# The Achehnese/Volume 1/Chapter 3

CHAPTER III.
DOMESTIC LIFE AND LAW.
§ 1. Proposal, Betrothal and Marriage.
Child-marriage.Girls marry in Acheh at an earlier age than perhaps in any other Mohammedan country of the Eastern Archipelago.
We meet indeed in all such countries cases of what is called in Java kawin gantung, where children are united in wedlock in form only, but the actual consummation of their marriage (Jav. němoʾaké) is deferred to a maturer age. Examples of this occur in Acheh also; it is then said that the husband "is only married and does not yet frequent the house". In Acheh, however, girls of 8 to 10, nay even of 7 years of age are actually handed over to their husbands, even where the latter are grown up or elderly men. So universal is this custom, that parents whose daughter at the age of 8–10 years does not occasionally share her husband's bed are greatly concerned thereat, unless there are spe-special reasons for her not doing so.
Possible causes of late marriage of women.Such a reason would be, for instance, that the girl is the daughter of a sayyid and thus may wed none other than a sayyid. As these Mohammedan nobility are not very numerously represented in Acheh, and as it is an exceptional occurrence for a girl to leave her parents' gampōng to follow her husband, her high birth may sometimes compel a girl to wait for years for a husband, or even to become an old maid, a class that is, apart from such cases, almost unknown in the Native world. Or else it may happen that the daughter of some chief of note is formally married to the son of another chief, but the great distance of their homes from one another, and perhaps also small local ​wars may delay for years the "home-coming" of the husband. These, however, are manifestly exceptional cases.
The Achehnese declare that these early marriages are conducive to the preservation of feminine strength and beauty, though observation would lead us to form a contrary opinion.
Superstitious practices for promoting the marriage of girls.When a girl reaches what the Achehnese regard as the marriageable age without having yet had a single suitor for her hand, it is believed that there must be some supernatural agency at work. It is looked upon as certain that she must have in some part of her body something malang or unpropitious, which stands in the way of her success.
The numerical value of the initial letter of her name is assumed as the basis of a calculation for indicating the part of her body which is to blame. When this has been ascertained, the girl is placed on a heap of husked rice (breuëh) and the spot indicated is slightly pricked with a golden needle, so as to draw a little blood. This blood is gathered up by means of a wad of tree-cotton (gapeuëh) which is then placed in an egg, part of the contents of which have been removed to make room for it. A little of the girl's hair and some parings of her nails are enclosed in a young cocoanut leaf, and finally all these things are thrown into the running water of the nearest river or stream.
This is one of the most usual methods of doing away with the malang (bòïh malang). There are also other ways, such as for example the throwing away of an old garment of the unlucky one into a river or at a place where three or four ways meet (simpang). The old women are the most trusted advisers in such cases.
Relative social position of man and wife.The Achehese adat is in entire agreement with the rule of Mohammedan law that a woman must not marry a man of social position inferior to her own.
The pride of the Achehnese also withholds them from marrying their daughters to foreigners, unless they are of Arab blood, or have been long settled in the country and have attained some position. To other strangers they only give women who have some slave blood in their veins.
An exception to this rule is made in favour of devout hajis from ​Java, and especially those from Krinchi, who in earlier times often made a long stay in Acheh or settled there permanently. But the better class of Achehnese have always objected and still object to giving their daughters in marriage to the Klings (Kléng), who are specially known as "strangers" (ureuëng dagang). Only such Klings as have amassed some wealth as traders or have the reputation of religious learning are allowed to wed the daughters of Achehnese of consideration.
The doctrine of Islam, that there exists no such thing as a mésalliance for a man, is also liberally applied; yet men set a high value on alliances which connect them with good families. Both for the honour of it, and also for political reasons, an ulèëbalang always tries to obtain the daughter of one of his equals in rank as a wife for his son. The tuanku prefers to choose his consort from among his own relatives or the families of the great ulèëbalangs. Most marriages of chiefs and of their nearest relatives are regulated by purely political considerations. At present they are not as a rule concluded without the consent of the Dutch Government. The best way of allaying a feud between two clans consists in bringing about a marriage between a man of the one and a girl of the other. Women who are far beneath their husbands in position generally take the second, third or fourth place in the ranks of his spouses.
Proposal for marriage.A young man usually marries for the first time at the age of from 16 to 20 years. The proposal comes from his side; the custom prevalent in West Java, according to which the father of a young girl seeks out a suitable son-in-law, is regarded as incorrect by the Achehnese. "The well does not look for the bucket", they say. After numerous confidential discussions between the parents of both parties the first official (though in form also confidential) step is taken through a go-between called seulangké.
Although to outward seeming the seulangké simply renders hireling service, for which he is allowed by the adat a recompense of one dollar for every bungkay (25 dollars) of the dowry, the post is one ​much sought after even by persons of some consideration. It is a position of trust, and in former times the seulangké had to take the place of the bridegroom when the latter broke his promise. For this reason he must be the equal of the bridegroom (lintō) in rank and position. He should further have that knowledge of the world and polish which bestows on an Achehnese the title of ureuëng tuha (= "elder": see p. 75 above). He must be completely master of the proper forms of social intercourse, and particularly of intimate intercourse such as this, and must be in a word an accomplished person.
Appeal to lucky omens.Before the seulangké begins his task, the requisite appeal to lucky omens must be made. Long before the formal proposal, a sort of calculation is made which is supposed to show whether a blessing can rest on the union; for example the numerical value of the initial letters of the names of both are added together and divided by a certain number, and the remainder left over after this division shows whether it is wise to commence the negociations or not.
There are some however who prefer to place their trust in Allah and omit all calculations of this sort.
The day for the visit of the seulangké is also carefully computed by counting off against the days of the month the four following words: langkah (a pace), raseuki (breadwinning), peuteumuën (meeting), and mawòt (death). Dates on which the words raseuki or peutenmuën (the latter for preference) fall are considered favourable.
On all ceremonial occasions the Achehnese has recourse to eloquence, and time has gradually reduced to crystallized forms the "speeches" to which domestic and social life gives rise. Thus the seulangké says to the father of the girl whose hand is sought: "Your servant has directed his steps towards you, because Teuku N. has requested him so to do. He begs you to be so good as to take his child (son) as your slave". The answer runs as follows: "That would not be fitting, seeing that we be but humble folk". The seulangké now presses his suit more closely, ​and in the end the father replies: „We are willing to agree to all that you have said, but as you know the saying holds good of us, reaching the goal yet not wholly attaining it, coming close up yet not actually touching it (i.e. we are of a truth too lowly in rank, and our dealing in the matter will leave much to be desired); therefore your servant knows not how to reply".
Betrothal gifts.After this, the symbolic language is dropped, and a preliminary arrangement made. The seulangké now returns to those who sent him, makes his report of the negociations and invites the parents of the youth to accompany him to see the keuchiʾ and teungku of the gampōng where the girl resides, in order to fix a day for the mè tanda kòng narit, i.e. the bringing of a token that the agreement has been ratified—a betrothal gift in fact.
Marriage an affair of the gampōng.The parents of the young man have of course, before taking the first step, asked the permission of the teungku and keuchiʾ of their own gampōng for the proposed marriage, and the parents of the girl on their part do the same with their local authorities after the seulangké has paid them his first visit. Marriage is in fact by no means a mere family matter, but at least as much an affair of the whole gampōng.
Authority of the keuchiʾ in connection with marriage.Thus the keuchiʾ has power to prevent a proposed marriage from taking place. The headman of the girl's gampōng will seldom refuse his consent. He has no reason to object to her marrying a man of the same gampōng and is even less likely to raise difficulties to her taking a husband from elsewhere. In the latter case the children of the marriage may be regarded as trees planted by a stranger, of which the owner of the garden has the exclusive enjoyment and profit. It is only where the keuchiʾ himself or one of his relations or chiefs has his eye on the girl, that he sets himself to baffle the parents when they suggest disposing otherwise of her hand, and so tries to compass his private ends.
The usual form of the dialogue of the parents of the girl with the keuchiʾ is as follows: "X (the seulangké) has just come, bringing a message from Teuku N. (the father of the young man) asking for our child for him (n.b., the father). What is now the Teuku's (= your) good pleasure?" He replies, "What part have I in the matter? be it as it seems good to you, whose child it concerns".
​On the other hand it often happens that a keuchiʾ opposes the marriage schemes of a young man, especially when the object of his affections resides in another gampōng.
The authority of the keuchiʾ in such matters is considerable, as he is practically regarded as being, in a general sense, the representative of the interests of the gampōng. No one disputes his fiat when he, as headman of a sparsely populated gampōng, forbids a youth to seek his spouse outside its limits, since the children of the marriage would thus be lost to his own gampōng. Here we see a further instance in which the keuchiʾ, in conformity with the popular saying, is actually the "father" of the gampōng, and keeps his "children" in the right path.
The best day for the mè tanda kòng narit is in its turn carefully ascertained by computation. The favourite day for this ceremony is that of the full moon, the 14th of the month.
To what an extent marriage is an affair of the gampōng may further be gathered from the fact that it is not a relative of the would-be bridegroom, but the keuchiʾ, the teungku, certain elders and the go-between who undertake the presentation of the gift of betrothal. The latter is, indeed, received in the house of the bride and in her name, but those who actually receive it are the authorities of her gampōng.
Besides the betrothal-gift they bring what is called the ranub dòng or "standing sirih". This consist of a dalōng or large round food-tray with a detachable wooden upright standing in its midst. Round the latter are placed long rows of sirih-leaves tastefully arranged in the hollow base. The rows are piled up all round from the lowest layer upwards, and on the top are laid betelnuts, and boiled eggs gaily coloured.
As soon as the suitor's envoys have entered the house where the girl lives, there ensues one of those stereotyped discussions, as prolix as they are droll, which always accompany important domestic occurrences in the domestic life of the Achehnese.
​The entrance (or "going upstairs" as the Achehnese call it) takes place at the invitation of an eloquent elder of the bride's gampōng. The ranub dòng is brought forward by way of preliminary, and sirih is offered to the guests. Thereupon an elder of the bridegroom's gampōng speaks as follows: "Teuku keuchiʾ, Teungku and elders of this gampōng, our visit to you is on account of a little word which your servant desires to address to you. Our wish is to present N. (the suitor) to you as your slave. How then, do ye accept or not?" The answer, given by one of the elders of the girl's gampōng, runs as follows: "Your servant esteems your words as a command, but as far as this matter is concerned, I know naught of it, you had better apply to X" (indicating a fellow-elder).
The first speaker then turns to X, and repeats his question, but the other gives him the same evasive answer. This reference to others and pretence of ignorance sometimes goes on for a considerable time in the most serious way. When the farce is thought to have lasted long enough, the person last addressed replies: "There is no objection to the purpose conveyed by your words, which we esteem as a command; but whose child is this bridegroom N.? Who was his grandfather and who his great-grandfather"? As soon as the genealogy of the suitor has been set forth up to a certain point for the benefit of those present, the matter is considered settled. One of the elders of the suitor's gampōng now produces the tanda or token of good faith, a valuable gold ring or hair ornament (bungòng preuëʾ) or the like, and hands it to the keuchiʾ with the words "Let this serve as a token". The ranub dòng or "standing sirih" is thereupon brought up and presented to the fellow-villagers of the maiden with the words: "Behold one or two sirih-leaves which we have brought to offer you". The meeting concludes with a feast.
Breaking of troth-plight.From this time forth the pair are one another's betrothed. Should the engagement be broken off later through the man's fault the tanda remains in the possession of the bride; but where the blame is on her side it is returned. When, however, the father of the bride breaks his word without reasonable cause, he must also pay a fine, generally a pretty heavy one, to the ulèëbalang.
In Acheh, just as in other parts of the Archipelago, no father allows his daughter to become betrothed so long as she has an elder sister still unbespoken, unless the latter happens to be blind or insane. Nay ​even in such a case it is usually sought to provide the unfortunate one with a husband, though the ordinary requirements as to rank and position are not of course insisted on in such instances.
Mutual relation of parents-in-law and sons-in-law.The peculiar relation between the son-in-law and the bride's parents in Acheh, a relation which must be regarded as a rudiment of earlier social conditions, commences from the time of the betrothal. Neither the engaged man himself nor his parents may at any time during the continuance of the betrothal cross the threshold of the girl's parents. Nothing short of a death in the family can create an exception to this rule.
All intercourse between the son-in-law and his parents-in-law is, even after marriage, regarded as improper and restricted to the unavoidable. This notion, which still prevails in some parts of Java, but seems to be gradually dying out in that island, subsists in full force in Acheh, Son-in-law and father-in-law shun one another's presence like the plague, and when chance brings them together, pass with averted faces. Should it be impossible to avoid communicating with each other, they do so through the friendly interposition of a third person, whom they each address in turn.
Such a situation might at first sight appear to be untenable, for the Achehnese daughter really never quits her parents' roof. According to their means, the latter either vacate a portion of their house in favour of each daughter that marries, or supply the lack of room by adding on to the main building or putting up new houses in the same enclosure. Yet when the son-in-law visits his wife or "comes home" as it is called, he takes no notice of her family even though he remains for months or even years at a time within the same enclosure. To facilitate this discreet behaviour, which is strictly prescribed by the adat, after every absence whether long or short, he notifies his return by coughing loud and long, so as to give the inmates time to get out of the way and leave his part of the house free for himself and his wife and children. In a respectable family this coughing is the only audible interchange of thought between the parents of the woman and her husband.
Well-to-do parents often have a house built for a daughter who is approaching the marriageable age. Others furnish an outfit, which is ​described on the principle of pars pro toto by the expression chòb tika bantay = "the sewing of mats and cushions".
