408 DESCRIPTION OF BATAVIA CHAP. XVII 
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 killthem. 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 
