(a) c. A.D. 70.—"The best Aloe (Latin the same) is brought out of India.... Much use there is of it in many cases, but principally to loosen the bellie; being the only purgative medicine that is comfortable to the stomach...."—Pliny, Bk. xxvii (Ph. Holland, ii. 212).
(b) "Ἤλθε δὲ καὶ Νικόδημος ... φέρων μίγμα σμύρνης και ἀλόης ὠσεὶ λίτρας ἑκατόν."—John xix. 39.
c. A.D. 545.—"From the remoter regions, I speak of Tzinista and other places, the imports to Taprobane are silk Aloes-wood (ἀλόη), cloves, sandal-wood, and so forth."—Cosmas, in Cathay, p. clxxvii.
[c. 1605.—"In wch Iland of Allasakatrina are good harbors faire depth and good Anchor ground."—Discription in Birdwood, First Letter Book, 82. (Here there is a confusion of the name of the island Socotra with that of its best-known product—Aloes Socotrina).]
1617.—"... a kind of lignum Allowaies."—Cocks's Diary, i. 309 [and see i. 3].
ALOO, s. Skt.—H. ālū. This word is now used in Hindustani and other dialects for the 'potato.' The original Skt. is said to mean the esculent root Arum campanulatum.
ALOO BOKHARA, s. P. ālū-bokhāra, 'Bokh. plum'; a kind of prune commonly brought to India by the Afghan traders.
[c. 1666.—"Usbec being the country which principally supplies Delhi with ... many loads of dry fruit, as Bokara prunes...."—Bernier, ed. Constable, 118.]
1817.—
"Plantains, the golden and the green,
Malaya's nectar'd mangosteen;
Prunes of Bokhara, and sweet nuts
From the far groves of Samarkand."
Moore, Lalla Rookh.
ALPEEN, s. H. alpīn, used in Bombay. A common pin, from Port. alfinete (Panjab N. & Q., ii. 117).
AMAH, s. A wet nurse; used in Madras, Bombay, China and Japan. It is Port. ama (comp. German and Swedish amme).
1839.—"... A sort of good-natured housekeeper-like bodies, who talk only of ayahs and amahs, and bad nights, and babies, and the advantages of Hodgson's ale while they are nursing: seeming in short devoted to 'suckling fools and chronicling small beer.'"—Letters from Madras, 294. See also p. 106.
AMBAREE, s. This is a P. word ('amārī) for a Howdah, and the word occurs in Colebrooke's letters, but is quite unusual now. Gladwin defines Amaree as "an umbrella over the Howdeh" (Index to Ayeen, i.). The proper application is to a canopied howdah, such as is still used by native princes.
[c. 1661.—"Aurengzebe felt that he might venture to shut his brother up in a covered embary, a kind of closed litter in which women are carried on elephants."—Bernier (ed. Constable), 69.]
c. 1665.—"On the day that the King went up the Mountain of Pire-ponjale ... being followed by a long row of elephants, upon which sat the Women in Mikdembers and Embarys...."—Bernier, E.T. 130 [ed. Constable, 407].
1798.—"The Rajah's Sowarree was very grand and superb. He had twenty elephants, with richly embroidered ambarrehs, the whole of them mounted by his sirdars,—he himself riding upon the largest, put in the centre."—Skinner, Mem. i. 157.
1799.—"Many of the largest Ceylon and other Deccany Elephants bore ambáris on which all the chiefs and nobles rode, dressed with magnificence, and adorned with the richest jewels."—Life of Colebrooke, p. 164.
1805.—"Amaury, a canopied seat for an elephant. An open one is called Houza or Howda."—Dict. of Words used in E. Indies, 2nd ed. 21.
1807.—"A royal tiger which was started in beating a large cover for game, sprang up so far into the umbarry or state howdah, in which Sujah Dowlah was seated, as to leave little doubt of a fatal issue."—Williamson, Orient. Field Sports, 15.
AMBARREH, s. Dekh. Hind. and Mahr. ambāṛā, ambāṛī [Skt. amla-vāṭika], the plant Hibiscus cannabinus, affording a useful fibre.
AMBOYNA, n.p. A famous island in the Molucca Sea, belonging to the Dutch. The native form of the name is Ambun [which according to Marsden means 'dew'].
[1605.—"He hath sent hither his forces which hath expelled all the Portingalls out of the fforts they here hould att Ambweno and Tydore."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 68.]
AMEEN, s. The word is Ar. amīn, meaning 'a trustworthy person,' and then an inspector, intendant, &c. In India it has several uses as applied to native officials employed under the Civil Courts, but nearly all reducible to the definition of fide-commissarius. Thus an ameen may be employed by a Court to investigate accounts connected with a suit, to prosecute local enquiries of any kind bearing on a suit, to sell or to deliver over possession of immovable property, to carry out legal process as a bailiff, &c. The name is also applied to native assistants in the duties of land-survey. But see Sudder Ameen (SUDDER).
