144 LATAH. 



I thus define my object, so as to bring what I have to say within 

 the very narrow limits of a paper written ( without preparation 

 and at short notice ), rather with the view o£ throwing out sugges- 

 tions for the consideration of more capable observers, than as 

 pretending to a tolerably exhaustive treatment of a wide subject. 



Lest I should be supposed, however, even after this explanation, 

 to maintain that latah is peculiar to those of Malay origin, I 

 must state parenthetically that, in my search after this peculiarity, 

 I have found it, outside the Malay race, weakly exhibited in a 

 very small percentage of Tamils, and strongly exhibited in an 

 equally small proportion of Bengalis. I have noticed traces of the 

 disease in two so-called " Sikhs," and, curiously enough, the most 

 marked sufferer I have ever met was a pure Nubian, whose 

 appearances in these waters, as fireman on board an Ocean steamer, 

 were few and far between. 



I have never observed a trace o£ the disease in any member of 

 any of the Chinese races resident in the Straits. The considera- 

 tion of the questions of race and latitude as bearing upon latah 

 would lead me now too far a-field. I hope to treat this branch of 

 the subject in a future paper, but here, as I have said, I have to 

 do with latah amongst Malays only. 



What is latah? 



The derivation of the word seems veiled in the obscurity which 

 covers the origin and nature of the disease itself. 



I do not find the word in Maesdejs" at all : Favre explains 

 it b}^ " indisposition nerveuse chez les femmes, dans laquelle elles 

 " disent tout ce qui leur vient a la bouche." 



A more modern lexicographer translates the word as "ticklish," 

 and another recent et3 ? mologist connects it, in defiance of spell- 

 ing, with melata to creep. This bold derivation will commend 

 itself, I fancy, chiefly to those classes of English-speaking ladies who 

 connect " nervousness " and " the creeps, " but this ingenious 

 surmise, even if correct, only throws the difficulty one step further 

 back. 



I can find no derivation which satisfies me either for latah or 

 for melata. 