The engagement lasts sometimes only a month, but sometimes longer, even as much as a year. The day for the marriage is fixed by the seulangké in consultation with the parents of the bride. Mòʾlōt (Rabīʾ al-awwal), Adòë Mòʾlōt (Rabi al-akhir) and Kanduri Bu (Shaʾbān) are regarded as lucky months, and the 6th, 14th and 22nd of the month as propitious days.
The all-important day is preceded by three evenings of feasting in the house of the bride (dara barō); these derive their name from the custom of staining the hands and feet of the bride with gacha (= henna, the Arab. ḥinna). The guests are nominally supposed to assist at the performance of this portion of the bride's toilet. The gacha evenings are called phōn gacha, dua gacha and lhèë gacha, i.e. the first, second and third gacha.
In point of fact it is not the guest, but a woman professionally skilled in the art, who applies the dark-red stain so much admired to the hands and feet of the bride. At least one old woman of the family, the grandmother for instance, takes an active part in this performance, in order that a greater blessing may rest thereon. Many women are invited, and partake of the evening meal in the bride's house, which is decorated to suit the occasion. They spend a merry evening pleasantly varied by the recital of hikayats or stories, till about midnight, when they retire.
None of the bridegroom's people may partake in these festivities, even though the two families are related to one another. Nor are any feasts held in the bridgroom's house on these nights.
Well-to-do people convert one or more of these three nights into a festival for all the inhabitants of the gampōng by organizing a piasan. This word (Mal. pěrhiasan) signifies a feast of a secular description characterized by various popular amusements, and generally enlivened by fireworks and illuminations. Among the most popular amusements on such occasions are what are known as Rapaʾi. Of these the most favourite performance is the hanging of red-hot chains on the bare ​body. The ratèb sadati and pulèt are also very popular. The people of the gampōng take care that the players are entertained at the expense of the family who give the feast, while they themselves enjoy both the good cheer and the show that accompanies it.
The andam-day.The three nights of feasting are only distinguished from one another by the arbitrary changes in the form of the amusements. The day following the third gacha-night is called the andam-day (uròë meuʾandam), since the bride's toilette, of which the andam (i. e. the shaving off of a portion of her hair) constitutes the part esteemed as of the highest importance, is completed thereon.
From two to four days beforehand the people of the gampōng issue invitations to guests both male and female to attend this ceremony. They assemble at this kanduri at uncertain times; the concourse lasts from early in the morning till about 3 P.M. They are received by the gampōng-folk; the women go to the samòë likōt, while the men take their place in the sramòë reunyeun. Food is placed before each of the guests immediately on his arrival.
Present from the guests.No guest comes with empty hands. They hand over their respective gifts, one a dollar, another a goat, and so on, to the elder who acts as master of the ceremonies (peutimang jamèë or peutimang buët). Where the bride is the daughter of an ulèëbalang, even buffaloes are presented. Where a married couple attends the feast, the man and his wife bring separate gifts.
Those invited as guests are for the most part, besides intimate friends, the relations of the bride and more distant kindred of the bridegroom.
The adat contains a curious rule in regard to the return gifts to be made to those of the two last-mentioned classes. To such of them as belong to a generation younger than that of the bride, a sum of money must be paid at their departure equal to double the value of the gifts which they have brought.
The andam must be performed before midday; no blessing rests on it unless it take place while the sun is still ascending (uròë éʾ). Though ​the work is actually done by an expert, all the women assembled in the sramòë likōt nominally take part in it, and the professional hair-dresser must nowise neglect to invite at least the most important guests to share in the andam, the invariable answer being, however: "It matters not; I leave the task to you".
Before the commencement of the andam the necessary steps must be taken to avert evil influences, and means employed to ensure what is technically called "cooling".
As we know, in the native languages of the E. Archipelago all happiness, peace, rest and well-being are united under the concept of "coolness", while the words "hot" and "heat" typify all the powers of evil. Thus when a person has either just endured the attack of a "hot" influence, or has luckily contrived to escape it, the adat prescribes methods of "cooling" in order to confirm him in the well-being which he has recovered or escaped losing. The same methods are also adopted for charming away evil things and baneful influences, the removal of which is regarded as an imperative necessity. For instance, the completion of a house, and various domestic festivities, are made the occasion for a process of "cooling"; so also with a ship when newly built or after the holding of a kanduri on board; and before the padi is planted out the ground must be purified from “hot” or dangerous influences.
"Cooling."In Acheh this cooling is called peusijuëʾ (making cool). The most effective method of cooling consists in besprinkling the person or thing to be cooled with leupōng taweuë, i. e. water mixed with a little rice-flour; also the strewing over the object of a little husked and unhusked rice mingled together (breuëh padé).
The besprinkling with leupōng taweuë is performed with the help of certain small plants. Among the plants which always appear in this improvised holy-water sprinkler are included the sisijuëʾ (a name which in itself implies cooling) and the manèʾ-manòë to which ​betel-nut stalks or naleuëng sambō are added on certain occasions.
Thus before the young padi is planted out, a besom composed of small plants of manèʾ-manòë and sisijuëʾ and a betel-nut stalk, is set up in the midst of the rice-field, after being first dipped in teupōng taweuë and used to sprinkle the centre of the field. On the 44th day after a birth, marriage or death, the bidan (midwife) or an old "wise woman" comes and besprinkles the topmost portion of all the posts of the house with manèʾ-manòë or sisijuëʾ. A boy who has completed the recitation of the Qurān is "cooled" in the same way by his guru or teacher. So too, one who has just returned from a long journey, or been saved from shipwreck, or fallen into the, water and narrowly escaped drowning, or a child which has fallen from the steps of the house, etc., is "cooled" by an old woman of the family.
In the case of human beings, the cooling with flour and water is followed by what is called peusunténg, i. e. the smearing of a little bu kunyét (glutinous rice made yellow with turmeric) behind both ears. In some cases this last only is done, and a child that has fallen from the stairs is simply smeared behind the ears with a little clay from the ground on which it falls.
All these coolings, except when recognized experts are employed, should be performed by old women; otherwise the good result is very doubtful.
To return to the ceremony of shaving the bride's hair (andam). The requisites for the andam and the cooling that precedes it are placed ready on two trays (talam). On one is husked and on the other unhusked rice (breuëh and padé), on each stands a bowl of teupōng taweuëʾ and a small besom composed of a sisijuëʾ plant, a manèʾ-manòë plant and some naleuëng sambō, a kind of grass the flowers of which look ​as though they were plaited. On one of the trays is also placed a young cocoa-nut opened by cutting it through the centre in an indented line, the two halves being then neatly fitted into one another, a razor, a pair of scissors, a bowl of perfumed oil, a similar bowl with some dried sandal-wood (kleumbáʾ) and a little seureuma (called kuḥl by the Arabs; used by women to blacken their eyelashes and the edges of their eyelids), and two eggs.
An old woman first sprinkles the patient with teupōng taweuë, then scatters a little breuëh-padé over her body and smears her forehead with some cocoanut water from the cocoanut which is placed ready for the purpose. Before commencing her task, she repeats the formula prescribed by Islam for the inauguration of all matters of importance—Bismillah! "in the name of Allah!" The scattering of the breuëh-padé is performed seven times, each being solemnly counted: sa, dua, lhèë, peuët, limòng, nam, tujōōōōh! This counting is also employed on other occasions, such as the use of charms, and in children's games.
The bride is thus prepared for the actual ceremony of the andam. Up to the time of marriage the hair is drawn back as tightly as possible. Now however, the shorter hairs are combed forward from ear to ear and shaven to the depth of about a fingersbreadth along this line. The married woman continues to wear her hair in this manner until she has some children; she thus "andams"’ for several years. But the andam properly so called is that from which the great feast before a marriage derives its name, and is performed by an expert. The latter receives as her recompense among other things the remnants of husked and unhusked rice and eggs left over after the "cooling".
So soon as the andam proper has been completed by the application of some of the above-mentioned cosmetics (perfumed oil, kleumbaʾ and seureuma) the female guests assembled in the sramòë likōt, who up to this have been merely onlookers, proceed to assist in the work on hand; one after another they apply behind the ears of the bride the supplementary "cooling" of yellow glutinous rice which we have noticed above under the name of peusunténg. The bride acknowledges this token of friendly interest by an obeisance (seumbah), and at the same time receives the gifts presented to her by these guests.
Mothers whose daughters fall sick very often make a vow that they ​will have a geundrang or drum to play at the andam festival should they recover and live to be married.
In such cases the geundrang with its indispensable accompaniment of two flutes (srunè) is played in the back verandah during the actual operation of shaving, and afterwards the musicians complete their performance in the front part of the courtyard (leuën). They have a special tune called lagèë meuʾandam for such occasions.
The toilet of the bride.Let us now sketch briefly the toilette in which the bride is dressed after the andam. As upper garment she has a bajèë or jacket richly laced with gold thread, over the sleeves of which sundry kinds of bracelets are tightly fastened. These comprise the puntu and ikay on the upper arm, the sangga near the elbow, a bangle (gleuëng) on either arm, pushed up to near the elbow, round the middle of each fore-arm a sawèʾ, and a puchōʾ on each wrist. All the ten fingers are adorned with two or more rings each. Over the jacket is thrown a long cloth, the ija simplaʾ. It is folded in four and passed round the waist, and the two ends are brought up crosswise over the breast and allowed to hang down behind over the shoulders.
Around the neck there is first suspended a golden chain (ganchéng) to which are attached horizontally one below the other three half moons of gold each set with precious stones and finely wrought at the edges. Above this comes an euntuëʾ or collar, usually composed of golden knots of the same kind as those which are to be found attached to the corners of an Achehnese sirih-bag (bòh chru). In the ears are the great earrings (subang) which give such unbecoming width to the holes in the ears of the Achehnese women.
The silken trousers (silueuë or lueuë) are not as a rule even partially covered with a loin-cloth (ija pinggang). Such a garment is indeed indispensable for the adults of both sexes in Acheh and serves as a token that the wearer is a Mohammedan; but the bride is usually of immature age, and neither propriety nor religion demand so much of children.
On either foot the bride wears a krunchōng or anklet of silver or suasa (an alloy of gold and tin), which is hollow and has tinkling silver bells inside it.
On the forehead rests a patam dhòë (forehead-plate) which curves gracefully down to the cheeks; on the right and left sides of this are fixed golden bosses (anténg) from which little chains furnished with bells hang down to the level of the ears. One or two golden bungòng ​jeumpa (champaka-blossoms) are stuck into the hair above the forehead, while on the back of the head are worn both the golden bungòng preuëʾ and the real flowers known as bungòng peukan or market-flowers, strung on threads. Over the left ear a golden bungòng suntèng may sometimes be seen projecting.
Round her waist the bride wears a girdle, with a broad square golden clasp (peundéng) set with precious stones in front, the belt itself consisting of a silver chain.
Dressed out in this heavy attire, loaded with costly ornaments, the bride now awaits the all-important evening with some of her next of kin to bear her company.
The proceedings in the house of the bridegroom are of a simpler description. The malam gacha or night of the gacha is not celebrated at all. On the andam day a feast is given, but only to such of the bridegroom's relations as have to travel some distance to share in the ceremony of the evening. Here too the relatives bring gifts (teumeuntuëʾ), the presentation of which is governed by the same adats as in the bride's case.
The bridegroom also arrays himself in rich attire for the wedding ceremony. He usually wears a white jacket (bajèë), striped silk trousers, and a loin-cloth of the sort known as ija krōng Lam Gugōb from the place of its fabrication, all richly laced with gold thread. On his head is placed a cap with a gold crown (tampoʾ meuïh) surrounded with a purple handkerchief (tangkulōʾ). In his waistband (talòë kiʾiëng) on the left side is thrust a dagger, differing somewhat in appearance from the ordinary Achenese reunchōng; this is called siwaïh.
The handkerchief tied up so as to form a bag (bungkōïh), which contains all the requisites for betel-chewing, an indispensable adjunct in the eyes of every Achehnese, is borne behind the bridegroom by one of his comrades.
Where the parents of the bridegroom have taken the geundrang vow on his behalf (and this happens just as frequently in his case as in the bride's), certain ornaments which properly belong to women only are added to his costume, such as bracelets and anklets and flowers fastened in the folds of the handkerchief which is wound round his head. The drum and the two flutes do not begin to play until the evening. ​The music is continued during the procession to the house of the bride.
The wedding (mampleuë).This great procession is called mampleuë and commences at 9 P.M. or even later.
All that we have so far described appertains to the Achehnese adat, and the same is true of the mampleuë and the subsequent proceedings at the house of the bride. At the same time it is regarded as a matter of course that no meeting can take place between the bride and bridegroom until the requirements of the Mohammedan law are fulfilled, i. e. until the marriage contract has been executed in the prescribed form. This ceremonial is seldom deferred until the coming of the bridegroom to the bride's house; it generally takes places during the course of the wedding day, or even a day or two before, in the meunasah of the bride's gampōng, or in the house of some neighbouring malém.
On a later page we shall describe the peculiarities of the marriage contract and add some remarks with reference to the dowry, the financial results of marriage, etc. For the present let us simply assume that the requirements of the hukōm (religious law) have been satisfied, and that adat can thus take its free course.
The fellow-villagers and relatives of the bridegroom have now assembled in great numbers. After the young man has paid respect to his parents and brethren by a farewell obeisance, he is led down the steps of the house by some of the "elders". As soon as his feet touch the ground at the foot of the steps, one of the elders exclaims "Allahumma çallī ʿala sayyidinā Muḥammad", i.e. "O God! let thy blessing rest on (be gracious to) our Lord Mohammad." All the bystanders shout aloud in chorus salawalééé! These formulas are repeated three times.
