The Achehnese/Volume 1/Chapter 2
CHAPTER. II.
ACHEHNESE CALENDARS, FESTIVALS AND SEASONS. AGRICULTURE,
NAVIGATION AND FISHERY.
LAWS RELATING TO LAND AND WATER.
§ 1. The Achehno-Mohammedan Divisions of Time.
Arabic and Achehnese names of months.The calendar of religious festivals is the same among the Achehnese as with the Malays and other Mohammedans; they adopt the lunar year of 354 days as a basis. They employ this same year with its lunar months as a measurement of time for all the ordinary purposes of life. Some of the names, however, which they give to the months differ from the Arabic and are borrowed rather from customary observances belonging peculiarly to those months. Many of them are also called by the Arabic names pronounced in the Achehnese fashion; these are universally understood by the well-educated. We shall begin by giving a concise list of these names with explanatory notes.
| ARABIC NAMES OF MONTHS. | ACHEHNESE NAMES OF MONTHS. |
| 1. Muḥarram. | Asan-Usèn (called after the commemoration of Ḥasan and Ḥusain on the 10th day of this month). |
| 2. Safar. | Sapha. |
| 3. Rabīʿ al-awwal. | Mòʾlōt (from Maulud, the feast of the birth of Mohammad. Less commonly called Rabiʾōy Away. |
| 4. Rabīʿ al-ākhir. | Adòë mòʾlōt (i. e. the younger brother of Mòʾlōt, since the birth of the Prophet is commemorated in this month also. Less commonly called Radbiʾōy Akhé). |
| 5. Jumāda ʾl-awwal. | Mòʾlot Seuneulheuëh (i. e. final Mòʾ-lōt, for this month also is specially dedicated to the commemoration of Mohammad's birth. Women, who adhere conservatively to all that is old-fashioned in Acheh, also call this month Madika phōn i.e. "the first free one"; I cannot trace the origin of this name. Less commonly called Jamadō-away). |
| 6. Jumādaʾl-ākhir. | Kanduri bòh kayèë (i. e. "kanduri or religious offering of fruits". Old-fashioned women speak of it as Madika Seuneulheuëh i. e. "the last free one". Less commonly called Jamadō Akhé). |
| 7. Rajab | Kandurt Apam (i. e. "kanduri of apam-cakes"; also Rajab or Raʾjab). |
| 8. Shaʿbān. | Kanduri Bu (i. e. "kanduri of rice"; also Chaʾban or Saʾban). |
| 9. Ramadhān. | Puasa (fast) or Ramalan or Ramulan. |
| 10. Shawwāl. | Uròë Raya (feasting month) or Chaway. |
| 11. Duʾl-qʿadah. | Meuʾapét ("pinched, shut in" cf. apit or hapit in Mal. Jav. and Sund.) or Dōy Kaʾidah. |
| 12. Duʾl-ḥidjah. | Haji or Dōy Hijah. |
Days of the week.The days of the week bear the Arabic names, which in Achehnese are pronounced as follows:
| Aleuhat | Sunday |
| Seunanyan | Monday |
| Seulasa | Tuesday |
| Rabu | Wednesday |
| Hamèh | Thursday |
| Jeumeʾah | Friday. |
| Sabtu | Saturday. |
The beginning of the monthe.According to the Shafiʾite school of Mohammedan law, the dates of the religious festivals should not be established by calculation, but the commencement of each month must be fixed by observation of the new moon. If for example the month preceding the fasting month should according to the reckoning number 29 days, still the following day must not be regarded as the beginning of the fast, unless it is proved by witnesses in the manner prescribed by the law, that the new moon has been actually seen on the evening following the 29th day. If this observation of the moon (ruʾya) is not established by proof, the month must in spite of astronomy be regarded as a full one of thirty days.
Although all the Mohammedans of the Archipelago are Shafiʾites, the doctrine of the ruʾya is far from being universally observed. In many districts calculation (hisāb) is adhered to, though according to the teaching of that school it should only be employed for the indifferent affairs of daily life. It is only lately[1] under the influence of Mecca and Hadramaut that the ruʾya has been more universally accepted.
In Acheh the "calculation" was the method followed from the earliest times. The ulamas overcame the difficulty of a conflicting doctrine in the books of the law by the consideration that in these parts the atmosphere is only occasionally clear enough to allow of the new moon being seen on the first day of her appearance.
In the edicts of the sultans we meet with a regulation[2] directing that the commencement of the fasting month in each year should be fixed by a council of the learned held on the last Friday of the preceding month. The date was then made known to the people by the firing of guns on the previous day. This was quite inadmissible according to the ruʾya doctrine.
There are in Acheh a few ulamas who are acquainted with some of the principles of Arabic astronony (that of the middle ages), which they use as the basis of their calculations. But as a rule reference is only made to certain tables given in Malay books, without any regard to the way in which these tables were arrived at, or the necessity for correction of the errors in reckoning to which they give rise after some lapse of time.
Method of computing the calendar.A brief description of the nature of these tables will here suffice[3] The years are first divided into groups of eight, and each of these eight years has its proper Arabic letter (harah thōn); the numerical value of this letter is the cypher of that year. As the order of sequence of the 8 year-letters is invariable, we need only know the letter of the preceeding, to arrive at that of the current year; and even without this the letter may be calculated from the year of the Hijrah.
The twelve months have each their letter in like manner, and the numerical value of that letter is the cypher of its month. If we add the cypher of a given year to that of a certain month, the sum of the two gives us the clue to the day of the week which is the first day of that month in the year in question.
To apply this clue, we start with the day of the week with which the cycle or series of years begins. Now as this day recedes one place in every 120 years according to a necessary adjustment in the system, there are seven different ways of counting, called after the days of the week which respectively begin the cycles, Ahadiyyah, Ithnainiyyah, Thalathiyyah, Arbaʿiyyah, Khamsiyyah, Jumʿiyyah, Sabtiyyah. The cycles beginning with Wednesday or Thursday are now usually employed in different parts of the Archipelago.
In Acheh the Arbaʿiyyah (Wednesday) method is that most in use.
The cycle of 8 years is as follows:
| 1. | Aléh | (ا) | numerical value | 1. |
| 2. | Hé | (ه) | 5. | |
| 3. | Jim. | (ج) | 3. | |
| 4. | Zòë | (ز) | 7. | |
| 5. | Day away | (د) | 4. | |
| 6. | Ba (Ww) | (ب) | 2. | |
| 7. | Wèë | (و) | 5. | |
| 8. | Day akhé | (د | 4. |
The calculation for finding the letter of a Hijrah year consists in dividing the number representing the year by 8 and counting off the year-letters in the above order, beginning with Wèë, to the number of the remainder. Thus the year 1309 divided by 8 leaves 5; counting from Wèë 5 places onwards, we reach Jim; Jim is thus the letter of that year. To fix the year-letters on the memory they are formed into a single word with the help of vowels, thus ahjizdabuda ((Arabic characters)).
The sequence of the month-letters is as follows:
 | A table should appear at this position in the text. See Help:Table for formatting instructions. |
To find the first day of the fasting month in the year 1309 we add the cypher of the year(3) to that of the fasting month, i. e. the 9th of the year, which cypher is 5. This gives 8, and we now count off 8 weekdays beginning from Wednesday, which gives us Wednesday as the first day of the fasting month.
The month-cyphers are also formed into a word to assist the memory, thus zabjih waʾabdih zaʾajén ((Arabic characters)).
In the cycle of eight years, as may be easily calculated, the 2nd, 5th and 7th years have an additional intercalary day (355 in all). The odd months have thirty and the even twenty-nine days, but in the intercalary years the 12th month has also 30 days. In each year there is an excess of one 120th of a day, but I have not been able to discover whether the Achehnese would correct this at the end of every 120 years by skipping a day.
Téh-books.Malay handbooks are also used for these calculations. These contain tables with all the requisite data, and an explanatory text to facilitate their use. Amateurs of science are in the habit of collecting one or more such treatises in a single volume along with sundry other data for fixing lucky days, months and hours, the good fortune that may be expected to attend a proposed marriage, and the like. To these are sometimes added theological treatises, and the whole forms what in Java is called a primbon or paririmbon, and at Batavia is known as a tip ((Arabic characters)) or japar sidéʾ (from Jaʾfar Çādiq, the reputed author of many astrological tables). The name in Acheh is téh, a corruption of the same Arabic word which is pronounced as tip by the Batavians. Its original meaning is "medical art".
Divison of the day of 24 hours.Before proceeding to review the twelve months of the Mohammedan year in order to sketch in detail the principal feasts and general customs of a religious nature observed by the Achehnese, let us notice some peculiarities of their division of the day of 24 hours.
In ancient legends and in proverbs we occasionally meet with allusions to a division of the day and night into hours or periods, which is generally understood, but has now lost all practical significance. The day and night (separated from one another by sunset and sunrise) were divided into four equal parts, each of about 3 hours duration. Such a division is called in Arabic sām, and the Mohammedans of the Archipelago have adopted it, name and all (jam[4], jeuëm) from the Arabs. Later on the name was applied in Malayan and Javanese countries to the hour of 60 minutes. This modification did not take place in Acheh where the word maintained its original meaning.
The notation now most in vogue for the different parts of the day and nights corresponds essentially with that which we find, for example, in Java. Some of the names are borrowed from the religious subdivision of time into a number of waqtus (Ach. watèë or waʾtèë), the periods allotted to the obligatory prayers. Others are based on daily occupations, meals, etc. The principal divisions, commencing from the morning, are as follows:
| Ban beukah mata uròë ("with the breaking forth of the sun") | about | 6 | A. M. |
| Sigalah uròë[5] ("the sun a pole high" referring to the poles used in propelling craft) | 7 to 7.30 | ||
| Watèë or waʾtèë bu ("rice-time", i.e. "meal-time") | 9 | ||
| Plòïh meuneuʾuë ("the loosening of the ploughing gear" i. e. the time at which the plougher, who has broken his fast early in the morning, goes with his buffaloes to seek repose | 10 | ||
| Peunab chòt[6] ("the approaching of the zenith" i. e. by the sun) | 11 | ||
| Chòt („zenith”) | 12 | NOON | |
| Reubah chòt ("falling from the zenith"”) or leuhō (Ach. pronunciation of the Arabic ẓuhr = midday) | 12.30 | P. M. | |
| Peuteungahan leuhō ("the middle of the period devoted to the obligatory noonday prayers") | about | 1.30–2 | P. M. |
| Akhé leuhō (the last part of the above period) | 3 | ||
| Asa ("the beginning of the time of the ʿasr or afternoon prayers") | 3.30 | ||
| Peuteungahan asa (the middle of the above period) | 4.30–5 | ||
| Akhé asa (the last part of that period) | 5.30 | ||
| Mugréb[7] ("sunset") | 5.30 | ||
| ʿicha ("evening"—especially referring to the time of the commencement of the evening prayer. Arab. ʿishā) | 7.30 | ||
| Teungòh malam ("midnight") | 12 | ||
| Sulīih yang akhé ("the last third of the night"; Arab. thulth). | 1.30–4.30 | A. M. | |
| Kukuëʾ manòʾ siseun ("the single crowing of the cock") | 3 | ||
| Kukuëʾ manòʾ ramè (the continuous crowing of cocks") | 4–4.30 | ||
| Muréh ("the streaks of dawn" on the horizon) or subòh (from Arab. subḥ = morning) or paja (from Arab. fajr = early dawn) | close on | 5 | [8]. |
Sikléb mata, a moment (a blink of the eyes).
Chèh ranub sigapu, the time required for chewing a quid of sirih, about 5 minutes.
Masaʾ bu sikay breuëh the time required for cooking a kay (cocoanut shell-full) of rice, about half an hour.
Masaʾ bu sigantang[9] breuëh, the time required for cooking a gantang of rice, about an hour and a half.
Masaʾ bu sinaléh breuëh, the time required for cooking a naléh of rice, about 3 hours.
Sikhan uròë, half a day, about 6 hours.
Siʾ uròë seupōt, lit. = "a sun dark”, a whole day[10].
To distinguish "to-day" (uròë nyòë) from the days which precede and follow it, the following expressions are in use[11].
Beuklam, the previous evening, which according to the Achehnese conception is the evening of the present day; it thus answers to our "yesterday evening".
Baròë, yesterday (daytime only).
Baròë sa, the day before yesterday, lit. "yesterday one".
Baròë sa jéh, the day before that again (lit. "yesterday one more on that side").
Singòh, to-morrow.
Lusa, the day after to-morrow.
Lusa raya, the day after that again.
To denote the day of the month, in answer to the question "how many days moon?" (padum uròë buleuën) they say "one, two etc. days moon", si uròë, dua uròë etc. buleuën. For the first and thirtieth days of the month the reverse order is employed, as (buleuën siʾ uròë, buleuën lhèë plōh). The first of next month is denoted by the expression (when) the moon (is) visible (buleuën leumah) and the subsequent days of that month by "two, three etc. days visible moon (dua, lhèë etc. uròë buleuén leumah). Last month is called "a moon before", or a moon which is past" e. g. the fourth of last month, peuët uròë buleuën dilèë or buleuën nyang ka abéh[12].
§ 2. Achehno-Mohammedan Feasts and appointed
Times and Seasons.
We now enter upon our review of the Achehno-Mohammedan year and its appointed times and seasons.
Achura.1. Asan-Usén (= Muharram). In the books of Mohammedan law it is set down as sunat (that is, a meritorious though not obligatory work) to fast on the 10th day of this month. None but very devout persons observe this custom, so that this day, which is named Ashura (in Acheh Achura and in Java Sura) passes almost unnoticed as far as concerns its celebration.
In Shiʾite countries it is quite the reverse. There the first ten days of this month are devoted to all manner of ceremonies, processions, discourses and theatrical representations, purporting to commemorate the conflict between Mohammad's grandson Ḥusain and the Umayyads. These festivities culminate in the Ashura, on which day he perished on the plains of Kerbela, yet even on this a number of ceremonies follow, extending over the next three days and consecrated to the memory of his burial etc.
The dances and bonfires, the ḍikrs[13] with their mourning for the martyrs' fate, a grief which though artificially excited expresses itself in wild frenzies where the mourners gash their own bodies with knives; the theatrical representations, sometimes confounded with reality by the crowds of spectators, so that the actor who takes the part of the murderer of Ḥusain becomes exposed to actual violence; the mad processions, particularly common in Hindustan, and which remind one more of a fair or carnival than of a funeral pageant; all this specially belongs to Persia and the Shiʾite portions of British India, and need not occupy our attention here.
It is however worthy of remark that even Mohammedan peoples who follow the orthodox ritual, but whose life and thought have been subjected to Shiʾite influences celebrate feasts of the above description. They recognize no impropriety in so doing, though their teachers refrain from all participation in these ceremonies, which are to a considerable extent of pagan origin.
A very noteworthy and full description of such festivals is to be found in the Qanoon-e-islam of Jaffur Shurreef (pronounced Jafar Sharif) translated into English by G. A. Herklots, (2nd ed. Madras 1863 pp. 98–149). It has especial interest for us, because the work of this writer relates to a non Shiite people, the inhabitants of the coastlands of the Southern part of British India, whence the creed of Islam would appear to have made its first advances towards the Eastern Archipelago.
The Mohammedans of the Deccan, whose manners are portrayed in this work, are Shafiʾites just like those of the Malay Archipelago, but their national ideas and customs have arisen to a great extent under strong Shiʾite influences. As is clear from a comparison of Jaffur Shurreef's book with what we actually find in Netherlands-India, these adventitious additions to their creed were adopted by the Malay and Javanese converts with just as much readiness as the fundamental truths of the Shafiʾite law or of the teaching universally accepted as orthodox.
To attain the certainty that we might desire on these points a more detailed comparative enquiry would be requisite. But it is clear beyond all doubt that the Deccan form of Mohammedanism exercised an influence on that of the Indonesians superior in force to that of any other agency. This may at once be gathered from the character of the popular religious literature, even were there no other proof. Whence come the stories which are such favourites in the Eastern Archipelago of the Titanic wars and numerous love adventures of Amir Hamzah (the uncle of Mohammad), the romantic adventures of Mohammad (ibnuʾl) Hanafiyyah (the son of Ali), of the hero Samʾun, Raja Badar and many more, all in conflict both with the history and the legendary tradition of the Arabs? It is more particularly in British India that works of this sort are to be met with, nor is it possible that they should have been disseminated to such an extent in any country closer to Arabia.
The absurd tales related of Ḥusain and his companions, the martyrs of Kerbela, are also of the same character as those current in India. There too (and consequently in the Archipelago as well), Ḥasan, innocent as he was of all martyrdom, has been enrolled in this band of saints, and the Ashura-festival bears the names of both brothers.
In different parts of Netherlands-India and especially on the West Coast of Sumatra (Padang, Bencoolen[14] etc.) the Ḥasan-Ḥusain festival is celebrated on a smaller scale, but in much the same manner as we find it described in the Qanoon-e-islam. It has been thought that it was introduced along the sea-board by the sipahis (sepoys) who immigrated thither during the English domination. It is indeed quite possible that these natives of Hindustan may have had an influence on the manner of its observance. It is however propable, to say the least, that even previously to this a Ḥasan-Ḥusain feast enjoyed much popularity both in Sumatra and elsewhere. Indeed how else can we account for the fact that it is celebrated to this day in Trumon in the manner customary in the Deccan, that in Acheh the month is called Asan-Usén, and that the day Ashura, of which orthodox Islam takes but but little notice, has in Java given its name Sura to the month Muḥarram.
In order to arrive at a more definite conclusion we should require more complete data with regard to the spread of the observance and of the legendary traditions attached to it.
A later wave of orthodoxy, however, proceeding especially from Mecca, has purified the Islam of the East Indies of sundry heresies, and among them of the Ḥasan-Ḥusain feasts. The noisy celebration of these festivals, which may now be witnessed year by year at Kuta Raja, are for the most part got up by the Padang people who have settled there. Some Klings and Hindus[15] take part in them, but the Achehnese merely act as spectators. Wherever in Acheh or its dependencies many Klings or other Indian Mohammedons had settled, tabut[16] processions always took place; but the participation of the native people in these is undoubtedly a phenomenon of the later growth.
A further custom, which is really no more than an insignificant adjunct of the Ḥasan-Ḥusain festivals, but which exists elsewhere as an independent usage, is the cooking of special viands on the Ashura day.
In Hindustan the chosen dish seems to be that known as khichri[17]; in Cairo it is called ḥubub i. e. "seeds" or "grains"[18]. In Java the bubur sura as it is called, also consists of various grains or seeds such as jagong or maize, peas etc., mixed with pieces of cocoanut and placed on top of the rice. A similar custom is that of dedicating particular dishes on various occasions to particular prophets or saints to the spirits of the departed in general.
In Acheh this dish of porridge is called kanji[19] Achura and consists of rice, cocoanut milk, sugar and pieces of cocoanut, mixed with various fruits cut into small pieces such as papayas (bòh peutéʾ), peas (reuteuëʾ), pomegranates (bòh glima), plantains, sugarcane and various edible roots.
The kanji Ashura is not cooked in every separate house; one or two large pots full suffice for a whole gampōng. Those who undertake the cooking receive voluntary subscriptions from their fellow-villagers. The mess is brought to the meunasah or sometimes to the junction of the gampōng-path with the main road. All who wish fall to and gormandize, generally to such an extent as to cause indigestion. The blessing of the bubur by a prayer, though common in Java, is not customary in Acheh. In neither country is the feast strictly limited to the 10th of the month, but often extends some days beyond.
Unlucky days.A further survival of the old commemoration of Ḥasan and Ḥusain is to be found in the fact that the first ten days of the month which bears their name are regarded as unlucky. On them no work of importance is begun, no marriage with a virgin[20] consummated (for that would mean speedy separation or the death of one of the pair), no child circumcised, no rice sown or planted out.
The name "fire-month" (buleuën apuy) given to the Achura-month to account for these adat-rules is peculiarly Achehnese. It may be that there lurks here a further allusion to the dances of the Ḥasan-Ḥusain feasters round fires, as practised to this day in Trumon and in the Deccan.
Rabu Abéh.2. Sapha (= Ṣafar) is also a month to be avoided for undertakings of weight.
The reason for this has been stated to be that in this month the fatal sickness of Mohammad, to which he succumbed in the third month of the year, first began to show itself. However that may be, the belief is universal in the Mohammedan world that Safar is pregnant with evil, and that one may feel very thankful when he reaches the last Wednesday of this month without mishap. This day nowhere passes wholly without notice.
In Acheh it is called Rabu Abéh[21], "the final Wednesday." Many take a bath on this day, the dwellers on the coast in the sea, others in the river or at the well. It is considered desirable to use for this bath water consecrated by contact with certain verses of the Qurān. To this end a teungku in the gampōng gives to all who ask slips of paper on which he has written the seven verses of the Qurān in which Allah addresses certain men with the word salām ("blessing" or "peace")[22]. These papers are thrown into sea, river or well, and the water is thereby believed to be given salutary powers.
Others drink water from a platter on which these verses are inscribed, the writing being partially dissolved in the water[23].
With this bathing[24] are connected other regulations in regard to the toilet such as shaving, cutting of nails etc. but the Achehnese do not pay much attention to these.
Those who live near the sea-shore are especially fond of the Rabu Abéh picnics. Each brings his contribution (ripè) for the feast, which exhibits not the smallest trace of its religious origin. These social gatherings are called meuramiën. In Java also these picnics generally take place in seaside localities. The common people know no more than that this "Final Wednesday" is appointed for bathing, drinking charmed water and holding social gatherings and do not concern themselves at to the traditional origin of the custom. Such is also the case in Arabia[25].
Some pious persons perform on the afternoon of the Rabu Abéh a special voluntary seumayang consisting of two or more divisions, on the ground of a tradition characterized as "weak" by the expounders of the law.
Feast of the birth of Mohammad.3. Mòʾlōt (Rabiʿ al-awwal) is in every Mohammedan country, but especially in the Eastern Archipelago, a month of feasts. According to the now generally accepted tradition the 12th of this month was the date both of the birth and of the death of the Prophet, and on this day many other important occurrences took place during the 63 years which separate these two events.
We know with what brilliancy the birthday of the Apostle of God is celebrated in the Javanese courts, and how universal is its public observance even in the smallest of Javanese villages. Although this festival is not one of the two officially ordained by the law—since, as may be supposed, it did not begin to be observed until long after Mohammad's death—it is in fact accepted as obligatory, especially in the Indian Archipelago, and entirely overshadows the so-called "great feast" of the 10th of the 12th month.
Observance obligatory in Acheh.The Achehnese regard the observance of the Mòʾlōt as specially binding on the people of their country. To account for this they refer to a historical legend connected with a certain cannon, which before the coming of the Dutch to Acheh formed part of the defences of the Dalam.
It is well known how common has been the custom amongst native peoples of giving proper names to certain cannons, which they regarded more or less as personified and even worshipped as sacred after a time. We may instance Si Penjagur at Batavia, and its consorts Si Amok in Banten and Sětomi at Surakarta, with many more.
Similarly in Acheh there were many such guns with proper names, among them that mentioned above, which bore the title Lada Sichupaʾ = "a chupaʾ of pepper[26]. The origin of this name, according to the popular tradition, was as follows:
Achehnese embassy to Turkey.In the course of the sixteenth century, when Acheh began to grow powerful, one of the Sultans—we know not which—thought that the time had come to bring his kingdom to the notice of the lord of all believers, the Raja Rōm, i. e. the Sultan of Turkey. He caused one of his biggest ships to be laden with pepper, the principal product of the country, as an offering expressive of homage to the supreme lord. Some say that he made the journey himself; according to others he sent an embassy of wealthy chiefs.
At Stambul (Eseutambōy) no one had ever heard of the existence of Acheh. So when the ambassadors arrived there, though they found it easy enough to get a lodging in return for their money, all their efforts to induce the officials to ask an audience for them of the Sultan proved of no avail. Thus they remained there a year or two, and as their means soon became exhausted, they had gradually to sell their pepper to supply themselves with the necessaries of life.
In the end, as chance would have it, the Sultan while returning one Friday from the mosque to his palace, espied our Achehnese among the crowd of respectful spectators. They attracted his attention by their peculiar dress, and he enquired whence they came and what had brought them to Constantinople.
The desired explanation was given, and the Sultan, after venting his wrath on the officials whose foolish pride had so long denied this embassy admittance to his presence, requested the strangers to come that same day to his palace.
The Achehnese were indeed delighted at having attained their object, but at the same time they were ashamed at having no clothing left suitable for such a visit, and also because, out of the whole cargo of pepper which they had brought with them, only a single chupaʾ remained.
When admitted to the Sultan’s presence, they told him about the kingdom of Acheh. They informed him that they had wished to present him with a cargo of pepper by way of first tribute, but were compelled to turn it into money for their needs, so that they could now only offer him a single chupaʾ as a sample of that product. The Sultan accepted the gift most graciously, and requested them to tell him all about affairs in Acheh, the distance of that kingdom from Stambul, the difficulties of the journey and so forth.
