# The Further Side of Silence/The Âmok of Dâto' Kâja Bîji Děrja

​THE ÂMOK OF DÂTO' KÂYA BIJI DĔRJA
THE average stay-at-home European knows little about the Malay and cares less. Any fragmentary ideas that he may have concerning him are obtained, for the most part, from light literature of the kind which caters for the latent barbarism of the young, with the amiable object of awakening in them a spirit of adventure which the circumstances of later life will render it impossible for the vast majority in any degree to satisfy. Books of this class, which are apt to be more sensational that accurate, ordinarily depict the Malay either as a peculiarly "treacherous" person, much as wild beasts that stand up for themselves are denounced as "vicious" by big game shooters; or else as a wild-eyed, long-haired, blood-smeared, howling, naked savage, armed with what Tennyson calls "the cursed Malayan crease," who spends all his spare time running "amuck."
As a matter of fact, âmok-running was not an event of very frequent occurrence, even in the lawless and unregenerate days of which I chiefly write; but mistaken notions concerning it, and more especially with regard to the reasons that impel Malays to indulge in it, are not confined to those Europeans who know nothing of the natives of the Peninsula. ​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 ​father dies, or his mistress proves unfaithful. Any one of these things causes him "sickness of liver." In the year 1888 I spent two nights awake by the side of Raja Haji Hamid, who was on the verge of such a nervous outbreak; and it was only by bringing to bear every atom of such moral influence as I lad over him, that I was able to restrain him from run- ning amok in the streets of Pekan, the capital of Pahang, because his father had died a natural death on the other side of the Peninsula, and because the then Sultan of Selangor had behaved with character- istic parsimony in the matter of his funeral. He had no quarrel with the people of Pahang, but his liver was sick, and the weariness of life which this condi- tion of mind engendered impelled him to kill all and sundry, until he himself should, in his turn, be killed.
I might multiply instances all pointing to the same conclusion—namely, that most ámok are caused by a mental condition which may be the result of serious. or of comparatively trivial troubles that makes a Malay, for the time being, unwilling to live. In similar circumstances, a white man sometimes commits suicide, which is much more convenient for his neighbours; but I know of no authenticated case of a male Malay resorting to self-murder, and the horror with which such an act is regarded by the people of this race supplies the real reason why ámok-running is practised in its stead. Ofter enough something quite trivial furnishes the original provocation, and in the heat of the moment a blow is struck by a man against one who is dear to him. ​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 ​arrogant are the men of Pahang." By far the most. salient qualities of the people of Trengganu, however, are their profound love of peace, their devotion to their religion and to study, and their skill both as artisans and as traders. On the lawless East Coast thirty years ago men who did not love fighting for fighting's sake were regarded by their neighbours as an anomaly, as something almost monstrous; and the mild temperament of the natives of Trengganu, coupled with their extraordinary business aptitude, brought them in those days contempt and wealth in more or less equal measure. Their religious fer- vour is in part due to the existence among them of an hereditary line of saints-the Saiyids of Pâloh-who have succeeded one another from father to son for several generations, and have attained to an extraor- dinary reputation for piety by an ostentations display of virtue, by public preachings, and by the occasional performance of minor miracles. For the rest, the people of Trengganu excel as craftsmen, and they are accustomed to flood the native markets with all manner of spurious imitations of goods of bigh repute. The dyes which they use are never fast. The gold-threaded turban cloths, which their pilgrims carry to Mecca and dispose of there as articles of genuine Arab manufacture, wear out with surprising rapidity; and the unabashed eloquence with which a Trengganu trader will discourse con- cerning the antiquity of some object which he has fashioned with his own hands, and the calm with which he regards detection, have won for his people ​the reputation for lying which rightly belongs to them. Here, however, alone among the Malayan states, a great name was to be won, not by prowess as a warrior, but by renown as a saint, a sage, or a successful man of business. Every man bore arms, as a matter of course, for that was the Malayan custom; but very few ever found occasion to use them, and one and all had a natural horror of battle in any shape or form. It is necessary to realize this, for it is probable that in no other state in the Penin- sula could the ámol which the Dato' Kaya Biji Děrja ran in the streets of Kuâla Trengganu have met with such inefficient opposition.
