Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1892 — Malay Running “ Amok.” [ARTICLE]

Malay Running “ Amok.”

It is a religious fanaticism, a madness, under which a man makes up his mind to kill any one he ean until he himself is killed. Brought on by drink or religion or from whatever cause, the process is the same. The madman seizes his kriss and rushes headlong down the street, cutting at every one he meets. To any one who has seen a kriss ora parang further detail is unnecessary. A man running amok is as a dog with hydrophobia, but the panic caused by the former is by far the worse. Like the mad dog, the mad man is followed by a noisy rabble, who, sooner or later, run into their man and exterminate him. When this vengeful rabble s made up of bloodthirsty Malays and Chinamen, its wild rage and fury is beyond control, beyond description. The clamor and blood-curdling yells of the pursuing crowd, and the ever-near-ing shout of “ oran amok, oran amok,” is an incident which can never be forgotten by any one who has seen or heard it. The bravest quails -when suddenly turning the corner of a street his ears are greeted with the cry of “oran amok,” and a few yards off he sees a Mtlay running straight at him, brandishing in his hand the bloody kriss with which he has already slaughtered all in his way. His hair flowing behind him, his sarong thrown away or tom off in a struggle, his naked chest reeking with blood, Ins eyes protruding from his head and twice their natural size, coming toward you with the rapidity of a deer, every muscle in his

herculean little body swollen to its great* est tension, his kriss dripping with blood, his eyes upon you, with dire hate and determination gleaming from them, down he comes upon you, the whole place ringing with toe cry of the ever-increasing and avenging crowd behind him, down upon you comes the “ oran amok! oran amok!”—[All the Year Round.