Even Christian Churches In Malabar Had Such
Hereditary Amuki.
(See P. Vinc.
Maria, Bk. IV. ch. vii., and Cesare
Federici in Ram. III. 390, also Faria y Sousa, by Stevens, I. 348.)
There can be little doubt that this is the Malay Amuk, which would
therefore appear to be of Indian origin, both in name and practice. I see
that De Gubernatis, without noticing the Malay phrase, traces the term
applied to the Malabar champions to the Sanskrit Amokhya,
"indissoluble," and Amukta, "not free, bound." (Picc. Encic. Ind. I,
88.) The same practice, by which the followers of a defeated prince devote
themselves in amuk (vulgo running a-muck),[4] is called in the
island of Bali Bela, a term applied also to one kind of female Sati,
probably from S. Bali, "a sacrifice." (See Friedrich in Batavian
Trans. XXIII.) In the first syllable of the Balanjar of Mas'udi we have
probably the same word. A similar institution is mentioned by Caesar among
the Sotiates, a tribe of Aquitania. The Feoilz of the chief were 600 in
number and were called Soldurii; they shared all his good things in
life, and were bound to share with him in death also. Such also was a
custom among the Spanish Iberians, and the name of these Amuki signified
"sprinkled for sacrifice." Other generals, says Plutarch, might find a few
such among their personal staff and dependents, but Sertorius was followed
by many myriads who had thus devoted themselves. Procopius relates of the
White Huns that the richer among them used to entertain a circle of
friends, some score or more, as perpetual guests and partners of their
wealth.
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