When Baginda Umar, who conquered the country carly one morning after landing at the head of some fifty warriors, ruled in Trengganu, there was a chief named Dato' Bentara Haji, who was one of the king's adopted sons, and early in the reign of the present Sultan the title of Dato' Kaya Biji Děrja was con- ferred upon this man's eldest son. The public mind was much exercised at this, for the title was not one which it was usual to bestow upon a commoner, and Jusup, the youth now selected to bear it. was un proven and was possessed of little personality. He was of no particular birth, his father having been merely a king's favourite; he had little reputation as a scholar, such as the Trengganu people revere; and he was not even skilled in the warriors lore which of old was so dear to the ruder natives of Pahang.
​The new Dato' Kâya was miserably conscious of his own unfitness for his exalted office, though there was attached to it no duty save that of looking the part, and he accordingly set to work to acquire the elému hulubalang, or occult sciences, which it behooves a fighting man to possess. In peaceful Trenggânu there were few warriors capable of instructing him in the arts he desired to learn, though for a time he apprenticed himself to Tungku Long Pendêkar, who was a skillful fencer. He took, therefore, to haunt- ing graveyards by night, hoping that the ghosts of the fighting men of ancient times would appear to lim and impart to him the lore which had perished with them. But the Dâto' had a wife who was of a jealous disposition, and she persisted in misunder- standing the purity of the motives which caused her husband to absent himself so frequently at night- time. Violent disputes followed, and at last, for the sake of peace, the Dato' abandoned his nocturnal prowlings among the graves and settled down to lead the obscure domestic existence for which nature had intended him.
One day his father, Dato' Bentara Haji, fell sick and was removed to the house of one Che' Ali, who was a medicine-man of some repute. To' Kaya was a dutiful son, and he paid many visits to his father during his illness, tending him assiduously, and in consequence returned to his own home at a late hour on more than one occasion. This was au old cause of offence, and angry recriminations between him and his wife ensued. Their disagreement was ​made more bitter by To' Kâya discovering a stringy thread of egg in one of the sweetmeats prepared for him by his wife, and mistaking it for a human hair. To European ears this does not sound very important, but To Kaya, in common with most Malays, be- lieved that the presence of hair in his food betokened that his wife was either trying to poison him or else to put upon him some spell. He accused her roundly of both crimes, and a row royal followed.
Next evening To' Kaya was again in attendance upon his father until a late hour, and when he at length returned home, his wife greeted him through the closed door with loud reproaches for his supposed infidelity to her. He cried to her to unbar the door, and when she at last did so, railing virulently the while, he shouted angrily that he would have to stab her in order to teach her better manners if she did not make haste to mend them.
At this she was seized by a perfect transport of rage, and making a gesture which is the grossest insult. that a Malay woman can put upon a man, she yelled at him, "Hai! Stab, then! Stab-if you are able:"
It was now To' Kâya's turn completely to lose his head and his temper. He drew his kris clear of its scabbard, and she took the point in her breast, their baby, who was on her arm, being also slightly wounded.
Dropping the child, with unerring maternal in- stinct, she rushed past her husband, leaped to the ground, and took refuge in the house of a neighbour named Che' Long.
​To' Kaya pursued her, and cried to those within the house to unbar the door which his wife had shut in his face. Che' Long's daughter, a girl named Ësah ran to comply with his bidding; but before she could do so, To' Kaya, who had crept under the raised floor of the house, stabbed at her savagely through the interstices of the bamboo flooring, wounding her in the hip.
The girl's father, hearing the noise, flung the door open and ran out of the house. To' Kaya greeted him with a spear thrust in the stomach, which proved his death blow. To' Kaya's wife, profiting by this interlude, leaped from the house and rushed back to her own home; but her husband followed lier, over- took her on the veranda, and stabbed her again in the breast, this time killing her on the spot.
He then entered his house, which was still tenanted by his mother-in-law, the baby, and his son, a boy of about twelve years of age, and set fire to the bed curtains with a box of lucifer matches. Now the people of Trengganu greatly dread a fire. for their houses, which are built of very inflammable material, jostle one another on every available foot of ground, and here on the seashore a steady wind blows both by day and by night. When, therefore, a Trenggânu man deliberately sets fire to his house, he has reached the last stage of desperation and is preparing to make an end of himself and all things.