The bridegroom is now placed in the midst of his fellow-villagers. He is frequently attended by some of his nearest relatives, but seldom by the nearest of all, and never by his father, as this would conflict with the relations which subsist between parents-in-law. The procession is headed by the musicians, who have here again a special tune for ​the occasion. This tune is changed when the party enters the gampōng road or rather the path which leads past the entrances of the enclosures within the gampōng.
Amid re-iterated cries of salawalééé! they at length arrive at the enclosure of the bride's parents, where the people of the latters' gampōng stand drawn up in rows ready to receive the guests. The new comers form up in line opposite to their hosts but the bridegroom is kept entirely in the background and as it were concealed from view.
Colloquy between the hosts and the guests.There now begins another curious colloquy. An elder of the bride's gampōng asks: "Are ye all come, oh Teukus (i. e. gentlemen)", and those addressed reply in chorus, "We are here to serve your will". The questioner resumes, "Have ye all directed your steps hither, oh Teukus?" which question receives the same reply as the last, and finally the chorus of guests give a like answer to the question "Have ye all walked hither, oh Teukus?"
The three questions are then repeated in turn by all the principal personages of the bride's gampōng. When this child's-play has lasted long enough in the opinion of the master of the ceremonies, it is thought time to offer sirih and its accessories to the guests, who all this time remain outside the house. This civility is introduced by an elder of the bride's party in the following words:
"Your servant desires to speak a few words, for which he invokes the permission of you all, oh Teukus. Be it known unto you then, illustrious Teukus, that my brothers here desire, if Allah the Exalted so will, to go into your midst (i.e. in order to present the sirih); should they in so doing crowd or incommode you through predestined fate (God forbid that they should do so on purpose), then, oh Teukus, we humbly crave your forgiveness".
An elder among the guests replies as follows in behalf of all: "Good, be it according to the words of the Teuku (the last speaker) to us all. What says the Teuku? He says that his people wish to come amongst us. As regards crowding or pushing that is pre-ordained by God, if it be not done with the feet, we shall gladly submit to it. It matters not; we agree with great pleasure (lit. "on our head") that the Teukus come among us".
This Arabic formula "in shāʾllah" is very frequently used by the Achehnese in connections which would sound incorrect to Arab ears. ​The ranks now break up for a moment. The people of the bride's gampōng go through the polite form of offering the guests sirih and betel-nut, and in the meantime they greet one another in more familiar fashion and speak the language of ordinary mortals. When this interval has lasted long enough the files close up again. The colloquy that now begins consists practually in a series of pressing invitations to come in ("come up", the Achehnese says, since his house stands on posts), and polite excuses on the part of the guests, who declare themselves content with their place in the front part of the enclosure. All this politeness is for the most part expressed in the form of pantōns. The Achehnese pantōns have this in common with the Malay, that the first two lines are not in any way connected in point of sense with the second pair, but serve chiefly to supply rhyming words. For an Achehnese who has some knowledge of the pantōns most commonly used, the repetition of the first strophe at once suggests the meaning of that which succeeds it. The verses of the Achehnese pantōns are also generally in sanjaʾ, that is to say, each consists of four parts of which the two middle ones rhyme with each other, while the last word of each verse rhymes with the last word of the next.
Let us now see how the reciters help to shorten the evening of the wedding; we shall call the elder of the bride’s party A and the elder of the bridegroom's gampōng B.
A. Well then o Teuku! I have something more to tell thee, even as the elders are wont to say:
A dove flies afar.
A young quail twists in its flight.
I offer you sirth, Teuku, pray accept it,
Now may I proceed to disclose to you what is in my heart.
B. A pěrkutut’s cage in a garden of flowers,
A casting-net in a bamboo case.
It is no harm that you should disclose it,
I am willing to hear that which ts in your heart.
A. A mountain-bird with red feet,
​Bramòë-leaves form his food.
Come nearer, Teukus, up to the stairs of the house,
Wash your feet and step into the front verandah.
B. A langsat-tree on a grave,
They cut it down and fashion it into supports for a fly-wheel.
Teuku, wait for a moment,
Allow me to consult with my comrades.
A. In the inner room is a bag for glutinous rice,
In the central passage an earthenware jar for sugar.
Rest, o Teuku, be it but for a moment;
Should it be longer, it will give me pleasure (lit. "on my head").
B. A braleuën-tree in the midst of the front enclosure,
It casts its shadow even on to the seat above the stairs.
We come here but once in a long time, only one single time,
Let us be received in the front courtyard, that sufficeth.
A. A scare to frighten squirrels in the garden of Lubōʾ,
Men tap the arèn-palm and take the sap.
You have come hither from (name of the guests' gampōng)
It is now but a small distance from where you are to the sitting-mat.
B. On the Padang grows keutumbét (a plant used as a vegetable),
Sirahét-fruits tied up in the corner of the garment.
Once in a long time, barely one single time,
So far (as to where we now stand) is enough, this sufficeth.
A. In the field of Tamaʾ is petroleum,
In Panté Teungòh ("Middle Bank") is perfumed oil.
Stand no longer on the ground, Teuku,
Ascend into the house and sit upon the sitting mat.
B. Let us go the sea-shore to catch the cuttle-fish,
Let us bring it home and salt it.
For this evening let us even remain on the ground,
Later on we can take our places on the sitting-mat.
A. A maja-tree in the midst of the garden,
Thereon may we hang the sirih-bags of the guests who arrive.
You have just come from yonder, from afar,
Step forward now to the sitting-mat.
​B. A keutapang-tree in the midst of the country.
Jati-trees in the forest.
Yonder gentleman (the bridegroom's father) hath charged us to come hither;
But as far as here (where we stand) sufficeth.
A. The buah-nona-tree in the midst of the moon.
If a branch falls therefrom it forebodes an earthquake,
Stand no longer in the front courtyard, Teukus,
Perhaps rain will come and your clothes be wet.
B. Glumpang-trees with abundant shadow on the border of the field,
Pomegranate-trees at the side of the gampōng-path.
Let us then return to the entrance of your gampōng-path,
That we may put up our umbrellas, and then our clothes shall not get wet.
A. What is that pōng-pōng sound in the gampōng?
They are busy pounding the flour for a (wedding) feast.
Withdraw not, Teukus, to the entrance of the gampōng,
For there a cocoanut hollowed (by squirrels) may fall upon your heads.
B. A wag-tail on an apōng-tree,
A beo's nest in a jati-tree.
We bear respectful greetings from our fellow-villagers,
Now that we have come hither by the gampōng-path, let us return home again.
A. A brujòë's nest in a panjòë-tree,
wood-peckers nest in a virginal cocoa-palm.
You shall not return, Teukus,
Until you first come and sit on the mat.
B. Under the house is an earthenware lamp,
Within the house is a lamp of brass.
We have come over the earth,
How can we ascend into the house, we should soil the mat!
A. Fresh and salt water mingle in the sea,
This water overspreads the swamps.
Even though it be soiled that matters not (to the owner),
​He will replace it with a new one after the wedding feast.
B. In Lam Barō sugarcane is planted,
In the III Mukims keutila (katela) is sown by dibbling.
With due respect, Teuku,
Here it befits us to remain, this sufficeth.
And so forth. The concluding pantōns are as follows:
A. An asan-tree grows in the market.
Under the asan-tree is a space for the panta-game
From early morning it has come to be late in the night,
The rice ts prepared for you on the platters.
B. In the midst of the fore-courtyard they are drying the padi,
They are cleaving wood under the seulasa (the sitting-place at the top of the steps leading up to the house).
Well then Teuku, ascend yourself first,
To set in order what is still lacking.
A. A baju is sewn with a fine needle,
Clothes are woven in the III Mukims.
For two or three days past all has been ready,
The people who are giving the wedding-feast have provided everything.
B. Go to the shore, go and angle for fish;
A prahu at sea with two masts.
You, Teuku, go first, and we shall follow,
Such ts the custom at wedding feasts.
A. Dark-coloured glutinous rice is made into eumpiëng
The bamboo is cut down to make a ladder to the platform beneath the roof.
Your servant then goes first up the stair,
All of you, Teukus, will give him leave to do so!
After the guests have entered, and before they have all taken their seats, the orator of the bride's gampōng says:
The young buloh-bamboo stands and thrives,
Let us cut off ten pieces (for bobbins) to wind silk upon.
Now, Teukus, wipe away the perspiration,
And take your rest on the sitting-mats.
The bridegroom however does not accompany the others into the ​house; while the guests who have escorted him thither are enjoying their sirih in the front verandah, he stands as it were concealed with a few who remain to hold him company. A fresh dialogue between the orators representing the two gampōngs introduces his entrance.
The demand for the bridegroom.A. Well then, where are ye all, Teukus?
B. and his companions in chorus: Here are your servants!
A. Now then, by the will of Allah the Exalted, you, Teukus, have partaken of the sirih which your servant has set before you; I will now let you know what lies upon my heart.
B. Well then, Teuku! now as regards the sirih that you have laid before us, your servants have enjoyed it by Allah's will. You wish now to tell us of that which lies upon your heart. Do so then, Teuku! We hearken with joy (lit. "on our head").
A. Well then, Teuku, we have yet another word to say. We shall now implore you all, Teukus, using the words of the weavers of tales:
A paʾ ikō with red shoulders,
A wagtail flies, making the world shake.
Respectful greetings from grandmother peunganjō
She lays on us the task of demanding the bridegroom at your hands, oh Teukus!
B. What saidst thou, Teuku?
A paʾ ikō etc. (as above).
Now we too have a word to say, that you, Teuku, may impart to the elders.
You said: "A paʾ ikō with red shoulders".
But it has flown away to Blang Pangòë.
Teuku convey our greetings to grandmother peunganjō,
Say, Teuku, that there is no bridegroom among us.
A. Well, Teukus, I have already told grandmother peunganjō of this, and what was her reply?
​Molasses in a cup,
A rambutan-fruit with a red skin,
Say not that he is not here, he whom you have come to bring.
What way is this to jest?
B. Well, Teukus, what say my comrades here?
Pi is planted, and stakes are placed to prop it,
Kundur is planted, and let creep along the ground.
The reason why we said "no" to grandmother peunganjō,
Is that we know not the appearance of the bridegroom.
As we are all stupid and confused, be so good as to describe his appearance,
A. Well then, Teuku, I have enquired of grandmother peunganjō, and she says that the bridegroom's appearance is described in the ten following headings:
In the first place, says she, his hands are dark,
For they have been stained with ḥinna for three days past.
Secondly his clothing is laced with gold thread,
Which follows the pattern of the cloudy firmament.
Thirdly, he is shaven (andam) upon the forehead, which was done before the sun attained the zenith.
Fourthly, she describes him as clad in a white baju,
With golden buttons as it were heaped together over the breast.
Fifthly he wears a battle-sword with octagonal handle,
On which the smith has worked for thirty days.
Sixthly he wears a handkerchief on which is embroidered gold thread in the shape of a twisted cord,
While flowers hang from it and an ulèë cheumara (an old-fashioned gold ornament) is fixed therein.
Seventhly, a cap with a golden crown,
Round which are eight smaller crowns, set with precious stones.
Eighthly, I may mention the sirih-bag,
From whose four corners hang the golden acorns.
Ninthly, when ye came, ye cried aloud with one voice, salawalé.
The tenth token is; four clans, eight families, sixteen relatives, thirty-​two individuals in all counting friends and acquaintances, have consulted together (to make him a bridegroom).
He it is, whose hand the Teungku held in the presence of two witnesses. Make him over to all of us now, O Teuku! As the saying goes:
Thatch made of sugarcane-leaves at three mas the thousand.
The agreement has already been entered into, let it be carried out to night.
B. Well then, Teuku, according to your request we give him over to you, if Allah so will: keep his feet from straying, follow his inclinations in what is right, help him in his difficulties and check him if he transgresses,
A. God willing, we do so with joy (lit. "on our head").
The bridegroom is now sought out, and led up the stairs of the house by his companions. He stops half-way, however, to be besprinkled with husked and unhusked rice (breuëh-padé) by an elder of the bride's gampōng, who sits at the top of the steps. The elder, while he throws the contents of the small bowl or baté by handfuls in the face of the bridegroom (who protects himself with a fan) pronounces the following blessing:
Blessing invoked on the bridegroom."O Allah, bless our Lord Mohammad and the family of our Lord Mohammad.
Far be the curse, far be the calamity, let there be good fortune, let there be peace, may you have prosperity, may you have happiness, may children and grandchildren be given you, in numbers as the mibò-bushes in swampy land, may you beget three children in the year and marry two of them every year, may your children succeed each other at long intervals" (ironically said, as appears from what follows), "while the elder sister is still only able to lie on her back, may the younger be born; may you have children in trusses like padi in swampy land; may you have children like a plant that ever shoots up afresh, may it be even as a bamboo with many joints".
​The entrance of the bridegroom.In Java the bridegroom, before entering the house of the bride, must perform various symbolical acts, such as trampling an egg to pieces, stepping with the bride over a buffalo-yoke (pasangan) etc.; the bride also washes the feet of her future spouse. We must leave to conjecture how much of this may have been customary in Acheh in earlier times; at present the only observance of this sort is the placing at the entrance of the inner room (jurèë) where the bride awaits the bridegroom, a dish filled with water, in which are placed an egg and some leaves of the "cooling" plant known as sisijuëʾ; in this the bridegroom is expected to dip his feet for a moment as he enters the room.