[1616.—"He declared his office of Amin required him to hear and determine differences."—Foster, Letters, iv. 351.]
1817.—"Native officers called aumeens were sent to collect accounts, and to obtain information in the districts. The first incidents that occurred were complaints against these aumeens for injurious treatment of the inhabitants...."—Mill. Hist., ed. 1840, iv. 12.
1861.—"Bengallee dewans, once pure, are converted into demons; Ameens, once harmless, become tigers; magistrates, supposed to be just, are converted into oppressors."—Peterson, Speech for Prosecution in Nil Durpan case.
1878.—"The Ameen employed in making the partition of an estate."—Life in the Mofussil, i. 206.
1882.—"A missionary ... might, on the other hand, be brought to a standstill when asked to explain all the terms used by an amin or valuator who had been sent to fix the judicial rents."—Saty. Rev., Dec. 30, p. 866.
AMEER, s. Ar. Amīr (root amr, 'commanding,' and so) 'a commander, chief, or lord,' and, in Ar. application, any kind of chief from the Amīru' l-mūminīn, 'the Amīr of the Faithful' i.e. the Caliph, downwards. The word in this form perhaps first became familiar as applied to the Princes of Sind, at the time of the conquest of that Province by Sir C. J. Napier. It is the title affected by many Musulman sovereigns of various calibres, as the Amīr of Kābul, the Amīr of Bokhārā, &c. But in sundry other forms the word has, more or less, taken root in European languages since the early Middle Ages. Thus it is the origin of the title 'Admiral,' now confined to generals of the sea service, but applied in varying forms by medieval Christian writers to the Amīrs, or lords, of the court and army of Egypt and other Mohammedan States. The word also came to us again, by a later importation from the Levant, in the French form, Emir or Emer.—See also Omrah, which is in fact Umarā, the pl. of Amīr. Byzantine writers use Ἀμὲρ, Ἀμηρᾶς, Ἀμυράς, Ἀμηραῖος, &c. (See Ducange, Gloss. Græcit.) It is the opinion of the best scholars that the forms Amiral, Ammiraglio, Admiral &c., originated in the application of a Low Latin termination -alis or -alius, though some doubt may still attach to this question. (See Marcel Devic, s.v. Amiral, and Dozy, Oosterlingen, s.v. Admiraal [and N.E.D. s.v. Admiral].) The d in admiral probably came from a false imagination of connection with admirari.
1250.—"Li grand amiraus des galies m'envoia querre, et me demanda si j'estoie cousins le roy; et je le di que nanin...."—Joinville, p. 178. This passage illustrates the sort of way in which our modern use of the word admiral originated.
c. 1345.—"The Master of the Ship is like a great amīr; when he goes ashore the archers and the blackamoors march before him with javelins and swords, with drums and horns and trumpets."—Ibn Batuta, iv. 93.
Compare with this description of the Commander of a Chinese Junk in the 14th century, A. Hamilton's of an English Captain in Malabar in the end of the 17th:
"Captain Beawes, who commanded the Albemarle, accompanied us also, carrying a Drum and two Trumpets with us, so as to make our Compliment the more solemn."—i. 294.
And this again of an "interloper" skipper at Hooghly, in 1683:
1683.—"Alley went in a splendid Equipage, habitted in scarlet richly laced. Ten Englishmen in Blue Capps and Coats edged with Red, all armed with Blunderbusses, went before his pallankeen, 80 (? 8) Peons before them, and 4 Musicians playing on the Weights with 2 Flaggs, before him, like an Agent...."—Hedges, Oct. 8 (Hak. Soc. i. 123).
1384.—"Il Soldano fu cristiano di Grecia, e fu venduto per schiavo quando era fanciullo a uno ammiraglio, come tu dicessi 'capitano di guerra.'"—Frescobaldi, p. 39.
[1510.—See quotation from Varthema under XERAFINE.]
1615.—"The inhabitants (of Sidon) are of sundry nations and religions; governed by a succession of Princes whom they call Emers; descended, as they say, from the Druses."—Sandys, Iourney, 210.
AMOY, n.p. A great seaport of Fokien in China, the name of which in Mandarin dialect is Hia-men, meaning 'Hall Gate,' which is in the Changchau dialect A-muin. In some books of the last century it is called Emwy and the like. It is now a Treaty-Port.
1687.—"Amoy or Anhay, which is a city standing on a Navigable River in the Province of Fokien in China, and is a place of vast trade."—Dampier, i. 417. (This looks as if Dampier confounded the name of Amoy, the origin of which (as generally given) we have stated, with that of An-hai, one of the connected ports, which lies to the N.E., about 30 m., as the crow flies, from Amoy).
