4 o8 DESCRIPTION OF BATAVIA CHAP, xvn 



a rotten tooth : much may be attributed to what they chew so 

 continually, which they themselves, and indeed every one else, 

 agree is very beneficial to the teeth. The blackness, however, 

 caused by this, of which they are so proud, is not a fixed 

 stain, but may be rubbed off at pleasure, and then their 

 teeth are as white as ivory, but very soon regain their 

 original blackness. 



No one who has ever been in these countries can be 

 ignorant of the practice here called amoc, which means 

 that an Indian intoxicated with opium rushes into the 

 street with a drawn dagger in his hand, and kills every- 

 body he meets, especially Europeans, till he is himself either 

 killed or taken. This happened at Batavia three times 

 while we were there to my knowledge, and much oftener I 

 believe ; for the marineu, or constable, whose business it is 

 to apprehend such people, himself told me there was scarcely 

 a week when either he himself or some of his brethren was 

 not called upon to seize or kill them. So far, however, from 

 being an accidental madness which drove them to kill 

 whomsoever they met without distinction of persons, the 

 three people that I knew of, and I have been told all others, 

 had been severely injured, chiefly in love affairs, and first 

 revenged themselves on the party who had injured them. 

 It is true that they had made themselves drunk with opium 

 before they committed this action ; and when it was done 

 rushed out into the streets, foaming at the mouth like mad 

 dogs, with their drawn criss or dagger in their hands : but 

 they never attempted to hurt any one except those who tried 

 or appeared to them to try to stop or seize them. Whoever 

 ran away or went on the other side of the street was safe. 

 To prove that these people distinguish persons, mad as they 

 are with opium, there is a famous story in Batavia of one 

 who ran amoc on account of stripes and ill-usage which he 

 had received from his mistress and her elder daughter, but 

 who on the contrary had always been well used by the 

 younger. He stabbed first the eldest daughter ; the youngest 

 hearing the bustle, ran to the assistance of her mother, and 

 placed herself between him and her, attempting to persuade 