Lada Sichupaʾ.Finally he ordered a great cannon to be given them as a return present, and to this was given the name of Lada Sichupaʾ. In compliance with their request he also gave them a number of skilled artisans from his kingdom to instruct their fellow-countrymen in various arts hitherto unknown to them.
Teungku di Bitay.It is said that a number of these instructors who came from Syria, settled in a gampōng close to the Dalam, and in remembrance of their native land gave the village the name of Bitay (Ach. pronunciation of Bētal, an abbreviation of Bētal-maḳdis = Jerusalem). In Bitay may still be seen the grave of a saint, Teungku di Bitay, who according to the tradition belonged to this colony of strangers.
The Sultan of Turkey also considered it unbefitting to bind his new vassal to the regular despatch of embassies or tribute, since the great length of the journey presented too many difficulties. "Let the faithful observance," said he, "of a religious custom in your country take the place of the yearly payments which elsewhere constitute the mark of submission to a suzerain. The observance of the feast of Mohammad's birth is among the most meritorious of works of devotion. So let there be no village in Acheh where the inhabitants do not publicly hold a Mòʾlōt feast; that shall be your tribute to the lord of the Faithful."
Such is the explanation given of the fact that this festival has been always so strictly observed in Acheh. In former times the headman of a gampōng who did not make provision in due time for the holding of this annual feast was fined by the ulèëbalang for neglect of duty.
Although the 12th of this month is accepted as the birthday of the prophet and thus as the feast-day par excellence, the commemoration of the birth of Mohammad is not confined to this date. Throughout the whole Moslem world maulids (or as they are generally called in the Archipelago mauluds) are held on various occasions. These are declamations by learned men in verse or rhyming prose dealing with events in the life of the Prophet, and concluding with a prayer and a feast for those assembled.
Acheh is no exception to the rule; funeral feasts for example are often here enlivened by a Mòʾlōt. But the Mòʾlōt, which the Achehnese regard as obligatory, must be held in all gampōngs either in the month Mòʾlōt (on or after the 12th day) or in one of the two following months. It is from this that the latter derive their names "Younger Brother of Mòʾlōt" and "Final Mòʾlōt."
The place where the Mòʾlōt is celebrated is the meunasah. The day is fixed year by year by the headman so as not to clash with the pursuits of the villagers. Care is taken at the same time to fix the dates so that no two gampōngs of the same name shall celebrate the Mòʾlōt on the same day or after too short an interval, because all the people of the same mukim are invited to each feast.
Those who live in other gampōngs in the same mukim are the guests of the whole gampōng and receive a formal invitation through a messenger of the keuchiʾ.
Such official invitations (muròh) to kanduris or religious festivals are always given in the form of an offering, as it is called, of ranub baté (ranub or sirih in its baté[27], a copper or silver bowl lined with an ornamental piece of cloth). The baté contains, besides the sirih, only a little betelnut, but none of the other requisites for betel-chewing. Where the invitation to one of these kanduris is addressed to persons of high consideration such as tuankus (royal princes) the symbolical gift is presented in a more costly sort of sirih-bowl (karaih) in place of the baté.
The official invitation to the kanduri Mòʾlōt is addressed only to the members of the governing body of the gampōng, the keuchiʾ, teungku and elders, but all the inhabitants are regarded as being included therein.
"Respectful greetings and good wishes from Teuku Keuchiʾ of gampōng X and the Teungku! They desire (or request) that You will come and partake of their kanduri on such and such a day." So speaks the messenger. They receive from him the sirih and pinang, hand back the empty baté, and answer simply: "it is well."
The viands are provided by all the heads of families. Each of them, if his means allow, brings on the appointed day an idang to the meunasah. The components of such an idang will be found detailed in our description of marriage ceremonies. The idang lintō (bridegroom's idang), the idang peujamèë (placed before guests at certain visits prescribed by adat[28] and the idang Mòʾlōt are almost precisely identical. At times the competition between the people of the same gampōng to outshine one another in the costliness of their idangs reaches such a pitch, that the village headmen are obliged to fix a certain limit which must not be exceeded.
As meat, which the Atchehnese seldom eat on ordinary occasions, is indispensable for the idang Mòʾlōt, the kanduri is preceded by the slaughter of animals. Such general slaughterings take place on no other occasions except the last days of the eighth and ninth months and on a small scale at the "great" feast of the sacrifices on the 10th day of the twelfth month.
Care is also taken that the sirih and its appurtenances be not wanting after the feast. Piles of sirih-leaves are heaped up high on dalōngs or trays, and between them are placed the betel-nut, gambir, tobacco etc., the whole forming what is called the ranub dòng or "standing sirih." The sirih is presented in the same form in offering a betrothal gift.
The cost of a single idang amounts to as much as four dollars, so that the less well-to-do families club together, three, four or five at a time to provide a single idang.
Besides those invited by the gampōng in general, each individual has his private guests, viz. all those of his relatives who live elsewhere and feel disposed to partake in the kanduri. These come without invitation, as according to the adat they are at liberty to regard the kanduri Mòʾlōt of a member of their family as their own.
Where there are many such guests to entertain, the expenses of the feast are vastly augmented for their host, since the adat directs that he should furnish for them a complete separate idang in addition to his contribution to the general feast.
Recitation of the history of Mohammad's birth.The guests, who are of course all men, assemble in the meunasah usually in the forenoon, and always in the daytime. The Teungku and the leubès appear a little earlier than the others, as they have to recite the Mòʾlōt. This recitation is called meuliké (from ḍikr) in Acheh. Similarly the Javanese speak of the dikir maulut.
Some of the maulids most in use have been handsomely lithographed at Cairo by Ḥasan aṭ-Ṭōchi Aḥmad and published in a single volume along with a number of other formulas used for religious purposes. This collection enjoys the greatest popularity both at Mekka and throughout the whole Indian Archipelago. Two of these maulids are in rhyming prose alternating with songs of praise in verse. One of these was composed by a certain Bukhārī,[29] the other by Jaʾfar-al-Barzanjī. One is entirely in verse; this is also the work of the last-named writer.
All three are also in use in Acheh, that of Bukhārī especially at the official kanduris. It bears the title of Maulid sharafi ʾl-anām (Birth of the Glory of Mankind) and is called Sarapulanam in Java, and Charapha anam in Acheh.
The prose pieces are recited by one person, but others of those assembled may take a turn to relieve the reader. It is the same with the versified portions, the chanting of which in a particular fashion is very popular. About the middle of the Charapha anam comes a hymn of praise of moderate length which all the experts present raise in chorus.
These experts, in an Achehnese meunasah, are the Teungku and all the leubès. While singing they rise from their places, and in their midst is placed a vessel containing incense, the savoury smoke from which blends with the chant in honour of the Apostle of God.
After this hymn of praise the kanduri Mòʾlōt closes with a long prayer which is to be found at the end of the Charapha anam.
Mòʾlōt charms.Meantime the people of the gampōng have also appeared upon the scene, and where there is no room left in the meunasah, have taken up their position in a neighbouring balè or in the surrounding houses. Whilst the leubès stand and chant their hymn, the others crowd around and hand them pieces of black thread in which they tie knots while continuing to chant. These knotted threads are placed round the necks of the children in the firm conviction that they constitute infallible charms.[30]
In Java it is customary to make the maulut-recitations the occasion for initiating certain homely industries such as knitting the first meshes of a fishing-net, commencing the hem of a garment etc., in order that the Prophet's blessing may rest upon their task. This is not done in Acheh; here the fishermen set up their nets (jeuë, nyarèng or pukat) on a Friday, sitting at the entrance of the mosque while the devout pass in to take part in the weekly service.
After the prayer, the people of the gampōng and their guests commence their onslaught on the good cheer that awaits them. The Javanese custom of carrying home the remnants of the feast (under the name of běrkat = "blessing") after a religious festival is not the fashion in Acheh[31]; each one takes away what is left of the idang which forms his own contribution to the feast.
Wealthy persons sometimes give separate Mòʾlōt feasts in their own homes, but choose another day than that fixed for the kanduri of their gampōng—generally the 12th of the month, which is seldom chosen for the public celebration. All attend the latter, not excepting the ulèëbalangs themselves.
A specially great kanduri Mòʾlōt is held on the actual Mòʾlōt day at the tomb of Teungku Anjōng in Gampōng Jawa. On this occasion one or more buffaloes are slaughtered, and besides those who assemble in the déah to partake of the feast, sundry ulamas have a share therein, pieces of meat being sent them by the guardian of the tomb.
The superstitious belief that no work of importance should be initiated before the 12th day of Mòʾlōt is commonly met with in Java, but never in Acheh. The whole of this month, as well as its "younger brother" are here regarded as specially favourable for marriage and circumcision feasts etc. As regards the succeeding months:
4. Adòë Mòʾlōt (Rabīʾal-akhir) and
5. Mòʾlōt seuneulheuëh (Jumāda ʾl-awwal), little remains to be noted beyond what we have said above. The latter, the fifth month of the year is also considered suitable for feasts etc., but enjoys no special preference.
Before taking leave of the Mòʾlōt months, we must add a few words respecting what is in Acheh comprehended under the word kanduri.
We should not be far wrong in asserting that this word (another of those imported into the Archipelago from India[32] has the same meaning as what the Javanese and Sundanese indicate by the expressions sěděkah, siděkah, slamětan or hajat, and often too by the words kěnduri or kěndurèn. It is a feast given with a religious purpose, or in conformity with a command of religious law. The occasions which give rise to it are of various kinds.
With one of these we have just made acquaintance, viz. a religious festival or day of commemoration. There are besides a number of domestic events which are celebrated by such feasts. The Mohammedan law ordains with special emphasis their being held on the occasion of a wedding, but also recommends them for circumcisions and sundry other events which give rise to rejoicing.
The same law requires that the religious character of such feasts should not be lost sight of. The poor must be invited, and preferably the devout poor. There is no difficulty in finding such; the leubès or the corresponding class in other countries are distinguished by piety at least in outward seeming, and are at the same time usually poor or pass as being so. No prohibited amusements or sports must be held, no forbidden display made, where a walimah (as these feasts are called in the books of the law) is in progress.
These forbidden things are indeed forbidden at all times, but if such trangression is committed at a walimah (= kanduri, siděkah etc.) the feast itself loses its sacred character. The law directs in all cases and in some even imperiously commands attendance in response to an invitation to a walimah, but is equally express in prohibiting it where the feast is robbed of its religious character by music for instance, or the presence of women in the company of males, or the employment for decorative purposes of representations of living beings or the like.
But as the adat of the worldly in all Mohammedan countries regards these forbidden things as indispensable to every feast, various methods are resorted to for effecting a compromise. Only such leubès and ulamas are invited as are content to wink at worldly display, so long as they can satisfy their scruples by abstaining from taking a direct part in it. Sometimes both aspects of the feast are maintained, but at different times, so that the ulama may with an easy conscience sanctify the walimah by his recitation of prayer, though he well knows that the festival will presently be disgraced by proceedings inspired of the Evil One.
A death also furnishes occasion for a kanduri. The holding of such a feast on the actual day of the death, though common in practice, is not altogether in conformity with the law, though it sanctions feasts being held at certain customary intervals (e. g. on the 3d, 7th or 40th day) after the decease. These are always preceded by a recitation from the Qurān or ḍikr. Such kanduris are viewed in the same light as those given on the anniversary of a saint. The reward ordained by Allah for the Qurān recitation, the ḍikr and the giving of the religious feast, is tendered to the deceased relative or to the saint, as the case may be. If the former, it is done to promote the soul's repose of the deceased by increasing his heavenly recompense, while the gift to the saint is made to gain his goodwill and intercession with Allah. In the popular superstition, which is based on the earlier worship of the dead, such kanduris are considered actual offerings of food to the deceased themselves. It is believed that they enjoy the immaterial essence of all that is set before them.
Though the sanctification by means of Qurān recitations, ḍikrs or prayer is always regarded as an embellishment of the kanduri, and one or other of the three is considered indispensable at many of these feasts, kanduris are also given which have nothing of this kind to distinguish them. There may be either simply an oral "address" to the saint or departed spirit whom it is sought to propitiate, or to the spirits of the dead in general, or else the religious object of the feast may be kept in view in thought only without any outward form.
Such kanduris or siděkahs of the simplest kind are believed to promote good or ward off evil fortune. Suppose some relative is on a journey, some new business being set on foot or a child being sent for the first time to school. The safe return of the traveller, success in the undertaking, quickness of learning on the child's part are all sought to be promoted by a religious feast the devotional character of which is only shown by a prayer for prosperity (duʿa salamat), when one of those present happens to know such a prayer. In the same manner dreaded evil is charmed away, as for instance during an epidemic, or after an alarming dream or threat. These are the sort of feasts which in some districts of Java have the special name of slamětans (good-luck feasts). But as we have already said, siděkah, slamětan and kanduri are generally confused in the colloquial, and in Acheh they are all included under the single expression kanduri or kanuri.
The name siděkah, under which these feasts are most generally known in Java, is a corruption of the Arabic sadaqah, i. e. pious or devout offerings. Such a feast is indeed a pious offering in a double sense, for the feast is given to guests distinguished to some extent by their leading a religious life, and the recompense of the good work thus done falls to the share of the deceased. Sěděkah is also used in its proper sense of a present with pious intent, when for instance a gift in money or kind is offered to a leubè, ulama, sayyid or other devout person[33].
The word kanduri supplies both meanings in the Achehnese vernacular.
The kanduri of fruits.6. Kanduri bòh kayèë (Jumada ʾl-ākhir) owes its name to a custom common amongst the Achehnese. On some one day of this month they purchase fruits of every kind to be found in the market. These they bring as a kanduri or pious offering to the mosque or meunasah, where they are enjoyed by those of the faithful who are present in these places of worship, under the supervision of the attendants of the mosque or the Teungku.
The original purpose of this custom seems now to have been forgotten by the Achehnese themselves. At present these offerings are regarded as a kanduri keu ureuëng chiʾ i. e. a kanduri for the advantage of the giver's ancestors, but which also serves to promote his own prosperity.
Tuan Meurasab.The 9th, 10th and 11th days of this month are consecrated to a saint whose tomb is to be found at Nagore on the Coromandel coast. He has also many worshippers in Acheh, seemingly through the influence of those inhabitants of Southern India who introduced here the creed of Islam.
What I have observed elsewhere[34] with regard to feasts of saints at Mekka, is equally true of these "saints days" in Acheh—nay throughout the whole Moslem world. "The people have no clear idea as to what the "day" of a saint really is. They say, it is true, that it is the ḥaul or anniversary of the death of the holy man. But some saints have more than one ḥaul per annum, the exact day of the death of most is unknown, and from the way in which many of the saint's feasts are celebrated, it is a sure conclusion that some of the ancient pagan feasts of the people, after throwing off certain of their more characteristic heathen features disguised themselves under the names of saints to avoid the extermination which threatened them."
The saint to whom we have just referred is called in his own country Kadir Wali Sahib[35]. The Achehnese name for him is Meurahsab or Meurasab[36].
The 10th day of the sixth month is accepted as the anniversary of his death, and the kanduri held thereon is called kanduri tōʾ thōn Tuan Meurasab, i. e. "the religious feast for the expiration of the year of Tuan Meurasab."
Strange stories are told of Tuan Meurasab[37]. He grew up in the wilderness in complete innocence, and it so happened that he saw the breasts of a woman for the first time just when he was himself suffering from a pimple on his hand. As this tiny swelling caused him so much pain, he thought that this poor woman must suffer terrible agony from such gigantic tumours on her chest. He prayed for the removal of these protuberances, and his prayer was at once answered. The woman was naturally much distressed, and went and informed her relations how she had seen the beauty of her person suddenly vanish on the utterance of a few words by a penitent hermit. At the entreaties of her family Meurasab offered up a second prayer, which resulted in the restoration of the lost charms.
A further example of his miraculous power supplies an explanation of the fact that the Achehnese were readily persuaded by the foreigners who visited their country to revere this pious recluse as the protector of navigation.
The captain of a ship, whose vessel was on the point of foundering owing to a leak, vowed that he would make a handsome offering in the name of Meurasab if the leak were stopped through his intercession. Our saint was at that moment sitting under the razor of a barber, and held, as is customary with Orientals, a small mirror in his hand to direct the operator in his work. Feeling that his aid was invoked, he flung away his mirror. By Allah's help it made its way through air and water till it found its destination beneath the ship and stopped the leak, so that both vessel and cargo came safe to land.
The vows, however, that are made to this saint in Acheh, are by no means confined to ships and sailors.
His intervention is also invoked on behalf of sick children. The vow in such cases consists in the promise of a gold or silver hand, or "the height of the child in gold" (santeut dong) in the event of recovery. Such hands or pieces of gold thread (woven as thin as possible) are given to Kling traders journeying to Madras, who undertake their transmission to Nagore[38].
Other vows are fulfilled at the place of abode of those who make them. Even the payment of what has been promised to the great saints of Acheh as recompense for their intercession does not always involve a visit to their graves. Suppose for instance that the master of a vessel, while in danger at sea, has vowed a goat to Tuen Meurasab for his safe return, he kills the goat in his own gampōng, makes a kanduri with it and requests the teungku to recite over it the fātiḥah (the first chapter of the Qurān) for the benefit of the saint.
The "anniversary" of the saint is occasionally celebrated in Kuta Raja and Trumòn by a great kanduri on the 10th day of this month, but the givers of this feast are always the Klings who reside there, and the Achehnese who partake of it do so only as guests. Tuan Meurasab has thus really no place in the Achehnese calendar of festivals.
The ascension to heaven.7. Kanduri Apam (Rajab) holds its place in the official calendar of feasts, chiefly because Mohammad's celebrated "journey to heaven" is supposed to have taken place on the night of (or rather the night before) the 27th of this month. For the commemoration of this night the people assemble either in the mosque or in their own houses, and a history of the miʿrāj as it is called (Ach. mèʾreuët) is recited. This recitation consists in a description of the ascension in rhyming prose and verse, similar to those of the birth and life of the Prophet.
This pious custom is observed in Acheh, but not to any greater extent than in other parts of the Indian Archipelago. In a word, its observance is confined to those who profess special devotion to religion, such as the leubès, maléms etc. It is not a national festival in any sense of the words.
The wife of Teungku Anjōng.On the 18th of this month one of the three principal annual kanduris is held in the déah (prayer-house) at the tomb of the great saint Teungku Anjōng. This is done in honour of his consort, whose tomb stands close to his. She is commonly known as Aja[39] Eseutiri i.e. "my lady the consort." She appears to have died on the 18th of Rajab 1235 (May 1820). She was a daughter of a Sayyid of the famous clan of ʿAzdid and her real name was Faṭimah bint Abdarrḥamān ʿAidid.
The kanduri Aja Eseutiri resembles exactly the two others that are celebrated at that sacred tomb on the 12th of Mòʾlōt and the 14th of Puasa.
The custom from which this month derives its Achehnese name is pretty generally observed, though less markedly so in recent times. On some one day of the month of Rajab the well-known round flat cakes known as apam, made of ordinary rice-flour and cocoanut milk, are baked in every house. A number of these are brought as kanduri to the mosque or meunasah, just in the same way as the kanji Ashura.
As many as a hundred of these little cakes are piled upon a dish, and to this is added a basin of sauce which is called seurawa and consists of cocoanut milk, sugar and beaten-up eggs. It is not surprising that the faithful frequenters of the mosque suffer from apam-indigestion during this month, or that in spite of the large share that falls into the hands of the youthful hordes that lurk in the vicinity, many apam-cakes have in the end to be thrown away.
The story goes that once on a time a certain Achehnese, possessed by curiosity as to what befalls man in the tomb, and especially as to the investigations of the angels of the grave, Munkar and Nakir, and the punishments they are supposed to inflict, feigned death and was buried alive. He was soon subjected by the two angels to an enquiry as to his faith and works, and as he was found wanting in many respects, they began to smite him with their iron clubs. None of the blows, however, reached him. Something that he could not clearly distinguish in the darkness of the tomb, but which seemed to resemble the moon in its circular form, interposed itself as a shield and warded off the blows.
He contrived to work his way out of his narrow prison and hastened to his relatives, who received him with amazement. After relating his adventures he came to know to what he had to attribute his merciful deliverance from flagellation by the ghostly clubs. At the very moment when the moon-shaped shield was giving him its shelter, the members of his family were in the act of preparing for a kanduri the apam cakes, which are in fact round like the moon.
Thus it became a certainty that apam-cakes exercise a specially favourable influence on the fortunes of the dead. Such is said to be the origin of the Achehnese custom of baking apam cakes and distributing them as kanduri in the 7th month of the year in the interest of their ancestors and deceased relatives,
Other apam kanduris.Besides this great general feast two other customs of the Achehnese find their explanation in this legend, viz. 1° a domestic kanduri apam held on the seventh day after the death of any person and 2° a similar feast on the occurrence of an earthquake, which is supposed to have a peculiarly discomposing effect on the material remains of the deceased.
We may let the details of this explanation of the kanduri apam pass for what they are worth. At the same time it is quite conceivable that the custom had its origin in the worship of the dead; and a certain connection between the shape of the cakes which form the offering and some now forgotten notions connected with the moon is at least not impossible.
All souls month.8° Kanduri Bu (Shaʿbān). Throughout the whole of the Indian Archipelago this month is dedicated to the commemoration of the dead. This does not imply grief for their loss, but rather care for their souls' repose, which is not inconsistent with merrymaking. This solicitude for the welfare of the departed exhibits itself by the giving of religious feasts. According to the official or learned conception this is done in order to bestow on the deceased the recompense earned by this good work; according to the popular notion it is to let them enjoy the actual savour of the good things of the feast.
Feasts for the benefit of any given deceased person are, as we whall presently see, only held during a short period after his death. In Acheh this period is even shorter than elsewhere, consisting of only 100 days. In Java there are further commemorations on the first two anniversaries and the 1000th day. Under the influence of Mekka it has even become the custom to celebrate the anniversaries of the departed so long as pious children or grandchildren survive to cherish their memory.
In the end, however long the interval, the deceased is personally forgotten, but is included in the ranks of "ancestors" or "spirits of the departed", occasionally commemorated at odd times according to the fancy of individuals, but as a rule during a single month in the year set apart for the purpose. The choice of the eighth month of the year for this commemoration, which in Arabia generally takes place in the seventh month, seems a further corroboration of the introduction of Islam into Acheh from the Deccan[40].
The name of the month Shaʿbān in many native languages is borrowed from this pious custom. In Javanese it is called Ruwah or month of all spirits, and in Achehnese Rice-kanduri, since on some one day of this month every household holds in honour of the departed a religious feast, in which rice forms the principal dish.
Rice-kanduri.Rice is, indeed, the chief comestible in many other kanduris and in purely secular feasts, but in Acheh the name of "religious rice feast" is specially given to the kanduris in honour of the dead, whether in the 8th or in other months. Whenever any chance occurrence inclines them to show their ancestors that they are not forgotten, the people cook rice and its accessories and invite the teungku to consecrate such an occasional kanduri with his prayers. This is called simply "having recitations made over rice" (yuë beuët bu), and the prayer most in use on such occasions is called duʾa beuët bu—"prayer to be offered over rice". This is called in Java the prayer of tombs, since it begins with the words "Oh Allah, let mercy descend on the dwellers in the tombs"[41]. An artistic reciter varies this, when the feast is celebrated with unusual éclat, by a more elaborate and longer prayer, whilst the most ignorant recite in its place the fatihah or first chapter of the Qurān, which every child knows by heart.
Thus each family has its "recitation over the rice" during the month kanduri bu on whatever day best suits its convenience. This is done for the benefit of the dead (the ureuëng chiʾ or ancestors as they are called) and also for that of the living, whose prosperity is according to the popular belief directly dependent on the respect they pay to the dead. It is said for example that anyone who had his worldly wealth increased by the inheritance of a dead man's property, would quickly lose this profit if he neglected to celebrate the kanduri bu with the requisite pomp and circumstance in the same year.
The adat requires that the teungku meunasah be invited to this feast. He can either recite the prayer himself or empower another to do so.
The Javanese custom of clearing the graves of ancestors and rehabilitating their exterior during the month of Shaʿbān is unknown in Acheh, where the resting places of the dead are neglected to such a degree that it is difficult to find them in the third generation. In Acheh too, the feasts of all souls are always held at home, while in Java people assemble for this purpose at the burial-places.
The malam beureuʾatThe special sanctity of the "night of the middle of Shaʿbān", called malam beureʾat in Acheh (in the Deccan Shab-i-barat) is believed in by all Mohammedans. It is supposed that on that particular night Allah determines the fate of mortals during the forthcoming year. The most popular idea is that there is a celestial tree of symbolic import, on which every human being has a leaf to represent him. This tree is shaken during the night preceding the 15th of Shaʿbān, causing the leaves of all those who are to die during the coming year to fall.