1727.—"There are some curiosities in Amoy. One is a large Stone that weighs above forty Tuns ... in such an Equilibrium, that a Youth of twelve Years old can easily make it move."—A. Hamilton, ii. 243.
AMSHOM, s. Malayāl. am̃śam, from Skt. āmśah, 'a part,' defined by Gundert as "part of a Talook, formerly called hobili, greater than a taṛa." [Logan (Man. Malabar, i. 87) speaks of the amsam as a 'parish.'] It is further explained in the following quotation:—
1878.—"The amshom is really the smallest revenue division there is in Malabar, and is generally a tract of country some square miles in extent, in which there is no such thing as a village, but a series of scattered homesteads and farms, where the owner of the land and his servants reside ... separate and apart, in single separate huts, or in scattered collections of huts."—Report of Census Com. in India.
A MUCK, to run, v. There is we believe no room for doubt that, to us at least, this expression came from the Malay countries, where both the phrase and the practice are still familiar. Some valuable remarks on the phenomenon, as prevalent among the Malays, were contributed by Dr Oxley of Singapore to the Journal of the Indian Archipelago, vol. iii. p. 532; see a quotation below. [Mr W. W. Skeat writes—"The best explanation of the fact is perhaps that it was the Malay national method of committing suicide, especially as one never hears of Malays committing suicide in any other way. This form of suicide may arise from a wish to die fighting and thus avoid a 'straw death, a cow's death'; but it is curious that women and children are often among the victims, and especially members of the suicide's own family. The act of running amuck is probably due to causes over which the culprit has some amount of control, as the custom has now died out in the British Possessions in the Peninsula, the offenders probably objecting to being caught and tried in cold blood. I remember hearing of only about two cases (one by a Sikh soldier) in about six years. It has been suggested further that the extreme monotonous heat of the Peninsula may have conduced to such outbreaks as those of Running amuck and Latah.]
The word is by Crawfurd ascribed to the Javanese, and this is his explanation:
"Amuk (J.). An a-muck; to run a-muck; to tilt; to run furiously and desperately at any one; to make a furious onset or charge in combat."—(Malay Dict.) [The standard Malay, according to Mr Skeat, is rather amok (mengāmok).]
Marsden says that the word rarely occurs in any other than the verbal form mengāmuk, 'to make a furious attack' (Mem. of a Malayan Family, 96).
There is reason, however, to ascribe an Indian origin to the term; whilst the practice, apart from the term, is of no rare occurrence in Indian history. Thus Tod records some notable instances in the history of the Rājputs. In one of these (1634) the eldest son of the Raja of Mārwār ran a-muck at the court of Shāh Jahān, failing in his blow at the Emperor, but killing five courtiers of eminence before he fell himself. Again, in the 18th century, Bījai Singh, also of Mārwār, bore strong resentment against the Tālpura prince of Hyderabad, Bījar Khān, who had sent to demand from the Rājput tribute and a bride. A Bhattī and a Chondāwat offered their services for vengeance, and set out for Sind as envoys. Whilst Bījar Khān read their credentials, muttering, 'No mention of the bride!' the Chondāwat buried a dagger in his heart, exclaiming 'This for the bride!' 'And this for the tribute!' cried the Bhattī, repeating the blow. The pair then plied their daggers right and left, and 26 persons were slain before the envoys were hacked to pieces (Tod, ii. 45 & 315).
But it is in Malabar that we trace the apparent origin of the Malay term in the existence of certain desperadoes who are called by a variety of old travellers amouchi or amuco. The nearest approach to this that we have been able to discover is the Malayālam amar-kkan, 'a warrior' (from amar, 'fight, war'). [The proper Malayālam term for such men was Chaver, literally those who took up or devoted themselves to death.] One of the special applications of this word is remarkable in connection with a singular custom in Malabar. After the Zamorin had reigned 12 years, a great assembly was held at Tirunāvāyi, when that Prince took his seat surrounded by his dependants, fully armed. Any one might then attack him, and the assailant, if successful in killing the Zamorin, got the throne. This had often happened. [For a full discussion of this custom see Frazer, Golden Bough, 2nd ed., ii. 14 sq.] In 1600 thirty such assailants were killed in the enterprise. Now these men were called amar-kkār (pl. of amar-kkan, see Gundert s.v.). These men evidently ran a-muck in the true Malay sense; and quotations below will show other illustrations from Malabar which confirm the idea that both name and practice originated in Continental India. There is indeed a difficulty as to the derivation here indicated, in the fact that the amuco or amouchi of European writers on Malabar seems by no means close enough to amarkkan, whilst it is so close to the Malay āmuk; and on this further light may be hoped for. The identity between the amoucos of Malabar and the amuck runners of the Malay peninsula is clearly shown by the passage from Correa given below. [Mr Whiteway adds—"Gouvea (1606) in his Iornada (ch. 9, Bk. ii.) applies the word amouques to certain Hindus whom he saw in S. Malabar near Quilon, whose duty it was to defend the Syrian Christians with their lives. There are reasons for thinking that the worthy priest got hold of the story of a cock and a bull; but in any case the Hindus referred to were really Jangadas."] (See JANCADA).