At the sight of the flames To Kaya's little son made a rush at the curtains, pulled them down, and stamped the fire out. To' Kaya's mother-in-law, ​meanwhile, rushed out of the door, seized the baby who still lay squalling where it had fallen on the veranda, and set off at a run. The sight of his mother-in-law in full flight spurred To' Kâya to instant pursuit, and he speedily overtook her and stabbed her through the shoulder. She, however, succeeded in eluding him, and made good her escape. carrying the baby with her. To' Kaya then returned to his house, whence his son had also fled, and set it afire once more, and this time it blazed up bravely.
As he stood looking at the flames a Kelantan man named Abdul Rahman came up and asked him how the conflagration had originated.
"I do not know," said To' Kaya.
"Then let us try to save some of the properly," said Abdul Rahman; for as is the case with many Kelantan men, he chanced to be a thief by trade and knew that a fire gave him a good opportunity for the successful practice of his profession.
"Good," said To' Kaya. "Do you mount into the house and lift down the boxes while I wait here below to receive them."
Nothing loth, Abdul Rahman climbed into the house and presently reappeared with a large box in his arms. As he leaned over the veranda in the act of handing it down to To' Kaya, the latter stabbed him shrewdlly in the vitals and box and man came to the ground with a crash. Abdul Rahman pieked himself up and ran as far as the open space before the big stone mosque where he collapsed and died. ​To' Kaya did not pursue him, but continued to stand gazing at the leaping flames.
The next person to arrive on the scene was a Trengganu man named Pa' Pek, who with his wife, Ma' Pek, had tended To' Kâya when he was little.
"Wo'," he said, for he addressed To' Kâya as though the latter were his son, "Wo', what caused this fire?"
"I do not know," said To' Kaya.
"Where are the children?" inquired Pa' Pek.
"They are still within the house," replied To' Kaya.
"Then suffer me to save them," said Pa' Pek. "Do so, Pa' Pek," said To' Kaya; and as the old man began to climb into the house he stabbed him in the ribs.
Pa' Pek fell, gathered himself together, anul ran away in the direction of the mosque till he tripped over the body of Abdul Rahman tumbled in a heap, and eventually died where he lay.
Presently Ma' Pek came to look for her husband, and finding To' Kaya standing near the burning house, asked him about the fire and inquired after the safety of his children.
"They are still in the house," said To Kaya, "but I cannot be at the pains of getting them out.”
"Then suffer me to fetch them," said the old woman.
"Do so, by all means," said To' Kaya; and as she began to scramble up the stair-ladder, he stabbed her just as he had stabbed her husband and she running ​away fell over the two other bodies near the mosque and there gave up the ghost.
Next a Trengganu lad named Jusup came up. armed with a spear, and To' Kaya at once attacked him, but he took shelter behind a tree. To' Kaya thereupon emptied his revolver at him missing him with all six chambers; and then, throwing away his pistol, he stabbed at him with his spear. Jusup dodged the blow which in the darkness struck the tree. Immediately To' Kâya, believing the tree to be Jusup's body, was seized with panic.
"You are invulnerable!" he cried in horror and promptly turned and fled. Jusup, meanwhile, made off in the opposite direction as fast as his legs would carry him.
Finding that he was not pursued, To' Kaya pres- ently retraced his footsteps and made his way to the house of Tingku Long Pendekar, under whom he had formerly studied fencing and other arts of war. At the alarm of fire all the men in the house had set to work to remove their effects to a place of safety, and when To' Kâya arrived. Tungku Long himself was standing without, watching their opera- tions while the others-Tungku Itam, Tungku Pa, Tungku Chik, and Che Mat Tukang-were busying themselves within doors. With the exception of Che Mat Túkang, who was a commoner, all the others were men of royal stock. Tungku Long was armed with a rattan-work shield and an ancient and very pliable native sword. As he stood gazing up- ward quite unaware that any trouble other than that ​occasioned by the fire was at hand, To' Kâya sud- denly flung himself upon him out of the darkness and stabbed him in the ribs. Thereafter. for a space, They fought, Tungku Long lashing his assailant again and again with his sword, but inflicting upon him nothing more serious than a number of bruises. Al length To Kaya was wounded in the left hand and at the same moment he struck Tungku Long's shield with such force that its owner fell. To' Kaya at once trampled upon him and stabbing downward, as one spears a fish, pinned him through the neck. At this Tungku Itam, who had been watching the struggle without taking any part in it, much as though it were a niere cock fight, showed the great- est presence of mind by taking to his heels.
