ath of
the Sikh Guru Hargovind in 1645. (_H. of Sikhs_, p. 62.)

Barbosa briefly notices an institution like that described by Polo, in
reference to the King of Narsinga, i.e. Vijayanagar. (_Ram._ I. f. 302.)
Another form of the same bond seems to be that mentioned by other
travellers as prevalent in Malabar, where certain of the Nairs bore the
name of _Amuki_, and were bound not only to defend the King's life with
their own, but, if he fell, to sacrifice themselves by dashing among the
enemy and slaying until slain. Even Christian churches in Malabar had such
hereditary _Amuki_. (See _P. Vinc. Maria_, Bk. IV. ch. vii., and _Cesare
Federici_ in _Ram._ III. 390, also _Faria y Sousa_, by Stevens, I. 348.)
There can be little doubt that this is the Malay _Amuk_, which would
therefore appear to be of Indian origin, both in name and practice. I see
that De Gubernatis, without noticing the Malay phrase, traces the term
applied to the Malabar champions to the Sanskrit _Amokhya_,
"indissoluble," and _Amukta_, "not free, bound." (_Picc. Encic. Ind._ I,
88.) The same practice, by which the followers of a defeated prince devote
themselves in _amuk_ (_vulgo_ running _a-muck_),[4] is called in the
island of Bali _Bela_, a term applied also to one kind of female Sati,
probably from S. _Bali_, "a sacrifice." (See _Friedrich in Batavian
Trans._ XXIII.) In the first syllable of the _Balanjar_ of Mas'udi we have
probably the same word. A similar institution is mentioned by Caesar among
the Sotiates, a tribe of Aquitania. The _Feoilz_ of the chief were 600 in
number and were called _Soldurii_; they shared all his good things in
life, and were bound to share with him in death also. Such also was a
custom among the Spanish Iberians, and the name of these _Amuki_ signified
"sprinkled for sacrifice." Other generals, says Plutarch, might find a few
such among their personal staff and dependents, but Sertorius was followed
by many myriads who had thus devoted themselves. Procopius relates of the
White Huns that the richer among them used to entertain a circle of
friends, some score or more, as perpetual guests and partners of their
wealth. But, when the chief died, the whole company were expected to go
down alive into the tomb with him. The King of the Russians, in the tenth
century, according to Ibn Fozlan, was attended by 400 followers bound by
like vows. And according to some writers the same practice was common in
Japan, where the friends an