The bride sits in the jurèë on a tilam (a heavy thick mattress) covered with a cloth and bespread with costly sitting-mats. Two piles of cushions (bantay meusadeuë) stand on the mat against the wall. The young man's place is prepared at the bride's right side. She is attended by some peunganjōs, old women from both gampōngs who are interested in the marriage. Of these mistresses of the ceremonies one acts as directress, and also attends the bridegroom for the first few days when walking through the house and courtyard of his parents-in-law, to familiarize him with the place and to serve him.
The bridegroom is conducted to the door of the jurèë by an elder, and there handed over to the care of the peunganjos. In some districts it is customary for one of these women to pretend to hold the door of the room shut from within. The other who leads the young man in, now advises him to surrender to the woman who guards the door his reunchōng, the dagger which forms an indispensable adjunct of the equipment of the Achehnese man.
In order to cover the bride's shame, one of the peunganjōs constantly holds a fan before her face so as to prevent the bridegroom from looking at her. He takes his seat by her side, and now begin what are for both of them the most disagreeable moments of their wedding. Guests and fellow-villagers are now permitted to stare at them without restraint through the door and the interstices of the walls.
Certain female members of the bridegroom's family (sometimes even ​his mother) attended by a number of women from their gampōng, are now admitted, but not till after the bridegroom has entered the jurèë. They are, however, received in the back verandah (sramòë likōt), the proper abode of the women.
There they receive a formal greeting, but without pantōns, so that the reception is over in a moment, especially as they are offered no sirih. They then go straightway into the jurèë, where their presence somewhat strengthens the bridegroom's courage.
The bride now gives the first token of wifely obedience in the form of a long obeisance (seumbah) at the knees of her spouse, a token of homage which he accepts with a gracious gesture (sambōt). At this point the adat prescribes his presenting her with a sum of money (say 10 dollars), which one of the peunganjōs receives and puts in its proper place.
The wedding feast.Meantime food is placed before the guests, and on such occasions the idangs must be very complete. The adat lays down fixed rules for the arrangement of these idangs, especially in connection with wedding feasts. The same rules hold good for the idangs of the Feast of the Birthday of Mohammad, and for what are called „guest-meals", i. e. feasts offered to specially honoured guests. These, however, are not in any sense of religious character, nor are they, like kanduris, marked by the recitation of selections from the Quran or litanies with final prayer.
On ordinary occasions an idang consists of two dalōngs or presentation trays, of which one contains the rice, and the other 4 or 5 bowls of meat or fish together with gulè (called sayur in Java) and sambay (Mal. sambal). Such an idang is intended for 4 or 5 persons.
IDANGS FOR A FEAST.
To complete a feast at which idangs are used, after the rice and its accessories which we have just described, two more dalōngs are brought forward, one filled with glutinous rice and a sweet, savoury sort of plantain sauce, and the other with sundry sweetmeats.
If there are no persons of importance among the guests, two complete idangs will suffice, one being set in the front or stair verandah for the women. Should the food run short, more rice etc. is simply added. But distinguished guests often have a separate idang a-piece or between two of them, while the numerous attendants (rakans) who invariably accompany them, are given everyday fare.
At a wedding-feast, as on all ordinary occasions, the male guests are served first: the women must wait till their lords have finished.
The bridal pair have also food served them, and are even requested to eat out of the same dish, but their share of the feast is of course merely nominal. After partaking of this pretended meal, the young pair are smeared behind the ears with yellow glutinous rice, the bride by the bisans (the relatives of her husband), the bridegroom by the peunganjōs of the bride. On this occasion the bride receives from each of the bisans a gift in money, about one or two dollars.
​This night is seldom enlivened by celebrations; piasans (a word which signifies much the same as is expressed by fantasia in the jargon of the Levant) take place frequently on the three preceding evenings, but not on the wedding-night itself. There is more than enough to do, however, for the time wears on to morning before the completion of all the ceremonies etc., which we have described.
Achehnese weddings of course exhibit some small local differences. We have assumed, too, that the bride and bridegroom belong to two different gampōngs, which is often though by no means always the case. Where they are of the same gampōng, their fellow-villagers divide themselves as it were into two parties, one headed by the teungku and the other by the keuchiʾ, and all the formalities are gone through as though two gampōngs were interested in the event. Speaking generally, however, the above description holds good for the whole of Great Acheh.
At the conclusion of the feast, the bridegroom, escorted by his fellow-villagers, returns once more to his parents' house.
First days of married life.The next day nothing of note occurs, but towards night, about 8 P.M., the bridegroom again goes to his wife's house (wòë), attired as on the previous evening, but now escorted by a small number of peunganjōs, half of whom are men and half women.
A bedstead is now set up in the jurèë or inner chamber, furnished with a mosquito-net and a vast pile of cushions with costly embroidery. In the centre of the room is a thick square sitting-mattress (tilam duëʾ), for one person, intended for the bridegroom's use, and at a short distance from it a sitting-mat for the bride, who thus sits on this occasion on a lower level than her spouse.
Some of the peunganjōs who accompanied the bridegroom, reinforced by one or two of their fellow officials from the party of the bride, now prepare to conduct the young man to the jurèë. The bride is at this time in the back verandah; she is supposed to wash the feet of the bridegroom on his entering the jurèë, but as a matter of fact she is relieved of this task by one of the old women, and her share in this ceremony is confined to a timid glance from a distance.
As soon as the bridegroom has taken his place on the tilam, the ​bride is led in, still in full dress. Once more she makes a deep obeisance before her husband, after which he gives her a small money present—say a dollar.
A repast in the form of an idang is thereupon brought into the jurèë but as a rule remains almost untouched. As soon as it has been removed the bride retires to the back among the women, while the bridegroom joins the male guests and the fellow-villagers of the bride in the front verandah.
Meantime they both change their heavy clothing for the simpler garments in which the Achehnese are wont to sleep, for the social concourse in the verandahs soon ceases, and the leading peunganjō comes to summon the bridegroom. She leads him into the jurèë and up to the curtained bed. Here another peunganjō (of the bride's party) hastens to unroll the sleeping-mat, which has up till now purposely been left rolled up on the mattress (tilam éh), to give the aged dame the chance of earning her dollar "for the unrolling of the mat". The bride is now constrained, not without a considerable amount of scolding and persuasion on the part of her mother and the peunganjōs, to enter the room and join her husband. One or two peunganjōs keep watch in the jurèë, in order now and then by a friendly word to encourage the pair to greater mutual confidence. They try especially to induce the bride and bridegroom to lie with their faces turned towards one another, though in Acheh they do not go as far as in Java, where the desired position is sometimes effected by the assistance of old women, friends of the newly-married couple.
The 3$^d$, 5th, 7th, 10th, 40th, 44th, 50th, 100th and 1000th days after birth, marriage or death are regarded throughout the Eastern Archipelago as epochs of importance, and are always marked by some ceremonial observance.
In Acheh the first three are those most strictly observed after a wedding. On the third, fifth and seventh days after marriage, the family of the bride offers the bridegroom and his peunganjōs a formal feast such as that described above.
The whole of the first seven days are however more or less festal ​in character. Bride and bridegroom are daily dressed out in their wedding toilette. Early in the morning the bridegroom must repair to the meunasah of the bride's gampōng, where, as we have seen, all the young men of the village are congregated. He is escorted by a number of his male peunganjōs, who bear behind him an unusually large and well furnished sirih-bag. He must now greet each of these young men seperately, and hand him the great sirih-bag (bungkōïh). He must also walk through the gampōng from time to time, and wherever he sees a number of men sitting together, must hasten up to them and proffer sirih.
Should he fail in these civilities towards his new fellow-villagers, the young folk punish him by smearing the steps of the bride's house with ordure by night, the intention being that the bridegroom should step on the unclean thing when first leaving the house in the morning. As a rule, however, he is forewarned in time and escapes this disagreeable material consequence of his shortcomings; it is considered a sufficient revenge to make him ashamed.
About 9 A.M. this peregrination is completed and he returns again to the house of his parents-in-law, to enjoy his morning meal with the bride and the peunganjōs in the jurèë. The rest of the day, however, he spends in his own gampōng.
During these first seven nights the young married pair always sleep under the surveillance of a peunganjō. Should the extreme youth of the bride render living as husband and wife difficult in the earliest days, and even where this would cause no hindrance, the Achehnese are averse to such great intimacy in the beginning, and call it "adopting the institutions of the Arabs". In other Mohammedan countries also, as in Java for example, we find this same dislike of the full use of marital rites early in wedlock.
All that the husband bestows on his wife before she is thrown on him for her support is called biaya, and the custom requires that he should give her no biaya until the seventh evening after marriage. This first biaya may be in kind; it then consists of such things as fish, ​plantains and other fruits, sirih, pinang, tobacco and gambir. It is however more usual for the husband to give money, and the amount varies from six to eight dollars multiplied by the number of bungkays of gold in his wedding-gift. At the same time he gives her a complete suit of clothing known as seunalén (from salén = "to change" said of garments).
This last gift is reciprocated by the bride on the seventh day (i. e. the day that succeeds the seventh night) by a gift of equal value in money or clothing to the bridegroom; this is also called seunalén. Where it consists of clothes, the adat prescribes that the bridegroom should at once don them and go back thus arrayed to his parents' house.
The "cooling".Not until after the morning meal on this seventh day is the wedding-feast (keureuja) regarded as concluded. It follows, therefore, that at this point the bridal pair require a "cooling". For this purpose they both sit down at the entrance of the jurèë with their legs stretched out straight in front of them. Boughs of the cooling plants already enumerated are dipped in flour and water (teupōng taweuë), and their feet are besprinkled therewith. The bridegroom alone is smeared behind the ears with yellow glutinous rice; this is done by a peunganjō of the bride.
Meantime the mother, aunts and sisters of the bride assemble in the passage (rambat) of the house to take leave of the bridegroom on his departure for home. He anticipates their greeting by a deep obeisance, in return for which they give him money presents of an amount equal to those which he has presented to the bride during the first seven evenings as a recompense for her seumbah.
All these tedious ceremonies of the first seven days are sometimes simplified by being performed one after another on the first or third day.
The eighth day.The wedding is now at an end, and after these seven busy day there succeeds a compulsory day of rest for the bridegroom. On the eighth day it is understood that he must not visit the bride (wòë); ​whoso transgresses this rule of adat is sure, according to popular superstition, to be devoured by crocodiles (buya kab).
On the ninth day the husband as a rule comes to his new home, but unaccompanied by the companions who on the previous occasion carried the great sirih-bag behind him. On this occasion, too, there is no ceremonial idang prepared for his reception.
Biays.After the 10th or 12th night the bridegroom retires for a time to his parents' house, to give his parents-in-law needful repose and an opportunity to gossip over the events of the wedding feast. An "elder" is sent to him, generally at the new moon, on behalf of the parents of his spouse, to press him to return to his wife. The young man yields to the invitation, and now brings with him the first real biaya for his wife; this is understood to mean a monthly present of money brought by the husband to the wife, so long as she continues (in conformity with certain rules which we shall presently notice) to be maintained by her parents. This monthly allowance amounts on the average to about four dollars.
This visit of the husband usually lasts about eight days, and is separated from the next by an interval of about fourteen days. He continues going backwards and forwards in this way for about six months; not till then does he become a habitual inmate of his wife's house, if his original home is in a gampōng close at hand. Where the paternal homes of the young couple lie at a great distance from one another, it will depend entirely on circumstances whether the man continues to be a mere occasional visitor to his wife's house or entirely exchanges the abode of his parents for that of his wife.
Gift of the man to his wife.After they have commenced to live as man and wife, the husband gives to the woman who has sacrificed her maiden state to him three gifts, fashioned of gold or silver according to the circumstances of the giver. These comprise a waist-belt (telòë kiʾiëng), which consist of a golden chain closing in front with a clasp made of gold or suasa (a compound of gold and tin), a wrist-chain (talòë jaròë) worn like a bracelet, and a finger-ring (eunchiën). At a distribution of effects in consequence of divorce or the death of one of the pair, these objects remain the property of the woman, whilst all other personal ornaments, ​with the exception of raiment in he most limited sense of the word, are always regarded as the husband’s property and dealt with accordingly.
As the reader will have remarked, it is the adat which has so far almost exclusively controlled an Achehnese marriage as we have described it; we have laid more stress on the customary element than upon the rules of law. Most of these customs are, it is true, looked on as indispensable by the Achehnese where the bride is a virgin, even though the bridegroom has been already several times married and is of a considerable age. At the same time exceptions may be made by agreement of both parties, nor will anyone dispute the legality of the marriage on the ground of neglect to perform some of the ceremonies above described.
Summary of adats having legal consequences.Let us now summarize the Achehnese marriage customs which are of importance from a legal point of view. The principal are:
1°. The power of the keuchiʾ (headman of the gampōng) to prevent a marriage on grounds connected with the interests of the gampōng;
2°. The betrothal-gift (tanda kòng narit) and its legal consequences.
3°. The adat-law under which the woman can never be required by her husband to leave her home with him, nay is even prohibited from doing so. The only exception to this rule is where both her family and the authorities of her native place consent to her departure. This usually happens only (at the instance of course of the husband) where the woman's family is very inferior in rank or social position to that of the man, so that the customary gifts etc. on his part are not fully reciprocated on hers. In such cases the marriage is said "to be without adat" (hana adat).
4°. The gift after consummation of the marriage and the rules which govern it.
Anyone who is not entirely a stranger to Mohammedan law will not need to be reminded that these four matters are, to use a much-abused term, among the "departures" from the law of Islam which characterize the native race.