Tungku Long being disposed of, To' Kaya turned and passed out of the compound, whereupon Che' Mat Tukang ran out of the house, climbed the fence, and threw a spear at him, striking him in the back. This done, Che Mat also most prudently ran away.
To Kaya, passing up the path, met a woman named Ma' Chik-an aged, bent, and feeble erone- and her he stabbed in the breast, killing her on the spot. Thence he went to the compound of a pilgrim named Haji Mih, who also was busy getting his property out of his house, fearing that the fire might spread.
"What has caused this fire?" Haji Mih inquired of To' Kaya.
"God alone knows," replied To Kaya, and so saying, he stabbed Haji Mih through the shoulder.
​"Help! Help!" roared the pilgrim, and his son- in-law, Saleh, and four other men ran out of the house threw themselves upon To' Kaya, and engaged him so hotly that in stepping backward he tripped and fell. As he lay on his back, however, he stabbed up- ward, striking Saleh in the elbow and deep into his chest; whereupon all his assailants incontinently fled.
To' Kaya then picked himself up. He had not been hurt in the struggle, for Saleh and his people had not stayed to unbind their spears which were fastened into bundles, and save for the slight wounds which he had received in his left hand and in his back, he was so far little the worse for his adventures.
Ile now withdrew to the Makam Lebai Salâm- the grave of an ancient saint of high repute and here he bathed in a well hard by, dressed himself. ad ate half a tin of Messrs. Iluntly & Palmer's "gem" bis- cuits, which he had brought with him from his house.
His toilet and his meal completed, he returned to the house of Haji Mih and shouted in a loud voice:
"Where are those men, my enemies, who engaged me in fight a little while agone?"
It was now 3 A. M., but the men were awake and heard him.
"Come quickly," he cried. "Come quickly and let us finish this little business with no unnecessary lelay."
At this challenge no less than ten men who had gathered in Haji Mih's house came out and began to throw spears at To Kaya; but though they struck ​hiin more than once they did not succeed in wound- ing him. He retreated before their onslaught, keep- ing his face turned toward them and so chanced to trip over a root near a clump of bamboos, lost his footing, and fell. His assailants fancied that they had killed him and at once fear seized thern, for he was a chief, and they had no warrant from the Sul- tan. They, therefore, fled and To' Kaya gathered himself together and went back to Lěbai Salâm's grave where he finished eating the tin of "gem" biscuits.
At dawn he came once more to Haji Mil's house, and halted there to bandage his wounds with some cotton rags which had been bound about a roll of mats and pillows that Haji Mih had removed from his house at the alarm of fire. Again he shouted to the men in the house to come forth and fight with him anew, but no one replied, so he laughed aloud and went down the path till he came to the compound which belonged to Tungku Pa. The latter and a man named 'Sěmail were seated upon the veranda, and when the alarm was raised that To' Kâya was approaching, Tungku Pa's wife, acting on a fine instinct of self-preservation, slammed to the door and bolted it on the inside while her husband danced without, clamouring to be let in.
Tungku Pa was, of course, a man of royal blood, but To Kaya addressed him as though he were an equal.
"O Pa," he cried. "I have waited for you the long night through, though you did not come. I ​have greatly desired to fight with a man of rank. At last we have met and now I shall have my wish."
'Semail at once made a bolt of it, but To' Kaya was too quick for him, and as he leaped down the stair- ladder, the spear took him through the body and he died.