In Arabia many watch through a part or the whole of this night, and offer up a prayer, invoking Allah’s mercy, and beseeching him to blot out from his eternal book the calamities and adversity destined for the suppliant. Such a prayer is in Acheh only offered up by the special representatives of religion. Most of the adult males celebrate this night by a small and simple kanduri (kanduri beureʾat) in the meunasah of their gampōng. Some hold during the evening a special prayer, the seumayang teuseubèh (Arab. çalat at-tasābīḥ) or "service of praise". All assemble for this service, and one of those present is chosen to act as imam. This prayer resembles in essentials all other çalats, but is distinguished by the constant repetition of a certain tasbīḥ-formula known in Arabic as tasbīḥ[42] in praise of the Creator, in each of the four parts into which it is divided.
Others perform, in place of this seumayang, what is called the seumayang hajat, prescribed as the introduction to special supplications addressed to the Deity. A seumayang hajat consists of two parts (rakʿah). During the malam beureuʾat three such prayers (thus comprising six rakʿahs) are sometimes offered up. Each of these has its particular motive, the first being for prolongation of life, the second for the necessary means of supporting life, and the third for a blissful end.
This kind of seumayang is however celebrated by the women with much greater zeal than by the men. They either perform the service of praise under a female imam or the "seumayang hajat" each one for herself.
The end of this 8th month, and in particular the three last days, are marked by an extraordinary activity owing to the preparations for the Puasa or Fasting Month. We have seen above that it was of old the custom in Acheh to fix the beginning of the fasting month (in other words the day of the new moon following immediately on Shaʿban) by calculation. The efforts of Habib Abdurrahman and other zealots to introduce the ruʾya or actual observation of the new moon as the only lawful method met with little sympathy. In Pidië there has prevailed for many years a difference of opinion as to the determination of the commencement of the Puasa, resulting in quarrels between the various gampōngs and actual discrepancies in their calendars.
The three sagis followed the usage of the capital, where the first day of Ramadhan was made known so long beforehand, that everyone could tell in advance what the last three days of Shaʿbān would be, whether 27–29, or 28–30.
The chief object of the preparations during these three days is to ensure an abundant provision for breaking the fast every evening at sunset and enjoying a final meal before earliest dawn. It is also sought to provide against being obliged to make purchases of any kind during the fasting month. The fasters are as a matter of fact too exhausted to give the ordinary amount of attention to trade in the daytime[43], so that the markets are nearly empty during these thirty days of mortification.
The two meals per diem between nightfall and daybreak which form each man's allowance in the month of Puasa, are made as nourishing as possible, as otherwise he would not have strength to fulfil the religious obligation of abstinence. At the same time the most palatable food, such as is not in daily use at other times, is chosen in order to guard against a gradual loss of appetite and consequent indisposition. Thus the stockfish which forms the staple animal food daily consumed by the Achehnese, is during the fasting month replaced by meat, which is at other seasons rarely used in most households and regarded as a luxury[44].
The slaughter and the three-days fair.Hence comes the ancient custom of buying a stock of meat in every gampōng during the three days preceding the commencement of the fasting month. On the last day before the fast, the people feast abundantly on the meat, and pickle the remnants with salt, vinegar etc. to form a provision calculated to last about 15 days. To satisfy this universal demand for meat, the highlanders come down with their cattle for sale to the chief town. In former times[45] there was a regular fair in Banda Acheh during those three days, as a store had to be laid in not alone of meat, but of all other household necessaries as well, sufficient to last for a month. Both men and women in Acheh have a passion for such busy scenes, so that not only the buyers and sellers, but a great part of the population of the three sagis, all in fact who could afford the journey, used to come to the capital to join in the fair.
As early as the middle of Shaʿbān, the keuchiʾs and teungkus make their estimates for the forthcoming purchase of meat. Each inhabitant of the gampōng is asked how many dollars he intends to spend on meat, and thus they compute how many head of cattle it may be necessary to purchase. Two or three head is the general allowance per gampōng. The people of the XXII, and some of those of the XXVI Mukims are in the habit of slaughtering many cows on such occasions. Elsewhere, as in the XXV Mukims and the territory not included in the three sagis, they slaughter male buffaloes by preference, since it is believed that the use of too much cow's flesh results in a certain sickness called siawan (Malay sěriawan), the symptoms of which are cutaneous eruptions, decay of the teeth and loss of hair.
One of the common folk of the gampōng is entrusted by the keuchiʾ with the collection of the money. He is known as the ureuëng tumunggèë; after the purchases have been concluded he receives two dollars as recompense for his trouble. Before the war, however, the payment of the vendors used to be put off until just before the close of the fasting month, when the highlanders came down with their buffaloes for the second time. A new slaughter then took place to provide meat for the feast which marks the end of the fast, but not on as large a scale as the first.
The beasts are slaughtered by the teungku of the meunasah. Most Mohammedans, even though they neglect or are backward in the performance of their own religious duties, are very particular as to who it is that slaughters the animal of whose flesh they are to partake. He must be one well versed in the rules prescribed by the law in respect of the slaying of animals for food; and he must also be strict in the performance of his daily prayers and other rites enjoined by the Mohammedan religion. Thus it is that throughout a great portion of Java the modin, kahum or lěbe (the "village priest," as Europeans call him) is the only butcher. As a reward for his trouble he receives the kěrědan or neck of every animal he kills[46].
This is nearly identical with the portion given as recompense to the teungku in Acheh, who is allowed to appropriate three fingers breadth behind the ears. This is called the seumeuléhan = "reward for slaughter."
The hide becomes the property of the meunasah. It is converted into a leathern prayer carpet or else sold, the proceeds being spent in the purchase of kettles or such other utensils as are required for the preparation of kanduris.
Until the later years preceding the establishment of the Dutch in Acheh, this three-days' fair was one of the most bustling of festivals. We can conjecture from this what it must have been when the port-kings of Acheh as such were at the zenith of their glory. The direct participation of the Dalam (the Sultan's Court) in this annual market was in these latter days limited to certain traditional customs which merely kept alive a feeble reminiscence of the past. These paltry survivals of the old ceremonial are however the only portion of it of which we have any accurate knowledge.
The Sranta.On the first day of the fair, just before noon, the Sranta took place. This was a proclamation with beat of gong, in the name of the Sultan, that the annual market had begun.
Five or six young men of the Sultan's suite (which as we have seen was not recruited from the best class of the people) appeared in the market, where buyers and sellers had already assembled in unusually large numbers. Business was however in full swing in the market before its official inauguration, for every one knew that the fast was close at hand, and even the exact date of the first day of the Puasa became generally known long before its official announcement.
The emissaries of the Sultan now proceeded to beat loudly and repeatedly on a great gong in the midst of the bustling crowd, and in the intervals between the strokes one of their number, who acted as herald, cried aloud the following words "Twenty-six, twenty-five, twenty-two[47]! Such is the command of our lord (the Sultan): on this day (the cattle is) brought down (from the highlands); to-morrow let the beasts fight; the next day let them be slaughtered."
The adat permitted these royal messengers to take without payment on this day all that they wished of the victuals, sirih, tobacco etc. displayed on the stalls. Owing, however, to the large attendance at the fair and the unusually large number of sellers, these last did not individually suffer much from the depredations of this little band of marauders.
The names given to the three non-official feast days correspond exactly with the herald's proclamation. Collectively they are known as uròë maʾmeugang, which appears to mean "days of the inauguration of the fast"[48].
The first day, that is the 27th or 28th of the month, is called uròë peutrōn = "the day of the bringing down," the next uròë pupòʾ = "the day of the fighting," and the last uròë seumeusië = "the slaughter day." This is also specially known as uròë maʾmeugang.
We must not attach too exact a significance to these names. Live stock were brought down to the town before as well as on the uròë peutrōn and also if necessary on the following day. The uròë pupòʾ was not devoted to beastfights as the word might lead us to suppose. Popular as this amusement is among the Achehnese, no one had time for it on this busiest of all market days. The name was given half in jest, because this was the day of the fair on which most cattle were sold and thus underwent examination with a view to their purchase. This examination is named after the trial of strength of their beasts which excites such universal interest among Achehnese onlookers.
The great crowding and bustle of the uròë pupòʾ always gave rise to street fights, generally originating in accidental affronts such as occur in all densely crowded gatherings. It is said that the highlanders, ever eager for fighting and pillage, used to seize the opportunity to appropriate their neighbours' goods during the conflict which they had purposely provoked with that very object.
The "day of slaughter," alone of the three, corresponds exactly with its name. On this day the teungku slaughters the beasts, the authorities of the gampōng divide the meat among the purchasers, the women cook it; in short, the whole community is in a state of incessant bustle.
In spite of the coming privations the approach of the fasting month is joyfully welcomed. Those who have begun to join in the fast while still young can endure the daily abstinence without much effort, if not required to do any heavy work during this month, and if allowed to accomodate their occupations to the change of living which the fast involves. The nights of the Puasa in an Achehnese gampōng are full of noisy merriment, especially among the young men in their own particular sphere, the meunasah. With this in view, these combined clubs and chapels are put into some sort of order at the end of Shaʿbān. They are cleaned up—which they require only too much—the big lamp is brought out and hung up etc.
The Fast.9. Puasa (Ramadhān). The month, like the day, begins at sunset. We have seen[49] how in old times the commencement of the day was announced in the capital of Acheh by the firing of a gun from the Dalam, and how the right of firing this shot (nòbah) was regarded as one of the high prerogatives of the sultan. Such was also the case with the sunset that began the fasting month; but seven shots were fired to call attention to this important epoch. On the subsequent days of the fast the customary single shot was thought sufficient, and served as a signal for the universal bukah (the breaking of the fast).
The Mohammedan law does not brook the most trifling breach of the prescribed abstinence. The smallest particles of solid or liquid food or the smoke of tobacco or opium entering the body between the earliest dawn and sunset make the fast day null and void and render it necessary to repeat it later on. As regards the breaking of the fast, each one may follow his own inclination, but it is considered sunnat or commendable to take some food immediately after sunset, and equally so to have another meal before the break of day. This latter is called sawō (a corruption of the Arabic saḥur) by the Achehnese.
That none may miss the time for preparing and eating the sawō-meal, the great drum (tambu) in the chapels is beaten at intervals from 1 to 3 A.M. In the days of the sultanate an additional warning was conveyed by means of a cannon-shot (called sambang[50] fired about 4 A.M. to warn the people that "a white thread might now be told from a black," as the text of the Qurān has it, i.e. that the time of the sawō had come to an end.
The fast is faithfully observed by many and publicly transgressed by none. Every one is aware that heavy opiumsmokers cannot abstain. Others who find the abstinence too severe, surreptitiously consume cakes, fruits, sugarcane etc., but would be ashamed to have cooked food prepared for them. They also partake unblushingly of the breakfast at sunset and of the sawō-meal. They dare not chew sirih in the daytime, since that leaves traces which cannot be all at once obliterated.
In Acheh, as in Java[51], there are many bad observers of the fast, who to ease their consciences fast on the first and last, and sometimes also on the middle day of the month.
The liberal view that prevails in parts of Java, that the smoking of tobacco does not affect the fast, finds no serious supporters in Acheh. Many Achehnese, however, make endurance easier by occasionally rubbing their teeth (and perhaps their tongue too by accident!) with tobacco. In defence of this practical they point to the fact that the religious law strongly recommends the cleansing of the teeth by rubbing them with the end of a stick of some soft sort of wood[52]. It differs then but little, they say, whether tobacco or some other plant be employed for this purpose.
The meunasah in the fasting month.The second meal is generally taken at home, but during the fasting month almost all the people of the gampōng are wont to assemble at the meunasah to await the sunset. At the appointed time they partake of a meal prepared from general contributions under the supervision of the teungku, and share in the seumayang mugrèb or at least remain as spectators during its performance. Even notorious opiumsmokers contribute their share and do not fail in attendance, though they do not even make a pretence of sharing in the meal through fear of being laughed at. They choose a place in the balè near the meunasah, or at least refrain from entering the latter.
The customary dish for this preliminary breakfast is a porridge (kanji) made from rice and various leaves pounded fine. It is cooked by some poor old man of the gampōng, who gets from the teungku a share of the pitrah for his pains. The assembled villagers have each a cocoanut-shell or a small basin to contain their share[53]. When the sunset prayer, during which those who take no part therein remain seated at the back[54], is finished, all return home to satisfy their hunger.
After 7 P.M. the men, especially the younger ones, reassemble by ones and twos in the meunasah to celebrate the ʿicha or evening prayers, and in particular to be present at the trawèh which succeeds them.
The trawèh.The trawèh (Arab tarāwīḥ) are ordinary prayers of the kind classified as voluntary but recommended by the law. Most seumayangs, whatever their special appeliations may be, differ from one another only in the number of their subdivisions (rakʿats) and some trifling distinctions in the form of the ritual. Thus the trawèh are composed of 20 subdivisions, each pair of which is separated from the rest by a taslimah, which consists in sitting with the head turned first to the right and then to the left and invoking a blessing on all believers. This as a general rule takes place at the end of the whole seumayang. The trawèh may be held only in the fasting month, on every evening and night between the ʿicha and the morning, i. e. from about 7.30 P.M. to 3 A.M. The usual time is immediately after the ʿicha or about 8 P.M.
The practice of Mohammedans in regard to the division of religious works into obligatory and meritorious differs in many particulars from the teaching of the law. Many things which the law treats as imperative obligations, as very pillars of the creed of Islam, are neglected by the great majority, whilst other observances which may be passed by without any risk of incurring divine punishment, are esteemed indispensable by the mass of the people.
Thus throughout the whole Mohammedan world many persons take part with extreme zeal in the trawèh service, who unblushingly neglect daily religious duties which they are under a strict obligation to perform. This popular over-estimation of the trawèh is explained by its connection with the fasting month.
Popular conception of the fasting month as a month of expiation.In like manner the fast itself has a higher place in the popular estimation than in the law. It is indeed one of the main pillars of the creed of Islam, but in actual practise it is improperly accepted as the greatest pillar of all, since hundreds who never perform a single seumayang (a duty just as obligatory as the other) are faithful observers of the fast. It is as though this one month of abstinence were to excuse all the neglect and transgressions of the past eleven. Thus every observance that specially appertains to this month of expiation, whether it be obligatory or merely meritorious, is eagerly carried out in the fullest possible manner.
In Java also, people partake in the trawèh who never think of attending a Friday service, to say nothing of performing the daily seumayangs in mosque or langgar (chapel).
In Acheh, however, the trawèh service as celebrated in the meunasah savours much of a caricature. Of all the assembled company one or two at most, generally not even one takes an active part in the prayers; they allow them to be performed by the teungku alone, who properly speaking. should only act as leader. Without the slightest token of respect, all the others sit smoking or chewing sirih. At the Amin with which the teungku closes the recitation of the Qurān appertaining to each subdivision (rakʿah) of the seumayang, all those present join in with a yell. In like manner they take part with loud vociferation in the invocation of blessing on the Prophet which as an interlude separates the ten pairs of rakʿahs of the trawèh from one another. They do not properly repeat the formulas whereby such invocations of blessing should be confirmed, but corrupt them by absurd imitations[55].
Ulamas and other devout persons take no share in these follies and forbid their sons taking part in them. Indeed many of the teungkus find the excessive noise unendurable, and it has happened that one of their number threatened to cease his ministrations on account of it. So far from regarding his admonition the boldest of the young house-holders present replied that if he did so he would receive no pitrah from them on the feast-day at the end of the fasting month.
Thus we see how in Acheh some Mohammedan institutions have degenerated into unrecognizable forms.
Popular interpretation of the pitrah.The pitrah is a tax payable at the end of the fasting month by all whose means allow of it, on behalf of themselves and all who are dependent on them for support. The payment is made in kind, that is to say in grain of the sort which forms the staple foodstuff of the country. It is intended for the selfsame class of indigent folk who are supported by the zakāt, and its special object is to make it easier for them to participate in the feast which succeeds the fast. A person such as the Achehnese teungku ought properly only to act, in reference to the pitrah, as collector and distributor, receiving for his pains a suitable recompense payable from the pitrah itself.
The trawèh is a religious exercise, recommended to all during the nights of the fasting month. Each may perform it in solitude, but its celebration by the whole community under the leadership of an imam is more meritorious.
So says the law; but what is the actual practice in Acheh? There the trawèh is a religious exercise which the teungku has to perform for all, and the pitrah (which has not properly speaking the smallest connection with it), is a contribution for the benefit of the teungku, regarded as his recompense for the performance of the trawèh!
The meudarōih.The trawèh farce is succeeded by the Qurān recitation. It is understood that the recital of the Qurān in conformity with the rules of the art (provided that the declaimer be in a certain state of ritual purity), is always a pious work which Allah will bless with a great reward. All good works, however, are much intensified in merit when performed during the month of Ramadhān. To repeat it once more, this is in the popular conception par excellence the month of religion. In this month the pious and the learned recite occasionally in the daytime a passage of the holy book, as much as they can find strength for; but the nightly recitation in the chapels is a universal custom. After the conclusion of the trawèh service in the meunasah, certain experts volunteer to recite passages from the Quran, and make it their endeavour if possible to bring to a conclusion (tamat) once or oftener during the month, the thirty subdivisions of the Book.
This most wearisome task they take by turns. Those who sit by usually have before them a copy of the Qurān, so that they may prompt and correct as they listen (simaʾ as the Achehnese say, from the Arab. simāʿ or more correctly samāʿ—"hearkening"). Such public recitation, wherein one always chants while all the rest listen in silence, is called meudarōih[56]. In this also the teungku acts as conductor; the rest of the reciters are maléms and leubès who in many cases have taken no share in the trawèh at the meunasah, preferring to celebrate it elsewhere in a more becoming manner under the leadership of an ulama.
The people of the gampōng do not remain listening to the meudarōih till much past 10 P.M., but the recitation continues till about 1 A.M., when the tambu begins to sound as a warning that the time for the sawō-meal is at hand. They exhibit their interest in the proceedings, however, by bringing, each in turn, trays containing various sweetmeats, fruits etc., for the use of the reciters and their audience.
Peutamat darōih.Where a party thus assembles together to recite the Qurān, it is customary to celebrate the conclusion of the Sacred Book in somewhat festive wise. For this occasion there are special prayers, ḍikrs and rātibs, and a special meal. Feasts of this sort are held in every meunasah on one of the nights of the fasting month subsequent to the 15th. In deciding on the night, however, it is not so much considered whether the thirty parts of the Qurān have been exactly completed, as whether the time will suit the people of the gampōng and their guests.
The people of the entire mukim are not invited to this peutamat darōih (as they are to the kanduri Mòʾlōt), but only those of the gampōngs in the immediate neighbourhood.
Some days beforehand, the authorities of the gampōng begin collecting the money contributions. Goats are slaughtered and the rice with its accessories is of course provided. These viands serve not only to break the fast, but also to satisfy the appetite, so that on this evening the people do not go home for their supper.
On this occasion the trawèh is succeeded not by the usual meudarōih but by an excessively noisy ratéb. This (the ratéb Saman, so called from Sammān, the founder of a ṭarīqah or mystic order, who died at Medina, 1152 Hijrah), is especially popular among all native Mohammedans of the old stamp. The constant use of this ratéb has given rise in various places to the introduction of sundry variations and additions, which without exception serve to accentuate the appalling noisiness of this religious exercise.
Such is especially the case in Acheh. First of all certain formulas in praise of Allah are chanted in measured time by the assembled company. Then the time grows gradually faster and faster, the incessantly repeated formulas become shorter (e. g. hu Allah! hu daʾém! hu!) and the voices rise to a shrill scream. The yelling fanatics, sweating with the violence of their transport, rise up, sit down again, leap and dance and often fall down at last in sheer exhaustion—from the ecstasy arising from their contemplation of the divine, as they choose to deem it. This condition is called dòʾ[57] by the Achehnese, and to this most clamorous form of the ratéb Saman they give the name of ratéb mènsa or kuluhét.
Any of those present who betrays a manifest reluctance to share in the general excitement is sure to be forced to join the crowd in a manner not too pleasant for himself. Indeed serious disturbances sometimes arise from the annoyance felt at such indifference. For this reason the authorities both of the gampōng which is performing the peutamat darōih and the others whose inhabitants have come there as guests make a point of attending on such occasions.
Punishments inflicted on those who neglect to attend at the meunasah.In all matters of this sort the people of an Achehnese gampōng are very exacting. Anyone who does not sympathise in their favourite amusements is thought conceited, and his presumption is mercilessly punished. Woe to the man, especially the young man, who does not appear pretty regularly in the meunasah to attend the trawèh farce. After having practised patience for a couple of evenings, a deputation of gampōng people sets out on its punitive mission. The very least that they do is to force him from his dwelling by keeping up a diabolical din with the tambu or great drum of the meunasah beneath his house, until he "comes down" for very shame.
Frequently, however, such arrogance is humiliated in the same manner as that of a young bridegroom, who on his arrival in his wife's gampōng after the completion of the marriage ceremony, fails to perform with satisfactory zeal the sundry politenesses prescribed by the adat towards his new fellow-villagers. This punishment consists in smearing with human ordure the steps of his house, which he will in due course descend next morning at dawn, barefoot after the manner of all Achehnese.
Failure to participate is only tolerated in the case of leubès and ulamas and their relations from respect, and of chiefs and the members of their families from fear.
The kanduri of Teungku Anjōng.The third of the annual kanduris held in the déah of Teungku Anjōng in Gampōng Jawa, takes place on the night of (i. e. before) the 14th of this month. The other two have been already mentioned under the months Mòʾlōt and Kanduri Bu. This is more especially dedicated to the saint himself, who according to the Achehnese died on the 14th of Ramadhān 1196 (August 1782). It is thus called kanduri Teungku Anjōng.
A night of great importance according to Mohammedan teaching is the night of the qadar or "divine decree." This is the night on which, it is said, the eternal Qurān was sent down by Allah to the world below, to be finally revealed to Mohammed piece by piece through the agency of the Archangel Gabriel.
It is generally believed that on the day, or rather night which forms the anniversary of this great event, the whole creation feels its influence. On this special night, no less than on that of the middle of Shaʿbān, all manner of rich blessings are supposed to be dealt forth by Allah to those who keep vigil therein, wakeful and if possible engaged in pious devotions.
At the present time, however, no one can fix the date with certainty. The sole rule is the prevalent idea that the night of the qadar is one of the last five odd-numbered nights of the fasting month, i. e. the nights preceeding the 21th, 23d, 25th, 27th or 29th. A weighty reason is found herein for devoting all of them to devotional exercises!
These nights are in all Mohammedan countries spent by the devout in recitations from the Qurān and other such-like devotions. Here and there we find certain superstitious practices resorted to by the people for the purpose of drawing down upon their own heads the blessings of the qadar night. In Java feasts known as malěmans are given on these nights by princes and other persons of distinction to a multitude of guests.
Among these five nights are two which in the general estimation dispute with each other the right to the name of qadar night with a greater show of probability than the other three, viz. the 21th and 27th. The 21th (malěm salikur) enjoys this preference throughout a great portion of Java, a preference which displays itself principally in popular rejoicings. In Acheh it is on the night before the 27th that the greatest animation is displayed. Before every housedoor is set a lighted lamp with seven mouths, or "eyes" as the Achehnese call them. The young amuse themselves by letting off crackers (beudé China i. e. "little Chinese guns" as they call them).[58] At sunset persons of substance bring complete idangs to the meunasah, so that on this occasion the celebrants of the feast may enjoy a hearty meal instead of the preliminary mess of pottage with which they usually break their fast.
The tradition has it, that during the qadar night[59] the very trees bow to the ground in awe in the direction of the kiblat, that is to say toward the Sacred Mosque at Mekka. This is firmly believed by the Achehnese, though with this restriction, that the phenomenon its rarely visible to the eyes of ordinary mortals. The young folk, however, make expeditions on the night of the 27th "to seek trees doing obeisance" (tajaʾ mita kayèë sujut); but this popular expression must not be taken as seriously meant.
The jén in the fasting month.The belief is also universal in Acheh that the jinn (arab. jén) are chained up during the fasting month, and thus, where hostile to man, powerless to harm him. Thus during the Puasa the fear of going about in the dark is reduced to a minimum.
There is no objection to marrying during the Puasa, but other seasons are of course preferred, since in this month the opportunities for feasting are so extremely limited.
We have seen that the markets are, for reasons easy to explain, practically closed during the first half of the fasting month. It must be added that during the first week, marketing is absolutely pantang, i.e. forbidden by the adat, the general opinion being that a breach of this rule entails misfortune. These pantang periods of seven days play a great part in Achehnese superstition. It is impossible to fish with luck during the seven days which follow the annual "sea-kanduri" of the pukat[60] fishermen. Anyone who wishes to undergo the treatment with the curative root of the peundang must follow a prescribed diet for 2 × 7 days; and similarly measured by the number 7 is the time allotted for the special diet of those who desire to practice the science of invulnerability.
Three days fair.In the second half of Ramadhan the bustle of the market begins gradually to grow greater, and reaches its zenith in the last three days, which form another regular fair. They bear the same names as the last three days of the previous month, viz. uròë peutrōn, uròë pupòʾ and uròë seumeusië; they are also known as the uròë maʾmeugang[61] uròë raya, since the word maʾmeugang suggests the days which precede a feast. The slaughter of cattle at the end of the fast is almost as great as that before its commencement, while the trade in articles of dress and the like is much brisker. On the feast day which follows the fast all attire themselves in new garments, and the regard of a man for his wife and children is measured by the presents which he brings home to them from the fair.Bringing home meat. This is called "bringing home meat," although the gift usually consists of entirely different things. Meat, a luxury seldom used, was in ancient times an indispensable adjunct of festal rejoicings in the home.