By-and-bye, when we proceed to examine the chief results of marriage as affecting the children born thereof, and the property of the married couple, we shall find that here also the social life of the Achehnese ​is controlled by "ancient popular customs in conflict with Islam . . . . . in this sense, that they suggest a customary law existing in the consciousness of the people".
Before passing to this subject, however, we must gain some knowledge of the marriage contract as it exists in Acheh. Our assuming this important negociation as already complete has not in any way affected our description of the wedding ceremonial; the less so, as the contract is generally concluded at a different time and place from that of the actual meeting of the bride and bridegroom.
§ 2. The Marriage Contract.
Nature of the marriage contract under Mohammedan law.It is impossible to describe the marriage contract in Acheh with the desired accuracy without first giving some details as to the rules of Mohammedan law on this subject, and the "departures" from this law, which prevail throughout a great portion of the E. Indian Archipelago.
These rules of law have, it is true, been dealt with by Mr. L. W. C. Van den Berg in his "Principles of Mohammedan Law", but very imperfectly, some of his principal facts being erroneous, and the necessary notes on the actual practice in the E. Indies entirely wanting. In his recent essay on the "departures" from these laws in actual practice in Java and Madura, the same writer has made it clear that ​he has not during his long residence in these regions given even a passing notice to many of the most characteristic of these phenomena.
We thus preface our remarks on the actual Achehnese marriage contract, not by a complete description of the Mohammedan contract, but by so much thereof as is absolutely necessary to show what portions of the Achehnese contract are peculiar to that country, and to rectify by the light of authoritative Mohammedan works the errors disseminated by Van den Berg.
The marriage contract is, according to the Shafiʾite law-books, an agreement in which the man and his wife appear as the parties, the latter being represented by her wali. The subject of the contract is sexual intercourse and all that is connected with it; in return for this advantage, which is assured to the man by the contract, he binds himself to pay a dowry, which may be either then and there fixed by the contract, or else settled later on according to the wife's position and the local custom. He also undertakes to supply his wife with suitable food, clothing, lodging and attendance, or if he should wed other wives, not to devote more of his time to them than to her, except with her consent, etc.
At the making of the contract there must be present two witnesses who fulfil the required standards of capacity, religion and morality. The "acceptance" of the bridegroom must follow directly on the "offer" of the wali, and a settled form of words must be employed for both „offer" and „acceptance". Neglect of any of these rules renders the contract null and void.
​No conditions of any sort must appear in the contract. Should this rule be transgressed, the whole would be invalid, if the conditions contained anything at variance with the essence of Mohammedan marriage, but the contract would hold good, the conditions alone being invalid, if the latter did not conflict with essence of the wedded state.
Some walis, viz. those in the ascending line, have the right to give a girl in marriage without her consent, if she be a maiden. The law recommends, however, that her consent be asked, and the compulsory right ceases on her declaring that she has lost her virginity, it matters not how.
The right of compulsion is only given to these walis because it is thought that they are better able to promote her actual interests, and because her maiden shyness has yet to be overcome.
Where the girl is no longer a maiden her consent is essential; indeed the mature unmaried woman has the right to demand to be married, provided that a suitor presents himself whom the law would allow of her marrying.
We thus see how foreign to the dictum of the law is the idea that the woman is the subject of the contract. Males under age can also be married by their walis with their own consent, when the latter see it to be for their good.
The Wali.The following are proper walis of a woman according to the Shafiʾite law-books.
1°. The nearest male relative in the ascending line (the father, or if he be deceased the father's father, etc.).
2°. Brothers, first those who are the children of the same parents as the women, then step-brothers on the father's side.
3°. Male descendants in the male line of those included under 2° above, it being understood that a nearer degree excludes a more distant one, and that in each degree a descendant of a full brother of the woman takes precedence of those of her step-brother on the father's side.
4°. The brothers of the father, subject to the same rule as 2°.
​5°. The male descendants in male line of those included in 4°, following the same rule as 3°.
This list of collateral relatives on the father's side may be continued by the reader at his pleasure from the rules just given. Only where the bride has no agnates who fulfil the requirements of the law, another class presents itself, which we need only cursorily mention since it now no longer exists owing to the abolition of slavery, viz.
6°. The male patron (liberator) of the woman, and in case of his decease his agnates in the order in which they inherit.
In each special case the wali indicated by the law is he who stands closest to the woman in accordance with the above classification. A more nearly related class is replaced by one more distant only where the former does not exist or where its members are morally and physically incapable of discharging the functions of wali. Thus for example the grandfather takes the place of the father when the latter is dead or insane, and the stepbrother on the father's side of the full brother when the latter is incorrigibly godless or unbelieving. Where, however, a wali of the next class is absent or is unwilling to be a party to an unexceptionable marriage desired by a woman of mature age, the succeeding class does not take its place, but that which we shall here call the 7th viz.:
7°. The Civil Authority. By this we must understand in the first place the head of the Mohammedan Community or those who govern Moslim countries as his representatives. As a rule, however, the duty of acting as wali for women who have none, or whose proper guardians are absent or unwilling to act, devolves upon the qadhis or their deputies, sometimes on separate officials specially appointed to deal with marriage contracts ((Arabic characters)).
​Taḥkīm.8°. When a man and a woman having no wali at her disposal desire to wed one another, they may by mutual consent select as wali another than the official charged with this duty, provided that other entirely fulfils the requirements that the Law makes of the qādhī.
The function of a wali thus selected is designated by the same name as that of an arbitrator in a dispute: ḥakam. The authorization to undertake the duty (given by the man or woman) is known as taḥkīm.
Where there is no lawful authority according to Mohammedan ideas, or no official lawfully charged with the wali-ship of women who are without a wali, the taḥkīm is the only way of uniting a couple desirous of marriage. But in the case of this make-shift wali the requirement of suitability for the office of qādhī is no longer insisted on, and anyone may be appointed ḥakam who shows himself moderately fitted to perform the duties in the prescribed manner.
In Batavia all such contracts of marriage are concluded in this way, since it is assumed that there cannot be in that town any legally appointed official to take the wali's place. The incapacity of pangulus in this respect is not based on their appointment by a government of infidels (in fact the Mohammedan books of the law recognize the legality of the appointment of a qādhī by a de facto kafir authority) but from the nullity of their appointment by written decree; since Islam acknowledges the appointment of officials as valid only when verbal.
In other parts of Java this is less strictly insisted on, and the pangulu of a division is recognised as endued with the kuwasa kakim.
Thus a wali may be either an agnate of the bride, or the representative of the civil authority, or one appointed to discharge the duties of taḥkim by the man and woman themselves. The second party to the contract is the bridegroom, or if he be a minor, his guardian.
The wali usually appoints another to act for him.Every wali, however, and every bridegroom and guardian may empower another to conclude the contract is his stead, as wakīl. This only occasionally happens in the case of the bridegroom; the wali on the other hand is almost invariably represented by a wakīl, even though he be actually present at the making of the contract. The reason of this is not far to seek.
To conclude a valid contract of marriage, those concerned must have ​a thorough knowledge of the rules which control such contracts. Otherwise, should questions arise later on, there would be some danger of being unable to prove the existence of the marriage, or of the contract which preceded it being found to be invalid.
This difficulty is least in the case of the bridegroom; he has only to express in a few words his "acceptance" of the "offer" made by the wali, and these words may be and generally are, dictated to him at the moment when he has to utter them. Yet it happens not unfrequently—as the writer knows by actual experience—that this ceremony has to be repeated all over again as often as three or four times, owing to the bridegroom's not following the words quickly enough or from his repeating them inaccurately.
If the wali, however, were left to take his chance, a contract would seldom be correctly made. He is strongly recommended, though not imperatively commanded by the Law, to begin the ceremony with a short discourse on marriage, preferably in Arabic. After this he must express his intentions at some length, adhering strictly to the established legal forms of expression. One would not be beyond the mark in asserting that in Arabia as well as other Mohammedan countries, hardly one wali in a thousand could be found, who would be able to discharge this duty without extraneous help.
Mohammedan official marriage makers.We find, then, in all Mohammedan countries, certain persons who lend their help on such occasions and supply the deficiencies in the (necessarily scanty) legal knowledge of the general public. As the validity of the contract they enter into can only be disputed before the qādhī, it follows as a matter of course that these registrars, if we may so call them, stand under the supervision of the qādhī; in some countries he actually appoints, in others only recognizes them. The names they bear vary with the locality; in Mekka they are called mumlik, in Medina "licentiates for the making of marriages", in Egypt fiqīh, in Java naib or district pangulus or their subordinates (kětip etc.) and in Acheh teungku meunasah.
These officials discharge their duties in one of two ways. They ​either dictate to the wali and the bridegroom what they have to say or else have themselves empowered by the wali and enter into the marriage contract as his wakil. This last method, which is adopted throughout the whole of the E. Indian Archipelago, is also the one most generally resorted to in other Mohammedan countries, as for example in Arabia. This is indeed what we should naturally expect, for under the first-named system there is much greater risk of the whole affair being upset by the inadvertence of one or other of the parties. Under the more usual method, on the other hand, the authorization of the official deputy by the wali (a proper formula for which the latter dictates, to make it easy for the former) is given before the marriage contract is concluded, so that this official wakil has to devote his attention to the bridegroom only. On the latter he impresses beforehand his comparatively simple duties. "So soon" (thus runs his lesson), "so soon as ever I have given utterance to the offer I shall pull your thumb" (which the official holds fast during the ceremony for this purpose) and then you must immediately repeat the words which I dictate".
Such is also the practice in Java; the formulas used on such occasions vary locally in sundry particulars, but are everywhere the same in essentials. Mr. van den Berg, who clearly made his first acquaintance with these matters quite recently from Winter's brochure and the dictionaries of de Wilde and Coolsma, draws therefrom the entirely ​unwarrantable conclusion that the presence of the so-called "priests" or other officials at Mohammedan marriages has in other countries "an absolutely (sic) different significance from what it has in Java and Madura". This results from his having failed to grasp the meaning of the wali's authorization. The persons who have entrusted to them the task or special commission to conclude marriage contracts in their division or district have naturally no liking for competition, being human enough to feel a strong inclination to monopolize the profits arising from the making of marriage contracts. This finds support in the wish of the authorities to protect the law governing domestic life from becoming a prey to confusion. If everyone who, rightly or wrongly, had the reputation of being a suitable person to manage the preliminaries of marriages, was allowed to act in such matters, there would be much more confusion in the Mohammedan lawsuits arising from the relations between married people than is now actually the case. Thus we find every precaution taken to avoid such a state of things.
In Java the district pangulus have an easy task in this respect. First of ail they have hardly any to compete with them in the inland districts, and in the next place the official makers of marriages have the support of the chiefs, who would regard it as an act of usurpation on the parts of a kyahi or doctor of Mohammedan law to conclude a marriage contract. At places on the coast and especially at Batavia the conclusion of contracts by "amateurs" in this line is of very common occurrence, and no one thinks of questioning their legality. If we ask why this so seldom takes place inland we receive the unanimous reply that no one dares to assume the responsibility for fear of being ​suspected of an attempt to rob the pangulus of their privileges. There would however be no lawful means of frustrating such "amateurs", unless the Government declared the district pangulus to be exclusively empowered to act as attornies of the walis.
In all Mohammedan lands, however, in the inland parts of Java just as much as in Arabia, we find exceptions to the rule of invoking the services of apppointed or licensed makers of marriages. For instance where a recognized expounder of the law gives in marriage a woman whose wali he himself is, or where he is empowered by a friend of his own to act as wali, no one thinks of raising any objection. Nor again would any Mohammedan Court ever protest against the validity of a marriage on the ground that no "minister of religion" was present thereat.
The witnesses.What is true of the office of wali applies also to that of witness. A marriage is not valid unless it has been concluded in the presence of two witnesses who in the opinion of the judges on whose verdict the disputed validity depends, satisfy the requisite standards as to suitability and morality. There can thus be no better means of guarding against danger in this respect, than by selecting witnesses who have been for good and all declared to be suitable by the judge or his representative.
In point of fact we find in many Mohammedan countries, as an appendage to every qādhī's court, a number of professional witnesses called ʾadl, who lend their assistance for a moderate fee in marriage and other contracts. This also holds true, mutatis mutandis, of the Indian Archipelago. Here the district pangulu, or whatever other name the maker of the marriage contract may be known by, causes one or two of the officers of the mosque to attend marriages, and these obtain for their services a share of their chief's fees.
The above refutation of errors which, clumsy as they are, have persisted owing to the appearance of authority with which they were enunciated, puts us in a position to begin our description of the Achehnese marriage contract.
The marriage contract in Acheh.It is usually concluded in the chapel which also serves as the meeting-house and caravanserai of the gampōng, the meunasah, one or two days before the euntat mampleuë or wedding which has been described above. ​Where it does not take place beforehand and the ceremony is made part of the wedding itself, the contract is concluded in the front verandah (sramòë reunyeun) before the bridegroom is invited into the juròë.
The teungku as "hakim" and "wakil".When the wali by relationship is available, and is both able and willing to lend his help, the teungku of the meunasah manages the affair in exactly the same way as is done by the district pangulu in Java. This is likewise the case when the woman has been married before and has no wali at her disposal. Of such a woman it is popularly said: "she has the right to be her own wali"; and though this saying is not legally exact, it expresses clearly enough for all intents and purposes the fact that she has the right to join with her intended husband in appointing a ḥakam. The latter should in this case properly possess the qualifications required of a qādhī, for there are regularly appointed qādhīs in Acheh. As however the qualifications for the office of qādhī are not very narrowly scrutinized in Acheh, it follows as a matter of course that much latitude is allowed to the woman's subsidiary wali appointed by taḥkim. While however, the theory of religious law leaves the choice of this hakam entirely free, the Achehnese adat limits it strictly to the teungku. Amateur marriage-makers such as are commonly found at Batavia would be heavily fined by the ulèëbalang in Acheh.