Tungku Pa, still standing on the veranda, stabbed downward at To' Kaya with a spear and struck hini in the groin, the blade becoming bent in the muscles so that it could not be withdrawn. This was Tungku Pa's opportunity; but instead of seizing it and rushing in upon his enemy to finish him with lis kris, he let go the handle of his spear, and ran to a large water jar on the veranda, behind which he sought shelter. To' Kaya tugged at the spear and at length succeeded in wrenching it free. Seeing this, Tungku Pa broke cover from behind the water jar and look to his heels. To' Kaya was too lanie to attempt To overtake him, but he shouted after him in derision:
"He, Pa! Did the men of old bid you to fly from your enemies?"
Tungku Pa halted at a safe distance and turned round.
"I am only armed with a kris and have no spear as you have," he said.
"This house is yours," returned To' Kâya. "If you want weapons, enter it and fetch as many as you can carry while I await your return."
But Tungku Pa had had enough, and turning, continued his flight pursued by the laughter and the jeers of To' Kaya.
​"Is this, then, the manner in which the men of the rising generation do battle with their enemies?" he shouted.
Finding that arguments and taunts were alike powerless to persuade Tungku Pa to put up a fight, To' Kaya went on down the path past the spot where Ma' Chik's body still lay until he came to the pool of blood which marked the place where Tungku Long Pendekar had come by his death. Standing there. he called to Tungku Itam, who was within the house.
"O Tungku!" he cried. "Be pleased to come forth if you desire to avenge the death of your cousin, Tungku Long. Now is the appropriate time, for your servant hath still some little life left in him. Later you will not be able to wreak vengeance upon your servant for he will be dead. Condescend, therefore, to come forth and do battle with your servant."
But Tungku Itani remained in hiding and main- tained a prudent silence, and To' Kaya, finding that his challenge was ignored, cried once more:
"If you will nol take vengeance for the death of your cousin, the fault is none of your servant's." and so saying he passed upon his way.
The dawn was breaking wanly and the cool land breeze was making a little stir in the fronds of the palm trees as To' Kaya passed up the lane and through the deserted compounds the owners of which had fled in fear. Presently he came out on to the open space before the mosque, and here some four hundred men fully armed with spears and daggers ​had assembled. It was light enough for To' Kâya to be able to mark the terror in their eyes. He grinned at them evilly, snacking his lips. Men who are bent upon keeping alive, if possible, are always at an enormous disadvantage in the presence of one who is resolutely seeking death.
"This is indeed good," shouted To' Kâya. "Now at last shall I have my fill of stabbing and fighting," and thereupon he made a shambling, limping charge at the crowd, which wavered, broke, and fled in every direction, the majority of the fugitives pouring helter- skelter into Tunku Ngah's compound and closing the gate in the high bamboo fence behind them.
One of the hindermost was a man named Gĕnih, and to him To' Kâya shouted:
"O Gěnih! It profits the raja little that he gives you and such as you food both morning and evening. You are indeed bitter cowards. If you all fear me so greatly, go and seek some guns so that you may be able to kill me from afar off."
Genih, who had failed to get into Tungku Ngal's compound, took To' Kaya's advice and running to the Sultan's balai or hall of state, he cried to Tungku Musa, who was at once the uncle and principal ad- viser of the king, "Your servant, To' Kaya, bids us bring guns wherewith to slay him."
Now, at this moment, all was not well in the balai of the Sultan. When first the news of the amok had been noised abroad all the rajas and chiefs had assembled at the palace, and it had been unanimously decided that no action could be taken until the day ​broke. At dawn, however, it was found that all the chiefs, with the exception of Tingkn Panglima, Dato' Kâya Dŵyong, Panglima Dâlam, Imâin Prang Losong, and Pahlawan had sneaked away under cover of the darkness. Tungku Musa was there to act as the mouthpiece of the Sultan, but he was quite as unhappy as any of his colleagues.
At last the Sultan said:
"Well, the day has dawned. Why does no man go forth to kill the Dato' Kâya Biji Děrja?"
Tungku Músa turned upon Tăngku Pănglima.
"Go you and slay him," he said.
"Why do you not go yourself or send Pahlawan?" replied Tungku Pănglima.
Pahlawan protested.
"Your servant is not the only chief in Trenggânu, he said. "Many cat the king's mutton in the king's balai. Why, then, should your servant alone be called upon to do this thing?"
