloody kris in his hand,
stabbing at everyone he meets. "Amok! Amok!" then resounds
through the streets. Spears, krisses, knives and guns are brought
out against him. He rushes madly forward, kills all he can - men,
women, and children - and dies overwhelmed by numbers amid all the
excitement of a battle. And what that excitement is those who
have been in one best know, but all who have ever given way to
violent passions, or even indulged in violent and exciting
exercises, may form a very good idea.
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