CHAP. XI.] **IiUNmiW A MUCK,** 175 



upon as heroes uv deraigods who sacrificed themselves for 

 thoir country. Here it is sinipl j said, — tliey made " amok." 



Macassar ia the most celebrated place iu the East for 

 "ninning a muck." There are said to be one or two a 

 month on the average, and five, ten, or twenty persons are 

 sometimes killed or wounded at one of them. It is tlie 

 national and therefore the honourable mode of comnnttin<i; 

 suicide among the natives of Celebes, and is the fashion- 

 able way of escapinfT from their difficulties. A I'tonian 

 fell upon his sword, a Japanese rips up his stomachy and 

 an Englishman blows out his brains with a pi.stol. The 

 Bugis mode has many advantages to one suicidically 

 inciiood. A man thinks himself wronged by society — he 

 is iu debt and cannot pay — lie is taken for a slave or has 

 E^ambled a\viiy his wife or child itito slavery — he sees no 

 way of recovering what he has lost, and becomes desperatti. 

 lie will not put up with such cruel wrongs, but will be 

 rt'venged on mankind and die like a hero, lie grasps h.s 

 kris-handle, and the next moment draws out the weapon 

 and stabs a man to the heart He runs on, with bloody 

 kris in his hand, stabbing at every one he meets. "Amok ! 

 Amok ! " then resounda tlirongh the streets. Spears, 

 krisses, knives and guns are brought out against him. He 

 rushes madly forward, kills all he can— men, women, and 

 L'hiUlren — and dies overwhelmed by numbers amid all thu 

 excitement of a battle. And what that excitement is 

 those who have been in one best know, but all who have 

 ever given way to violent passions, or even indulged iu 

 violent and exciting exercises, may form a very good idea. 

 It is a delirious intoxication, a temporary madness that 

 absorbs every thought and every energy. And can we 

 wonder at the kris-bearing, untaught, brooding JIalay 

 preferring such a death, looked upon as almost honourable, 

 to the cold-blooded details of suicide, if he wishes to 

 escape from overwhelming troubles, or the merciless 

 clutches of the hangman and the disgrace of a public 

 execution, when he baa taken the law into his own hands, 

 and too hitstily revenged himself upon his enemy? In 

 either case he chooses rather to "amok." 



The great staples of the trade of Lombock as well as 

 of Bali are rice and coffee; the former grown on the plains, 