The poorer women and children, whose husbands and fathers are sojourning on the East or West Coast as pepper-planters, feel the full bitterness of their position on a feast-day. Their friends are careful to refrain from asking them the question addressed to other women at this feast-fair, "How much meat has your husband brought home?" i. e. "How much money has he presented you with?" To add to the grief and shame of the unlucky ones, they are greeted with compassionate looks, and the neighbours often give the children a piece of meat from the slaughter in which they cannot participate.
The feast-day which concludes the fast is fixed by calculation like its commencement, and is thus known long beforehand. A number of guns from the Dalam at sunset on the last day, used in the Sultans' time to convey the superfluous announcement that the first day of the feasting month had begun.
The feast at the end of the fasting month.10. Uròë raya (Shawwāl). During the night before the commencement of the feast, the children once more let off numerous "little Chinese guns" (crackers). The women are busily employed with the preparation of food, especially jeumphan[62] a kind of small cakes, which the adat strictly requires to be provided among the dainties laid before guests on the two Mohammedan feast-days.
It is regarded as 'pantang' for a husband to cohabit with his wife during the night of the feast. Transgression of this prohibition is supposed, should pregnancy supervene, to result in the birth of a child with too many fingers or toes or some other such deformity.
Guns used to be fired in the Dalam on the uròë raya from 4 A.M. till the afternoon. Early in the morning all the men go forth and take a "feast-bath (manòë uròë raya). Besides this bath, the law strongly recommends a religious service to celebrate the feast (seumayang uròë raya). This is held in the chapels, great and small, or else without regard to place, in the morning after sunrise, and a sermon follows. In many countries this service, although not obligatory, is more strictly observed than other devotional exercises prescribed by the law. In Java, for example, most chiefs, even though they may never come near the mosque on a Friday, are strict in the observance of the feast-çalat.
Such is not the case in Acheh. Those who assemble to perform the seumayang uròë raya are composed of devotees met together by chance. Chiefs and even the teungkus of meunasahs take but little share in this service. In this case again it is the women who combine together in various places under a female teungku to celebrate these prayers.
Payment of the pitrah.Before arraying themselves in festal attire, the men go to pay their pitrah to the teungku. All whose means allows of their paying this tax without fear of stinting their families, must contribute a certain quantity of the grain which forms the staple food of the place in which they reside. They are required to pay so much per head on account of each of those for whose support they are responsible, including their wives and slaves and in some cases their children and parents as well. The staple in Acheh is of course rice, and the Arabic legal measure has been fixed in Achehnese dry measure at 2 arès[63] so heaped up so to rise in a cone at the top[64]. Hardly a single duty prescribed by the law is so faithfully observed throughout the whole Mohammedan world as this. Even those who are really hard pressed by its fulfilment, are loath to neglect this contribution. Persons of distinction in Acheh as well as in Java make it even on behalf of their attendants (rakan), though the law by no means obliges them to do so.
This almost exaggerated observance of the rules as to the pitrah is attributable to the popular estimation of the fasting month as a period of expiation. It is supposed that small involuntary omissions in respect of the law of the fast are made good by the fulfilment of the pitrah. Thus the contributions are paid with the utmost readiness, in the hope that thereby the annual account with Allah may be duly balanced.
As we have already seen, the teungku, who according to the law should only act as a salaried collector or distributor of the pitrah, as a matter of fact appropriates the proceeds himself. Thus the great mass of the people are left to imagine that the pitrah is in its entirety an obligatory payment for the teungku’s benefit. Such is also the case in Java with the desa-priests and desa-chiefs as they are called by the Dutch.
It is understood that the law is not content with the simple collection of the pitrah. It insists that every one who contributes should personally or by agent give evidence of his intent to conform to what the law prescribes. The Achehnese, who does not himself know by heart any suitable formula for the expression of this intent, gets the teungku to whom he brings the rice to dictate one in his place. It usually runs somewhat as follows: "This my pitrah for two (or three etc.) persons, which the Lord has required of me for this year, I now give (or make over) to thee, Oh Teungku![65].
Some add, "at they determination oh Teungku!" in which there lurks the suggestion that the distribution of the pitrah according to the law is confidently entrusted to him; but most teungkus refuse to receive the pitrah on such conditions. They believe that the sin of unlawful distribution (or rather appropriation of almost the whole of the pitrah to their own use) would be visited on them, the teungkus, if the giver expressed any such condition, whereas they hold themselves free of all responsibility if the pitrah is given to them unconditionally.
Many make the contribution in money instead of rice; this they do both for the teungku's sake, as he would otherwise be at a loss how to dispose of so much rice, and also to facilitate the transport of the pitrah itself. The Shafiʾite law requires, it is true, that the pitrah should be paid in kind; but there is nothing to prevent the teungku from selling to each of his visitors as much rice as they require to pay the pitrah for themselves and their people. This rice the teungku then receives back again from the donor of the tax, and thus a few arès which he keeps in store suffice for the collection of the whole pitrah.
In Java also this evasion of the law is pretty general. It enables the poor to contribute without difficulty, and at the same time gives the recipients the chance of collecting more than they otherwise could, for those who have only a few cents to offer, can purchase with these the necessary quantity of rice from the "desa-priest", even though it be worth more than they pay for it, since the seller knows that he will at once receive it back again.
Congratulations.No sooner is the pitrah paid, than all put on their new clothes, fill their bungkōih with an extra large supply of sirih and its accessories, and start off to pay the necessary visits of felicitation. The husband receives at home by way of congratulation the seumbah of his wife and children, which he acknowledges with a gesture, but without words. The mothers sometimes, in answer to the seumbah of their young children, take their heads in their hands and say "may you be happy (bá meutuah)!" Men who meet one another on the road take each other by the hand (mumat jaròë) in the well-known native fashion, sometimes adding the words "forgiveness for my sins" (meuʾah dèësa lōn), to which the reply is "the same on my side" (di lōn pi meunan chit).
The visits prescribed by the adat are few in number. The man must at the very least go and pay the compliments of the season with due respect to his parents and parents-in-law, while the visits of the women are as a rule limited to these two.
Visits even to the chief of their own gampōng are not customary unless he happens to be a person of means. The heads of the mukim (imeums) are waited on by all their subordinate keuchiʾs and teungkus, and many of the common people as well. The latter make obeisance from a respectful distance, just as in an ordinary visit. Sirih is first served to the visitors, followed by jeumphan and other sweetmeats. The drinking of coffee on such occasions is quite a modern custom but is gradually becoming more in vogue.
The ulèëbalangs are visited by few below the rank of teungkus. The latter with the keuchiʾs and imeums put in an appearance if they reside in the immediate neighbourhood of their chief, but neglect to pay such a visit is not regarded as a serious breach of etiquette.
The prolix ceremonial with which such feasts used to be celebrated at the court in the brief period of prosperity of the port-kingship, and to which ancient documents (the sarakatas) bear witness, has been long since entirely forgotten. Within living memory the rajas of Acheh have but very rarely taken part in public worship and all that pertains to it.
On the second or third day of the month (never on the first) the ulèëbalangs in the neighbourhood of the Dalam together with some ulamas of distinction used to wait on the sultan during the course of the forenoon, on which occasion they were presented with some articles of dress. These visits were distinguished from other social gatherings of the Achehnese by the absence of all oratorical display. The Teuku Kali Malikōn Adé, who as master of court ceremonies was on terms of greater intimacy with the royal family than the rest, used to come and present his felicitations on the actual feast day, when he as well as the members of the Sultan’s family and his household servants, received a share of the royal slaughter.
Amusements during the feast.These visits and friendly meetings last about five days. During these feast-days the men indulge to an excessive degree in gambling, strictly forbidden though it is by the law of Islam. The village authorities, who on other occasions oppose such practices, or at least prevent their taking place within the walls of the meunasah, are wont at these times to shut their eyes to such transgressions.
On the uròë raya, the first of the month, many go to visit their family burial-place (bhōm). This is another pious custom which is held in greater honour by the women than by the men. They decorate with flowers (jeumpa, seumanga and the bungòng peukan or "market-flowers" as they are called) the head of the tomb which they wish specially to honour, and burn some incense there. The more devout also offer up a prayer at the sacred spot, or else recite the fātiḥah, the Mohammedan Lord's Prayer.
The six days fast after the feast day, the observance of which is recommended in the books of the law, is kept by scarcely any one in Acheh. In Java, where the observers of such a fast are also few and far between, a small feast is often held on the 8th, properly speaking in celebration of the end of this period of abstinence. This feast, breaking a fast where no fast exists, is unknown in Acheh.
The "shut-in" month. 11. Meuʾapét (Dul-qaʿdah). In various other native languages as well as Achehnese, this month is known by names which signify "pinched" or "shut in". The name is now generally believed[66] to have originated in the fact that this month comes in between the two in which the official feasts of Islam are celebrated[67].
On account of this "shutting in", the 11th month is considered unsuitable for the undertaking of any work of importance, such as a marriage or circumcision etc.
The "Great Feast."12. Haji (Ḍul-ḥidjah). On the 10th day of this month the great neat sacrificial feast in connection with the Hajj is celebrated in the valley of Muna (the ancient Mina), which lies to the east of Mekka. The books of the law recommend, though they do not imperatively prescribe, the holding of public prayers in other places some time after sunrise on this day. These prayers are followed by the sermon proper to the festival, and it is also considered highly meritorious to sacrifice animals. The two preceding days are also regarded as specially eligible for voluntary fasts. Those who are performing the hajj, however, do not usually fast, as this cannot be required of them in view of the fatigues of their journey.
It is a very popular view in Java, that the feast-day of this month derives its significance from this identical fast[68]. And yet there are but few in Java, who submit to what is there called the antarwiyah and ngarpah, the fast on the days of tarwiyah and ʿarafah, i. e. the 8th and 9th of this month.
Three days fair.This two-days fast is only known in Acheh among devotees, and little practised even by them,—the less so, as the feast is preceded by a three-days fair of the same kind as we met with in the months Kanduri Bu and Puasa. The 7th is uròë peutrōn, the 8th uròë pupòʾ, the 9th uròë seumeusië, and the three taken together uròë maʾmeugang. In this latter case there was in the Sultan's time no sranta or proclamation by heralds.
In point of animation, however, this annual fair falls far behind the other two. On this occasion the object of the slaughter is not, as before the Puasa, to supply a store of cooked meat for a couple of weeks; and the buying of new clothes, which is universal at the end of the fasting month, is not customary in the month Haji.
The feast day itself is also a repetition on a much smaller scale of the urdòë raya Puasa. Very few indeed give a thought to religious exercises. As a general rule the men take their festival-bath in the morning at the meunasah, exchange handshakes with the friends whom they meet on the road, and pay some festal visits, at which the jeumphans are in due course served to them after the sirih. Some also visit their family burial-places.
Sacrifices.Sacrifices are often offered at this feast by persons of means. The law teaches that a single head of small cattle (goats or sheep) may serve as a sacrifice for one person, while seven persons may, if they so prefer, join in offering a single head of large cattle (oxen or camels). In Acheh the genus bos is generally selected for the kurubeuën (from the Arab qurbān = sacrifice). As a rule oxen and not buffaloes are chosen in spite of the pretty general preference for the flesh of the latter. This is connected with the very widespread belief in the Eastern Archipelago, that an animal offered as a sacrifice will hereafter serve the sacrificer as a steed upon the "plain of the resurrection" (padang machha). A goat is too small for this purpose, and a buffalo, accustomed as it is to wallow in mud and shallow water might inconvenience his rider by walking with him into a river or ditch.
Whoever wishes to make sacrifice, usually hands over the animal destined for that purpose to an ulama, that nothing may be lacking to the proper ceremonial, and that he who makes the offering may thus be assured of attaining his purpose. The animal is killed under the ulama's supervision, and the flesh distributed among the people of the gampōng.
Kurubeuën-feasts at Bitay.Before the coming of the Dutch to Acheh, great (though in many respects profane) kurubeuën feasts used to be held in the gampōng of Bitay. People assembled there in crowds from the 10th to the 13th of the month Haji, and even for a couple of days longer. They came from the capital and the whole of the surrounding district,—nay, all the sagis lent their contributions to this noisy gathering.
We have already made acquaintance with this gampōng of Bitay[69] (which belongs to the VI Mukims of the XXV), in telling the somewhat legendary story of the relations opened by a Sultan of Acheh in the 16th century with the Sultan of Turkey, and of the artisans lent by the latter to his Achehnese vassal to instruct his people. The tomb of Tuan di Bitay, who taught the Achehnese among other things the art of casting cannon, and the mosque which stands beside the grave are revered as sacred up to the present day. It is difficult to conjecture why this tomb in particular is esteemed the proper place for offering sacrifices in the month of Haji. We only know that Bitay came to be regarded as the place for these sacrifices, and that the feasts celebrated there assumed an entirely worldly character and became an offence to all devout persons. Gambling, cockfighting and sadati-games were the chief pastimes indulged in by the people who crowded thither, and the fights inseparable from such pastimes were not wanting. Thus the word kurubeuën acquired and still retains in the Achehnese vernacular the meaning of a heathenish tumult!
Sacrificial cattle were also slaughtered here in large numbers. The custom in Bitay required that all beasts brought for sacrifice should be slaughtered by a descendant of the local saint, who acted as the keeper of the tomb. At the sacrifice of each animal a number of articles were presented to the slaughterer on a tray (dalōng), viz.—two raw eggs, husked and unhusked rice mixed together, the various things which are usually employed for the cooling (peusijuëʾ) of a newly built house, or one in which a wedding has just taken place[70], a flask of perfumed oil, a little seureuma (the well-known black powder for the edges of the eyelids), some baja (blacking for the teeth), a small mirror, a comb, a razor, a sunshade and a piece of white cotton cloth four ells (haïh) in length. All these things, including the toilet requisites, were applied by the slaughterer to their proper purposes. The "cooling" of all hot, destructive influences he performed in the usual way. After shaving a little hair off the animal with the razor, he held the mirror before its eyes for a moment and then covered it with the 4 ells of white cotton cloth as with a shroud. When all this had been done, the animal was killed; the remnants of the feast and the unused portion of the things on the tray formed part of the emoluments of the descendant of the sainted founder of cannon.
In Java almost precisely the same objects as those we have just described as contained in the tray, are added to a sacrifice by those who adhere to old fashions. The teaching of Islam contains nothing of the kind; there must without doubt be some pre-Mohammedan ideas at the bottom of these curious preparations for a sacrifice. At present the practisers of this method have but little to adduce in explanation of it except the conception of the animal as the future steed of him who offers the sacrifice; but it is self-evident that though some of the articles mentioned might have a meaning in this connection, it would require strange reasoning to prove the same of others among them.
With the exception of this busy scene at Bitay, however, the qurbān feast, though called "the great Feast" in the book of the law, is in Acheh and elsewhere the least significant of all. It cannot be compared in importance to the feast at the end of the fast which is officially regarded as its inferior.
Piasans.In the month Haji in particular (though not exclusively) certain gampōngs club together to give a piasan (from pěrhiasan = ornament), a purely secular feast with a selection of popular pastimes differing according to circumstances. On such occasions a favourite amusement is the letting off of fireworks, and especially the construction of what is called "a firework fort" (kuta bungòng apuy). This is formed of the stem of a cocoanut tree to which are attached, at different elevations, square horizontal wooden frames. These frames grow smaller as they approach the top and are fitted with slow burning fireworks.
§ 3. The Civil or Season Calendar.
The lunar year and Agriculture.The Achehnese are an agricultural people; "Agriculture is the king of all breadwinning", as their proverb has it[71]. Rice-growing, sugar cultivation, pepperplanting in the colonies of the East and West, as well as the growing of useful fruit-trees such as the cocoanut and arecapalm,—such are the occupations of the great mass of the population.
It must be understood that such a peasantry can make no use of their calendar of 12 lunar revolutions for the purposes of their calling, which is most intimately connected with the changes of the seasons. Each of the months of the lunar calendar of course gradually traverses all seasons at the rate of about 11 days per annum.
Notwithstanding this (and we find the same in Java), the ordinary Achehnese if asked when rice is sown, will at first reply that it must be done in, let us say, the months of Haji and Asan-Usén. He simply reflects that such was about the time in the last two years, and forgets for the moment that it was formerly otherwise. In the long run, however, he would notice his mistake, and so he makes his calculations and plans for agricultural work without any help from the Mohammedan calendar.
In most Moslim countries, indeed, there is, in addition to what we may call the ecclesiastical year, which follows the phases of the moon, a civil year which in some way or other keeps pace with the sun.
Turkish and Arabic solar years.The Turks employ the Julian solar year, while the Arabs direct their attention to the 28 stations of the moon, constellations which the moon traverses in about a solar year. The Turkish system can of course only be successfully carried out in a country where there is a more or less regulated government and an official double calendar. Such a thing could not be thought of in Arabia, where on the other hand a calendar written in the clear heavens and exhibiting fresh phenomena every thirteen days, is in the highest degree practical.
Clear nocturnal skies are however indispensable for an astronomical knowledge on the part of the people, so comparatively widespread as to have made the Arabic moon-stations familiar to every one concerned. In the East Indian Archipelago observation of what takes place in the firmament is usually much impeded by cloudy skies and for a great part of the year quite impossible. All that has been found written in Indonesia on the subjects of astronomy and astrology is largely borrowed from foreign sources. The true popular astronomy in this part of the world sets to work with one or two great constellations, and the knowledge of the movements of these is confined to a few individuals, who enlighten their fellow-villagers as far as is necessary.
Orion in Java and his Belt in Acheh.Orion is well-known to the Javanese peasants, who in different localities give to this constellation the various names of "plough" (wěluku or wělajar), "roebuck" (kidang), "village schoolmaster" (guru desa) and kukusan, the familiar conical basket in which rice is cooked by steaming. For the Achehnese, this constellation which they call "the Three Stars" (bintang lhèë)[72], has a subsidiary meaning. They say that when the first of the three stars in the girdle of Orion shows brightest, the padi must be sown in the commencement of the time of the year recognized as seedtime. If the central one is the most brilliant, it should be sown in the middle of this period; if the most easterly, at the end. They also believe that a line joining the three stars exactly indicates the kiblat, or direction of Mekka, to which attention has to be paid in the performance of prayers. This latter idea also prevails in Java.
Venus.Venus is also tolerably familiar to the Achehnese, though the uneducated people regard her morning and evening appearances as two distinct stars. The learned men of the gampōng know better; they call her in both cases the "group of nine stars," asserting that if one looks at Venus through a silk handkerchief (the equivalent of a telescope among Achehnese astronomers), one may clearly behold nine stars. The common folk call the morning star bintang Timu (Eastern Star) and the evening star the star of the deer (rusa), or of the thieves (panchuri), since her uprising is the signal for both of these to go forth and seek their living.
The takat simalam[73] or "sign of the night" is not, any more than the star of the deer and thieves, employed by the Achehnese in their computation of the seasons.
The same is true of the Southern Cross, which is called "the Skate" (bintang paròë) and of some few other constellations which are distinguished by separate names in Achehnese.
Scorpion and Pleiades.The great regulator of the seasons in Acheh is, however, the Scorpion (bintang kala); the Pleiades, which the Achehnese call "the group of seven stars" (bintang tujōh) or "many men" (ureuëng le), play a supplementary part.
We may here mention, though it does not tend much to the elucidation of our subject, the following curious piece of nomenclature. Two stars in the tail of the Scorpion, standing close to and opposite each other, which when seen with the naked eye give the impression of alternately extinguishing each other's brilliancy, are called by the Achehnese, infatuated as they are with a passion for fights between animals, by the characteristic name of puyōh meulōt, the Fighting Quails. The star which forms the tip of the Scorpion’s tail is called bòh glém or the glém fruit[74], because of the conformation (called by the Achehnese boh glém from its appearance) found on the tail of a real scorpion.
The keunòngs.The Achehnese seasons, then, are regulated by the conjunctions of Kala (Scorpion) with the moon.
These conjunctions they call keunòng (Mal. kěna) i.e. "hit", "come into contact with". They have found a certain guiding principle in the number of days that always separates the new moon from the succeeding keunòng or in other words (since the Mohammedan months begin with the new moon),in the sequence of the dates on which these keunòngs take place.
Let us begin by giving certain data with regard to these keundògs and the intervals that separate them from the night of the new moon, borrowed not from Achehnese sources, but from particulars kindly supplied by Dr. S. Figee at Batavia[75]. Dr. Figee's calculations are based on the supposition that Antares, the brightest star of the Scorpion, is that specially selected for observation, so that the coincidence of that star with the moon would be regarded as keunòng. As a matter of fact the Achehnese do not confine themselves to a single star, but speak of keunòng whenever the moon appears anywhere within the Scorpion. Indeed they sometimes employ the expression, when it contributes to the uniformity of their series of numbers, even though the Moon and Scorpion may have already diverged to some little distance from one another. But all such differences are, as we shall see, of trifling importance, and do not affect the computation of the seasons by more than a day or two on one side or the other.
Computation of the keunòngs.Between every two successive keunòngs[76] there is an interval of 27⅓, days, so that on an average 13.363 keunòngs occur in the course of the solar year, or in other words, most solar years contain 13, some 14 keunòngs. The interval separating the keunòng from the preceding new moon is greatest in the first month of our solar year. In the course of the following months this interval decreases constantly by two or three days at a time, since the actual lunar month (from one new moon to the next) is always 2 to 3 days (29.5302–27.3333) longer than the period which elapses between two keunòngs. In November the difference is smallest; in other words the keunòng almost coincides with the new moon, while the following keunòng just precedes it, so that the difference is then a minus quantity.
The keunòngs and their lunar dates to 1892 and 1893.We append a table showing the dates of the keunòngs occurring in the years 1892 and 1893, with the interval between each of these keunòngs and the new moon that preceded it.
| Dates of the keunòngs. | Interval between the keunòngs and the preceding new moon[77]. | |||||||
| 1892. | ||||||||
| January | 25 | 25 | days | |||||
| February | 21 | 23 | days„ | |||||
| March | 20 | 21 | days„ | |||||
| April | 16 | 18 | days„ | |||||
| May | 13 | 16 | days„ | |||||
| June | 9 | 14 | days„ | |||||
| July | 7 | 12 | days„ | |||||
| August | 3 | 10 | days„ | |||||
| August | 30 | 8 | days„ | |||||
| September | 27 | 6 | days„ | |||||
| October | 24 | 3 | days„ | |||||
| November | 20 | 1 | days„ | |||||
| December | 17 | As the new moon falls on the 19th December, the difference should have be denoted by—2, or if this keunòng is compared with the same new moon as its predecessor, by 28. | Dates of the keunòngs. | Interval between the keunòngs and the preceding new moon. | ||||
| 1893. | ||||||||
| January | 14 | 26 | days | |||||
| February | 10 | 23 | days„ | |||||
| March | 9 | 21 | days„ | |||||
| April | 6 | 19 | days„ | |||||
| May | 3 | 17 | days„ | |||||
| May | 30 | 15 | days„ | |||||
| June | 27 | 13 | days„ | |||||
| July | 24 | 11 | days„ | |||||
| August | 20 | 9 | days„ | |||||
| September | 16 | 6 | days„ | |||||
| October | 14 | 4 | days„ | |||||
| November | 10 | 2 | days„ | |||||
| December | 7 | As the new moon falls on the 8th December, the difference should here be denoted by—1, or if this keunòng is compared with the same new moon as its predecessor, by 28. | ||||||
Both years have thus 13 keunòngs. Where the first keunòng falls on one of the first days in January, as in 1886 (1st Jan.) or 1891 (7th Jan.) there are 14 in one solar year.
It will be noticed that the column showing the intervals separating the new moons from the keunòngs which succeed them, exhibits a fairly uniform decrease. The greatest interval varies in different years from 24—27 and the smallest from 0—2. This minumum interval is succeeded by a minus quantity and then again by a maximum, after which the series descends as before.
If we date the keunòngs according to the months of our own calendar, this uniformity is of course not so obvious as if we use the Mohammedan notation of time. In order to convert our series of intervals into Mohammedan dates, we have only to bear in mind the two following circumstances. First, that the Mohammedan month begins with the visible new moon, thus one to two days later than the new moon of our almanac; secondly, that while the day of the new moon is in the above list reckoned as = 0, the Mohammedan month has no day that can be designated by a cypher, the day of its new moon being indicated by the figure 1. If we recollect this we may without much chance of error employ the following rule. To find approximately the Mohammedan dates on which keunòngs fall, add 1 to the numbers given above as representing the intervals between the new moon and the keunòng.
These are the data used by the Achehnese in describing the keunòngs; they further indicate the date of each keunòng by appending it to the name of the Mohammedan month in which it occurs. Suppose we say, for instance, "It is now the month of Sapha", this merely means that it is the second month of the religious (lunar) year, and that for the present there are no feasts to be looked forward to except the Rabu Abéh. But if we add the words "keunòng 11", it is then pretty generally understood that in this year the moon and Scorpion coincide on or about the 11th of Sapha. Even he who does not grasp this, still comprehends that the time for sowing padi is at hand, just as at home both townsman and peasant knows that the dog-days bring hot weather, although they may be unable to determine the actual date of that period of the year.
