The record-union., 1897-06-10
THE MAD KILLER.
rlaIay Methods of Suicide Are Some
what Troublesome.

1t was thick fog that hung about
the spice stalls. The smell or the
cloves and sandal-wood breathed over
Batavia like a sweetened cloud, and the
searching, pungent reek of bruised pep
per 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 north
and south. But he does not approve
of fresh fish, preferring to smoke his
prey in greenwood smoke. His crown
ing delight is the fermenting of a seeth-
ing mass of fish-fry and prawns in the
sun. stewed by natural heat to a moi
some mess that gladdens the heart of
Malays.
Away beyond the low houses / 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
swarming crowds of the town I found
a man from the hills-stark, wiry, and
of more muscular limbs than the
dreamy lollers that love the plain.
There was the CLEAN of the higher air
on his skin, and his hair was short and
crisp. On his shoulder he carried
salable leopard skins, and in his eye
an open scorn for the feebler men
around. This is the way of all mount
ain men, even nearer home than Java.
By-and-by, in the hush of the glar-
ing noon, there sounded an angry
scream up the street, three seconds
later yell of pain, and the sobbing
cry of a man cut deep through the
lungs. 1t touched off the whole teem-
ing populace like a match in a powder
barrel; there was a frenZied rush of
swarthy loafers for safety, and
shrieking chorus of "Amok, amok!
the street cry of the far East which
means many deaths in a short period.
Out of byWay 1.-THE Malay tore blind
ly down the road, driving his knife
into the stomach Of a water carrier as
he passed. The carrier fell on his face
with a thick cough, and the frantic
| man spun forward, with starting,
bloodshot eyeballs, foaming at the
| mouth like a rabid dog, a narrow drip
ping kris in his right hand. He dashed
| furiously among the deserted stalls,
and on through the town, till big Las
| COL IlCSIt llOiIl ILLS Sllip dIlI II0I5AJ LII
fight sank his knife under the mad
mans ribs with the slipping upstroke
which is the legacy Of all Lascars
throughout the earth.
! These ten-minute dramas occur TWEEN
| ty or thirty times a year in Batavia
and in most cities of the remoter East.
The pleasant Malay prefers this meth
cd of suicide to any other; and after
| losing his wealth at a gambling den
| in the East city slums, or his bethroth-
| ed through fever, he decides on an
amok 1t is far less cold FLOODED than
common self-murder, and the red, rabid
frenzy appeals to the hot blood of the
| ruined Malay. He burieS his kris in
| the body of the nearest man, and keeps
| the line of maddened jackal through
| the town, killing to right and left, till
| reader knife ends him. l have known
eleven victims to succumb to one amok,
and at times a powerful hillman will
cut down a score of bystanderS before
| he meets the point. In all countries OF
| the farthest East you will find that
ruin breeds this fever for the Running
| Kill-AnSWerS