De Gubernatis has indeed suggested that the word amouchi was derived from the Skt. amokshya, 'that cannot be loosed'; and this would be very consistent with several of the passages which we shall quote, in which the idea of being 'bound by a vow' underlies the conduct of the persons to whom the term was applicable both in Malabar and in the Archipelago. But amokshya is a word unknown to Malayālam, in such a sense at least.
We have seen a-muck derived from the Ar. aḥmaḳ, 'fatuous' [(e.g. Ball, Jungle Life, 358).] But this is etymology of the kind which scorns history.
The phrase has been thoroughly naturalised in England since the days of Dryden and Pope. [The earliest quotation for "running amuck" in the N.E.D. is from Marvell (1672).]
c. 1430.—Nicolo Conti, speaking of the greater Islands of the Archipelago under the name of the Two Javas, does not use the word, but describes a form of the practice:—
"Homicide is here a jest, and goes without punishment. Debtors are made over to their creditors as slaves; and some of these, preferring death to slavery, will with drawn swords rush on, stabbing all whom they fall in with of less strength than themselves, until they meet death at the hands of some one more than a match for them. This man, the creditors then sue in Court for the dead man's debt."—In India in the XVth C. 45.
1516.—"There are some of them (Javanese) who if they fall ill of any severe illness vow to God that if they remain in health they will of their own accord seek another more honourable death for his service, and as soon as they get well they take a dagger in their hands, and go out into the streets and kill as many persons as they meet, both men, women, and children, in such wise that they go like mad dogs, killing until they are killed. These are called Amuco. And as soon as they see them begin this work, they cry out, saying Amuco, Amuco, in order that people may take care of themselves, and they kill them with dagger and spear thrusts."—Barbosa, Hak. Soc. 194. This passage seems to show that the word amuk must have been commonly used in Malay countries before the arrival of the Portuguese there, c. 1511.
1539.—"... The Tyrant (o Rey Ache) sallied forth in person, accompanied with 5000 resolute men (cinco mil Amoucos) and charged the Bataes very furiously."—Pinto (orig. cap. xvii.) in Cogan, p. 20.
1552.—De Barros, speaking of the capture of the Island of Beth (Beyt, off the N.W. point of Kāthiāwār) by Nuno da Cunha in 1531, says: "But the natives of Guzarat stood in such fear of Sultan Badur that they would not consent to the terms. And so, like people determined on death, all that night they shaved their heads (this is a superstitious practice of those who despise life, people whom they call in India Amaucos) and betook themselves to their mosque, and there devoted their persons to death ... and as an earnest of this vow, and an example of this resolution, the Captain ordered a great fire to be made, and cast into it his wife, and a little son that he had, and all his household and his goods, in fear lest anything of his should fall into our possession." Others did the like, and then they fell upon the Portuguese.—Dec. IV. iv. 13.
c. 1561.—In war between the Kings of Calicut and Cochin (1503) two princes of Cochin were killed. A number of these desperadoes who have been spoken of in the quotations were killed.... "But some remained who were not killed, and these went in shame, not to have died avenging their lords ... these were more than 200, who all, according to their custom, shaved off all their hair, even to the eyebrows, and embraced each other and their friends and relations, as men about to suffer death. In this case they are as madmen—known as amoucos—and count themselves as already among the dead. These men dispersed, seeking wherever they might find men of Calicut, and among these they rushed fearless, killing and slaying till they were slain. And some of them, about twenty, reckoning more highly of their honour, desired to turn their death to better account; and these separated, and found their way secretly to Calicut, determined to slay the king. But as it became known that they were amoucos, the city gave the alarm, and the King sent his servants to slay them as they slew others. But they like desperate men played the devil (fazião diabruras) before they were slain, and killed many people, with women and children. And five of them got together to a wood near the city, which they haunted for a good while after, making robberies and doing much mischief, until the whole of them were killed."—Correa, i. 364-5.
1566.—"The King of Cochin ... hath a great number of gentlemen which he calleth Amocchi, and some are called Nairi: these two sorts of men esteem not their lives anything, so that it may be for the honour of their King."—M. Cæsar Frederike in Purchas, ii. 1708. [See Logan, Man. Malabar, i. 138.]