At the same time the Achehnese allow themselves a certain latitude in computing the keunòngs, which facilitates their use. According to the list we have given, the Achehnese keunòngs in our year 1892 would in theory fall successively on the following dates in their (the Mohammedan) months:
26, 24, 22, 19, 17, 15, 13, 11, 9, 7, 4, 2.
For 1893 the sequence would be:
27, 24, 22, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 7, 5, 3.
From each of these series the last terms (29 and 30 respectively) are omitted, since these keunòngs fall within the same lunar months as their predecessors and are at the same time entirely invisible, as the moon does not appear at the end of the month. Thus the Achehnese omit this 13th keunòng in their computation, going on the theory that there is but one keunòng in each month, but that once in the year two keunòngs are separated by an interval double as long as that which ordinary separates these conjunctions. This specially long interval is called keunòng tanggiléʾ, an expression the origin of which is no longer known. Some connect it with tanggiléng—the armadillo, asserting that this animal can only be caught during the period in question.
It is evident that the appellations of the remaining 12 keunòngs taken from the exact dates on which they fall in the lunar calendar, will differ little from year to year, though they will not be wholly identical. Thus the keunòng which in 1892 would be described as 26, would properly be called 27 in 1893 and so on. As the keunòngs are not by any means always capable of actual observation on account of the clouded state of the sky, the need is felt of a more fixed and regular arrangement, and one which can be easily remembered. For example, where actual observation is impossible there must be some means of knowing that it is now keunòng 21, because it was keunòng 23 in the preceding month.
The Achehnese keunòng series.The Achehnese therefore assume—with full knowledge of the inaccuracy they are committing—that the figure representing the lunar date of each keunòng is less by exactly two than that of its predecessor. They invariably begin their series of keunòngs with 23, so that all keunòngs, according to their mode of expression fall on uneven dates. Of this they sometimes give a peculiar explanation. They assume that Christian and other non-Mohammedan peoples also reckon by keunòngs, and that their keunòngs always fall on odd dates. Some choice must be made, and as neither of the two conduces to accuracy, the Achehnese have chosen the uneven, both because the sacred tradition recommends all true Moslims to distinguish themselves as far as possible in all matters from the unbelievers, and also because Allah is regarded as having a special preference for odd numbers[78].
The inaccuracy of this keunòng series (23, 21, 19, 17, 15, 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1) hardly at all impairs the true purpose of the reckoning by keunòngs, i. e. the knowledge of the seasons. It even often happens that the keunòng is actually observed on a date which is theoretically incorrect, owing to the fact that the whole constellation is made the basis of the observation, instead of Antares or some other special star within it. And when the moon does not enter the Scorpion at all on the accepted date, but passes some little distance from it, this is ascribed to the errors consequent on the adoption of a series which diminishes in too uniform a manner. They are thus content with the average agreement between what they actually observe in the heavens and their keunòng series[79]. These periods can be distinguished by the numerals of their lunar dates and each of them constantly falls in the same season of the year.
To every lunar year there are almost precisely 13 keunòngs. Thus by neglecting the invisible one, which would properly be called 28, 29 or 30, and which falls in the great interval between keunòngs 1 and 23, we get exactly one keunòng for each lunar month. This makes the calculation extremely easy, but it is obvious that as we advance we shall in time arrive at a month in which the keunòng we obtain by observation falls on a different date from that which the series would lead us to expect. It is in fact at the end not of a lunar, but a solar year, that the keunòngs revert to nearly the same interval of time separating them from the preceding new moon. By continually counting off the Achehnese keunòng series with the months of the lunar year, we neglect the difference between the average number of keunòngs contained in a solar year (13.363) and the number contained in a lunar year (13 exactly). Thus about once in three years,—as often in fact as the keunòng phenomenon exhibits itself 14 times in a solar year, we must count one keunòng more than usual so as not to come into conflict with the calendar of the solar year which we find written on the heavens in terms of keunòngs.
Adjustment of the error in the series.This necessary correction is made by the Achehnese in a purely empirical manner, for they have, at present at least, no proper basis of calculation whatever,—indeed they do not even understand the real meaning of the keunòng-calculation[80]. They notice of course at certain times, that the keunòngs of their series move faster than the real ones. As the observed sequence also fails in other respects to correspond exactly with the principles on which their series is based, they can fix no stated time at which the divergence of the two becomes excessive and calls for correction; one observes it earlier, another later.
For instance, the fact that the period known as keunòng 13 does not properly terminate till the 15th of the month would not be held to justify a correction if there were an approximate conjunction of the moon and Scorpion on, say, the 14th. But if it were seen that the heavens themselves persistently belied the sequence of the keunòng dates by two days or even more, then two consecutive months would be counted as keunòng 9 or keunòng 7 as the case might be, and the sequence would thus be rectified. Thus the expression keunòng 23, as employed by the Achehnese, almost corresponds to our January, keunòng 21 to our February and so on. Each of these names suggests to them the recurrence of certain definite natural phenomena which are wont to exhibit themselves during the keunòng in question, of definite tasks of agriculture or navigation whose performance is limited to that time, and of certain feasts which are held therein.
The Achehnese keunòng calendar for the year 1893.We shall now give as a specimen the list of keunòngs for our year 1893 (the Mohammedan 1310–11) according to Achehnese nomenclature, adding in each case the European and Mohammedan month in which the keunòng falls. It should be carefully borne in mind that the correspondence of the European months with the keunòngs as here given holds good in other years as well, but that the Mohammedan months move one place lower down about every 3 years, the variation being corrected by applying the same keunòng to two successive months.
We shall also add notes illustrative of the ideas of the Achehnese in regard to the various keunòngs. One or two of these require closer explanation which we shall give presently when dealing with the subjects of agriculture and fishery. The Achehnese lore on the subject of he keunòngs of course holds good for all years alike.
1893 (= 1310–11 of the Hijrah)
| I. | (Keunòng dua plōh lhèë (23d Jumāda ʾl-akhir 1310) = 12th January. |
| Padi which has not yet fully ripened at this keunòng is in danger, for a dry E.S. E. wind (angèn timu padang) usually blows during the nights of keunòng 23, causing the husks to burst open and shaking out the grain.
Although this keunòng belongs to the musém timu (N. E. Monsoon), when it is dangerous to sail from the capital to the N. or E. coast, it contains a period of from 5 to 7 days during which the voyage can be undertaken without risk, a sort of interval in the N. E. Monsoon. | |
| II. | Keunòng dua plōh sa (21st Rajab 1310)—8th February. |
| In this keunòng the padi-harvest generally takes place and the kanduri blang ("religious feast of the field") is held. This is also the time for the sowing or planting of intermediate crops (such as tobacco, vegetables etc.).
In this or the following keunòng begins the musém luaïh blang ("season of the freedom of the land i.e. when it is allowed to lie fallow); it is thus the end of the musém pichéʾ or kòt blang (the season when the land is "cooped" or closed). | |
| III. | Keunòng sikureuëng blaïh (19th Shaʿban 1310) = 8th March. |
| The month in which this keunòng falls is much the same as the last from the season point of view. | |
| IV. | Keunòng tujōh blaïh (17th Ramadhān 1310) = 4th April. |
| Sugar cane planted in this month blossoms but yields no juice. During this and the two following months the fish known as lulōh occasionally descend from the upper reaches of the river to near the sea. These fish take one day to come down and two to return upstream, and at this time it is possible to catch them.
A kanduri laʾōt (sea-kanduri) takes place in this month at Ulèë lheuë (vulg. Olehleh; cf X below.). The beginning of the Musém barat or S. W. Monsoon also falls within this month, and so does the maximum altitude of the sun at noon (seunang mata uròëʾ; it actually occurs on the 5th April. | |
| V. | Keunòng limòng blaïh (15th Shawwāl 1310) = 2nd May. |
| Some begin ploughing in this month. Stormy weather prevails at sea. | |
| VI. | Keunòng lhèë blaïh (13th Dul-qaʿdah 1310) = 29th May[81]. |
| This is the month in which ploughing is universally commenced. It marks the termination of the mausém luaïh blang (cf. II above) and the beginning of the musèm pichéʾ or kòt blang which lasts about 8 months. | |
| VII. | Keunòng siblaih (11th Dul-hidjah 1310) = 26th June. |
| In this month or in one of the two which succeed it, the padi is sown. As we have seen above (p. 247) there are some who make their choice of the first, second or third part of this seedtime dependent on the relative brightness of the three stars composing Orions belt (bintang lhèë).
Just as the N. E. wind slumbers for 5–7 days in keunòng 23, so does the 5. W. wind in this; during these days it is safe to sail from the capital to the West Coast. | |
| VIII. | Keunòng sikureuëng (9th Muharram 1311) = 23d July. |
| During this and the following month a certain species of land-crabs, called biëng kōng, "stray" about, apparently unable to find their subterranean abodes; biëng-kōng wò, the people say. | |
| IX. | Keunòng tujōh (7th Safar 1311) = 20th August. |
| Sugar-cane planted in this month is supposed to give the same results as we have noted above in the case of keunòng 17. Dogs ramble at this period (asèë meuseutèt). The sun at noon reaches his greatest altitude for the second time (seunang mata uròë). | |
| X. | Keunòng limòng (5th Rabīʿ al-awwal 1311) = 16th September. |
| In this keunòng the musém timu (N. E. Monsoon) commences, and the second division of the seine-fishers (v. sub IV above) celebrate their kanduri laʾōt or sea kanduri. | |
| XI. | Keunòng lhèë (34 Rabīʿ al-akhir 1311) = 14th October. |
| In this keunòng begins the most favourable time for the voyage from the capital to the West Coast. This period lasts till about keunòng 17. | |
| XII. | Keunòng sa (1st Jumāda ʾl-awwal) = 11th November. |
| This keunòng owes its sole recognition to the fact that it must necessarily follow on keunòng 3 in order to maintain the regular sequence. It is not observable, since sun and moon then both stand in the Scorpion. The heavy rains commence in this keunòng; a very popular comparison is that of any terrifying noise with the rain of the keunòng sa (ban ujeuën keunòng sa).
In December the conjunction of Scorpion and the moon takes place just before the new moon (7th Dec.; new moon, 8th Dec.). It is thus incapable of observation, and is besides separated by another keunòng (keunòng sa) from the preceding new moon. It is thus excluded from the Achehnese reckoning. It is either entirely disregarded, the period from the first of Jumāda ʾl-awwal (or of some other month in other years) to the 23d of the following month being considered as having no keunòng; or else it is called keunòng tanggiléʾ (see p. 251 above). It forms part of the rainy season. |
As a subsidiary object of astromical or meteorological observation the Achehnese employ the Pleiades, the "group of seven stars" which they say now consists of six only, since one of the seven fell from the sky in olden times.
There is a well-known Malay pantun which runs as follows:
"Seven stars, six only now remain.
"One has fallen into Manjapahit.
"Athirst is my body as though I had fever,
"Increased still more by (other) sickness" [82].
These "Seven Stars" or "Many people" are well adapted occasionally to replace the Scorpion, as their place in the heavens is directly opposite that constellation and they are thus often visible when observation of Kala is rendered impossible through the scorpion being below the horizon, or difficult owing to a partially clouded sky.
When the Pleiades set at about the same time as the sun, this is according to the Achehnese a sign of bad weather at sea. This happens in keunòng 15, that is to say in May.
When this constellation rises very early in the morning (as is the case in the beginning of July, i. e. about keunòng 11 or 9), then the favourable time for the sowing of the padi has begun. The conclusion of seedtime on the other hand is denoted by the Pleiades having already at early dawn reached an altitude which is defined as follows: if one who, at about 5 A.M., points exactly in the direction of the Pleiades, has to raise his arm so high that the bracelets rattle on his wrist, then seedtime is over.
The Prophet of old forbade the heathen Arabs to say, "we have got rain from this or that constellation," as there lurks in this saying a depreciation of God's omnipotence. In like manner pious Achehnese are wont to admonish their fellow-countrymen against regarding the keunòngs as the cause of drought and rain. For all that they recognize that it is Allah's established custom to cause a definite state of the weather to recur after a definite number of keunòngs, and they generally guide their conduct accordingly.
There is a very widespread belief that if it begins to rain in any month before the keunòng, such rain will not prove continuous, but will pass off in mere showers. Should it however rain heavily on the day after the keunòng (ujeuën ateuëh keuneunòng = "the rain above the conjunction") then it is said that it will continue the whole month through.
§ 4. Agriculture, Tenths and Sugarcane Planting
The seasons in connection with agriculture.We have now become acquainted with the Achehnese year as measured by seasons. This we shall now pass once more in review in order to examine its relations with Achehnese agriculture. With this in view, let us commence with keunòng 21, (February of our year) when the rice harvest generally ends and the musém luaïh blang begins.
The musém luaïh blang.What is known in Acheh as blang is a network of adjoining rice-fields, all those for instance which belong to one gampōng;—the "open fields" as we might call them. Lands which used to form rice-fields, but which have gradually been rendered too brackish for cultivation by the invasion of salt water, are also called "blang."
On the other hand, sawahs[83] situated in swampy land are called simply paya (= "the swamp") or buëng in the specially swampy district known as the VII Mukims Buëng[84].
In the lowlands, where the whole country has been reclaimed by man, uncultivated fields or plains are seldom to be seen, but in the highlands there are many such. These are called padang, and belong like the blang to definite gampōngs, though the rights which those who live in their vicinity can exercise in them, are not confined to a single gampōng, but extend over the whole mukim.
Public right to the blang.The rice-fields (umòng) of the inhabitants of a given gampōng are thus usually to be found in the blang of that gampōng. When the rice-harvest is over, however, the whole blang becomes for the time more or less the common property of the gampōng, and every one may let his cattle loose to graze there. The owner of an umòng may indeed employ this land for intermediary crops and protect his plantations by running a fence round them. Should he neglect this last precaution, no attention will be paid to complaints on his part against persons whose cattle have destroyed his property.
On the other hand the rule is very strict in regard to the depredations of cattle from the moment the padi is sown until the harvest is complete. If an animal trespasses during that period on a ricefield, the owner of the latter has the right to get rid of it without giving any warning, not by slaughtering it in the ritual manner, which would make it fit for food, but by running it through with a spear or cutting off one of its hoofs or the like. This happens pretty frequently and thus everyone must look carefully after his cows and bullocks and buffaloes for the 8 months, more or less, during which "the land is closed" musém pichéʾ or kòt blang. This harsh rule protects the padifields, which would otherwise be exposed to constant danger through carelessness or malice.
Gardens and other tilled enclosures do not require such protection. If an animal is so wild as to cause actual damage to the fences, then the person aggrieved must first warn its owner. The latter can then easily take measures to prevent a repetition of the trespass; but should he fail to do so, he too must expect that some angry cultivator will one day render the offending animal harmless for good and all.
Superstitious in connection with the agricultural seasons.The musém luaïh blang, the period of the year when the land stands open to men and cattle, is also the appointed time for the setting up of tomb-stones (pula batèë), for the burning of lime (tōt gapu) and in the highlands for the piercing of the ears of young girls (tòb glunyuëng). It is generally believed that the rice of a whole field would be spoilt if tombstones were erected on the graves of departed relatives, or lime burnt in its neighbourhood, during the period between seedtime and harvest. It is also thought that the holes in the ears would never attain the width desired by the Achehnese women, if made during the time when the ground is "narrow", or "closed".
The field-kanduri.In the beginning of the musém luaïh blang every gampōng holds on a day fixed by its authorities, its kanduri blang or field-feast. This religious feast is intended to assure the continuance of the prosperity of the common land which has just yielded its harvest.
The viands for this feast, such as rice, meat etc, are brought together by voluntary contributions (ripè) on the part of the inhabitants of the gampōng. The men generally assemble in the fields in the afternoon; a malém consecrates with a prayer the kanduri, which then proceeds without further preliminaries.
The pepper kanduri.Besides rice cultivation, the "king of all breadwinning", pepper-planting is also honoured in Acheh by annual kanduris. The Achehnese account for the origin of pepper by a legend similar to that which is current among the Arabs in regard to coffee. Some goats' dung sown by a saint grew up into the first trees which bore the delicious product of Mokha; while the first pepper-plants grew from the seeds of kapok[85] (panjòë) planted by an Achehnese saint. It is supposed to be for this reason that they are propagated by the planting of cuttings instead of sowing. In honour of this saint, called Teungku Lam Peuneuʾeun from the gampōng in the IX Mukims where his tomb is, the kanduri bungòng lada is annually celebrated on the East and West Coasts when the pepper blossoms. This however is not made the occasion of a public gathering, the feast being held separately in the house of each pepper-planter. Both for this reason and also because the pepper-plants do not all blossom at the same time, the period of these kanduris lasts as long as three months. The constituents of the feast are glutinous rice and its accessories. In a single house as much as a naléh[86] of this rice is prepared.
Intermediary crops.To return to the musém luaïh blang. It is of course during this period that the growing of intermediary crops takes place. These consist chiefly of jagōng (maize), vegetables and sugarcane. This last, if grown on a large scale, is planted in gardens to make sugar and molasses (meulisan). During the four months while the "land is open" the cane has not time to reach its full growth. Thus canes planted in the rice-fields are cut, in whatever stage of growth they may be, just before the ploughing time, and consumed in their unmanufactured state.
Ploughing.Keunòngs 15, 13 and 11, but especially the last two, are the time for the ploughing (meuʾuë) of the rice-fields.
A rectangular rice-field surrounded on all sides by little banks (ateuëng) is called umòng; it consists of one or more (though rarely more than two) yōʾ. A yōʾ, which is also used to signify the yoke of a ploughing buffalo, is the surface measure generally used for rice-fields, but its precise area is not accurately defined. It is assumed that a yōʾ is really a piece of land requiring a naléh of seed, but if an umòng is smaller, so much as even to take only half a naléh, it is still called umòng sityōʾ =one yōʾ of rice-land. Measurements of 18 different yōʾs taken in the territory of the XXVI Mukims gave results varying from about 1800 to about 3500 square metres.
Dependence of the wet rice-fields on the rain.The padi-lands in Acheh proper, where not in swampy ground, are almost all what is called in Java sawah tadahan, i. e. they are fed by rainwater which they catch and hold by means of the little banks which surround them[87]. Rivers and streams are very rarely used for ricecultivation in Acheh, though they generally are in Pidië.
Lucky days.Ploughing is accompanied by no religious ceremony. All that is done is to select a favourable day for commencing the work; the 6th, 12th, 16th, 17th, 22nd and 26th of the month are considered the best. The 6th is especially lucky, unless it happens to fall on a Friday, which day it is pantang, or strictly forbidden by the adat, to devote to agricultural labour. On the West Coast Wednesday is pantang for pepper-planting as well as rice-cultivation.
The ploughing of an umòng usually takes about 10 days, since after the first turning up of the ground it is allowed to rest for some days to kill the weeds that have been uprooted. The Achehnese plough (langay) (see pag. 262) has an extremely long handle (gò) and a very short plough-share (mata). The buffalo is harnessed to it by means of a yoke (yōʾ) which is connected with the plough on the left side by a pole of arèn-wood (éh), and on the right by a rope (talòë linggang or dham). The cries of objurgation and encouragement which the ploughman addresses to his buffalo are exceedingly loud and frequent, so that any one standing some little distance off might imagine them to proceed from a crowd.
The tabu duëʾ.The method of sowing the padi is not the same in all places. Throughout a large part of the country the method known as tabu or tabu duëʾ is followed. This practically amounts to sowing out the seed (bijèh) at once on the field, instead of in a nursery in the first instance,
The following reasons are given for the more general popularity of this method. The crop being entirely dependent on the rain, there
PLOUGH (LANGAY) DRAWN BY A BUFFALO.
would be the danger of the seedlings in the nursery dying just as they were ready to be planted out, if the rain delayed too long. The continued absence of rain is less fatal to seedlings which do not require transplantation. It is further said that the padi in the tabu fields thrives as a rule much better than that which is first sown in the nursery even under favourable circumstances. In regard to this however we must not forget that where the Achehnese employ the nursery system, they plough the fields in a much more slovenly manner than they do in the case of the tabu lands.
Under the tabu system more seed is required than in the nursery process; the proportion is according to the Achehnese 16–20: 12.
Tabu[88] literally means to 'strew', "scatter abroad," and refers to the sowing of the crop, which takes place immediately after the ploughing. The rules which govern its initiation are the same as in the case of the latter. The work is begun—as all matters of importance should be in accordance with the tradition—with a béseumélah (= Arab, bismillah, "In the name of Allah"). The first handful of seed is scattered in a westerly direction, the point toward which the faithful turn their faces at the time of prayer.
After the seed is strewn, the earth is raked over it with a large wooden rake (chreuëh). This implement has no handle in the centre. A piece of wood is fixed vertically to either end and the tips of these two pieces are united by a third placed horizontally. This last is called the handle (gò), and is held by the driver, the rake being drawn by a buffalo harnessed to it in the same way as to the plough.
Rice sown according to the tabu system is called padé teunabu (scattered padi or rather padi obtained through scattering) or padé duëʾ ("sitting padi," i. e. such as does not require transplanting). About two or three months after sowing, the sprouting padi must be thinned out (lhaïh, seumeulaïh) where it is too thick, and supplemented where it is sown too thin. This task falls in or about keunòngs 5 and 3.
In this method of sowing the extirpation of weeds (eumpòë) is both tedious and trying. The ground is already dry at the time of the sowing and first sprouting of the seed, and so quickly becomes quite hard, rendering it impossible to get rid of the weeds without first turning up the soil in which they grow with a tukōy (a kind of small pachul or changkul).
The pula method.The second method, which is adopted in a portion of the highlands, and occasionally in the lowlands, in the IV Mukims and with certain modifications in swampy districts such as the VII Mukims Buëng, consist of two parts. These are 1°. the preparation of a nursery bed (lheuë),[89] in which the seed (bijèh) is strewn (tabu) to obtain seedlings or padé seuneulōng. The padi obtained in this way is called padé peunula or planted padi in opposition to the above-named padé teunabu or sown padi.
Where the ground is swampy this method is generally followed, since if the seed were scattered in the swamp it would never mature. It is also adopted for convenience sake by some of those whose rice-fields are entirely dependent on the rain. In so doing they run the risk of the rain delaying its coming longer than usual, so that the padi cannot be transplanted from the nursery to the field at the proper time and is thus lost altogether.
Accordingly they prepare their nurseries as late as possible. If all goes well, the subsequent task of weeding proves very easy; the weeds are simply pulled out with the hand (uruëh) from the soft ground. They are thus saved the tedious work of the eumpòë.
Others are compelled to adopt the seuneulōng system owing to their being prevented by the force of circumstances from sowing (tabu) a long time before the rainy season.
The sowing in the nursery is done in the same way as that in the field. The interval between this sowing and the planting out depends of course on the rate of growth of the seedlings and the presence of water on the umòng or rice-field. They endeavour if possible to plant out on the 44th day after the sowing. With this we may compare the "removal of the oven" (bòïh dapu) 44 days after child-birth and the setting up of the tombstone 44 days after death; indeed a special value is universally attached to that number.
Customs observed at the planting out of the padi.At the commencement of the planting out of the padi, due regard is paid to the superstitious usage of the peusijuëʾ or cooling, which forms among the Achehnese the accompaniment of a whole host of important acts and undertakings. For the cooling of the umòng they employ leafy fronds of the pineung (betel-nut palm) and the plants called manè manòë and sisijuëʾ[90], which are tied together and soaked in flour and water (teupōng taweuë), to besprinkle the centre of the rice-field. After this is done, the green besom is planted right in the middle of the umòng. Some omit the sprinkling of flour and water, and simply plant the bundle of boughs in the centre. Both methods alike are known as puphōn padé, the commencement or inauguration of the padi.
They then begin planting from the centre outwards, after having first of all uttered the indispensable béseumélah ("In the name of Allah"). As they plant they follow the direction of the wind. The newly planted padi is supposed in this way to acquire the requisite slant, which is regarded as a guarantee of its shooting up straight and strong later on.
The pula-season falls in keunòngs 5 and 3, or sometimes, when the rain is unusually late, in keunòng 1.
The inòng padé.A custom the meaning of which has been wholly forgotten, but which is still pretty generally followed, is that of planting in a clump in the umòng a handful of the seedlings remaining over in the nursery after the planting out is completed. This is called inòng padé. The word inòng in modern Achehnese means "woman," "female," but sundry expressions in the folk lore indicate that it must have also had in ancient times the signification of "mother." In all large herds of buffaloes or oxen and flocks of goats or poultry, there is usually one, tamer than the rest, which acts as leader of the flock. This is called the inòng and is never sold or slaughtered, for that would bring ill-luck to the rest[91]. If a gold-washer finds in a stream a nugget somewhat resembling a living creature in shape, he keeps it as inòng meuïh, convinced that it will bring him luck in his subsequent quest for gold. So also with those who prepare the famous healing draught made from the root of the peundang; when a piece of root of similar form is found it is called by them inòng peundang. In like manner the inòng padé though it is of course unable to attain its proper growth owing to its being planted together in a clump, probably had the same significance for the growth of the padi, though it has now gradually faded from the popular mind. One is involuntarily reminded of the indung pare or "rice-mother" of the Sundanese, a truss of ripe padi taken at harvest time and fastened together in a peculiar way. It is placed in the padi-store underneath all the other trusses with sundry traditional ceremonies, and is not removed from its place till the lapse of time has made it undistinguishable from the rest[92].
