y has committed such an act, but I have known
several who ran _amok_ when a white man, under similar circumstances,
would not improbably have taken his own life. Often enough something
trivial begins the trouble, and, in the heat of the moment, a blow is
struck by a man against one whom he holds dear, and the hatred of self
which results, causes him to long for death, and to seek it in the
only way which occurs to a Malay--namely, by running _amok_. A man who
runs _amok_, too, almost always kills his wife. He is anxious to die
himself, and he sees no reason why his wife should survive him, and,
in a little space, become the property of some other man. He also
frequently destroys his most valued possessions, as they have become
useless to him, since he cannot take them with him to that bourne
whence no traveller returns. The following story, for the truth of
which I can vouch in every particular, illustrates all that I have
said:

In writing of the natives of the East Coast, I have mentioned that the
people of Trengganu are, first and foremost, men of peace. This must be
borne in mind in reading what follows, for I doubt whether things could
have fallen out as they did in any other Native State, and, at the time
when these events occurred, the want of courage and skill shown by the
Trengganu people made them the laughing stock of the whole of the East
Coast. To this day no Trengganu man likes to be chaffed about the doings
of his countrymen at the _amok_ of Biji Derja, and any reference to it,
gives as much offence as does the whisper of the magic words 'Rusty
buckles' in the ears of the men of a certain cavalry regiment.

When Baginda Umar ruled in Trengganu there was a Chief named To' Bentara
Haji, who was one of the monarch's adopted sons, and early in the
present reign the eldest son of this Chief was given the title of Dato'
Kaya Biji Derja. At this, the minds of the good people of Trengganu were
not a little exercised, for the title is one which it is not usual to
confer upon a commoner, and Jusup, the man now selected to bear It, was
both young and untried. He was of no particular birth, he possessed no
book-learning--such as the Trengganu people love--and was not even
skilled in the warrior's lore which is so highly prized by the ruder
natives of Pahang. The new To' Kaya was fully sensible of his unfitness
for the post, and determined to do all that in him lay to remedy his
deficiencies. He probably knew that, a