274 LOMBOCK. [chap. xi. 



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 almast honourable, 

 to the cold-blooded details of suicide, if he wishes to 

 escape from overwhelming troubles, or the merciless 

 clutches 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 every day 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 