Rice in swampy ground.On swampy ground the tabu-system cannot be applied, and a nursery must be made in a somewhat drier spot close by. When time presses, the system is modified as follows. The seed is wetted and spread out on mats or plantain leaves, which are also kept wet, and in this way it sprouts in two or three days. This sprouting seed is then spread out (raleuë or larcuë) on a comparatively dry piece of the swampy ground, which is called lheuë lareuë or spreading nursery. To promote quick growth, a little water is occasionally let into the nursery, and as soon as the plants are big enough they are planted out in the swamp.
Ladangs.Ladangs (hill plantations) are opened in the forests of the highlands and especially of the East and West Coasts, in order to make the ground suitable for pepper-planting by a years rice-cultivation. Besides padi and pepper, sugarcane, champli (chilis), onions, etc. are planted in these ladangs. The padi-planting is here done by means of dibbling (tajō, teumajō)[93]. The trees are first felled and burned, and all roots so big as to cause obstruction are cleared out in a rough and ready manner. Then, as soon as the ground has been somewhat softened by the first rains, deep dibble-holes are made, some seed is thrown into each of them, and the padi is thinned out later if it grows too thick.
Enemies of the rice.A watch is kept all day long against various kinds of rice-birds (tulō, miriëʾ). Scarecrows rudely representing the human form (ureuëng-ureuëng or penyakōt)[94] are hung up in the fields, or a cord is stretched and dry plantain leaves (ōn krusōng) hung on it and kept in motion by constant pulls.
Other enemies of the ripening rice are the field mouse (tikōih) and the foul-smelling insect called geusòng (- walang sangit). Charms written on paper (ajeumat) are used as a defence against both the above; the papers are inserted in a hollow bamboo (bulōh), which is fixed in the middle of the umòng. The prayers employed for these charms are called tangkay tikōih and tangkay geusòng.
Before the war, wild pig were rarely to be seen in the lowlands, owing to the absence of cover. In the highlands on the other hand, a strict watch had to be maintained against these destructive intruders.
The various kinds of caterpillars (ulat padé) which prey on padi do but little harm in the opinion of the Achehnese, provided that the rice is planted at the proper time. Against these there is no known remedy.
If the padi looks sickly, abèë or ashes of burnt cow-dung is spread once or twice over the umòng.
As we have seen, superstition plays its customary part in the rice-cultivation of the Achehnese; by no means, however, so important a part as in Java, where a description of the padi-planting constitutes a perfect treasury of folklore. Nyi Sri is not even known by name. We can at most point to the defunct custom of the inòng padé as a rudiment of the ideas on which the worship of the rice-goddess in Java is based. To this we must add a custom prevailing in the highlands; when the rice is on the point of ripening (dara, marriageable, or rab bunténg, all but pregnant), various kinds of sweet meats are laid on the little bunds or banks surrounding the rice-plots. Apart from these trifles, the system of rice-cultivation in Acheh as compared with that in Java may be called, if not rational, at least rationalistic.
The labourers.The various tasks connected with the cultivation of rice are in the lowlands performed by men only; in Pidië, Daya and some parts of the highlands the planting out (pula) is left to the women, who work for a small daily wage (formerly 1 gupang = 12½, cts.). Persons of wealth and distinction, who possess many umòngs, invite crowds of people to assist them in the planting out, reaping and threshing of the padi, and give them a good meal for their pains. This is called meuseuraya, and through such voluntary aid great tasks are easily completed in a single day.
The harvest.Simpler folk get in their harvest with the help only of their own households and a friend or two; the latter accept similar assistance in return. The padi when cut is collected in trusses (gasay)[95], containing as much as can be held in the open hand, each truss being tied up with padi-straw (baʾ padé). When the reaping is finished, the trusses are gathered on high ground close by, where there are some trees to give shade. Here they are formed into sheaves (puy) of a man's height, the trusses being spread out so as to form a circle, with their heads containing the grain meeting in the centre. During the days occupied in gathering the padi into sheaves, it has time to get a slight preliminary drying.
After this, mats are spread, on which is placed a certain quantity of padi to be threshed (lhò, properly = "to stamp"). The threshing is done with the feet; in order to tread with greater force, the thresher supports himself on two sticks as he walks slowly over the mat.
The grain, when sufficiently threshed, is piled in a heap and then cleansed by rubbing between the hands (tinteuëng, teuminteuëng), by which process the stalks, chaff and dirt are separated from the grain.
Those who help to tread the corn usually receive as their sole reward a little tapè, a fermented liquor prepared from rice.
The second cleansing of the unhusked rice is done with the help of the wind. When there is a good breeze, an eumpang (sack of plaited leaves) full of padi-grain is lifted on high and the grain strewn out so that the empty husks and particles of dirt are blown away. This operation is called peukruy or peuʾangèn. It takes place in or close by the padi-field, unless there happens to be no wind for a long time after the threshing, in which case it is done in the gampōng, the padi being left for the time being uncleaned, and brought home in this state.
Payment and distribution of the jakeuët.After the cleansing the harvested grain is measured (sukat), and those who faithfully observe their religious duties set apart one-tenth of the whole as jakeuët (Arab. zakāt). According to the law, which is pretty literally interpreted by the Shafiʾite school on this point, this tax should be distributed among 8 classes of persons. Let us now see what the practice is in Acheh in this respect.
1°. The amils of the books of the law, who are charged with the collection and distribution of the jakeuët, must receive no fixed share, but merely a fair recompense for their trouble. The amils are in Acheh represented by the teungkus of the meunasahs. The adat, however, confers on them no right to collect the jakeuët by force, so that measures of compulsion are resorted to only in districts where some ulama or other representative of religion has for the time being gained the upper hand, or where the chiefs retain a share of the jakeuët for themselves. As a rule the teungku waits for the share that is brought to his house, or has his portion fetched home from the rice-field if notice has been given him of the completion of the harvest.
A good teungku will, after getting a handsome allowance for himself, willingly bestow a portion on claimants of the other classes mentioned below, on their presenting themselves before him; but as to this there is no fixed rule and many teungkus retain the whole for their own use.
2°. The poor and 3°. the needy, or those in actual want, either come to the field themselves or visit the owners of the rice later on in the year and prefer their claims with becoming modesty. From the teungku they have little to hope for. In Acheh as in other Mohammedan countries, the devout poor only are regarded as having any real claim. Few such are to be found among vagrant beggars; while the teungkus and ulamas, who do as a rule observe their religious duties, can generally make themselves out to be "needy" in some sense or other. They are always ready to advance this qualification, as it brings them a share of rice and other things. Thus "poor" and "needy" in this sense is usually synonymous with ulama or teungku.
4°. Debtors who are unable to pay a debt incurred for a permissible or rather a meritorious purpose, seldom enjoy any share in the jakeuët in Acheh. The social conditions which might have given rise to such a separate class according to the spirit of the Mohammedan law, are too rare to be of any account[96].
5°. Poor travellers (Ach. meusapi from the Arabic musāfir) occasionally get something from the jakeuët, either from the teungku in whose meunasah they find temporary lodging or from people of the gampōngs who still have some padi left over, from which the tenth has not yet been deducted. The numerous hajjis from Krinchi (Korinchi) who in earlier times wandered from place to place in Acheh, were notable recipients of this dole.
6°. Assistance to slaves in their endeavours to purchase their freedom has seldom been given from the jakeuët in Acheh. Such an object is difficult to fulfil where there is no organized collection and administration of the tax, and besides the Achehnese have never been in the habit of entering into contracts of manumission with their slaves.
7°. Converts to Islam (Ach. muʾalah from the Arabic muʾallaf) are never refused a share in the jakeuët if they present themselves as claimants; indeed they go about begging through the whole country after the harvest. Such begging tours used to be the chief means of subsistence of the deserters from the Dutch forces in Acheh[97].
8°. The employment of part of the jakeuët for the "holy war" is called the "way of God" (sabīl Allah). Where it cannot be so employed it should, according to some authorities, be devoted to works of universal benefit to Mohammedans. This manner of employing it has (as we have seen when dealing with the political situation)[98] played a prominent part during the last twenty years. For the past ten years (1882–92) in particular, this portion of the jakeuët has been the mainstay of the constantly increasing power of the ulama party.
According to the letter of the Shafiʾite law, the jakeuët, after deduction of a suitable recompense for the first-mentioned class (the collectors and distributors), should be distributed in equal shares among the remaining classes, with this proviso, that a class not represented in the country should be regarded as non-existent.
It is easy to conceive that such a method of distribution would present almost insurmountable difficulties no matter how well it were administered. We have only to think of the distinction between the classes of the "poor" and the "needy," which is no more than legal hair-splitting, or the "travellers" and "debtors," who are creatures of chance and very unevenly distributed.
Nowadays there is hardly any Mohammedan country in which this tax is systematically collected and equally distributed. The nations of Islam are subjected to all kinds of secular taxes which the religious law brands under the name of maks as impious institutions and which, in conflict with doctrine, have made the jakeuët appear as a voluntary free offering.
Thus a Mohammedan, when he unstintingly sets apart his tenths of corn and gives them to one or other of the classes of persons who are entitled to them under the religious law, is regarded as specially devout. As a rule it is the expounders of the law or so-called "priests" that profit most by such gifts. In the Archipelago there is one special class of "priests" that enjoys most of the advantages of the zakat, owing to their original position as official administrators of the tax. From being its managers they have come to be practically its monopolizers.
It becomes thus quite easy to understand how the Achehnese ulamas succeeded in the course of the last few years in collecting as the share for the holy war (prang sabi) not merely the seventh part or as much more as was set free by the absence of the other classes, but the major part of the whole tax, and in founding with this war fund a priestly imperium in imperio.
Jakeuët of cattle, gold, silver and merchandize.The jakeuët of other objects liable to taxation under the law has never been contributed with anything approaching to regularity, though much more in later times under the powerful incentive of the ulamas, than was formerly the case.
Very few among the Achehnese are content to keep a considerable sum of gold or silver unproductive for a whole year at a time, out of respect for the prohibition of usury in the Mohammedan law. There are various devices for evading the spirit of the prohibition while outwardly conforming to its letter; but there are besides no small number of people in Acheh, as well as in Arabia, who are ready to neglect the letter also.
Some are however constrained by circumstances to retain sums of gold or silver money in their chests for as long as a year at a time. These sums should properly be liable to a jakeuët of 2½%. Persons of means always have considerable quantities of gold and silver ornaments in their possession, which are also subject to the jakeuët. Not all of these by any means pay even a fraction of the tax, while those whose conscience is less elastic content themselves with disbursing a yearly sum which is far from representing the amount due[99].
Payment of the jakeuët on merchandize is just as rare as on gold and silver, while the tax on cattle is entirely disregarded in practice.
Further treatment of the harvested rice.The stamping or threshing of the padi generally takes place in Acheh directly after the harvest. Thus we do not find here as in Java, padi-barns with piled-up sheaves, but little store houses under or close beside the dwelling-house[100], in. which the unhusked rice (padé) is kept[101].
Husked rice (breuëh = Mal. bras) is kept inside the house in a sack (eumpang), but only enough for 3 or 4 days' use is so stored. When the rice is scooped out of the bag with the cocoanut-shell used as a measure (kay), a little is always left in the shell and poured back each time so that the eumpang may never be entirely empty. This is the only one of all the numerous superstitions connected with the store of rice[102] observed by the people of Java, of which any trace can be found in Acheh.
When the supply of breuëh is exhausted, the fresh padi required is taken from the storehouse (krōng or brandang). It is first dried in the sun (adèë) and then thrown into the rice mortar (leusōng)[103], a hollowed block of wood, in which stands the pestle (alèë), from which projects a horizontal lever (jeungki). The husks are pounded off by setting this lever in motion at its further end so as to make the pestle rise and fall in the mortar. The husked rice is then sifted by means of the winnowing basket (jeuʾèë)[104] the light husks falling out as it is toosed[105].
For making flour a smaller leusōng is used, with a hand pestle (alèë), and the fine flour is sifted through a sieve (ayaʾ).
In Pidië and some of the dependencies of Acheh, especially it would seem in districts where irrigation canals had been constructed at the behest of the rulers in ancient times, a rice tax (wasè padé) was formerly levied for the Sultan. This tax consisted of an amount of padi equal to that used as seed in the area on which it was collected (lam sinaléh bijèh sinaleh padé).
Sugar-cane cultivation.Besides the pepper-planting, which is carried on more in the dependencies than in Acheh proper, there is also considerable sugar-cane cultivation. The form of refreshment most generally sought by those who frequent the market in Acheh is the juice which they suck from the sugar-cane, or drink after it has been extracted therefrom by means of a very primitive sort of press. The expression for "a douceur" in Acheh is "money to buy cane-juice" (ngòn blòë ië teubèë). The giver of a feast to which many onlookers come in addition to the guests, occasionally distributes pieces of sugarcane among them, and the traveller uses it to refresh himself when on a journey. Sugar (saka) or the molasses (meulisan) made from inferior cane is an indispensable ingredient in all kinds of dainties and sweetmeats.
The cane (teubèë) is, as we have seen, planted on the umòngs as a second crop, only to be cut when half-grown and used without further preparation. The true cane cultivation takes place in separate gardens enclosed with fences.
From keunòng 23 (January) begins the preparation of the ground with the plough; the planting season commences at keunòng 19, but occasionally in other months also, just after the rice-harvest. But no planting is done in keunòngs 17–7, since the cane if planted then turns out sròh, i.e. yields blossom but no juice.
For planting purposes, the canes are divided into sections with two "limbs" (atōt) having thus three "articulations." They attain their full growth in about a year. They are then cut down, and sugar is manufactured from them in the very primitive Achehnese sugar mills, which are similar to those found in Bantěn, the highlands of Padang and other places[106].
Sugar mills.The owners of sugarcane plantations do not all possess sugar-mills (wéng), but borrow them, or rather the parts of which they are composed, from one another. When not in use they are kept under the house with all the other lumber.
The borrower or owner takes these separate portions to his cane-plantation, and there puts the mill together in a hut (jambō) constructed expressly for the purpose.
The structure of the machine is as follows. On a massive wooden basis are placed (side by side) two upright circular shafts (wéng).
SUGAR-CANE MILL (WÉNG).
These are held in position by two horizontal bars (blida) fixed at a certain elevation. The extremities of these bars are supported on upright pillars (tamèh blida). Above the bars both shafts are provided with teeth which bite on one another so as to impart the rotatory motion of the one to the other. One of the shafts (the wéng agam) or "male" wéng is longer than the other (wéng inòng), the "female", so as to allow of the curved beam (wòë-wòë) being attached to the former. This beam, which bends downwards, is pulled round and round by a buffalo, and must of course hang clear of the other shaft as the latter would otherwise impede its movement.
At the point where the canes are introduced between the two shafts so as to squeeze out the juice, are two parallel strips of wood placed horizontally round the shafts. These are called the comb (suri), and serve to keep the canes, which are pushed in between them, straight in their passage between the shafts. As the cane is squeezed between the revolving shafts the juice falls into a channel (charaʾ) in the base between the shafts, and passes thence into an earthenware pot (pasu).
From the juice thus obtained the sugar or molasses is made by boiling. Molasses is chiefly manufactured in the XXII Mukims, the VII Mukims Buëng and the IV Mukims, since in these places the cane is of inferior quality.
The cane-gardens are manured with cow-dung. The same preventive is adopted against disease in the cane as against disease in the padi viz. spreading burnt cow-dung (abèë) over the field.
Arèn sugar (saka jōʾ) is also made in Acheh and commands a higher price than cane-sugar; but the manufacture of sugar from the sap of the cocoa-nut tree seems to be unknown.
§ 5. Navigation and Fisheries.
Before dealing with the occupation, acquisition and transfer of land, we shall first make a few remarks on the subject of navigation and fishery.
In our synopsis of the keunòngs we saw that the voyage from the capital to the West Coast may be made without danger in Achehnese vessels (prahōs and sampans) from keunòng 5–17, and to the North and East Coast during the rest of the year, i. e. from keunòng 17–5; also that there occur intervals of from 5 to 7 days in the prevalence of the N. E. and S. W. monsoons. Steamers now run to the principal ports at all seasons, but in former times the Achehnese sailors and traders used to set a high value on the knowledge of the exact times when these intervals take place. They assert that there are certain signs by which they can be ascertained each year, but that there are only a few who possess the requisite knowledge.
The interval in keunòng 11 was considered as especially advantageous to those who could predict its coming beforehand. In the rantòs, the wild and inhospitable districts on the West Coast which separate the larger settlements from one another and are the field of the pepper-planters' labours, nothing could be obtained during the S. W. monsoon. Whoever succeeded in conveying thither a cargo of pots and pans (kanèt-blangòng) clothing, salt, sugar and molasses, was certain to return home with a handsome profit. The interval in the N. E. monsoon was of less importance, since there is a better supply of all necessaries on the North and East Coasts.
Fishing goes on all the year round, and in the lowlands many support life by this employment.
Principal kinds of fish.A distinction is drawn between eungkōt darat "land-fish," which live in the swamps and the padi-fields when covered with water, eungkōt kruëng, fish found in rivers and salt water creeks, and eungkōt laʾōt or sea-fish. Some kinds of fish belong to two of these classes, as they are sometimes to be found in the sea, and sometimes in the creeks and rivers.
In fresh-water rivers (kruëng ië tabeuë) there is but little fishing, owing to the rapidity of the stream; for the fisherman of Acheh proper kruëng generally means kruëng ië masén or salt water creek.
Varieties of fishing tackle.The means by which their capture is effected differ with the seasons of the year and also with the haunts and habits of the different fish.
The "landfish"[107] are caught with a rod (kawé) or fish-trap (bubèë)[108]. In the rice-fields these traps are placed in the openings in the bunds. They are fastened in a horizontal position to a vertical stake (jeuneulòng) fixed in the ground. Inside the trap are set at intervals a number of little subsidiary traps consisting of circular rows of thin strips of bamboo. These stand wide open near the mouth (babah) of the trap, but close in together at its closed end (punggōng). These obstacles open readily as the fish enter and then resume their former position by their own elasticity and bar their exit.
A simpler sort of fishing trap is the geuneugòn[109], identical with that of which Newbold[110] says: "Fish are often taken in shallows and marshes by means of a conical basket open at the top and bottom. The broad end is placed suddenly on the mud where they are supposed to lie; the hand introduced at the narrow upper part of the cone and the ensnared fish taken out."
Fishponds (mòn eungkòt) are also made in the rice-fields. Deep holes are dug out, and in these are placed bits of wood, twigs, leaves etc. to attract the fish thither. Then the entrance is blocked, the pond is baled out and the fish extracted.
In the salt-water creeks and rivers[111] (especially the former) the casting net (jeuë) and the nyaréng are employed. The latter is a square net, with which a piece of water is barricaded as it were with a wall, so that the fish get entangled in its meshes as they try to pass through. Birds are caught in the same manner in the open country, and the net used to catch them bears the same name. To ensure a good catch with the nets, two men are sometimes posted one at each side of the stream to drive the fish from some distance off. The two hold between them a long rattan or pliant trailer which they move up and down in the water, and the fish, frightened at the noise, dart away towards the net. Driving of this sort is called meuʾurèt.
Small seines (pukat) are also employed for catching fish in the creeks and rivers.
In shoal water both in the swamps and in the creeks and rivers, fish are sometimes caught with purse-nets, some of larger size called nyab and some smaller, ali, the latter being used especially to catch cray-fish, crabs and prawns. These ali are let down to the number of fifty at a time; they sink to the bottom by means of the lead with which they are weighted in the centre, but remain under the control of the fisherman by means of a rope, to which a float is attached.
The neuheuns[112] and lhòms fulfil the same functions in the creeks and rivers as the fish-ponds in the rice-fields.
The neuheun is a kind of pond made by piercing the bund that runs alongside a creek or river by a pipe (grōng-grōng) and receiving the water that pours through this in a pit excavated for the purpose. This is then made an attractive abode for fish by placing in it bits of wood, leaves etc, The neuheun is protected from the raids of net-fishers by planting thorny bushes or bamboo stakes in them and also by keeping watch over them at night. The fish is caught with a casting-net.
The lhòm is formed by collecting a mass of heavy timber in a deep portion of the river when the water is low, and surrounding it with stakes driven into the river-bed in order to prevent it from being carried away by the stream. The fish naturally collect on the upper side of this dam. After a month or two the time comes for emptying the lhòm (pòh lhòm).
When the water is low the space occupied by the timber is enclosed with jang. One piece (kraʾ) of jang consists of a screen of split bamboos (kraʾ) from 22½, feet to 45 feet in length, the bamboos being fastened together much in the same way as "chicks" or sun-screens used in this country. This wall of jangs fastened together so as to cover the required space, is fixed round stakes set in the river bed, so that the bamboo screen stands upright to a height of from 4′ 6″ to 9′. The dam of timber within the space thus enclosed is then removed, and the fish so hemmed in are caught with nets (jeuëʾ, nyab).
Jangs are also used for catching fish in aluës, the branches or back-waters of creeks or rivers[113], which are separated from the latter by comparatively dry spots when the water is low. While the water is still high, the aluë is marked off on both sides with rows of jangs, the junction of the aluë with the river being enclosed by a jang (ntòng jang) set between the extremities of these side walls and almost circular in shape, with one opening leading into the aluë. When the water subsides, the fish in the aluë are debarred from returning to the river (or creek) by the accustomed way; the only door that is open to them leads right into the circular jang, but on passing through this opening they are caged in and can find no means of exit. The fishermen then pull the fish out of this cage with the hand or with scoop-nets.
The places where this method of fishing is practised are usually marked by banks thrown up on either side.
The implements used for fishing in the sea bear the same names as those employed in the kruëngs, but of course differ somewhat from the latter in size and make.
Fishing from boats (jalōs or prahōs) lying at anchor is carried on by means of an ordinary sea-line[114] (kawé laʾōt) without a float (lampōng) but furnished with a lead (batèë kawé).
The towing-line (kawé huë or kawé tunda) is towed behind vessels sailing swiftly before the wind. For this a bunch of white chicken's feathers[115] is used as an artificial bait. These are fastened round the line above the hook (mata kawé) in such a way that they can move backwards and forwards. Some kinds of fish mistake this bunch of feathers for food, and when they bite they find themselves caught fast on the hook through the motion of the prahō, almost before they have discovered their mistake.
Another kind is the kawé ranggōng[116], a line composed of two parts united by an implement (ranggōng) made of horn, and used for fishing when at anchor.
The sea fish-trap (bubèë laʾōt) is almost hemispherical in form, with a closed bottom and an opening in the side. Small fish can swim in and out through the interstices of the side. They seek refuge in the trap from the large fish which pursue them, but the latter follow them in through the opening. Thus the small ones escape, but the big ones remain behind, since the aperture, as in all such traps, gives them no chance of getting out once they have entered.
The casting-net (jeuë)[117] is used for fishing for prawns (udeuéng) close to the shore and several species of fish, such as the awō from which dried fish or karéng is made, and the buduëng, sumbòë and tangkirōng. The buduëng and sumbòë are also caught with the nyaréng as well as the ikan lham and the meunèng. At sea of course the nyaréng cannot be employed, as in the creeks and rivers, as a wall wherewith to obstruct a portion of the waterway for the fish. These nets are simply thrown loosely into the water and hauled in and examined after a few moments to see if any of the denizens of the deep may have become entangled in the meshes.
In the pursuit of the various kinds of fishery which we have so far described there is no lack of peculiar customs, many of which are purely superstitions. Superstition, however, plays a much more important part in the fishing with the pukat or seine-net.
Fishing with the pukat in the open sea (mupayang) is only carried on for a small part of the year. It requires the coöperation of two sampans, and it is only the surè-fish[118] that is caught in this manner.
Various kinds of fish, great and small, are however caught inshore with the pukat. One end of the net is made fast on shore while the other is taken out to sea in a sampan and then brought ashore again, the object being to make a big haul of fish with the gigantic bags forming the centre of the net which are thus dragged through a considerable tract of water.
The men (awaʾ) who form the crew of a sampan[119] are subject to the orders of a master (pawang), who is also usually the owner of the vessel and its belongings. Pukat-fishing presupposes great skill and especially sundry sorts of èleumdèë (= ilmu) or knowledge of magic lore, principally consisting of formulas which must be recited at the proper time in order to resist malignant influences by sea and to attract the fish. Just as in hunting the secrets of the forest must be known to the pawang rusa, the indispensable "master" of every deer-drive, who is alone able to exorcise wood-spirits, to take bees' nests from the trees unharmed, etc., so must the pawang pukat know all the influences that prevail beneath the sea, and be armed against them so far as may be necessary.
