MALI-MALI IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 337 



fanatical "juramentados" 5 during the period of our residence in the 

 southern parts of the Archipelago. 



Amok is a Malay word and translated means a frenzied desire to murder. 

 It is a neuro-psyehosis belonging in the group with Tourette's disease, and should 

 be classified with the tics, at least to the extent that the spasm in both 

 "running amok" and "juramentado" may be autogenetic and may exist entirely 

 independent of any outside influence. The attacks are brought about in two ways. 

 In one it is preceded by days of melancholic stupefaction in which the patient 

 becomes morose, gives up work, and avoids his fellows. In other instances, and 

 particularly in "juramentados," the attacks are brought on by religious rites, in- 

 cantations, music, dancing, and other methods of psychic stimulation similar to the 

 war dance used by the American Indians. In either case, when a sufficient frenzy 

 is reached, the afflicted person suddenly runs into a crowd of soldiers or other 

 people, or through the streets of a town, and with his kris," or among the Moros 

 of the Philippines, with his oarong, 7 kills whoever may come in his way regardless 

 of age, sex, race, or any other of the usual considerations of affection or fear. 

 One of these patients will charge into a company of armed soldiers with the 

 same recklessness as into a group of defenseless women or children. The fanatic 

 is either killed on the spot, or the attacks last from a few hours to days and 

 usually are terminated by exhaustion or suicide. This disease occurs almost 

 entirely among men. 



However, it has a close but much less dangerous and less severe 

 counterpart in a very common and previously undescribed condition 

 among Filipina women, a condition called dalahira by the natives and 

 which really consists in a frenzied desire to quarrel. A woman so 

 afflicted will begin to quarrel with a relative, friend, or entire stranger, 

 and will rapidly work herself to a perfect frenzy of speech and gesticula- 

 tion, without any apparent object. This frenzy may continue for hours, 

 or until terminated by exhaustion, only again to be repeated as opportunity 

 affords. This disease is not the usual expression of anger for cause, but 

 a habit tic or frenzy. 



Probably the affection most closely resembling mali-mali of the Philip- 

 pines is latah. 



Indeed, Scheube and some other experienced observers regard the diseases as 

 identical. Scheube s considers latah as a form of cerebral neurosis characterized 

 by involuntary movements and incoherently uttered sounds or words. The move- 

 ments are introduced, accompanied or followed by disconnected sounds or words; 

 the symptoms may arise from fright and may be continued indefinitely as a 

 form of mimicry. All of these patients are easily alarmed, they are for the 

 greater part women of the poorer and more ignorant classes, and heredity seems 

 to play a part in the etiology of the disease. 



'Juramentado. A term used by the Spaniards and still continued, designating 

 a Mohammedan (Moro) fanatic, who, after certain religious rites, undertakes to 

 kill whom he can until he himself is killed. 



" A long wavy-edged dagger. 



7 A heavy knife with an approximately straight back and a curved edge. In 

 the Philippines the kris is a ceremonial sword. 



8 Diseases of Warm Countries. Jena, 2d ed., (1903), 514. 



