Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/342

 White men, in the East and out of it, have attempted to treat amok-running from a purely pathological standpoint to attempt to ascribe it to a morbid condition of the brain cells peculiar to the Malays and to ignore the psychological causation which is usually responsible for these homicidal frenzies. Some ámok, no doubt, are the result of insanity pur et simple; but outbreaks of this kind are common to madmen of all races and are largely a question of opportunity. Given a lunatic who has arms always within reach, and physical injury to his neighbours at once becomes a highly likely occurrence; and as in an independent Malay state all men invariably went armed, the scope of the homicidal maniac was there- by sensibly enlarged. Such amok-running, however, was in no sense typical, nor did it present any of the characteristic features which differentiate a Malayan ámok from similar acts committed by men of other nationalitics.

By far the greater number of Malayan ámok are the result, not of a diseased brain, but of a condition of ind which is described in the vernacular by the term sakit háti-sickness of liver-that organ, and not the heart, being regarded as the centre of sensi- bility. The states of feeling which are denoted by this phrase are numerous, complex, and differ widely in degree, but they all imply some measure of griev- ance, anger, excitement, and mental irritation. In acute cases they attain to something very like despair. A Malay loses something that he values; be has a bad night in the gambling houses; his