Some of the rules which have to be observed are universally known, as for instance that which forbids fishing with the pukat on a Friday under any pretext. Other methods of catching fish may be practised with impunity on this day, but pukat-fishing is prohibited as strictly as ploughing[120]. Thus on Fridays the pawang and his crew may be seen lounging about in their best clothes.
There are besides a number of words which cannot be uttered without danger at sea. This holds good for other fishermen as well as the pukat-fishers, and in some degree for all seafaring men. Such unwritten pantangs have a very widespread range. In Java there are many such which are observed in the chase of wild animals. In the neighbourhood of the ancient Galuh there are places where the Mohammedan confession of faith must not be uttered while fishing, for fear of disturbing the spirits of the ancient heathen kingdom! Even in Ḥadramaut the chase is the subject of a certain amount of heathenish lore[121], in which prohibitions of forms of speech play a great part, so that a huntsman or even the friend of one is regarded as a person of ill repute.
Among the fishermen on the North coast of Java whole lists of words can be collected which are prohibited at sea and have to be replaced by others. This is also the case to some extent among the seafaring folk of Acheh. For instance, those at sea must not call a mountain by its proper name, gunòng, lest waves as high as mountains should overwhelm their vessel; the euphemism employed is tanòh manyang = high ground. Gajah, the elephant, is called by his nickname pò meurah[122]. If the fisherman wishes to say that something is "ready," he must not use the ordinary word "lheuëh," because this has also the meaning of "free" or "loose," and its use might give the imprisoned fish a chance of escaping; accordingly the less dangerous synonym leungka is employed. If he wants to speak of a rope being cast off, he uses in place of lheuëh its synonym leupaïh; so too lōb "to pass under something by stooping", and several other words have to be replaced by synonyms or paraphrases by those who are fishing or on a voyage.
To this sort of universal lore must be added the special pukat mysteries. The awaʾs obey the pawang not only because they are his hired servants, but also because he alone possesses this special knowledge.
The pawang and his crew are too busy with the management of their boat and nets to spare time to bring the fish to market themselves. Thus they are obliged to have recourse to middlemen, and these fish-buyers are called mugè. Fish-dealers on a small scale divide among them the catch of one sampan if it be a big one, for they are their own coolies, and thus cannot carry more than a single basket a-piece. Those who deal on a larger scale have lesser dealers under them, and give each of them for sale a portion of the catch of the one or two sampans with which they have a fixed agreement.
As soon as the catch has been landed, the pawang discusses the price of the fish with his contract buyer. The latter tells him that the market is at present greatly overcrowded, and that he therefore dares not promise more than such and such a price, which is as a matter of fact far below the expectations of the master of the fishing-boat. He can at any time determine his contract with the mugè, but this profits him nothing, for he wants to sell his fish at once while fresh and must employ his usual dealer or else enter into protracted negociations with a new one. The pawangs have learnt by experience that there is no advantage in such changes, as it simply means getting out of the frying-pan into the fire. Accordingly, most pawangs spend a considerable portion of their time on land in squabbling with their buyers, the more so as they know that the verbal agreement as to price, which they make immediately after landing, is by no means always final. The dealer should properly retain as his commission the difference between the price agreed on and what he succeeds in making by driving hard bargains in the market. When he returns from the market, however, he often declares that the sum agreed on is too high, and compels the pawang to content himself with much less; adding that he has not earned a single pèng for himself.
Just as the pawang deals with a head mugé or fish-dealer, so the latter contracts with sub-dealers, but he does not let himself be cheated so much by them since he is of the same trade.
Distribution of the catch.The mugès are not the only doubtful friends who view with an interested eye the industry of the pawang and his crew and await their coming with impatience on shore. A number of onlookers from the gampongs along the coast come down to meet them, and unless the catch has been too paltry, these have a right in accordance with the adat to a present of fish.
Nor is it merely respect for the adat that causes the pawangs to distribute these presents. They know that if they did not observe this custom, many an evil eye would rest on their vessel and their pukat, with the result that much ill-luck would attend their next venture, for many of the onlookers would exhaust all their magic arts to cause the fish to be driven out to sea, the nets to be torn and the like.
Share of the chiefs.So the pawang has secret hostility to dread from the general mass of the onlookers if he does not keep them in good humour; but from the rakans or followers of the territorial chiefs he must expect open enmity, should he fail to set apart for them a gift suitable to their rank.
Woe to the pawang who falls short in this respect! He must expect a punishment like that visited on the planter who has incurred the displeasure of his ulèëbalang and whose land is placed under a ban (langgéh)[123] by the latter. His sampan and pukat are placed under the ban for a month or sometimes even for an unlimited period, and he thus finds himself deprived of his livelihood, and can only get the ban removed by appeasing the ulèëbalang with a money present, which may in fact be called a fine. Where his sin of omission is trifling, so as merely to cause the wife of the ulèëbalang to complain to her lord that his contribution of fish is so small as to disappoint her house-keeping expectations, he is punished indirectly. A couple of rakans go down to the market, and having ascertained which of the buyers has in his charge the fish of the defaulting pawang, take from him so much as they consider "fair." The buyer is then justified in paying to the pawang less than he had promised him.
How oppressive this tax may be to the pawang may be seen, for instance, at Ulèë Lheuë (Olehheh), where the pukat-fishermen have to deal with at least three chiefs, the ulèëbalang Teuku Nè, his banta[124] Teuku Sandang and Raja Itam, a son of a deceased Teuku Nè. These three always enforce their demands for fish and punish defaulters with the ban. There are, besides, other smaller dignitaries whom the pawang cannot continually overlook without being punished in the end.
The pawangs have occasionally trade disputes with one another, which chiefly arise from their fishing in each others' neighbourhood. These are generally settled by the headman of the pawang guild, himself also a pawang, who bears the title of panglima and owes his office to the choice of his fellows of the guild with the approval of the territorial chief. The sphere of action of a panglima is called lhōʾ (= Malay tělok), which properly means "bay"; these "bays" are separated from one another by boundary marks.
At ordinary times the only meaning of this division is that the pawangs of a given lhōʾ use that portion of the foreshore for laying up and repairing their sampans, and as the basis for their fishing trips. The right to catch fish in the water facing that strip of coast is open to the pawangs of other lhōʾs just as much as to them, nor is it regarded as an offence for one of these others to land in their territory. The boundary however has its chief significance at the kanduri laʾōt, which each lhōʾ holds annually to invoke God's blessing on the labours of its pawangs
The kanduri laʾōt.The time chosen for this kanduri (which is supposed to bring to the pukat-fishers the same good luck as the kanduri blang[125] does to the planters) is that when the fishery enjoys a compulsory holiday owing to the rough weather i. e. the changes of the N. E. and S. W. monsoon. Thus the foreshore at Ulèë Lheuë is divided for the pukat fishermen into two lhōʾs, one of which gives its religious feast in keunòng 17 at the beginning of the S. W. Monsoon (about April), and the other in keunòng 5, at the beginning of the N. E. Monsoon (about September).
The pawangs of the lhōʾ bear the expenses of the feast, which is on a considerable scale, but they can claim a contribution of about four dollars from each of their contract buyers.
The day for the feast is fixed by the panglima, who invites to it all the pawangs and their crews, the ulèëbalang and the gampōng authorities (keuchiʾs, teungkus and ureuëng tuha) of his mukim.
That the feast is luxurious according to Achehnese ideas may be judged from the fact that a buffalo is always slaughtered for it. Before proceeding to attack the good cheer which is spread on the shore of the lhōʾ which gives the feast, the latter is consecrated by liké (Arab. ḍikr), the repetition of psalms of praise (seulaweuët) in honour of the Prophet, or hatam, i. e. the recitation in chorus of portions of the Qurān by the teungkus and leubès present.
During the seven days following the kanduri, it is high festival for the fish in that lhōʾ; for in this week neither the pawangs belonging to that "bay' nor their colleagues from neighbouring parts may fish in the waters fronting that division[126].
§ 6. Rights on Land and Water.
To supplement what precedes, we shall now make a few remarks on the origin, transfer and forfeiture of the possession of land and certain rights over waters containing fish.
Real primary jungle (rimba) suitable for clearing is scarcely to be met with anywhere in the lowlands, though there is plenty of it in the highlands. Here jungle produce of every kind, timber, damar, gětah, rattan, wild fruits, honey etc., may be collected by all alike free and without any supervision; nor is it limited to the inhabitants of the surrounding country, since the rimba is attached to no particular gampōng or mukim. The chase is also entirely free. The only tax is the usual impost levied by the ulèëbalang at the river mouth (kuala) which all must pass, on the products collected in the jungle and brought down for export. Where however a strip of virgin forest more closely adjoins a definite tract of inhabited country, the highland chiefs take toll of the jungle products gathered in their territory, the tax being levied previous to sale.
Rights over ladangs.Special rights to all that the rimba contains arise only through clearing; a fact which plainly shows that the country is too extensive for its inhabitants. The opening of cleared plantations (ladang) gives rise to rights of occupation, the duration of which is measured by that of the existence of the ladangs, which varies greatly according to circumstances. On these roughly cleared lands rice and maize are planted for from one to three years; vegetables of various kinds, betel-nut, cocoanut trees or other fruit trees for a much longer period.
The sole restriction on clearing consists in this, that whoever wishes to open ladangs, gardens (lampōïh), or wet rice-fields (umòng) in the immediate neighbourhood of land which already has an owner or occupier, must first obtain the permission of the chief of the territory to which this land belongs. Where a number of persons wish to join in undertaking a considerable clearing, they must obtain the permission of the chief in whose country they wish to settle, but this permission refers more to their immigration into his territory than to their occupation of the forest land.
The right to a given ladang is lost as soon as all traces of the clearing have disappeared, just as it originated when the ground was first marked out for clearing.
Rice-fields and gardens always belong to one particular gampōng, and thus it is to the gampōng authorities that recourse is had in the first instance to maintain the rights of the owners and to compel them to observe their obligations.
The padang.Where, as in the Tunòng, the land has not been taken entirely into cultivation, there is annexed to each gampōng, in addition to the "blang" or area composed of umòngs or padi-fields, another area (padang) on which there is no cultivation. All the inhabitants of a mukim have a right to open umòngs on an unoccupied padang, situated within that mukim, which umdngs thenceforward become their property; but this privilege is seldom availed of. It is more usual to open gardens on the padang, but this gives a right to what is planted only and not to the ground itself. The only padang in the neighbourhood of the capital was a small tract near Panté Piraʾ. Elsewhere in the lowlands it is rarely to be met with.
Wakeuëh lands.Ownership of the trees etc. planted, exclusive of ownership of the ground, is not confined to the padangs; it is also to be met with in the case of what are called wakeuëh lands, for instance those which extend to the depth of seven great fathoms (deupa meunara) on either side of the river, and which used to be at the disposal of the raja[127].
Forfeiture of acquired rights over land.All right to possession of land is lost by abandonment or complete neglect, such as causes all traces of clearing to disappear. This of course happens most often in the case of ladangs, but seldom in that of wet rice-fields, gardens or courtyards. With respect to the last three even the theory of forfeiture is not entirely accepted by the people. So long as it is remembered that the umòng of X or the lampōïh of Y lay in a certain place, the common folk are generally inclined to recognize unconditionally the rights of X or Y or their successors in title whenever they choose to assert them.
It is especially the covetous ulèëbalangs who in their own interest declare such lands forfeit after they have been for a long time without a master. In like manner they greedily annex the heritages of strangers on the pretext of the difficulty involved in seeking out the heirs, or pilfer the goods inherited by absent persons under the pretence of administering the estates.
As we have already seen, these chiefs also find in the langgéh umòng[128], or banning of rice-fields, a welcome method of quietly acquiring possession of many a desirable piece of land.
Transfer of rights.The rights exercised by their occupiers over ladangs, umòngs, lampōïhs and courtyards (tanòh rumòh, sometimes also used as lampōïh or gardens) are expressed by the term milé[129] (milk) which is borrowed from the Arabic.
Succession.Just like all other ownership, that of the various sorts of land we have mentioned passes at the owner's death to his heirs. We shall see in a later chapter what departures from the Mohammedan law are exhibited by the Achehnese law of inheritance. The fact that in distributing estates, the umòngs are, where possible, given to the sons and the houses to the daughters is not in itself in conflict with the Mohammedan law.
Wills (wasiët) are seldom made[130]. The Achehnese who feels his death approaching generally acquaints those present with his last wishes in regard to the distribution of his property among his heirs, the place where he desires to be buried and so forth. This is called pumeusan (from peusan[131]) and these last "behests" are generally observed out of piety, although they have no binding effect under Mohammedan law.
The right of the owner to devote one-third of his property to the advantage of objects or persons other than the heirs appointed by law, is universally recognized but seldom practised in Acheh.
The making of waqf.Equally seldom exercised is the right of withdrawing lands or other property from common use and making them wakeuëh (Arab. waqf), the usufruct or income being devoted to some purpose permitted by the Mohammedan law.
The rice-fields whose revenues are devoted to the upkeep of the mosques belong to this class; they are called umòng sara or meusara (see p. 122) and their foundation is in part ascribed to the old sultans. Besides the above, the latter dedicated certain rice-fields as waqf to meet the expenses of the annual kanduris of Teungku Anjōng, and also, it would seem, for the maintenance of some of the smaller chapels.
Generally, however, the Achehnese limit themselves as regards the making of waqf to copies of the Qurān and other religious books (kitabs) for chapels and schools and earthenware utensils and the like for mosques and meunasahs, to be used in the kanduris held therein.
Sale.Sale of ladangs is comparatively rare, owing to their remote situation, but it is otherwise in regard to wet rice-fields, gardens and courtyards. According to the adat, however, lands of these three descriptions may always be acquired by the owners of the adjoining lands for the price offered by another, a right not conferred by the Shafiʾite law.
For this reason the owner of such lands in Acheh is bound to notify his immediate neighbours of his intention to sell, nor may he complete the sale without their consent. Where two or more of the adjoining owners wish to exercise their right of acquisition, they must come to an arrangement with each other; this seems seldom to present any difficulty.
The sale is attended with some ceremony, the form of it being borrowed in part from the Mohammedan law, and in part from the adat. Some ten persons from the gampōngs of the purchaser and seller witness the formal offer and acceptance, and each receives for his trouble some tobacco-leaves (bakōng). The vendor first announces the sale, though it properly speaking still lacks its legal confirmation. "I have sold", he says, "my rice-field in district X to so-and-so for $ 100; let this be known to all present[132]." With this introduction he proceeds to make the offer (peusambōt): "I sell you the rice-field Y for the sum of $ 100.—[133]." The purchaser replies by the acceptance (sambōt) "I buy from you this rice-field for the sum of one hundred dollars[134]."
Sale of cattle.The same formalities take place at the sale of cattle. The seller of the cow or buffalo holds the leading-rope, which passes through the animal's nostrils, close up to the latter, whilst the purchaser grasps it lower down. The formula of the peusambōt and sambōt is the same as those which we have just described, viz. "I sell you this buffalo for the price of 40 dollars." "I buy from you this buffalo for the price of 40 dollars." In repeating these words great care is taken to let the pronoun "you" precede the mention of the buffalo or cow, since the reverse sequence is regarded as highly improper. The same applies to the formula used in the purchase of land.
Consecration of a new plough-buffalo.When a man purchases a buffalo for agricultural purposes, he performs a further ceremony of a superstitious sort at the bringing home of the animal. Leading him to the foot of the steps of his house, he calls to the inmates to fetch him down a chinu[135] full of water and a handful (reugam) of husked and unhusked rice (breuëh padé). After crying béseumélah ("in the name of Allah!"), the owner first pours the water over the buffalo's head and then besprinkles the latter with the raw rice.
Although the sale of land cannot be said to be infrequent in Acheh, still public opinion stamps as a spendthrift the man who alienates the whole or a part of his inherited rice-field. This reprehensible action is known as pupipaʾ umòng = the breaking up of his rice-field. It amounts indeed to an attack on the "king of all breadwinning" (pangulèë hareukat).
Letting of lands.Letting (peusiwa) of rice-fields used[136] to be rare in the lowlands, but very common in the highlands and in Pulò Breuëh (Bras) where the cultivated ground is too extensive for the population. The rent is usually paid in husked rice (breuëh).
Gardens used also to be let in the lowlands, and in this case money was used. A high rent for a good sugar-cane garden with the necessary cuttings for planting was 20 dollars per annum.
The letting of houses is entirely at variance with the social institutions of the Achehnese, on which we shall enlarge further in our chapter on family life. Shops and stalls (keudè) are indeed let for hire, but these are only frequented by the traders on market-days, and at other times serve merely as storehouses for goods ready for sale.
Hiring out of cattle.Buffaloes and cows are also let out for hire, the usual rate being about 3 gunchas of unhusked rice (padé) per annum.
Contracts for hire are concluded without any formalities, since they are not far-reaching in their consequences.
The mawaïh-contract.A form of contract in very common use is the mawaïh. By this one party binds himself to work the rice-field of another with his own buffalo, plough etc., in consideration of receiving one-half of the crop, or to support his cattle etc., on condition that one-half the young that they produce shall become his property. Such contracts are also very common in Java.
Mawaïh is thus synonymous with meudua laba i.e. equal division of profits. Should special circumstances give rise to an agreement for division on other terms, this is no longer called mawaïh, but expressed thus for example; meugòë umòng X bagi lhèë = "to work the field of X for one-third of the crop."
Mawaïh-contracts are more especially resorted to by the owners of umòngs situated at a great distance from one another, as for instance the ulèëbalangs, who cause the umòngs which they appropriate to be cultivated in this way unless they are powerful enough to get the work done by feudal service. There are some chiefs who year after year call out the people of one gampōng to plough for them, of another to do the planting, and of a third to gather in the harvest[137].
He who hands over his field to be tilled under a mawaïh contract (pumawaïh) troubles himself no further about it till the crop is cut. Then he witnesses the measuring out of the padi either personally or by agent and removes the half that falls to his share.
Mortgages.From the above-quoted adverse view of the Achehnese in regard to the sale of rice-fields it may readily be seen that they are better managers of property, and have more comprehension of the value of accumulating capital than the Javanese. Indeed parsimony may be said to be more a national characteristic of the former people than extravagance. This does not prevent many from temporarily converting their rice-fields into money under the pressure of adversity of various kinds, while the passion for gambling rife among the chiefs and other persons of rank dissipates the fruits of the most parsimonious management. Under such circumstances they have recourse to mortgages (peugala).
The humane but unpractical doctrine of Mohammedan law that the mortgagee may draw no profit whatever from the mortgage, but must rest content with the assurance of receiving back in full the sum he lends, is just as little observed in Acheh as in other Moslim countries. The gala or mortgage contracts[138] are entirely controlled by the adat.
The objects most commonly pledged in Acheh are wet rice-fields, gardens, keudès (shops), boats, golden ornaments, weapons, fishing-nets and the like. Houses and cattle are rarely mortgaged.
The old adat requires a pledge to be given to the money-lender of double the value of the sum lent. Should the object pledged be lost through the fault of the mortgagee, the latter is obliged to pay to the mortgagor a sum equal to the amount of the loan.
Besides this very ample security for his capital, the money lender also enjoys the use of the thing pledged. Where it consists of weapons or personal ornaments he adorns therewith his own person or those of his wife and children. The unpleasantness of ruffling it in the finery of others, which must soon be restored to its owner, is not felt in the slightest degree by the Achehnese. He reflects that if he did not get these things in this way, he would have to buy them for himself, and the fact that he is able to do so is sufficiently evinced by his having lent money to others. So far from concealing the source from whence he derived such ornaments and weapons, he plumes himself on having command over the most costly possessions of others.
A shop taken in mortgage is often let to a third party. Money is lent on vessels only by seafaring men, who use the pledges themselves.
Umòngs and lampōïhs are either cultivated by the mortgagee entirely for his own benefit, or else given out by him in mawaïh contracts. They are always mortgaged when follow after the harvest, and given back by the mortgagee at the same season, i.e. in the case of rice-fields always in the musém luaïh blang[139]. Permission of the owners of the adjoining lands is not required, but as these mortgages are sometimes sustained for a very long time, the contract is concluded in the same ceremonial manner as contracts for the sale of lands. It not unfrequently happens that a mortgaged piece of land remains so long in the hands of a single family that it comes to be regarded as its property, and the original transaction is in all good faith forgotten. This results in tedious lawsuits between the heirs of the original owners and those of the moneylenders.
Pledging of fruit-trees.Fruit-trees etc., held without any right of ownership over the ground on which they stand,—as for example when they grow on a padang or common or on the wakeuëh strip on each side of the river—may also be the subject of a contract of mortgage. The man who takes such gardens in pledge has of course no right to remove the trees.
Rights over fishing-grounds.We have seen that the rights of the owner of an umòng are limited during the musém luaïh blang by the fact that everyone is free to graze his cattle thereon. In addition to this privilege, everyone has a right to fish in any umòng in that "open" season, both with fish-traps and the fishing-rod. Even in the musém pichéʾ blang, during which the access of cattle to the rice-fields is so strictly forbidden, fishing with the rod on the umòng of others is allowed, but not the setting of fish-traps.
Fish-ponds (mòn) made by the owner on his own land are excepted from this permission, and it is likewise forbidden to catch fish with any other implement than rod and line in neuheuns or lhòms which others have constructed on the banks of creeks or rivers.
Mortgaging of such ponds or staked enclosures seems not to be customary, though they pass into the hands of others by sale and succession. It even occurs at times that a man sells his rice-field, yet retains his ownership of the fish-pond he has made there.
There remains one further point of interest with regard to the money-lending system of Acheh. The Achehnese contract of mortgage comprehends within itself a transgression of the rule of law prohibiting all usury (riba), a rule unconditionally insisted on in the teaching of Islam and much emphasized by every school. The popular conscience, however, finds this form of transgressing the commandment less repulsive than the direct covenant for interest on a sum of money lent. The receipt of goods in pledge does not excite even an outward show of aversion; pledging is in fact permitted, nor is this the only respect in which the adat of the country has somewhat modified the hukōm in practice. But where it is said of anyone that he "makes dollars yield interest" (peulaba reunggét, pubungòng reunggét, or pajōh bungòng reunggét) then every hearer knows that the expression conveys a reproach, although such usury is by no means exceptional in Acheh. It is a slur on the character of the man of whom it is said, much as though he were accused of being an opium-smoker or a drunkard.
The ingenuity of mankind in the invention of means of evading the law finds full exemplification in the Achehnese practice of seeking innocent names for actions condemned by their religion.
The Achehnese dollars (piastres) taken by traders to Penang to buy goods[140], yield them in that port a profitable premium varying between 1 and 5%; 4%, is reckoned by them as the average premium or basi as they call it. The moneylender who advances capital to the trader for a trip such as this stipulates for half this basi, so that there remains for the trader the other half, plus whatever he may make by his venture. The basis adopted for such contracts is the rate of basi prevailing when the loan is made. This rate can always be easily ascertained from the traders or seafaring people who have last come over from Penang. Thus the moneylender is protected from loss, and the trader runs very little risk, as the rate seldom falls much in the time required for the voyage to Penang, and he no sooner reaches that port than he at once proceeds to change his money.
This method of raising money is called meudua basi = "dividing the premium into equal portions". The account is balanced every three months, so that, taking the premium at its average rate, the money-lender gets 4 × 2 = 8%, per annum for his money. Sometimes when the basi is very low, the moneylender bargains for the whole, so that the trader has to consider whether he can make a profit with such dear money.
Such contracts are, on account of the usury (riba) which they imply, condemned by the Mohammedan law equally with the Achehnese system of mortgage, nay even just as much as undisguised borrowing with a covenanted rate of interest. Yet the former process is in the popular estimation quite different from "making dollars yield interest", and the pliant consciences of the Achehnese are thus appeased.
Worse still, the name of lending in consideration of a part or the whole of the basi is used simply as a euphemism for ordinary usury, without any money-changing or journeys to Penang. For instance the lender says to the borrower, "I lend you 100 dollars in consideration of 6 dollars premium (basi) after 3 months"; or still better to maintain the appearance of a sharing of the premium he says, "the basi will in three months amount to 12 dollars, half of which will be your share and the other half mine".
In loans with a covenant for interest the moneylender generally requires a pledge in addition. The object of the pledge or mortgage in such cases is not so much to draw a profit for this short period from the object pledged, as to have security for the repayment of the capital with interest. The moneylenders are thus content with a pledge equal in value to capital plus interest, and so do not require one of double the value of the sum lent, as in ordinary mortgages.
- ↑ Long since in Yogya and Batavia according to Dr. A. B. Cohen Stuart, in the Government Almanac for 1868, p. 15; Tijdschrift v. h. Batav. Genootschap vol. XX p. 198. (The ruʾya is universally adopted among the Malays of the Straits Settlements. Translator).
- ↑ See Van Langen's Atjehsch Staatsbestuur, p. 456 seq.
