Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/344

 Forthwith the self-hatred that results makes hini desire death and drives him to seek in it the only way which readily occurs to a Malay-by running amok. The amok-runner, moreover, almost always kills his wife, if the opportunity occurs. Being anxious to die himself, he sees no good reason why any woman in whom he is interested should be suf- fered to survive him, and thereafter, in a little space, to become the property of some other man. He also frequently destroys his more valued possessions for a similar reason. In all this there is a considerable amount of method; and though the euphemism of "temporary insanity," commonly employed by cor- oner's juries when returning verdicts in cases of suicide, may be applied to the amok-runner with pre- cisely the same degree of inaccuracy, it is absurd to treat the latter as though he were the irresponsible victim of disease.

The following story, for the truth of which I can vouch in every particular, is only worth telling be- cause it affords a typical example of a Malayan mok conducted upon a really handsome scale.

There is a proverbial saying current among the Malays which is by way of hitting off the principal characteristics of the natives of some of the leading states in the Peninsula and Sumatra. "Wheedlers are the sons of Malacca," it declares. "Buck-sticks the men of Měnangkabau; cheats the men of Rani- bau; liars the men of Trengganu; cowards the men of Singapore: sneak-thieves the men of Kelantan; and