The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-05-12
THE MAD KILLER,
Malay Methods of Suicide are Pictur'
 hSOua if Somayubat Troublesome t(

Malay Methods of Suicide are Pictur-
 esque If Somewhat Troublesome to
 the Public.
 It was thick air that hung about the spice stalls. The smell of cloves and sandal-wood breathed over Batavia like sWeetened cloud, and the searching, pungent reek of bruised pepper that hung round the inner shops was almost painful Moreover, the Javanese is the craftiest fisher round the rim of the seas, and glorious are the hauls he brings ashore from the bays and rivers that slice Java to the north and south. But he does not approve of fresh fish, preferring to smoke his prey In green wood smoke. His crowning delight is the fermentlng of seething mass of fish-fry and prawns in the sun, strewed by natural heat to a noisome mess that gladdens the heart of Malays
 Away beyond the low houses l could see the long ridge of mountains that Is the ragged backbone of Java, Some of them are volcanoes, extinct long aeons since. Here and there in the swarring crowds of the town l found man from the hills-stark, wiry and of more mus cular limbs than the dreamy lollers that love the plain. There was the gleam of the higher air on his skin, and his hair was short and crisp. On his shoulders he carried salable leopard skins, and in his eye an open scorn for the feebler men around. This Is the way of all mountain men, even nearer home than Java
 ptF- ana kYyt t,, ,-1, nF ta Ia v ' rr moon, there sounded an angry scream up the street, three seconds later a yell of pain, and the sobbing cry of a man cut deep through the lungs. It touched off the whole teeming populace like a match in 8 powder barrel; there was a frenzied rush of swarthy loafers for safety, and a shrieking chorus of "Amok; amok!" the street cry of the far east which means many deaths in a short period. Out of a byway a 1.-the Malay tore blindly down the road, driv- ing his knife into the stomach of a water-carrier as he passed. The car Tier fell on his face with thick cough, and the frantic man spun forward, with starting. bloodshot eyeballs, foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog, a narrow dripping kris in his right hand He dashed furiously among the deserted stalls, and on through the town, till a big Iascar fresh from his ship and hungry for a fight, sank hls knife un- der the madman's ribs with the slip ping upstroke which Is the legacy of all Lasears throughout the earth
 These ten-minute dramas occur twen- ty or thirty times a year in Batavia and in most cities of the remoter east. The pleasant Malay prefers this method of suicide to any other; and after losing his wealth at a gambling den in the east city slums, or his betrothed through fever, he decides on an amok. It is far less cold -blooded than com mon self-murderuan and the red, rabid frenzy appeals to the hot blood of the ruined Malay. He bures his kris Tn the body of the nearest man, and keeps the line of a maddened jackal through the town, killing to right and left, till a readier knife ends him. l have known eleven victims to succumb to one amok, and at times a powerful hillman will cut down score of bystanders before he meets the point.n In all countries of the farthest east you will find that ruin breeds this fever for the Runnink Kill. Answers.
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