Amok

It is true, I […] might have run “amok” against society; but I preferred that society should run “amok” against me, it being the desperate party.

One morning, as we were sitting at breakfast, Mr. Carter's servant informed us that there was an "Amok" in the village--in other words, that a man was "running a muck."

On the morning of the amok this person met him, and asked him to work at his boat “He replied that he could not, he was very much afflicted.”[…]The amok took place on the 8th, the trial on the 13th, and the execution on the 15th July,—all within eight days.

Among the ancients these would have been looked upon as heroes or demigods who sacrificed themselves for their country. Here it is simply said--they made "amok."

The late assassinations of Lord Mayo and Chief Justice Norman, though not committed by Malays, would be called “amoks.”[…]In the case of the Lieutenant-Governor of Singapore, his being “amoked” appears to have been a mere chance collision, the intended victim having been another native by whom the “amoker” had been imprisoned. The real cause of the “amok” was the imprisonment—an insult to a descendant of the Prophet, and how artfully was the intended revenge concealed from the jailor![…]Now, I have perceived since people have been hung several times in Malacca and Singapore, amoks, murders, and piracies have lessened,—just in the same manner as when you see heavy squalls, thunder and lightning, that these being in truth dangerous and frightful, but they clear the atmosphere, carrying off all bad vapours, from which proceed sicknesses: thus come good health and tranquility to mankind.[…]The population of the tropics are akin to their climate,—generally calm, listless, and dreamy,—but these amoks intermittently, like Sumatra squalls, burst forth and bear down all before them. Yet, like the squall, the frenzied amoker has but a short career,[…]

For the convenience of this paper I shall call the man who runs Amok an “Amoker,” and the crime “Amoking.” /[…]I believe Penang has claimed that the Chief Justice’s (Sir Wm. Norris) sentence, which reads like one of those of the middle ages, and which I will give in detail later on, passed upon an Amoker, and carried out within eight days of the Amok in 1846, was the means of stamping out Amok entirely for years, but I can obtain no reliable information in proof of this. I intend trying to give a brief sketch of Amok and its causes, some notes on recent cases, and to point out a possible field in which its pathology may eventually be determined.

The Rájá not listening to this language, again tried to kill Gumpar with a spear, and all his people assisted in thrusting and cutting at him; there was a great hubbub, and people outside of the fort were astonished to learn that there was amoking within it.

After being there about ten minutes he revived, and soon entered into conversation with us; but he looked fiendish, as if something was preying upon his mind. This we found to be the case, as some gay Lothario had lately robbed him of his intended bride. Such causes in most instances lead to the Malay amoking (running a-muck).[…]I have never yet known a case of a Dyak amoking, yet it was of frequent occurrence among Malays in former times.