1584.—"Their forces (in Cochin) consist in a kind of soldiers whom they call amocchi, who are under obligation to die at the King's pleasure, and all soldiers who in war lose their King or their general lie under this obligation. And of such the King makes use in urgent cases, sending them to die fighting."—Letter of F. Sassetti to Francesco I., Gd. D. of Tuscany, in De Gubernatis, 154.
c. 1584.—"There are some also who are called Amocchi ... who being weary of living, set themselves in the way with a weapon in their hands, which they call a Crise, and kill as many as they meete with, till somebody killeth them; and this they doe for the least anger they conceive, as desperate men."—G. Balbi in Purchas, ii. 1724.
1602.—De Couto, speaking of the Javanese: "They are chivalrous men, and of such determination that for whatever offence may be offered them they make themselves amoucos in order to get satisfaction thereof. And were a spear run into the stomach of such an one he would still press forward without fear till he got at his foe."—Dec. IV. iii. 1.
" In another passage (ib. vii. 14) De Couto speaks of the amoucos of Malabar just as Della Valle does below. In Dec. VI. viii. 8 he describes how, on the death of the King of Pimenta, in action with the Portuguese, "nearly 4000 Nairs made themselves amoucos with the usual ceremonies, shaving their heads on one side, and swearing by their pagoda to avenge the King's death."
1603.—"Este es el genero de milicia de la India, y los Reyes señalan mas o menos Amoyos (ò Amacos, que todo es uno) para su guarda ordinaria."—San Roman, Historia, 48.
1604.—"Auia hecho vna junta de Amocos, con sus ceremonias para venir a morir adonde el Panical auia sedo muerto."—Guerrero, Relacion, 91.
1611.—"Viceroy. What is the meaning of amoucos? Soldier. It means men who have made up their mind to die in killing as many as they can, as is done in the parts about Malaca by those whom they call amoucos in the language of the country."—Couto, Dialogo do Soldado Pratico, 2nd part, p. 9.—(Printed at Lisbon in 1790).
1615.—"Hos inter Nairos genus est et ordo quem Amocas vocant quibus ob studium rei bellicae praecipua laus tribuitur, et omnium habentur validissimi."—Jarric, Thesaurus, i. 65.
1624.—"Though two kings may be at war, either enemy takes great heed not to kill the King of the opposite faction, nor yet to strike his umbrella, wherever it may go ... for the whole kingdom of the slain or wounded king would be bound to avenge him with the complete destruction of the enemy, or all, if needful, to perish in the attempt. The greater the king's dignity among these people, the longer period lasts this obligation to furious revenge ... this period or method of revenge is termed Amoco, and so they say that the Amoco of the Samori lasts one day; the Amoco of the king of Cochin lasts a life-time; and so of others."—P. della Valle, ii. 745 [Hak. Soc., ii. 380 seq.].
1648.—"Derrière ces palissades s'estoit caché un coquin de Bantamois qui estoit revenu de la Mecque et jouoit à Moqua ... il court par les rues et tue tous ceux qu'il rencontre...."—Tavernier, V. des Indes, liv. iii. ch. 24 [Ed. Ball, ii. 361 seq.].
1659.—"I saw in this month of February at Batavia the breasts torn with red-hot tongs off a black Indian by the executioner; and after this he was broken on the wheel from below upwards. This was because through the evil habit of eating opium (according to the godless custom of the Indians) he had become mad and raised the cry of Amocle (misp. for Amock) ... in which mad state he had slain five persons.... This was the third Amock-cryer whom I saw during that visit to Batavia (a few months) broken on the wheel for murder."
* * * * *
... "Such a murderer and Amock-runner has sometimes the fame of being an invincible hero because he has so manfully repulsed all who tried to seize him.... So the Netherlands Government is compelled when such an Amock-runner is taken alive to punish him in a terrific manner."—Walter Schulzens Ost-Indische Reise-Beschreibung (German ed.), Amsterdam, 1676, pp. 19-20 and 227.
1672.—"Every community (of the Malabar Christians), every church has its own Amouchi, which ... are people who take an oath to protect with their own lives the persons and places put under their safeguard, from all and every harm."—P. Vicenzo Maria, 145.
" "If the Prince is slain the amouchi, who are numerous, would avenge him desperately. If he be injured they put on festive raiment, take leave of their parents, and with fire and sword in hand invade the hostile territory, burning every dwelling, and slaying man, woman, and child, sparing none, until they themselves fall."—Ibid. 237-8.
1673.—"And they (the Mohammedans) are hardly restrained from running a muck (which is to kill whoever they meet, till they be slain themselves), especially if they have been at Hodge [Hadgee] a Pilgrimage to Mecca."—Fryer, 91.
1687.—Dryden assailing Burnet:—
"Prompt to assault, and careless of defence,
Invulnerable in his impudence,
He dares the World; and eager of a name,
He thrusts about and justles into fame.
Frontless and satire-proof, he scours the streets
And runs an Indian Muck at all he meets."
