221 
The Practice of running a Muck. 
language of its own, and Java has two or three, but this lingua- 
franca is the only language that is now fpoken here, and, as I 
am told, it prevails over a great part of the E all Indies. A 
dictionary of Malay and Englilh was publilhed in London by 
Thomas Bowrey, in the year 1701. 
Their women wear as much hair as can grow upon the head,* 
and to increafe the quantity, they ufe oils, and other prepa- 
rations of various kinds. Of this ornament Nature has been 
very liberal ; it is univerfally black, and is formed into a kind 
of circular wreath upon the top of the head, where it is falle'ned 
with a bodkin, in a talte which we thought inexpreiubly 
elegant : the wreath of hair is furrounded by another of flowers, 
in which the Arabian jelTamine is beautifully intermixed with 
the golden liars of the Bong a- Tanjong. 
Both fexes conllantly bathe themfelves in the river at leall 
once a day, a practice which 1 , in this hot country, is equally 
neceflary both to perfonal delicacy and health. The teeth of 
thefe people alfo, whatever they may fuffer in their colour by- 
chewing- betele, are an ohjefl of great attention : the ends of 
them, both in the upper and under jaw, are nibbed with a 
kind of whetllone, by a- very troubleforne and painful operation, 
till they are perfeftly eyen and flat, fo that they cannot lofe 
lefs than half a line in their length. A deep groove is then 
made crofs the teeth of the upper jaw, parallel with the gums, 
and in the middle between them and the extremity of the teeth ; 
the depth of its groove is at lead equal to one-fourth of the 
thicknefs of the teeth, fo that it penetrates far beyond what is 
called the enamel, the leall injury to which, according to the 
dentills of Europe, is fatal; yet among thefe people, where the 
practice of thus wounding the enamel is univerfal, we never 
faw a rotten tooth ; nor is the blacknefs a llain, but a covering, 
which may be walked off at pleafure, and the teeth then appear 
as white as ivory, which however is not am excellence in the 
eilimation of thg belles and beaus of thefe nations. - 
Thefe are the people among whom, the praftice that is called 1 
a mock, or running a muck, has prevailed for time' immemorial. 
It is wei* known, that to run a muck in the original fenfe of 
the word, is to get intoxicated with opium, and then rulhinto 
the llreet wich a drawn weapon, and kill whoever comes in the 
way, till the party is hi mfelf either killed, or taken prifoner; 
of this feveral inftances happened while we were at Batavia, 
and one of the officers, whofe bulinefs it is, among other things, 
to apprehend fuch people, told us, that there was fcarcely a 
week in which he, or fome of his brethren, were not called 
upon to take one of them into cuilody. In one of the infiances 
that came to our knowledge, the party had been feverely in- 
jured by the perfidy of women, and vas mad with jealoufy 
before he made himfelf drunk with opium ; and we were told, 
T 3 that 
