34 BRITISH BORNEO. 
the new people amongst whom he found himself, and, gene- 
rally, seeking for information as the reasons for this and for 
that ? 
Their religion sits somewhat lightly on the Brunai Malays; 
the Mahomedan Mosque in the capital was always in a very 
dirty and neglected state, though prayers were said there 
daily, and I have never seen a Borneo Malay under the influ- 
ence of religious excitement. 
Gambling prevails, doubtless, and so does cock-fighting, but 
neither is the absorbing passion which it seems, from travel- 
lers’ accounts, to be with Malays elsewhere. 
When visiting the Spanish settlements in Sulu and Balabac, 
I was surprised to find regular officially licensed cock-fight- 
ing pits, with a special seat for the Spanish Governor, who 
was expected to be present on high days and holidays. | 
have never come across a regular cockpit in Brunai, or in any 
part of northern Borneo. 
The amoks that I have been cognisant of have, consequently, 
not been due to either religious excitement, or to losses at 
gambling, but, in nearly every case, to jealousy and domestic 
trouble, and their occurrence almost entirely confined to the 
British Colony of Labuan where, of course, the Mahomedan 
pains and penalties for female delinquencies could not be 
enforced. I remember one poor fellow whom I pitied very 
much. He had good reason to be jealous of his wife and, in 
our courts, could not get the redress he sought. He explained 
to me that a mist seemed to gather before his eyes and that 
he became utterly unconscious of what he was doing—his will 
was quite out of his control. Some half dozen people—child- 
ren, men and women—were killed, or desperately wounded 
before he was overpowered. He acknowledged his guilt, and 
suffered death at the hands of the hangman with quiet dignity. 
Many tragical incidents in the otherwise uneventful history 
of Labuan may be traced to the manner in which marriages 
are contracted amongst the Borneo Malays. Marriages of 
mere love are almost unknown; they are generally a matter of 
bargain between the girls’ parents and the expectant bride- 
groom, or his parents, and, practically, everything depends on 