Tungku Musa said to Imam Prang Losong, who was by way of being the professional leader of the Sultan's warriors:
"Go you, then, and slay the Dâto' Kaya."
"I cannot go," said the Imam Prang, "for I am not suitably attired. I am not elad in trousers, and lacking that garment, in the activity of combat my clothes may become deranged and a great shame be thereby put upon your servant."
"I will lend you some trousers." said Tungku Musa, who was a man of resource.
"But even then I cannot go," said the warrior. ​"for my mother is sick and I must needs return to tend her."
Then the Sultan stood upon his feet and stamped.
"What manner of warrior is this?" he cried in- dignantly, pointing at Tungku Panglima. "He is a warrior fashioned from offal!"
Thus publicly admonished, Tungku Panglima de- tailed about a hundred of his followers to go and kill To Kaya; but after they had gone some fifty yards in the direction of the mosque they returned to him on some trivial pretext and though he bade them go many times, they repeated this performance again and again.
Suddenly old Tungku Dâlam came hurrying into the palace yard, very much out of breath, for he was of a full habit of body, binding on his kris as he ran.
"What is this that men are saying concerning To Kaya Biji Děrja running amok in the palace? Where is he?" he cried.
"At the mosque," twenty voices replied.
"Ya Allah!" exclaimed Tungku Dâlam in a tone of relief, mopping the sweat from his forehead. "Men said he was in the palace. Well, what steps are you Taking to slay him?"
The assembled chiefs maintained a shamed silence and old Tungku Dalam cursing them roundly, selected forty men with guns, and leading them him- self, passed out at the back of the royal enclosure to the house of Tungku Chik Paya, which is situated close to the mosque.
On the low wall which surrounds the latter build​ing To Kaya was seated, and when he saw Tungku Dalam approaching he cried out joyously:
"Welcome! Welcome! Your servant has de- sired the long night through to fight with one who is of noble birth. Come, therefore, and let us see which of us twain is the more skillful with his wea- pons."
At this Mat, one of Tungku Dalam's men, leaped forward and said, "Suffer your servant to engage him in fight. It is not fitting, Tungku, that you should take part in such a business."
But Tungku Dâlam restrained him.
"Have patience," he said. "He is a dead man. Why should we, who are alive, risk death or hurt at his hands?"
Then he ordered a volley to be fired, but when the smoke cleared away, To' Kaya was seen to be still sitting unharmed upon the low wall surrounding the mosque.
A second volley was fired with a like result, and then To' Kâya cast away the spear he was holding in his hand, crying, "Perchance this spear is a charm against bullets. Try once more and I pray you end this business, for it has already taken over long in the settling."
A third volley was Lien fired, and one bullet struck To Kaya but did not break the skin. He clapped his hand upon the place and leaped to his feet crying, Tai, but that hurts me! I will repay you for that!" and as he rushed forward, the crowd surged back before him With difficulty Tungku Dâlam suc​ceeded in rallying his people and inducing them to fire a fourth volley. This time, however, one bullet took effect, passing in under one armpit and out under the other. To' Kâya staggered back to the wall and sank upon it, rocking his body to and fro. A fifth and final volley rang out and a bullet passing through his head, To' Kâya fell prone upon his face.
The cowardly crowd pressed forward, but fell back again in confusion for the whisper spread among them that To' Kâya was feigning death in order to get at close quarters with his assailants. At length, however, a lad named Sâmat, who was related to the deceased Ma' Chik, summoned up enough courage to run in and transfix the body with his spear, but To' Kaya was already dead.
He had killed his wife, Che' long, the Kelantan man Abdul Rahman, Pa' Pek, Ma' Pek, Tungku Long Pendekar, Ma' Chik, Haji Mih, and 'Semail; and he had wounded his baby child, his mother-in- law, Che' Long's daughter Esah, and Saleh-in all nine killed and four wounded. This is a respectable butcher's bill for any single individual, and he had done all this because having had words with his wife and having stabbed her in the heat of the moment he had felt that it would be an unclean thing for him to continue to live on the surface of a comparatively clean planet. In similar circumstances a white man might possibly have committed suicide, which would have occasioned considerably less trouble; but that is one of the many respects in which a white man differs froin a Malay.