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

wn to Malayalam, in such a sense at least.

We have seen a-muck derived from the Ar. ahmak, ‘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 Kathiawar) 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 (fazíao 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. Cœsar 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,