Where a virgin has no wali by relationship at her disposal, she must not be married by the teungku, but must, as we shall see directly, go to the kali. Let us however first give a closer description of the two sorts of contracts which are concluded by the teungku.
The formalities.Before the bridegroom enters the meunasah, the wali of the maiden or woman who is to be given in marriage appoints the teungku his attorney in some such words as these: "I appoint you, oh Teungku, to be my wakil, to give my daughter (or sister etc.) in marriage to the bridegroom, who will (immediately) come hither". The answer is "incha alah", i.e. "If it so please God!"
​When the bridegroom enters the meunasah with a small following from his own gampōng, his companions open a bundle which they have brought with them, and in which are rolled up two handsome sleeping mats and a number of costly cushions. These represent the future bridal couch, and are spread for the bridegroom to sit on during the making of the contract. Close by is placed a bowl (mundam) of water, wherewith the teungku and the bridegroom rinse their mouths before commencing the ceremony. As the name of Allah is to be invoked, it is not fitting that any remnants of food, tobacco or such should defile the instrument to be used in glorifying God.
The marriage gift.The attendants of the bridegroom also place in the foreground a platter (baté) containing the sum of money given as a wedding-present (jinamèë). The jinamèë is seldom mentioned in the contract, since it is in every case pretty closely defined by the adat. The jinamèë for the daughters of princes of the blood (tuankus) amounts to 500 dollars, or according to the old-fashioned mode of expression, "a kati (1¼ lb.) of gold" (sikatòë meuïh); for those of persons of distinction (ureuëng ulèë) such as ulèëbalangs, imeums and others who are their equals in rank or wealth, 100 dollars or 4 bungkays of gold; for those of middle rank (ureuëng peuteungahan), such as keuchiʾs, teungkus, wakis and the like, 50 dollars or 2 bungkays of gold, and for the lesser folk 25 dollars or 1 bungkay. He who marries a poor woman need only give one or two tahés (tahils) or even less.
The jinamèës here spoken of have reference only to marriage with a maiden; in other cases they depend mainly on mutual consent.
As a rule the dowry is paid at the conclusion of the contract. In ​some cases half the sum is at once repaid to the bridegroom, but this is merely formal, as the bride receives this half again in the form of a present when she pays her first visit to her parents in law after the wedding.
In addition to the bridal couch and the dowry, the attendants of the bridegroom bring with them two sets of "standing sirih" (ranub dòng) of the same kind as those already described. In some districts (as for instance the Mukims Buëng) this is replaced by a sweetmeat in the form of network, called halua pulōt. Both of these are intended for distribution among the onlookers.
Two leubès from the bride's gampōng, chosen by the teungku, serve as witnesses. They begin by carefully verifying the amount of the dowry on the baté or platter.
The bridegroom now takes his place opposite the teungku, behind whom sit the two witnesses and the crowd of onlookers. After they have duly rinsed their mouths, the teungku pronounces in Arabic his khutbah (Ach. kōteubah). This, though not actually prescribed as indispensable, is strongly recommended by the Law to the wali or his substitute. As a rule he greatly abbreviates this task, using only the words: "In the name of Allah! unto Allah be the praise, and blessing and peace upon the Messenger of Allah. I exhort ye, oh servants of Allah, and myself to the fear of Allah!.
The teungku now clasps the right hand of the bridegroom in his own and says "When I shake (your hand) you must immediately make answer! Thereupon he makes the "offer" in some such words as these: "I unite you in marriage with N., daughter (or sister etc.) of ​X, who has empowered me to do so (under bargain of a dowry of so many bungkay)." He now pulls the bridegroom's hand as a signal and the latter then immediately repeats after him the following words "I accept her hand (against a dowry of so many bungkay)."
The teungku then recites the fatihah (the first surah of the Qurān) during which all hold their hands before their faces as is customary during prayer. After this comes a general offering up of praise to God, and finally the teungku repeats another prayer generally used in marriages, beginning with the words "Oh Allah! make union between these two, even as thou didst unite the water and the earth" etc. All present express by their "amens" their sympathy in this prayer for blessing, and then the bridegroom thanks them all by a seumbah or respectful obeisance.
Taḥkīm.The order of proceedings is almost exactly similar when the teungku appears not as the substitute of a wali, but as deputed by taḥkīm by a woman who has no wali and her intended husband. Here the authorization of the teungku by the wali is replaced by the woman's tahkīm; and in the "offer" he adds after the bride's name the words "who has empowered me" or "who has entrusted herself to my charge by taḥkīm," no mention being made of her wali.
The expedient of the tahkīm is very frequently resorted to in Acheh, although almost every ulèëbalangship has its "kali" (qādhī), and in other Mohammedan countries where such is the case, recourse is had to the qādhī or the minor official invested by him with the wali-ship of women who have no wali. The reason is not far to seek. The ulèëbalangships are not indeed very large, but the bad state of the roads and the general insecurity prevailing in Acheh would render it very burdensome to the people to be obliged to go to the residence of the kali for the celebration of every one of the numerous marriages of this description. In Java the facilities are greater, and the pangulu of a division receives all women who are without a wali at the chief centre of the province.
The adat in Acheh is much stricter than in Java in regard to the ​part to be played in the concluding of marriage contracts by the authorities of the gampōng, and by the kalis in marriages of the kind which we shall presently proceed to describe. A marriage would not indeed be pronounced invalid in Acheh any more than in Java, on the ground that it was concluded without the coöperation of the heads of the gampōng (in Java of the district pangulu). But while in the latter country the maker of the marriage would escape with a mere censure, all concerned would be heavily fined in Acheh. The keuchiʾ and teungku are zealous in maintaining their authority and the profits which they derive from its exercise. In this they are supported both by their overlords the ulèëbalangs, and by the people of the gampōngs, whose rights and claims they maintain against invasion.
The part played by the keuchiʾ in the preparations for the marriage is, as we have already seen, of great importance; his authority is also required for the concluding of the contract. In this the teungku, the "mother" of the gampōng, is the active agent, since he alone is acquainted with the requisite formalities, but he would not venture to carry out his task without the presence and authority of "father" keuchiʾ. And although the teungku is the person who actually enters into the contract (peukatib, peunikah or peukawén) it is to the keuchiʾ alone that the adat allots a fixed sum as recompense. This fee is called haʾ katib, haʾ nikah or haʾ chupéng, speech-maker's money, marriage-money or chupéng-money, chupéng being the little metal plate which young girls wear to cover their persons.
The haʾkatib.The haʾ katib amounts to one mas (samaïh) as it is still called, i. e. ¼, of a dollar. The teungku is paid so much as the parties concerned see fit to give him. He can adduce no right founded on adat, but on the other hand he has this advantage, that his fee, though not definitely fixed, is made to correspond with the requirements of the occasion. He usually receives one dollar, sometimes more; half of this sum he makes over to the leubès who stand by him as witnesses.
​Under the Mohammedan law there is no reason why the marriage of a maiden of full age who has no wali should not be performed through the mediation of the same official who acts for a divorced woman or a widow under similar circumstances. In both cases it is the custom in most Mohammedan countries to have recourse to the qādhī or the official charged with like functions, even where the law admits of resorting to taḥkim under certain conditions. In Acheh the taḥkim is habitually applied in the latter case, subject to the choice of a ḥakam being limited to the teungku of the woman's gampōng, so that we might naturally expect to find the same method adopted for the marriage of a maiden of full age.
The kali as concluder of marriage contracts. This however seldom happens, the intervention of the kali being deemed necessary in such cases. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that in Acheh the great majority of maidens are given in marriage before they arrive at the age of puberty, and the help of the kali is indispensable in view of the peculiar manner in which most of these marriage contracts are concluded among the Achehnese. There is thus also a tendency to invoke the assistance of the kali in the absence of a wali in those rare instances where a girl is married for the first time after reaching maturity.
It must be borne in mind that according to the Shafiʾite law it is only the agnates in the ascending line that have the right to give a maiden in marriage without her consent. Thus where such ascendant relatives are wanting the marriage of a maiden is impossible under the Shafiʾite ritual, since the refusal or consent of a minor has no force.
In Acheh, however, there is a universal and deeply-rooted prejudice against allowing a maiden to remain unmarried till she attains her majority. This we have already noticed in the beginning of our description of the marriage ceremony, but to guard against error we must here supplement this by observing that Mohammedan law not only places no impediment in the way of contracts of marriage between children, but even expressly permits girls under age to be handed over to their husbands when, as the saying is, "they can endure the married state". This last contingency is considered by Mohammedans in all ​countries to arise at a very early age, and in Acheh one sees children whom we should deem of an age to be taken on the knee, making purchases in the market in the capacity of matrons!
Now as many of these girls have, whilst still unmarried, lost their fathers and grandfathers who are their proper walis, the Shafiʾite ritual conflicts with the Achehnese adat on this point. Means have however been found to reconcile this difficulty.
Changing of maḍhab.It is difficult to give a clear explanation of this expedient without once more digressing from our subject. As a matter of fact the Shafiʾite school permits its disciples to follow some other ritual in certain isolated cases. Such partial following of another school is called taqlīd i.e., clothing with authority. In Java, for instance, taqlīd is commonly resorted to in order to fix the qiblah (the direction in which the devout must turn when praying) since the rules of the Shafiʾite school are too strict to be carried out in actual practice. It is also customarily employed in the fulfilment of neglected religious duties on behalf of deceased persons. We should have looked to find in Van den Berg's Beginselen a discussion of this subject to which we might here refer, but we seek in vain for even the bare mention of the question.
Taqlīd.We shall only mention here so much of the law as to this sort of taqlīd as is indispensable to our subject, for a full description would detain us too long; we therefore merely quote such opinions of the teachers as are followed in actual practice at the present time.
​The doctrine is, then, that every Mohammedan is authorized in a given question to follow a different school to that to which he is supposed to belong, provided he do so with full knowledge that this other interpretation is supported by an imām of equal authority with him whom he himself follows, and that he is acquainted with all the rules controlling the question in point in that other school, since, were it otherwise, inconsistencies would arise from following partly one school and partly another. Some add to this a further condition forbidding the selection from every school of what seems easiest and most agreeable.
According to the prevailing opinion, however, each individual may make use of this permission on his own behalf only; for instance, the judge and the mufti must confine themselves to their own school in their verdicts or interpretations of the law, since these affect not themselves but others. It is indeed allowed that the ideal qādhī, as we find him portrayed in the books of the law, should be guided entirely in his pronouncements by the Qurān, by tradition and by what according to his (the qādhī's) view is derived from both these sources by the consensus of the infallible community of Islam. It is, however, admitted without hesitation that it was only in the first two centuries after Mohammad that there were any who came up to this standard, and that now-a-days such a phenomenon would be esteemed a miracle. It is now admitted as a fact that no teacher, no matter how great he be, can do more than simply interpret the law-books of his school. Besides this it is matter of common knowledge that the qādhīs are very seldom chosen from the ranks of the most learned. The existing qādhīs might at best be described as "make-shifts", qādhī ad-dharûrah, but the great majority of them do not even come up to the definition of this term found in the books of the law. They are in fact quite ill-fitted to their task, and are appointed by the authorities for the sake of maintaining social order, but are of course not allowed to go outside the limits of their own school of doctrine.
Ḥanafite law as to the marriage of maidens.To return to our main subject; where Achehnese girls are under age and their walis in the ascending line are dead or absent, their being given in marriage is facilitated by the tenets of the Ḥanafite school.
​In the first place the order of sequence of the walis in the school of Abu Ḥanifah differs from that of the Shafiʾites.
In the former the descending line takes precedence of those mentioned in the list given on pp. 331–33 above, so that the son if of full age has the first right to be wali of his mother. Otherwise the series is the same as we have described it so far as the agnates are concerned, but after these come in the first place the mother (who under Shafiʾite law can never be a wali), and then the relations on the mother's side in order corresponding to the degree of consanguinity. After these comes the patron and finally the civil authority. Among the Ḥanafites moreover, a woman of full age can never be given in marriage without her consent even though she be a virgin; on the other hand all walis have the right to give a virgin who is under age in marriage without her consent. The only distinction that they make between the walis in the ascending line and others consists in this, that when the former have exercised the said right of compulsion, the marriage contract receives absolutely binding force, whereas in the case of a forced marriage being arranged by one of the other walis of the woman, the latter, as soon as she is of full age and becomes aware of the circumstances, has the right to demand faskh (separation). The same holds good as regards boys under age who have been married by their guardians, but in their case the compulsory power even of the walis in the ascending line is simply conditional.
Under the Ḥanafite law we also find an absent wali replaced by his successor in the list, and not directly by the civil authority as is the case with the Shafiʾites.
In Acheh it is the universal custom to apply in these matters, so far as appears desirable, the teukeulit, as the Achehnese pronounce taqlīd. In regard to this it is a somewhat singular fact that not only do the kalis of Acheh recognize this adat (though they ought properly ​speaking to keep entirely clear of adat and follow the Shafiʾite law only in the exercise of their office) but it is even obligatory to invoke their help in order to conclude a marriage contract which is unlawful under the Shafiʾite, though permitted by the Ḥanafite law. This rule has apparently been adopted through mistrust of the knowledge of the teungkus, and through fear that if the matter were left entirely in their hands, many marriage contracts would be entered into which would prove completely at variance with the Law. There could of course be no suggestion of entrusting such duties to "laymen,' which in theory would be the proper course.