The Hind and the Panther, line 2477.
1689.—"Those that run these are called Amouki, and the doing of it Running a Muck."—Ovington, 237.
1712.—"Amouco (Termo da India) val o mesmo que homem determinado e apostado que despreza a vida e não teme a morte."—Bluteau, s.v.
1727.—"I answered him that I could no longer bear their Insults, and, if I had not Permission in three Days, I would run a Muck (which is a mad Custom among the Mallayas when they become desperate)."—A. Hamilton, ii. 231.
1737.—
"Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet
To run a muck, and tilt at all I meet."
Pope, Im. of Horace, B. ii. Sat. i. 69.
1768-71.—"These acts of indiscriminate murder are called by us mucks, because the perpetrators of them, during their frenzy, continually cry out amok, amok, which signifies kill, kill...."—Stavorinus, i. 291.
1783.—At Bencoolen in this year (1760)—"the Count (d'Estaing) afraid of an insurrection among the Buggesses ... invited several to the Fort, and when these had entered the Wicket was shut upon them; in attempting to disarm them, they mangamoed, that is ran a muck; they drew their cresses, killed one or two Frenchmen, wounded others, and at last suffered themselves, for supporting this point of honour."—Forrest's Voyage to Mergui, 77.
1784.—"It is not to be controverted that these desperate acts of indiscriminate murder, called by us mucks, and by the natives mongamo, do actually take place, and frequently too, in some parts of the east (in Java in particular)."—Marsden, H. of Sumatra, 239.
1788.—"We are determined to run a muck rather than suffer ourselves to be forced away by these Hollanders."—Mem. of a Malayan Family, 66.
1798.—"At Batavia, if an officer take one of these amoks, or mohawks, as they have been called by an easy corruption, his reward is very considerable; but if he kill them, nothing is added to his usual pay...."—Translator of Stavorinus, i. 294.
1803.—"We cannot help thinking, that one day or another, when they are more full of opium than usual, they (the Malays) will run a muck from Cape Comorin to the Caspian."—Sydney Smith, Works, 3rd ed., iii. 6.
1846.—"On the 8th July, 1846, Sunan, a respectable Malay house-builder in Penang, ran amok ... killed an old Hindu woman, a Kling, a Chinese boy, and a Kling girl about three years old ... and wounded two Hindus, three Klings, and two Chinese, of whom only two survived.... On the trial Sunan declared he did not know what he was about, and persisted in this at the place of execution.... The amok took place on the 8th, the trial on the 13th, and the execution on the 15th July,—all within 8 days."—J. Ind. Arch., vol. iii. 460-61.
1849.—"A man sitting quietly among his friends and relatives, will without provocation suddenly start up, weapon in hand, and slay all within his reach.... Next day when interrogated ... the answer has invariably been, "The Devil entered into me, my eyes were darkened, I did not know what I was about." I have received the same reply on at least 20 different occasions; on examination of these monomaniacs, I have generally found them labouring under some gastric disease, or troublesome ulcer.... The Bugis, whether from revenge or disease, are by far the most addicted to run amok. I should think three-fourths of all the cases I have seen have been by persons of this nation."—Dr T. Oxley, in J. Ind. Archip., iii. 532.
[1869.—"Macassar is the most celebrated place in the East for 'running a muck.'"—Wallace, Malay Archip. (ed. 1890), p. 134.]
[1870.—For a full account of many cases in India, see Chevers, Med. Jurisprudence, p. 781 seqq.]
1873.—"They (the English) ... crave governors who, not having bound themselves beforehand to 'run amuck,' may give the land some chance of repose."—Blackwood's Magazine, June, p. 759.
1875.—"On being struck the Malay at once stabbed Arshad with a kriss; the blood of the people who had witnessed the deed was aroused, they ran amok, attacked Mr Birch, who was bathing in a floating bath close to the shore, stabbed and killed him."—Sir W. D. Jervois to the E. of Carnarvon, Nov. 16, 1875.
1876.—"Twice over, while we were wending our way up the steep hill in Galata, it was our luck to see a Turk 'run a muck' ... nine times out of ten this frenzy is feigned, but not always, as for instance in the case where a priest took to running a-muck on an Austrian Lloyd's boat on the Black Sea, and after killing one or two passengers, and wounding others, was only stopped by repeated shots from the Captain's pistol."—Barkley, Five Years in Bulgaria, 240-41.
1877.—The Times of February 11th mentions a fatal muck run by a Spanish sailor, Manuel Alves, at the Sailors' Home, Liverpool; and the Overland Times of India (31st August) another run by a sepoy at Meerut.
1879.—"Running a-muck does not seem to be confined to the Malays. At Ravenna, on Monday, when the streets were full of people celebrating the festa of St John the Baptist, a maniac rushed out, snatched up a knife from a butcher's stall and fell upon everyone he came across ... before he was captured he wounded more or less seriously 11 persons, among whom was one little child."—Pall Mall Gazette, July 1.
