More Serious
Infidelity Is Punished Still More Cruelly, The Woman And Her
Paramour Being Tied Back To Back And Thrown Into The Sea, Where
Some Large Crocodiles Are Always On The Watch To Devour The
Bodies.
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. It is a delirious
intoxication, a temporary madness that absorbs every thought and
every energy. And can we wonder at the kris-bearing, untaught,
brooding Malay preferring such a death, looked upon as almost
honourable to the cold-blooded details of suicide, if he wishes
to escape from overwhelming troubles, or the merciless of the
hangman and the disgrace of a public execution, when he has taken
the law into his own hands and too hastily revenged himself upon
his enemy? In either case he chooses rather to "amok."
The great staples of the trade of Lombock as well as of Bali are
rice and coffee; the former grown on the plains, the latter on
the hills. The rice is exported very largely to other islands of
the Archipelago, to Singapore, and even to China, and there are
generally one or more vessels loading in the port. It is brought
into Ampanam on pack-horses, and almost everyday a string of
these would come into Mr. Carter's yard. The only money the
natives will take for their rice is Chinese copper cash, twelve
hundred of which go to a dollar. Every morning two large sacks of
this money had to be counted out into convenient sums for
payment. From Bali quantities of dried beef and ox-tongues are
exported, and from Lombock a good many ducks and ponies. The ducks
are a peculiar breed, which have very long flat bodies, and walk
erect almost like penguins. They are generally of a pale reddish
ash colour, and are kept in large flocks. They are very cheap and
are largely consumed by the crews of the rice ships, by whom they
are called Baly-soldiers, but are more generally known elsewhere
as penguin-ducks.
My Portuguese bird-stuffer Fernandez now insisted on breaking his
agreement and returning to Singapore; partly from homesickness,
but more I believe from the idea that his life was not worth many
months' purchase among such bloodthirsty and uncivilized peoples.
It was a considerable loss to me, as I had paid him full three
times the usual wages for three months in advance, half of which
was occupied in the voyage and the rest in a place where I could
have done without him, owing to there being so few insects that I
could devote my own time to shooting and skinning. A few days
after Fernandez had left, a small schooner came in bound for
Macassar, to which place I took a passage. As a fitting
conclusion to my sketch of these interesting islands, I will
narrate an anecdote which I heard of the present Rajah; and
which, whether altogether true or not, well illustrates native
character, and will serve as a means of introducing some details
of the manners and customs of the country to which I have not yet
alluded.
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