Page 55 - Malay sketches

AMOK

ing and wounding all who come in his way, regard-
less of age or sex, whether they be friends, strangers,
or his own nearest relatives.
Just before sunset on the evening of the 1 1 th
February, 1891, a Malay named Imam Mamat (that
is Mamat the came into the house
priest) quietly
of his brother-in-law at Pasir Garam on the Perak
River, carrying a spear and a golok, i.e. a sharp,
pointed cutting knife.
The Imam went up to his brother-in-law, took
his hand and asked his pardon. He then approached
his own wife and similarly asked her pardon, imme-
diately stabbing her fatally in the abdomen with the
She and her to assist
golok. fell, brother, rushing
her, received a mortal wound in the heart. The
brother-in-law's wife was in the house with four
and to out before the
children, they managed get
Imam had time to do more than stab the last of
them, a boy, in the back as he left the door. At
this moment, a man, who had heard the screams of
the women, attempted to enter the house, when the
Imam rushed at him and inflicted a slight wound,
the man falling to the ground and getting away.
Having secured two more spears which he found
the murderer now chase
in the house, gave to, the
woman and her three little children and made short
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