It must further be borne in mind that in these numerous cases of Ḥanafite marriages of virgins, no one thinks of expecting from the bridegroom and the wali, even with the kali to assist them, a full knowledge of all the rules controlling marriage under the Ḥanafite teaching, although the law, as we have seen, makes this a condition in regard to the taqlīd. It is enough simply to keep up appearances, and to follow, however faultily, the outward form.
The wali and the bridegroom go to the kali with the girl and the authorities of her gampōng (the keuchiʾ, the teungku and the two leubès who serve as witnesses) in order to baléʾ meudeuhab as it is called (i. e. to change the maḍhab or school of doctrine under his guidance.
Formalities of the "changing of maḍhab."The circumstances of the case, viz. that the girl has no walis in the ascending line or that they live at too great a distance to act in the matter, but desire to give her in marriage according to custom, are first communicated to the kali. He replies somewhat as follows: "According to our imām (as-Shafiʾi) it is not permissible to give this maid in marriage in the absence of her father and grandfather; this can only be done according to the teaching of the imam Abu Ḥanifah". Thereupon the wali and bridegroom reply: "We will follow your decision, oh Teungku!". This is really quite improper, as in case of taqlīd there should be no mention of following the decision of a third person.
The kali now dictates to both wali and bridegroom a formula which ​is understood to authorize them to have recourse to the taqlīd for the matter in hand. This runs as follows: "we embrace the authority of the Ḥanafite Imām, this is our belief; I agree with the Ḥanafite imam in this question, that it is permissible to give in marriage a child under age who has neither father nor grandfather; I am convinced of the force of the Ḥanafite arguments".
After this mock taqlīd the kali is empowered by the wali in the same way as the teungku in other cases. The marriage ceremony is then completed, and as soon as the girl's family are of opinion that she is fit to share her husband's bed, she is handed over to him or rather he is brought to live with her.
The common people who have recourse to this takeulit in actual practice, have no knowledge of the niceties of the question. It is enough for them to know that a special method known as baléʾ meudeuhab, which is stamped with the approval of the ulamas of Acheh, and in which the kali is regarded as an indispensable guide, has to be adopted in order to marry young girls who have no walis in the ascending line and that this guide must receive 4 dollars for his trouble. It may even be doubted whether the majority of kalis, whose incomes are augmented to no inconsiderable degree by this baléʾ meudeuhab,have any real knowledge of its origin. Indeed some kalis find themselves compelled (like the teungkus) owing to their ignorance to have their task performed for them by some helpful friend who is well versed in the law.
As we have seen above, the kali is also resorted to on the less common occasions when a virgin of full age whose wali is absent or who has no wali, is given in marriage.
The taʾlīq adat wanting in Acheh.As Acheh forms a part of the East Indian Archipelago, our remarks on the marriage contract would be incomplete if we failed to notice one negative peculiarity, namely the complete absence in Acheh of a very characteristic adat which prevails among the vast majority of Moslims in these regions. Here again a slight digression is necessary in the absence of any reliable authority on the subject.
​The relation of wife to husband is finally fixed in all its details by the Mohammedan law, and, as we have seen, there must be no conditions made on either side in the marriage contract, a fortiori none that would in any way modify this relation. The position of the wife as defined by the fiqh or law of Islam is in many ways a very unfavourable one, and this not merely as measured by European standards; yet in many Mohammedan countries there prevails in practice an interpretation of the law much more favourable to the woman. This is based on the pre-existing social conditions which Islam found established on its first introduction, and which it was unable to exterminate.
Difficulty experienced by women in obtaining faskh.Such are for example the obligations of the husband in regard to the provision of maintenance, lodging, clothing etc. for his wife. These are indeed closely defined by the Law, but it furnishes no sufficient practical means for the enforcement of these rights. In fact, if the man deserts his wife, and fails to provide her with the necessaries of life etc., she has no right to demand a divorce until she can prove that her husband is incapable of providing for her maintenance. In the absence of such proof she can only invoke the interference of the civil authority to compel her husband to fulfil his obligations, a course which, as might be supposed, is in most cases of little avail. Where the woman has succeeded, no matter in what way, in providing for her own support, and where no money has been paid by the husband in response to the judge's order, every claim on her part for compensation for the deficiency as a rule falls to the ground.
The taʾlīq in the East Indian Archipelago.In the East Indian Archipelago, a method to which the Mohammedan law itself gives the impulse has been resorted to in order to prevent the husband from leaving his wife to life-long misery by desertion and neglect of his duties towards her.
According to the law a conditional talāq (divorce) may be pronounced or as the saying is, the talāq may be "suspended" (taʾlīq). The numerous ways in which this can be done are most minutely defined in the books of the law. The essence of the matter is that if the husband has ​said: "If such and such a thing happen, my wife is divorced," the actual thing referred to need only take place, in order to make the talāq a determinate fact.
This taʾlīq can be used for sundry purposes. Sometimes a Mohammedan employs it by way of an oath, saying for example to some one who doubts the truth of his words: "If I lie in this, my wife N. is divorced." Or he uses it as a threat to his wife in case of disobedience, as thus, "if you enter that house again, you are divorced."
He may, however also employ the taʾlīq to improve the position of his wife, as for instance by saying, "If I beat you, or leave you for a month without support, or forsake you for a year, then you are divorced." The husband cannot indeed be constrained to such a taʾlīq and his voluntary declaration is necessary to bestow such privileges on his wife.
At the same time, if a man asks the hand of a woman in marriage, and first undertakes, at the request of the father or wali, to make such a taʾlīq in her favour immediately after the conclusion of the wedding contract, the bridegroom considers himself so to speak morally bound by such promise. No one, it is true, would raise any legal objections if after the contract was completed he were to declare that he thought better of his intentions in regard to the talīq, but by so doing he would entirely forfeit the confidence of his acquaintance.
Such predeclared and morally compulsory taʾlīqs are to be met with everywhere. In the Indian Archipelago they are by no means rare; the husband for instance, in conformity with an agreement with his parents-in-law, declares immediately after the marriage ceremony, that his wife may regard herself as divorced by him if he marries a second, or gives her no house of her own to live in, etc. Here again, as might be expected, the great majority of bridegrooms require the assistance of the official who concludes the marriage contract for the proper expression of the formula; he dictates the words one after another to the bridegroom.
This is not peculiar to Indonesia, and is also to be found in Acheh. But throughout the whole of Java and the greater part of the other ​Mohammedan possessions of Holland, the adat has always within human memory required every man who marries to pronounce a taʾlīq immediately after the conclusion of the contract. The form of this is subject to local variations, but its general drift is everywhere the same, viz. that the wife may regard herself as divorced if her husband forsakes her and betakes himself to some other part of the country for seven months, or beyond the sea for a year (in some places two, or if he fails to maintain her for a given period (e. g. one month) ​or maltreats her or excludes her entirely from his bed and other similar conditions. To the series of conditions "on which the talāq is suspended" the two following are always attached: "if the woman is not a consenting party thereto and places the matter in the hands of the constituted authorities." The omission of these two conditions would lead to the greatest difficulties. The Mohammedan law will not allow the word talāq to be made light of; when the talāq has been once pronounced or a condition on which it "hangs" fulfilled, the marriage is dissolved ipso facto without any judicial decree and all further cohabitation of the pair is from that moment regarded as adultery. The talāq must be proved by two witnesses, if one of the parties concerned denies its having been pronounced; but it has full force with all its consequences for both parties as soon as ever it has been uttered by the husband.
Suppose the husband then to have created a taʾlīq of the kind we refer to and to have done one of the acts therein enumerated, the marriage would be then and there dissolved, irrespective of the wishes of the woman, who would perhaps be glad enough to leave things as they were. Extraordinary complications would arise if the man's act were to be decisive and the woman to have no voice in the matter. There would be a complete want of control, and amid the prevailing ignorance of the great mass of the people, many a married couple might form an entirely wrong opinion as to whether a given "condition" had been fulfilled or not. The addition of the two final conditions just mentioned gets rid of all these difficulties, since they make the completion of the divorce dependent on the consent of the woman and a ​declaration before the judge, who must of course enquire into the case in the first instance.
The judge before whom the declaration is made gives no verdict (for which indeed there is no necessity) but declares the facts viz. whether or no the divorce is brought into force by means of the declaration made in his presence coupled with the fulfilment of the other condition as evidenced by the woman's statement.
Intentional adoption of the taʾlīq custom.As appears from the above explanation, this adat in favour of the woman is a most reasonable one since if the law were applied in its purity, the right of demanding separation (faskh) on the grounds mentioned would be entirely denied to the woman. Thus where Van den Berg, in the essay referred to (pp. 486–7) notices as "peculiar" the wide use made of the taʾlīq, and characterizes it as "a somewhat useless expedient for dissolving marriages", we are constrained to qualify as most peculiar the writer's want of familiarity both with the essential nature of this native adat and with the rules of Mohammedan law as to taʾlīq and faskh. This adat is universally esteemed by native teachers and laymen as a social blessing, in view of the thoughtlessness with which marriages are entered into, the indifference of many husbands to their wives and their proneness to abandon them, as well as the large numbers of those who lead a roving life.
​Meantime such a taʾliq whether made with or without previous parley between the bridegroom and his parents-in-law, must under Mohammedan law always be a voluntary act on the part of the former, as otherwise it would be invalid. Yet it must be understood that in the large field where the adat prevails of conditional divorce after every marriage, the chance concurrence of the wishes of all married couples cannot be regarded as the cause of this custom. As a matter of fact, where this adat holds good, it is usually compulsion or "persuasion" bordering on compulsion that carries the day.
In olden times in Java, not only in the kingdom of Mataram, but also in such places as Chirbon and Bantěn, the taʾlīq was ordained by the rulers of the country. The tradition of the Javanese that this adat, which extends so far beyond the limits of Java, was an invention of their great sultan (Sultan Agěng) is of course to say the least of it open to doubt. Still this taʾlīq was everywhere known as "the promise ordained of the Prince" (janjining ratu or janji dalěm) and is still so called even outside the Native States. It is indeed customary for the official who concludes the marriage contract to enquire of the bridegroom "do you accept the janjining ratu?", but this question is purely formal, since a reply in the negative is unheard of.
In addition to this main departure from Mohammedan law, another unorthodox custom (which seems formerly to have been universal) still prevails in many districts, viz. that the words of the taʾlīq are only uttered by the official marriage-maker, who of course speaks in the second person, and the bridegroom instead of repeating the words in the first person simply answers "yes". According to the law this defect in form renders the whole transaction void, yet the adat regards it as valid.
In the provinces directly subject to the Dutch government there is of course in theory no such thing as compulsion in regard to the taʾlīq. Both this freedom and the increasing study of the Mohammedan law cause the proper legal form for this voluntary declaration to be more largely employed in these provinces; but as a matter of fact the formula is dictated to the bridegroom in such a way that he is left to suppose in his ignorance that it forms an indispensable part of the ​marriage contract. The ordinary villager, or indeed any native who has not studied, knows naught of the rules of the Law in regard to the contract. He places himself entirely in the hands of the official who concludes it; when for example, the latter, after the ratification of the contract proper, says to him: "You will now surely repeat the taʾlīq according to the good adat which all men follow", few bridegrooms would so much as conceive the possibility of refusing this request.
Some, part pedantic, part overscrupulous pangulus have of late abandoned this admirable adat, but in every place where I ascertained the non-existence of the custom (and I have always made a special task of investigating such cases) I have met persons who could still remember when the janjining ratu or taʾléʾ was universally practised.
In the Residency of Batavia and also in Malay countries, where submission to the princes and their representatives is much less slavish than in Java, the free voluntary declaration is always observed in form, but the advice of the official marriage-maker combined with the layman's ignorance of the law gives rise to a kind of restraining force that serves to maintain the adat.
We now see clearly that this taʾlīq-adat, so far from being exceptional, is deeply rooted in the necessity for rendering the position of the married woman more favourable than it is under the Mohammedan law, while yet avoiding as far as possible all conflict with that law. However open to dispute may be our conjecture that this adat was introduced by the pioneers of Islam in the East Indies, we may rest assured that the almost universal acceptance of the custom was due in each instance to the fact that it harmonized with the requirements of the people.
I say almost universal acceptance, and in doing so I intend not only to draw attention to the exceptions which are everywhere made in favour of persons of rank or teachers of the law, in whose case malevolent desertion or ill-treatment of a wife is not supposed possible, but also to put in strong relief the fact that the adat is entirely lacking in some good Mohammedan countries of the Archipelago,
Reasons for the absence of the taʾlīq custom in Acheh and certain other places. The most unequivocal confirmation of our explanation of the acceptance of this adat is to be found in the fact that it supplies a satisfactory reason for the absence of the taʾlīq from among the essential adjuncts of marriages in some countries. This will be at once recognized, on the mere mention of their names by every one who has any knowledge of the social system of the two principal countries which are without ​the taʾlīq-adat; Acheh and the Menangkabau territories. In both of these the woman is, so far as lodging and maintenance are concerned, practically independent of her husband, since she continues to form an integral part of the family wherein she was born. An Achehnese woman whose husband has gone as a pepper-planter to the East or West Coast and gives no sign of his existence for years, may indeed feel unhappy; but as she lives in her own house either together with or in the immediate neighbourhood of her own family, she is seldom constrained to demand a dissolution of marriage by faskh. In the same way there exists no necessity for facilitating by conditional divorce, such dissolution of wedlock which as we have seen is most difficult to obtain by faskh.
§ 3. Early days of married life. Polygamy and Concubinage. Financial relations of Husband and Wife.
