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 (fazião 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. Cæsar 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, speaking of the Javanese: "They are chivalrous men, and of such determination that for whatever offence may be offered them they make themselves amoucos in order to get satisfaction thereof. And were a spear run into the stomach of such an one he would still press forward without fear till he got at his foe."—Dec. IV. iii. 1.
" In another passage (ib. vii. 14) De Couto speaks of the amoucos of Malabar just as Della Valle does below. In Dec. VI. viii. 8 he describes how, on the death of the King of Pimenta, in action with the Portuguese, "nearly 4000 Nairs made themselves amoucos with the usual ceremonies, shaving their heads on one side, and swearing by their pagoda to avenge the King's death."
1603.—"Este es el genero de milicia de la India, y los Reyes señalan mas o menos Amoyos (ò Amacos, que todo es uno) para su guarda ordinaria."—San Roman, Historia, 48.
1604.—"Auia hecho vna junta de Amocos, con sus ceremonias para venir a morir adonde el Panical auia sedo muerto."—Guerrero, Relacion, 91.
1611.—"Viceroy. What is the meaning of amoucos? Soldier. It means men who have made up their mind to die in killing as many as they can, as is done in the parts about Malaca by those whom they call amoucos in the language of the country."—Couto, Dialogo do Soldado Pratico, 2nd part, p. 9.—(Printed at Lisbon in 1790).
1615.—"Hos inter Nairos genus est et ordo quem Amocas vocant quibus ob studium rei bellicae praecipua laus tribuitur, et omnium habentur validissimi."—Jarric, Thesaurus, i. 65.