" "Captain Shaw mentioned ... that he had known as many as 40 people being injured by a single 'amok' runner. When the cry 'amok! amok!' is raised, people fly to the right and left for shelter, for after the blinded madman's kris has once 'drunk blood,' his fury becomes ungovernable, his sole desire is to kill; he strikes here and there; he stabs fugitives in the back, his kris drips blood, he rushes on yet more wildly, blood and murder in his course; there are shrieks and groans, his bloodshot eyes start from their sockets, his frenzy gives him unnatural strength; then all of a sudden he drops, shot through the heart, or from sudden exhaustion, clutching his bloody kris."—Miss Bird, Golden Chersonese, 356.
ANACONDA, s. This word for a great python, or boa, is of very obscure origin. It is now applied in scientific zoology as the specific name of a great S. American water-snake. Cuvier has "L'Anacondo (Boa scytale et murina, L.—Boa aquatica, Prince Max.)," (Règne Animal, 1829, ii. 78). Again, in the Official Report prepared by the Brazilian Government for the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876, we find: "Of the genus Boa ... we may mention the ... sucuriù or sucuriuba (B. anaconda), whose skins are used for boots and shoes and other purposes." And as the subject was engaging our attention we read the following in the St James' Gazette of April 3, 1882:—"A very unpleasant account is given by a Brazilian paper, the Voz do Povo of Diamantino, of the proceedings of a huge water-snake called the sucuruyu, which is to be found in some of the rivers of Brazil.... A slave, with some companions, was fishing with a net in the river, when he was suddenly seized by a sucuruyu, who made an effort with his hinder coils to carry off at the same time another of the fishing party." We had naturally supposed the name to be S. American, and its S. American character was rather corroborated by our finding in Ramusio's version of Pietro Martire d'Angheria such S. American names as Anacauchoa and Anacaona. Serious doubt was however thrown on the American origin of the word when we found that Mr H. W. Bates entirely disbelieved it, and when we failed to trace the name in any older books about S. America.
In fact the oldest authority that we have met with, the famous John Ray, distinctly assigns the name, and the serpent to which the name properly belonged, to Ceylon. This occurs in his Synopsis Methodica Animalium Quadrupedum et Serpentini Generis, Lond. 1693. In this he gives a Catalogue of Indian Serpents, which he had received from his friend Dr Tancred Robinson, and which the latter had noted e Museo Leydensi. No. 8 in this list runs as follows:—
"8. Serpens Indicus Bubalinus, Anacandaia Zeylonensibus, id est Bubalorum aliorumque jumentorum membra conterens," p. 332.
The following passage from St Jerome, giving an etymology, right or wrong, of the word boa, which our naturalists now limit to certain great serpents of America, but which is often popularly applied to the pythons of E. Asia, shows a remarkable analogy to Ray's explanation of the name Anacandaia:—
c. A.D. 395-400.—"Si quidem draco mirae magnitudinis, quos gentili sermone Boas vocant, ab eo quod tam grandes sint ut boves glutire soleant, omnem late vastabat provinciam, et non solum armenta et pecudes sed agricolas quoque et pastores tractos ad se vi spiritus absorbebat."—In Vita Scti. Hilarionis Eremitae, Opera Scti. Eus. Hieron. Venetiis, 1767, ii. col. 35.
Ray adds that on this No. 8 should be read what D. Cleyerus has said in the Ephem. German. An 12. obser. 7, entitled: De Serpente magno Indiae Orientalis Urobubalum deglutiente. The serpent in question was 25 feet long. Ray quotes in abridgment the description of its treatment of the buffalo; how, if the resistance is great, the victim is dragged to a tree, and compressed against it; how the noise of the crashing bones is heard as far as a cannon: how the crushed carcass is covered with saliva, etc. It is added that the country people (apparently this is in Amboyna) regard this great serpent as most desirable food.
The following are extracts from Cleyer's paper, which is, more fully cited, Miscellanea Curiosa, sive Ephimeridum Medico-Physicarum Germanicarum Academiae Naturae Curiosorum, Dec. ii.—Annus Secundus, Anni MDCLXXXIII. Norimbergae. Anno MDCLXXXIV. pp. 18-20. It is illustrated by a formidable but inaccurate picture showing the serpent seizing an ox (not a buffalo) by the muzzle, with huge teeth. He tells how he dissected a great snake that he bought from a huntsman in which he found a whole stag of middle age, entire in skin and every part; and another which contained a wild goat with great horns, likewise quite entire; and a third which had swallowed a porcupine armed with all his "sagittiferis aculeis." In Amboyna a woman great with child had been swallowed by such a serpent....