- ↑ As to the eight-year cycle of the Javanese see Dr. A. B. Cohen Stuart's remarks in the Government Almanac for 1868 pp. 12 et seq. It has this in common with the Achehnese calendar that its year alip if divided by 8 leaves a remainder of 3. The year letters on the other hand, are different; the Achehnese correspond .with those which are to be found in some Arabic handbooks, which Newbold cursorily refers to as in use among the Malays (British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca, II p. 336), and which Dr. Cohen Stuart met with in a Sumatran almanac (Tijdschrift v. h. Batav. Genootschap XX p. 209). But none of the Calendars given in the last mentioned article entirely agrees with the Malay-Achehnese calendars. Such an agreement may be presumed to be probable in the case of that mentioned by Newbold, for the Achehnese derive their Malay lore principally from the Straits. Newbold, however, gives no particular whence this might be decided.
- ↑ Jam is used by the Malays not only to denote the hour of 60 minutes, but also as the common expression for a watch or clock. (Translator).
- ↑ Uròë means not only "day" but also "sun".
- ↑ In this and the two following expressions uròë = "the sun" is understood. Chòt uròë is also said.
- ↑ Sunset is with the Achehnese, as with all other Mohammedans, the commencement of the day of 24 hours, so that the night belongs to the day that follows it, and not as with us to that which precedes it.
- ↑ The Malays use maghrib, ʿisha, subḥ, lohor (ẓuhr) very much as they are used by the Achehnese. Their common phrases for the divisions of time however, though resembling those in the text in so far as they are partly drawn from natural phenomena are not by any means all identical with them. The following list is taken from the appendix to Maxwell's manual of the Malay language p. 139, and forms an interesting comparison with that given above.
1. Belum terbang lalat "before the flies are astir", just before daybreak.
2. Pechah panas, "when the heat commences", sun-up.
3. Kěring ambun "when the dew dries" about 8 A. M.
4. Tengah naik "when the sun is half way up" 9 A. M.
5. Tulih tenggala "when the plough is idle" (this resembles plòïh meuneuʾ uë).
6. Tengah hari těpat "midday exactly", noon. {{pbr} 7. Rambang "Right in the middle" (i. e. the sun in the sky), noon.
8. Buntar membayang," when the shadows are round (i, e. when your shadow is round your feet; noon).
9. Beralis hari "when the day changes", afternoon.
10. Lepas baʾada, and lepas baʾada salah", after (Friday's) prayers (in the mosque), about 1.30 P. M.
11. Turun kerbau berendam, "when the buffaloes go down to water", about 3 P. M.
12. Jindera budak, "when the children have gone to sleep, about 10 P.M. ( Translator).
- ↑ A gantang is now no longer used as a measure of capacity in Acheh; where a gantang is spoken of 2 arè is meant.
The measures of capacity are as follows:
Nië or ndië = ½ blakay Blakay (from blah kay, a division of a kay) = ½ kay Kay (orig. meaning cocoanut shell) = ½ chupaʾ Chupaʾ (containing unhusked rice to the weight of 24 Spanish dollars) = ½ arè Arè (called "a bamboo,"" in Malay) = 116th naléh Naléh = 110th kuncha Guncha = 110th kuyan The ndië is seldom mentioned except in conjunction with si = 1, as sindië (or sundië). Half a ndië is sometimes spoken of as put.
(The common Malay measures used in the Straits Settlements are the chupak, 4 of which = 1 gantang (about 1¼ gallons): 16 gantang = 1 naléh; 10 naléhs = 1 kuncha; 5 kunchas = 1 koyan. Translator).
- ↑ There are equivalent expressions in Malay; saʾ buntar (lit. a little round thing), saʾ kejap (a blink of the eyes) and saʾat (Arabic) are also used to denote a momentary period of time, and the expression sěmpat makan rokoʾ sa-batang, the time required for smoking a cigarette, is also in common use. (Translator).
- ↑ In Malay saʾ malam = yesterday; kelmarin ("the preceding day") is used sometimes for yesterday and sometimes for the day before; and kelmarin dahulu = the day before that again, 3 days since. Esok or besok = to-morrow, lusa the day after to-morrow, and tulat 3 days hence. (Translator).
- ↑ The Malays have just the same expressions, except that they make no difference for the first and thirtieth days. "Next month" in Malay is bulan timbul, "last month" bulan dhulu or bulan yang sudah. We find a close resemblance to the Achehnese in the expression for the fourth of last month which in Malay is ampat hari bulan dhulu or bulan yang habis (or sudah). (Translator).
- ↑ A sort of religious recitations.
- ↑ As to this see "Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie" (Ed. I. D. E. Schmeltz) Leiden 1888, Part I, pp. 191–196.
- ↑ According to the Qanoon-e-islam, pp. 122, 142, Hindus in British India also take a considerable part in the Ḥasan-Ḥusain feasts, pay vows to the holy relics paraded round on these occasions, etc.
- ↑ The symbolical coffin of the martyrs of Kerbela, which is carried about in the Muharram processions along with other symbolical objects such as figures of hands, banners etc.
- ↑ Qanoon-e-Islam, p. 144; also see the Faith of Islam by E. Sell, London 1880, p. 242.
- ↑ Lane, Manners and customs of the Modern Egyptians, 5th edn. II, p. 149.
- ↑ Kanji is exactly the same as the Javanese bubur, and means pottage or porridge.
- ↑ Rules of pantang (taboo) connected with marriage have hardly any force in regard to divorced women or widows.
- ↑ Malay Rabu pěnghabisan, Jav. Rěbo wěkasan.
- ↑ Chap. 36:58; 37:77, 109, 120, 130; 39:73 and 97:5.
- ↑ In Java it is customary to keep a supply of consecrated water (banyu jimat) ready in the mosques on Rěbo Wěkasan for the crowds of people who demand it.
- ↑ The bath taken on this occasion is a ritual one (ghusl), and is preceded by the utterance of the niyyat or intention to perform a task prescribed by the law of Allah.
[Among the Malays of Penang and Province Wellesley the Mandi Safar or "bathing of Safar" is one of the most popular of festivals. The method of its observance is almost identical with that of the Achehnese as here described. (Translator)].
- ↑ And in Malaya. (Translator).
- ↑ With regard to this measure see p. 201 above.
- ↑ See p. 42 above, This custom also prevails among the Malays. They call it menyirih.
- ↑ See p. 31 above and Chap, III § 1.
- ↑ According to the publication of aṭ-Ṭōchi: others assign a different name to the author.
- ↑ A very common custom in Java is as follows: when the reciter of the prayer at the close of the maulut comes to the words "and grant unto us for the sake of the honour in which Thou holdest him (Mohammad), acceptance (of our good works) glory and renown" at the word acceptance those present snatch some rice from the dishes which stand prepared hard by, and this rice is afterwards employed as a remedy in sicknesses of children etc. The knotting of threads as described above also takes place in Java.
- ↑ In Pidië the guests take to their homes the remnants of the Kanduri Mòʾlot, which are called by them ayapan.
- ↑ See Qanoon-e-islam pp. 164, 184–5.
- ↑ In Malay sěděkah is only used in the sense of "alms", "kanduri" being, as in Acheh, the sole word for a feast of the nature described above. (Translator.)
- ↑ Mekka. Vol. II pp. 52–53.
- ↑ For further information regarding this saint and the manner of his worship in the Deccan, see the work already quoted, Qanoon-e-islam pp. 160–163.
- ↑ I. e. Meurah Sahib. Meurah is an ancient title, occurring in the records of the kingdom of Pasè. It appears to be of foreign origin, and almost to correspond with Mir = Amir in Indian names. There are still families in Acheh which bear the title, and these are regarded as descendants of ancient chiefs. The elephant is called Pò Meurah in stories. Sab is an abbreviation of the Indian title Sāhib.
- ↑ Qanoon-e-islam pp. 162–163.
- ↑ Penang Mohammedans have a superstition that articles of value vowed to this saint if thrown into the sea at Penang will be washed up in a few months time close to the shrine at Nagore. (Translator.)
- ↑ Aja is really an abbreviated form of Raja = prince or princess.
- ↑ Qanoon-e-islam p. 166: "On the 13th of the month (Shaban), either during the day or in the evening, they prepare in the name of deceased ancestors and relatives polaoo and curries etc."
- ↑ (Arabic characters)
- ↑ Tasbīḥ in its shortest form is the ejaculation of the words "Subḥāna ʾIlâh ((Arabic characters)) "praise be to God" the constant repetition of which is deemed to atone for sin. (Translator.)
- ↑ The same may be said of the Malays of the Peninsula. Those who have fixed employment work most unwillingly during this month, while those who are beholden to no master do not work at all. In more populous places, especially in the large towns, the rule is somewhat relaxed; but the more pious observers of the fast will not swallow even their own saliva between earliest dawn and sunset in the month of Ramadhan. (Translator.)
- ↑ See p. 32 above.
- ↑ Before the war with the Dutch. When this war began, the highlanders were driven back to their mountain fastnesses, the Sultan fled to Keumala, and Banda Acheh became the capital of the territory seized by the Dutch and the base of their operations. (Translator.)
- ↑ In the Malay Peninsula the butcher is usually the imam of the mosque or a lebei; as recompense he is entitled to the hide of the slaughtered animal. (Translator).
- ↑ The people of the three sagis of Great-Acheh, the XXVI, the XXV and the XXII Mukims are here addressed, the same traditional order of precedence being observed which we have already (p. 140 above) noted in connection with the coronation of a new king.
- ↑ In Malay the days immediately preceding the fast are called měměgang or hari měměgang while the Javanese name them měgěng. The Achehnese attach no special meaning to the expression and regards it as being of foreign origin.
- ↑ P. 128 above.
- ↑ The Achehnese now apply this name to the morning and evening guns fired by the Dutch garrison.
- ↑ In Java this method of keeping the fast is jestingly called tutup kěndang = "the closing of the drum," the allusion being to the empty space enclosed between the two skin coverings at either end of a drum.
- ↑ This method of cleaning the teeth is called sugòë (Mal. sugi). So the Achehnese say in the month of Puasa "sugòë bakōng hana peuë" = "rubbing (the teeth) with tobacco does not signify."
- ↑ Some meunasahs have attached to them patches of rice-land, the gift of devout persons who have set them apart as wakaf to meet the expenses of such frugal repasts. These are called umòng ië bu = "Rice-fields for rice-water."
- ↑ Such a thing would be inconceivable in Arabia: in that country he who neglects the çalāt (obligatory prayers) dares not attend a public service. Even in Java the feeling of shame for such an act is much stronger than in Acheh.
- ↑ For instance the teungku says: Allāhumma ṣalli ʿala sayyidinā Muḥammad ("O God, bless our lord Mohammed") to which they scream the response salala além waʾalòyhém, instead of ṣālla ʾllāhu ʿalaihi wasallam.
- ↑ Jav. darus, Mal. tědarus; recitation by a number of people in chorus is called meuhatam in Achehnese = Mal. běrchatam.
- ↑ From the Arab. ḍauq = "taste," which is also used among the mystics to denote the tasting of the higher spiritual enjoyments. In Achehnese it only means "trance."
- ↑ The paederasts take an especial delight in making their favourites contend with each other at their expense in this noisy pastime.
- ↑ In Acheh it is spoken of simply as malam dua plōh tujōh (the 27th night).
- ↑ Dragnet. These nets are almost exclusively used by Chinese fishermen in the Straits Settlements. The Malays angle with lines or catch fish in gigantic traps (bělat and jermal) formed of stakes. (Translator).
- ↑ See p. 227 above.
- ↑ A jeumphan is made as follows. Some paste made of ground glutinous rice mixed with plantain pounded fine, is spread out on a plantain-leaf. Over this is sifted grated cocoanut and sugar; the paste is then rolled or folded into the shape of a cylinder or prism, and the leaf wrapped round it in the same shape. The parcel thus formed is closed at both ends and well cooked by steaming (seuʾòh) or boiled (reubōih) in a little water. The jeumphan, which is also called timphan, most closely resembles what the Malays call lěpat (Malay of Menangkabau lapèʾ).
- ↑ As to this measure see also p. 201 above.
- ↑ This is called dua arè meuʾun or meuʾulèë or chuchō.
- ↑ Nyòë pitrah lōntuan dua (or lhèë etc.) dròë ureuëng nyang Tuhan puwajéb dalam thōn nyòë lōn bri (jōʾ) keu Teungku.
- ↑ Dr. Brandes has elucidated the original meaning of this name, which has no connection with the Mohammedan calendar, in a very interesting article in the Tijdschrift van het Bat. Genootschap, vol. XLI.
- ↑ In Java the month has many more names than appear in the dictionary. Besides Apit (Sund. Hapit) = "pinched" and Sěla = "interval" we find also Longkang = "interval" [curiously enough this word means a narrow drain or ditch in the Malay of Singapore, (Translator)], Lěgěna = naked (without any feast), Silih Sawal (just as Rabiʾ al-ākhir is called Silih Mulud) and Rowah Haji (as it were the Rowah month of the month Haji, on the analogy of the Rowah proper which precedes the other feasting month, Sawal).
- ↑ Hence this day is often called Baʾda Běsar meaning (the day) after the fast of the month Běsar.
- ↑ See p. 209 above.
- ↑ See p. 43–44, 78, 103, etc. above.
- ↑ See p. 175 above.
- ↑ In Java also special regard is paid to these three stars, and it is they alone that are understood to be comprised in the names kidang and guru desa.
- ↑ I have been unable to discover what star they refer to by this name, as I have never had an opportunity of haying it pointed out to me by an educated Achehnese.
- ↑ The glém-plant is the Coix lacryma called jali watu in Javanese. The seeds are strung together to form necklaces.
- ↑ I am greatly indebted to both Dr. J. P. van der Stok and Dr. S. Figee for the help they have frequently been so good as to give me in elucidating my data as regards the Achehnese astronomical system.
- ↑ We must be understood here as using the word to mean the point of time when the right ascension of Antares, a star in the scorpion, is the same as that of the moon.
- ↑ Fractions of under ½ a day are neglected; those of over ½ a day are counted as a whole day.
- ↑ There is a sacred tradition of Islam "Allah is uneven (for he is One) and he loveth the uneven".
- ↑ One of my informants told me that the series based on actual observation of the heavens would be as follows: 28, 26, 23, 21, 18, 16, 13, 11, 8, 6, 3, 1. We have seen that the series does not remain constant for every year, and if one particular star be taken as the basis of the calculation, the series supplied by my informant will never be absolutely correct for any one given year.
- ↑ The most expert of my informants, who clearly understood that the customary correction of the keunòng computation is actually based on a different year from the ordinary lunar year, entirely failed to grasp the fact thas this was really the solar year, and supposed it to be one composed of 360 days.
- ↑ It is understood that the occurrence of two keunòngs in the month of May is peculiar to the year 1893; in 1892 this happened in August.
- ↑
Bintang tujoh tinggal anam
Jatoh sabi di Manjapahit.
Aus tuboh sarasa děmam
Lagi tambah děngan pěnyakit.The last two lines, which contain the poet's meaning, form the complaint of a languishing lover.
- ↑ Sawah is the Malay word for rice-fields used in the Southern parts of the Peninsula (Johor, Malacca ete.) and also in Java. In Penang, Province Wellesley, Kedah etc. the word is "bëndang." (Translator).
- ↑ Buëng also means the terracing of sawahs made on the slopes of hills.
- ↑ Known to the Malays of the Peninsula as kabu-kabu or kěkabu. The pods of this tree contain a substance resembling cotton, which is much used in stuffing pillows etc. The seeds resemble pepper in size and colour. (Translator).
- ↑ See p. 201 above.
- ↑ It is the same in the Malay peninsula, where the banks (batas) surround fields of a size which varies to suit the convenience of the owner. There is here however a hard and fast land measure 1 sq. orlong (= about 1½ acre) = 400 sq. jumbas = 400 × 144 sq. feet. The orlong and jumba are also used as lineal measures. (Translator).
- ↑ Mal tabor "to scatter," "strew." (Translator).
- ↑ Malay sěmai. The method here described is that always resorted to by the Malays in wet rice cultivation. They clear the weeds out with an implement called a tajak, which resembles a golfer's lofting iron with the iron part enormously exaggerated and the handle made shorter and stouter. The weeds are left on the ground to rot and form a kind of manure. The plants when taken from the sěmai are dibbled with the hand into water-covered ground at intervals of about 6 inches. (Translator).
- ↑ The naleuëng sambō and bayam tuba, employed in other ceremonies of "cooling," are not used for the rice-field. Further notes on cooling will be found in Chap. III § 1.
- ↑ Among fowls, one such as the above is called inòng manòʾ; the name manòʾ inòng being given to one that has begun to lay.
- ↑ In ancient Achehnese poems a hero is sometimes called inòng in the sense of "chief of a great tribe."
- ↑ The Malays plant hill-padi in the same way. The process of dibbling is called by them tugal (Translator).
- ↑ The commonest form of scarecrow used by the Malays is composed of two sticks fastened crosswise, the longer or upright one being driven into the ground. On this cross some tattered clothes are hung and an old hat placed on top; the whole when seen at a distance rudely resembles a man with his arms extended. Another device is two hollow bambus or better still, two empty kerosine tins hung together on a post. A cord fastened to one of these and leading to the hut where the watcher sits, enables him to rattle them together, and the birds are scared away by the noise. (Translator).
- ↑ Gasay properly means what one hand (comp. Jav. gangsal = five) can hold. It has also meaning of "odd," "not even."
- ↑ In some parts of Sumatra the students in religious schools, who have had to leave heir native places in order to pursue their studies, are called gharim, which properly means debtors in this special sense.
- ↑ In addition to this privilege, the muʾalahs enjoy in Acheh great immunity both of person and property, for to slay or plunder a convert is regarded as an act of surpassing wickedness. For this reason the sultans and chiefs used to employ converts to collect and bring in their taxes.
- ↑ See above p. 176 et seq.
- ↑ Some chiefs who never pay jakeuët on their own stock of the precious metals, are wont to deduct under the pretext of payment of the tax, a certain sum from the gold and silver belonging to their subjects, and held by them for over a year as pledges or haʾ ganchéng (see p. 116). This sum however they always place in their own pockets.
- ↑ See ante p. 36.
- ↑ The Malay custom is the same as the Achehnese in this respect. Their padi-stores are miniature houses raised on short posts, the walls being made of neatly woven bertam. Such storehouses are called jelumpang. (Translator).
- ↑ Such as the rules prescribing fixed days for taking the rice out of the lumbung, and the persons by whom it may be taken out. Women who do this for instance must wear their lower garment only, and must not do so during menstruction. There are also certain definite formulas to be repeated during the act, etc. etc.
- ↑ The Malays use a similar mortar and pestle (lěsong and alu) with a see-saw lever (the jeungki mentioned above, Mal. gandar) worked with the foot, the fulcrum being nearer to the far end of the lever so as to give greater force to the blow. Over the far end of the lever is placed a frame-work consisting of two uprights and a cross piece. By this the worker steadies himself while he alternately steps on and off the lever, causing it to rise and fall. The Chinese in the Straits have universally adopted this method of cleaning rice. (Translator).
- ↑ This is the winnowing-basket to which the Achehnese compare the shape of the three sagis of Acheh (see p. 2 above).
- ↑ The winnowing is done by alternately shaking the basket up and down and to and fro.
- ↑ The Malays of the Peninsula use a similar machine, which they call kělang pěnyěpit. (Translator).
- ↑ The following are some of the names of the "land-fish": baché, seungkè, kruëb, seupat, sungieʾ, aneuʾ seusiah, grò.
- ↑ This is the same as the commonest form of Malay fishing-trap, the bubu, and is used in the same way. (Translator).
- ↑ The Malay sěrkap.
- ↑ British settlements in the Straits of Malacca II: 188.
- ↑ The following are some of the kruëng-fish: blaneuʾ, mulōih, rapeuëng, kadra, grapìë, geureudaʾ, ikan tanda (certain fish are known by the generic name of ikan), mirah mata, tangkirōng, ikan timòn, kitang, chabéh, ikan kawét, gròt-gròt. The udeuëng (prawn), as well as the small kinds among those just enumerated, are caught with the casting-net or fish-trap. With the latter are also caught the deut, udeuëng keutèb, sridéng and uë bòh.
- ↑ This is an abbreviation teuneuheun from theun = to stop, to catch, and thus properly means that in which the process of stopping or catching is performed.
- ↑ In the highlands aluë signifies a streamlet.
- ↑ In contradistinction to the "land-line" (kawé darat) with its rod (gò) and float.
- ↑ Great weight is attached to obtaining for this purpose the feathers of a "lucky cock" (manòʾ meutuah). The experts (connoisseurs in cockfighting) distinguish these by the shape of the scales on their feet.
For further information as to the kawé huë see Notulen Bat. Genootschap for 1st March 1892 Bijlage I, N°. 12.
- ↑ See Notulen Batav. Genootschap for 1st March 1892 Bijlage I, N°. 12, and as regards Padang De geschicdenis van prinses Balkis by D. Gerth van Wijk, p. 70, N°. 46.
- ↑ The Malays call their casting net jala (etymologically the equivalent of jeuë). It is a circular net with very fine meshes and is weighted all round the edges with small pieces of lead. The fisher folds the net neatly into a small compass, and then, holding it in one hand, throws it forward with great dexterity so that it spreads in the air and falls evenly on the water. The weighted edges sink slowly down leaving the middle in the form of a bag. This is gently drawn in and the prawns etc. removed from the net. It is a very pretty sight to see a skilful jala-fisher manipulate his net. (Translator).
- ↑ The following are besides those already mentioned, some of the chief kinds of sea-fish:—kasè, rapeuëng, kadra, gereupōk, mirah mata, gabuë, rambeuë, bruëʾ mata, some kinds of yèë, teunga, grapèë, beureulang, brachuëng, bubara, tuih, paròë, tandōʾ, sisé’, ikan tanda, ambu-ambu, alu-alu, taleuëng, biléh. Of the last-named sort (as of the awō), karéng or dried fish is made.
- ↑ A model of a sampan pukat with its belongings is to be found in the museum of the Batavian Society; see Notulen Batav. Genootschap for March 1st 1892. Bijlage I, Nos 1 & 2.
- ↑ Vide sup. p. 261.
- ↑ Thus it is a prevalent superstition in that country that huntsman when starting for the chase, must not perform the morning prayers obligatory on all Mohammedans, for fear misfortune should: befall them or they should at least be unlucky in their pursuit of game.
- ↑ The Malays when at sea will tolerate no allusion to the elephant. They have other curious pantang rules, the meaning and origin of which is no longer known; for instance it is forbidden to cast charred wood into the sea, and the washings of any vessel used for cooking must first be poured into another vessel before they are thrown overboard. See also Clifford's In Court and Kampong pp. 147–48 and Skeat’s Malay Magic p. 314–15. (Translator).
- ↑ See p. 115 above.
- ↑ See p. 92 above.
- ↑ See p. 259 above.
- ↑ For a similar pantang-prohibition see p. 236.
- ↑ An ordinary deupa is the distance from tip to tip of the middle fingers when a man stands with the arms outstretched. The deupa meunara is measured from the middle finger of the right hand to the sole of the foot, the right arm being raised to its full stretch above the head.
- ↑ See pp. 115 above.
- ↑ Milik in Malay has the same sense. In the Straits settlements, where English land law prevails to a great extent, it is used in the sense of "occupancy", and no rule of English law is more readily understood by the Malays than that by which twelve years adverse possession (milik) confers an indefeasible title upon the occupier. (Translator).
- ↑ This is also the case among the Malays. (Translator).
- ↑ Malay pěsan, which means to "direct" or "convey a behest" to another. (Translator).
- ↑ Umòng diblang X ka lōn-publòë keu gòb nyòë yum sireutōih reunggét.
- ↑ Lōn-publòë keu dròëneu umòng Y deungòn yum sireutōih reunggét.
- ↑ Lōn-blòë baʾ dròënen umòng yum sireutōih reunggét. In the lowlands the lowest price of an ordinary yōʾ (requiring one naléh of seed padi) was under native rule 100 dollars; but in the highlands treble the area might be bought for this price.
- ↑ The chinu is a ladle made of a cocoanut shell. The use of this utensil to the exclusion of all others for the consecration of a buffalo may be explained by the fact that the chinu is the most old-fashioned utensil of its kind. It is also employed, as we shall see later on, at the "laying" of certain evil spirits supposed to cause sickness.
- ↑ Under native rule, before the conquest by the Dutch. (Translator).
- ↑ [During the existence of the "linie" (circ 1885–96) the state of things in the neighbourhood of this boundary was entirely abnormal. The owners of padi-lands along this line readily made over their fields to the cultivators on the condition that the latter should work them for three years entirely for their own profit; it was not till the 4th year that the owner received a fifth share. But since the "linie" has been done away with, and the whole of Great Acheh brought under the direct control of the Dutch government, the old relations between landlord and tenant have gradually revivived, though the letable value of the land is now less than in former times, in consequence of the long war.]
- ↑ To take on mortgage = gala; to make a habit or occupation of so doing = geumala. The object pledged = gala or geunala.
- ↑ See p. 258 et seq.
- ↑ These dollars find their way back to Acheh in exchange for pepper and betelnuts.