174 



LO,VBOCK, 



[chap. XI. 



inIbrmci-1 that some years ago one of the English tradci-s 

 bad a Iklinesc woinnn of good family living with him— the 

 coniiexiou being considered qnilo honourable by the nativea 

 Diiriijf; some festival this girl oftended against the law by 

 accepting a flower or some such trifle from another man. 

 This was reported to the Tlajah (to some of whose wives 

 the girl was related), and he immediately sent to the Eng- 

 lishman's honse ordering him to give the woman up as slie 

 must be krissed." In vain he begged and prayed, nnd 

 offered to pay any fine the Ihijah might impose, and linally 

 refused to give her iip unleaa he was forced to do so. Tins 

 the Kajali did not wish to rcBort to, as he no doubt thought 

 he was acting as ranch for the EnglLshiiian's bononr as 

 for Ids own ; so lie appeared to let the matter ilri»|i, 

 Jkit some time afterwards he sent one of his followei-s 

 to tlie honse^ who beckoned the girl to the door, autl 

 then saying, " The liajah sends yon this " stabbed her to 

 the heart. More serious infidelity is punished still more 

 cruelly, tlie woman and her pammour being tied back 

 to back and thrown into the seu, where some large crw:**- 

 diles are always on the watcii to ilevour the bodies. One 

 such execution took place while I wa.s at Ampamim, but I 

 took a long walk into the country to be out of the way till 

 it was all over, thus missing the opportunity of having a 

 horrible narrative to enliven my somewhat tedious story. 



One morning, as we were sitting at breakfast, Mr. 

 Carter's servant informed us that there was mi Amok " 

 in the village— in other words, that a man was " running a 

 muck." Orders were immediately giv^n to shut and fasten 

 the gates of our enclosure ; but hearing nothing for some 

 time, we wont out, and found there had been a false alarm, 

 owing to a slave having run away, declaring he would 

 '* amok," because his master wanted to sell him, A shitrt 

 time before, a man had been killed at a gaming-table 

 because, having lost balf-a-doUar more than he possessed, 

 he was going to " amok." Another had killed or woundi d 

 seventeen people before he cordd be destroyed. In their wars 

 a whole regiment of these people will sometimes agree to 

 *' amok," and then nish on with such energetic dcspenitioii 

 as to be vciy formidable to men not so excited as them- 

 selves. Among the ancients tiiese would have been looked 



