Chapter ALPEEN to A MUCK of A by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

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 a-muck 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 (mengamok).]

Marsden says that the word rarely occurs in any other than the verbal form mengamuk, ‘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 Rajputs. In one of these (1634) the eldest son of the Raja of Marwar ran a-muck at the court of Shah Jahan, failing in his b low at the Emperor, but killing five courtiers of eminence b efore he fell himself. Again, in the 18th century, Bijai Singh, also of Marwar, bore strong resentment against the Talpura prince of Hyderabad, Bijar Khan, who had sent to demand from the Rajput tribute and a bride. A Bhatti and a Chondawat offered their services for vengeance, and set out for Sind as envoys. Whilst Bijar Khan read their credentials, muttering, ‘No mention of the bride!’ the Chondawat buried a dagger in his heart, exclaiming ‘This for the bride!’ ‘And this for the tribute!’ cried the Bhatti, 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 Malayalam amar-kkan, ‘a warrior’ (from amar, ‘fi ght, war’). [The proper Malayalam 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 Tirunavayi, 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-kkar (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 amuk; 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 unkno