I thus define my object, so as to bring what I have to say within the very narrow limits of a paper written (without preparation and at short notice), rather with the view of throwing out suggestions for the consideration of more capable observers, than as pretending to a tolerably exhaustive treatment of a wide subject.
Lest I should be supposed, however, even after this explanation, to maintain that latah is peculiar to those of Malay origin, I must state parenthetically that, in my search after this peculiarity, I have found it, outside the Malay race, weakly exhibited in a very small percentage of Tamils, and strongly exhibited in an equally small proportion of Bengalis. I have noticed traces of the disease in two so-called "Sikhs," and, curiously enough, the most marked sufferer I have ever met was a pure Nubian, whose appearances in these waters, as fireman on board an Ocean steamer, were few and far between.
I have never observed a trace of the disease in any member of any of the Chinese races resident in the Straits. The consideration of the questions of race and latitude as bearing upon latah would lead me now too far a-field. I hope to treat this branch of the subject in a future paper, but here, as I have said, I have to do with latah amongst Malays only.
What is latah?
The derivation of the word seems veiled in the obscurity which covers the origin and nature of the disease itself.
I do not find the word in MARSDEN at all; FAVRE explains it by "indisposition nerveuse chez les femmes, dans laquelle elles. "disent tout ce qui leur vient à la bouche."
A more modern lexicographer translates the word as "ticklish," and another recent etymologist connects it, in defiance of spelling, with melata to creep. This bold derivation will commend itself, I fancy, chiefly to those classes of English-speaking ladies who connect "nervousness" and "the creeps," but this ingenious surmise, even if correct, only throws the difficulty one step further back.
I can find no derivation which satisfies me either for latah or for melata.
