Note 80 — VIII.

What is related by various writers of the practice of "running a muck" (a custom that seems to recall the frightful blood-feuds of the Corsicans), long supposed to be peculiar to Ceylon, in which a Malay thirsting for revenge, and armed with a naked "kreese," or dagger, rushes through the streets like a madman, yelling "Amock, Amock" (kill, kill), and runs the fearful weapon through the body of the very first person he meets,—seems to be founded on a mistake. No one could give us any particulars on the subject from personal observation. Sir Emerson Tennant too, in his work on Ceylon, passes over this custom of "running a muck," without a syllable of mention. Evidently the custom is not naturalized in this island. It now prevails among the Malays of the Sunda archipelago, while in Ceylon no instance has occurred within the memory of man. That this tendency to murder is caused by the use of opium likewise appears improbable. Crawford, in his most excellent descriptive dictionary of the Indian islands, speaking of "running a muck," pretends it results frequently from a monomania taking this particular form, and originating in disorders of the digestive organs.