"Quod si animal quoddam robustius renitatur, ut spiris anguinis enecari non possit, serpens crebris cum animali convolutionibus caudâ suâ proximam arborem in auxilium et robur corporis arripit eamque circumdat, quo eo fortius et valentius gyris suis animal comprimere, suffocare, et demum enecare possit...."
"Factum est hoc modo, ut (quod ex fide dignissimis habeo) in Regno Aracan ... talis vasti corporis anguis prope flumen quoddam, cum Uro-bubalo, sive sylvestri bubalo aut uro ... immani spectaculo congredi visus fuerit, eumque dicto modo occiderit; quo conflictu et plusquam hostili amplexu fragor ossium in bubalo comminutorum ad distantiam tormenti bellici majoris ... a spectatoribus sat eminus stantibus exaudiri potuit...."
The natives said these great snakes had poisonous fangs. These Cleyer could not find, but he believes the teeth to be in some degree venomous, for a servant of his scratched his hand on one of them. It swelled, greatly inflamed, and produced fever and delirium:
"Nec prius cessabant symptomata, quam Serpentinus lapis (see SNAKE-STONE) quam Patres Jesuitae hic componunt, vulneri adaptatus omne venenum extraheret, et ubique symptomata convenientibus antidotis essent profligata."
Again, in 1768, we find in the Scots Magazine, App. p. 673, but quoted from "London pap. Aug. 1768," and signed by R. Edwin, a professed eye-witness, a story with the following heading: "Description of the Anaconda, a monstrous species of serpent. In a letter from an English gentleman, many years resident in the Island of Ceylon in the East Indies.... The Ceylonese seem to know the creature well; they call it Anaconda, and talked of eating its flesh when they caught it." He describes its seizing and disposing of an enormous "tyger." The serpent darts on the "tyger" from a tree, attacking first with a bite, then partially crushing and dragging it to the tree ... "winding his body round both the tyger and the tree with all his violence, till the ribs and other bones began to give way ... each giving a loud crack when it burst ... the poor creature all this time was living, and at every loud crash of its bones gave a houl, not loud, yet piteous enough to pierce the cruelest heart."
Then the serpent drags away its victim, covers it with slaver, swallows it, etc. The whole thing is very cleverly told, but is evidently a romance founded on the description by "D. Cleyerus," which is quoted by Ray. There are no tigers in Ceylon. In fact, "R. Edwin" has developed the Romance of the Anaconda out of the description of D. Cleyerus, exactly as "Mynheer Försch" some years later developed the Romance of the Upas out of the older stories of the poison tree of Macassar. Indeed, when we find "Dr Andrew Cleyer" mentioned among the early relators of these latter stories, the suspicion becomes strong that both romances had the same author, and that "R. Edwin" was also the true author of the wonderful story told under the name of Foersch. (See further under UPAS.)
In Percival's Ceylon (1803) we read: "Before I arrived in the island I had heard many stories of a monstrous snake, so vast in size as to devour tigers and buffaloes, and so daring as even to attack the elephant" (p. 303). Also, in Pridham's Ceylon and its Dependencies (1849, ii. 750-51): "Pimbera or Anaconda is of the genus Python, Cuvier, and is known in English as the rock-snake." Emerson Tennent (Ceylon, 4th ed., 1860, i. 196) says: "The great python (the 'boa' as it is commonly designated by Europeans, the 'anaconda' of Eastern story) which is supposed to crush the bones of an elephant, and to swallow a tiger".... It may be suspected that the letter of "R. Edwin" was the foundation of all or most of the stories alluded to in these passages. Still we have the authority of Ray's friend that Anaconda, or rather Anacondaia, was at Leyden applied as a Ceylonese name to a specimen of this python. The only interpretation of this that we can offer is Tamil ānai-kondra [āṇaik-kónḍa], "which killed an elephant"; an appellative, but not a name. We have no authority for the application of this appellative to a snake, though the passages quoted from Percival, Pridham, and Tennent are all suggestive of such stories, and the interpretation of the name anacondaia given to Ray: "Bubalorum ... membra conterens," is at least quite analogous as an appellative. It may be added that in Malay anakanda signifies "one that is well-born," which does not help us.... [Mr Skeat is unable to trace the word in Malay, and rejects the derivation from anakanda given above. A more plausible explanation is that given by Mr D. Ferguson (8 Ser. N. & Q. xii. 123), who derives anacandaia from Singhalese Henakandayâ (hena, 'lightning'; kanda, 'stem, trunk,') which is a name for the whip-snake (Passerita mycterizans), the name of the smaller reptile being by a blunder transferred to the greater. It is at least a curious coincidence that Ogilvy (1670) in his "Description of the African Isles" (p. 690), gives: "Anakandef, a sort of small snakes," which is the Malagasy Anakandîfy, 'a snake.']