We may now proceed to mention certain adats which are observed during the period immediately following the completion of the marriage. We shall at the same time find an opportunity for discussing the results of marriage as regards the property of husband and wife.
Tuëng meunarō.After the wedding, some months, indeed sometimes as much as a year or so, will pass before the family of the bridegroom takes any further notice of the bride. The latter does not make her first visit to her parents-in-law, until her husband's mother comes to "fetch her away" (tuëng meunarō).
The elder woman brings with her a number of female companions from her own gampōng and a money present for the young wife. The guests are entertained at the bride's house at a formal feast with idangs.
This visit however is not sufficient according to the adat to constitute an invitation. Some time later the request must be repeated by a woman sent by the husband's mother. The messenger thus addresses the mother of the bride: "The reason why I have directed my ​footsteps hither to you is in order that I may fetch away this Si Nyaʾ. The invitation is politely accepted, but a considerable time is allowed to elapse before it is acted upon.
Finally, after due notice of the visit has been given the bride repairs to the gampōng of her husband accompanied by a crowd of female relatives and fellow-villagers. She takes with her from 6 to as many as 20 idangs of sweetmeats, which gift is paid for by the bridegroom's mother at the fixed rate of 1 dollar per idang. This return gift is, however, intended for the more advanced in years of the women who attend the bride.
Feast and "handwashing".The welcoming (sapa) of these guests is attended with a certain amount of ceremony, but is by no means so tediously protracted as at the wedding. Here too we find idangs of the sort which we have seen in use at the penjamèë. At the conclusion of the feast there takes place a ceremony (probably a survival from ancient times) which bears the name of "handwashing", though there is in fact no washing of hands. The mother of the bridegroom rubs some yellow glutinous rice behind the ears of the bride (peusunténg see p. 306). The bride then greets her with the usual respectful obeisance (seumbah) and receives as a gift in return for this greeting a peculiar ring (eunchiën giléʾ), which is worn on the thumb. Sometimes a money present is given instead, and in those districts where it is the custom for the bridegroom to give back half the dowry after the wedding, the bride receives this half—usually with an additional sum superadded—on this occasion.
The ancient adat also prescribes that the bride when returning home should receive as a parting gift from her mother-in-law a cow-buffalo. This should properly speaking not be slaughtered, but kept as a keubeuë peunulang for breeding purposes only, as a special blessing ​is supposed to rest upon it. It often happens, however, that the buffalo is only handed over to the young woman pro formâ, and afterwards politely returned to the giver. In case of second marriages the adat of the keubeuë peunulang does not apply.
The woman herself always stays three complete days in the house of her parents-in-law. During this time she is the recipient of constant visits from her new connections, who come to offer presents of sirih and eggs. All these gifts she brings home with her. Her fellow-villagers who form her escort return home on the first day.
The husband, although usually present in his native gampōng during these days, takes no share of any kind in the festivities.
On her return journey, the wife is escorted by a crowd of people from the gampōng of her husband, and a procession of her own fellow-villagers comes out to welcome her back.
These meunarō ceremonies always take place even where both man and wife have been married before, and the same may be said of most adats connected with the first seven days of the marriage. In the case last referred to however there is less merry-making, and even though the bride be a young maiden, the circumstance of her husband being of a more advanced age usually imparts a calmer tone to the festivities.
After this first visit of the bride to her parents-in-law she goes to see them but seldom. It is only at the two great Mohammedan feasts that the adat requires her to go and make her respectful salutations (seumbah), for which she receives a further present of money. When she has been about three years married, she is absolved from the necessity of presenting herself on these occasions, and in any case receives no more money presents.
The parents and other blood-relations of the married pair also visit one another very rarely. It is only important events in the families on either side, especially deaths or marriages, which give occasion to such visits. Nor do the visitors come in a body but each at his own time. Each brings a present of a dollar or two by way of contribution to defray the expenses of the ceremonies. Those who receive such visits, on the other hand, are bound to entertain their guests ​in the best possible style (peujamèë) with the traditional idangs.
Polygamy in Acheh.Let us here interpolate one word as to the practical significance in the social life of Acheh of the polygamy which is permitted by the creed of Islam.
As might be supposed, those who make most use of the custom of plurality of wives are to be found among the scions of royal blood (tuankus), the ulèëbalangs and other lesser chiefs who rank next in dignity to these, and the religious teachers or others who stand in the odour of sanctity or learning, and to whom many are willing to unite their daughters, were it only as their second, third or fourth wives.
This is all the more true of the principal chiefs, since the distinguished marriage alliances they seek are as a rule only to be found at a great distance from their own homes or territory. Hence as the wife does not follow the husband and the latter may not absent himself too long from the sphere of his authority, the married life of such couples consists of short scenes with long intervals. Many of these chiefs, it is true, console themselves for their constant loneliness by illegitimate intrigues, but many others attain their purpose by contracting one or more marriages of inclination over and above their mariages de raison. When their choice falls on women of the lowest class, such marriages are frequently dissolved later on by divorce on the ground of satiety, though as we shall see, separations of this sort are otherwise less common in Acheh than in many other countries of the Malayan Archipelago.
Concubinage.The great and wealthy, it is true, had till a short time ago, and indeed still have to a considerable extent the opportunity of sexual intercourse with female slaves, especially those of Nias, who are remarkable for their beauty and are not too expensive. These were and are so used, but comparatively speaking, to a very moderate extent.
The Mohammedan law places the children begotten by a free man of a slave on a full equality with those born of his free wives. In order however to see this theory actually adopted in practice, we must seek a centre of Mohammedan civilization such as Cairo, or towns with a very mixed population such as Mecca or Medina. In Acheh (as also in the inland parts of Arabia), this custom is only partially observed. The legal privileges are the same, but the social position is different, and it is never forgotten that a man has slave blood in his veins.
​Even where two free wives of the same husband differ somewhat in rank and birth, this difference has its effect on the social position of their children. Hence it is that the propagation of the race is so much, and we might almost add, so openly and shamelessly interfered with by causing of abortion or preventive checks.
It is especially those who cannot refrain from intercourse with their female slaves who make an extensive use of such methods. This does not alter the fact that the fear of failure in the efficacy of the drugs used withholds the majority from that concubinage with their slaves which is lawful according to the creed of Islam.
Where such concubinage takes place, the slave is called gundéʾ, and the legitimate results of the union are controlled by the Mohammedan law. The name gundéʾ is however often also applied, though incorrectly, to
1°. Women of very humble origin, who become (generally for only a short time) the wives of men of position such as ulèëbalangs or tuankus.
2°. Women who are kept in unlawful concubinage, over and above the lawful number of four. Few Tuankus, however, regard themselves as so far exalted above all consideration for law and morals as to admit of their forming such openly illicit connections. Children born of such unions, albeit not recognized or legitimized under any hukōm or adat, are still, under the name of aneuʾ gundéʾ, esteemed part of the family of their natural father, so long as he himself sets the example of so regarding them.
Persons of humbler rank sometimes indulge in plurality of wives when their means admit of such a luxury and the journeys to and fro between the abodes of their spouses do not prove too burdensome. As a rule, however, they do not choose two wives in the same gampōng, and thus the quarrels between rival consorts of the same husband are reduced to a minimum.
A great number of Achehnese, however, are practically monogamists. They only marry a second wife after the death of the first, or where incessant domestic quarrels necessitate a divorce. Various causes are assigned in explanation of this phenomenon, each of which perhaps lends its share towards producing it.
In the first place there is the husband's position in regard to his wife and her family, to whom he is as a rule under very great obli​gations. This prevents him from doing what might be disagreeable to them, and his taking a second wife would in most cases be unwelcome to the family of the first.
Secondly, there is the facility for forming illegitimate connections, which though strongly condemned by the law and also in theory by the adat, do not in point of fact do any injury to the social position of the Achehnese who indulges in such intrigues in moderation.
Finally the paederastic habits of the Achehnese, and (as many think) the use of opium, cause the majority of them to set a lower value on intercourse with the opposite sex than is usual among other native populations.
Financial results of marriage.The financial consequences of marriage for the husband have so far received only a passing notice.
The obligations which the Mohammedan law imposes upon a man in respect of his wife are nearly all of a financial nature. He has to pay the dowry, which is fixed either by mutual consent or in accordance with the bride's position; as we have seen, the Achehnese jinamèë is regulated according to the rules laid down by the law.
The husband is also bound to supply his wife with food, clothing, lodging and service in conformity with her social position, and has on the other hand the right to require of her within fitting limits, obedience and fulfilment of conjugal duties, but not to burden her with domestic cares or occupations.
These rules serve as a basis for the settlement of differences between married people when brought before the qādhī, but the married state is in fact controlled by quite different principles in all Mohammedan countries, and that without any conflict with the law. The latter in fact leaves the husband and wife entirely free to give validity to just so many of their privileges as they choose. For instance, it is a universal adat that the wife should assume the duties of housekeeper, and both the universality of this custom and the want of acquaintance of the people with the details of the law causes this to be regarded almost as an obligation. Marriages of wealthy wives with men of little ​or no property whom their learning, birth or other qualifications render eligible partis are also of very frequent occurrence. No wife would think of enforcing against such a husband her rights to maintenance etc., much less such maintenance as befits her position; indeed they much more often support the man. Even where the means of both are more on a par, such financial obligations are seldom taken into account.
There is thus in this respect a great and generally prevalent difference between the teaching of the law and the reality. The nature of this difference exhibits a special character in each country, to be explained from past history and from the social conditions of the present time.
In Acheh, where the adat assumes the mastery even in questions of domestic law, and the adat-judge is generally the supreme arbitrator, these peculiar departures from the law have not only a greater degree of stability, but also serve — albeit in conflict with the hukōm—as a standard in the settlement of disputes.
The Achehnese adat sets the husband free during a certain period from all obligation to maintain his wife. The length of this period depends on the amount of the dowry, irrespective of whether it is in fact paid in full, or only half, or even not at all. For every bungkay of gold (25 dollars) of the marriage gift, the bride is made dependent for a full year on the support of her parents. All that the man gives her during this period is regarded as a free gift, even though these gifts are themselves to some extent regulated by the adat.
These presents consist first of all in the monthly biaya of 3 or 4 dollars or more, which may be almost considered as boarding expenses for the 10 to 15 days in each month which the young man spends in the house of his wife. In the next place he has to "bring home meat" as it is called, at the two great Mohammedan feasts, and especially that at the end of the fasting month. In our description of the feasts we have seen that it is an established adat in Acheh to form small societies for the slaughter of buffaloes before these feast days, and the ancient custom required the young man to bring home to his wife a handsome share of the meat from the slaughter in his own gampōng. ​This gift of meat gradually gave place to other gifts of a fixed value. Where the dowry amounts to one bungkay of gold, it is considered proper for the husband to present to his wife 6 dollars as a feast-gift the first time; on later occasions 5 dollars or so is sufficient. For a dowry of 2 bungkays these feast-gifts may amount to 8 or 10 dollars respectively and so on. To this are often added garments and ornaments made of the precious metals. The old appellation is however still retained, and though it is quite well understood that a wife has received from her husband money only as a feast-gift, the question is asked all the same "How much meat has he brought home to you?" (padum jipuwòë sië?).
Here again it must be borne in mind that only gifts of a transitory description (such as meat or the biaya and other money presents) become the property of the woman, while in regard to personal ornaments she can only regard as her own what she receives on the 7th day after her marriage, and the present made in token of the loss of her virginity.
On the feast-days the husband also receives a return present from his wife, the first time a suit of clothes, which he proceeds forthwith to don; in later years his parents-in-law present him with a dollar or so by way of feast-gift. On such occasions the parents-in-law appear as it were by chance in the passage when their son-in-law is about to leave the house, and he seizes the opportunity to make his obeisance (seumbah) in all haste, for we know how shy the Achehnese is of any encounter with the parents of his wife!
Janji jinamèë.The period during which the wife still remains a charge upon her parents is called janji jinamèë. While it lasts, there subsists between the pair a peculiar relation which is entirely in conflict with Mohammedan law.
This law allows unconditionally to the husband a certain definite portion of the goods of his wife on her decease, and vice versâ. In Acheh this right of inheritance does not become effective till after the janji jinamèë has ceased.
​Haʾ balèë and pulang balèë.Should his wife die during this period, the husband in Acheh has a right to only one of two things; he either gets back half of the dowry, which sum is known as haʾ balèë, or he waives this right and chooses rather to marry a sister or other near relative of the deceased. In the latter event the jinamèë is mentioned at the marriage but never paid. Marriages of this kind are known as pulang balèë.
A wife who becomes a widow during the janji jinamèë, has just as little claim to her legitimate portion, but receives in its place a sum of money equal to half of her dowry, while in certain cases to which we shall presently allude, the walis of her husband offer her a suitor for her hand, preferably of the same family. It is only where the husband is very rich, and leaves behind him few relatives and those very distant ones, that the widow gets her proper share.
It is also understood that if a woman dies during the jinamèë period, the expenses of the laying out of the dead body, the funeral feasts etc., must be borne by her parents, but propriety requires that the widower should politely request his parents-in-law to allow him to bear the cost of one of the kanduris, as for instance that held on the seventh day after the death. Sometimes the father of the deceased privately warns his son-in-law not to expend too much money in this way, as any hopes he may cherish of a share in the subsequent distribution of property will be disappointed, and he will get no more than the haʾ balèë. Yet often even in such cases the husband gives as costly a feast as he can.
Peungklèh.As soon as the year or years of the janji jinamèë are over, the woman is committed to the sole charge of her husband. If she is an orphan, this is done without much formality, but with great ceremony if her father or mother be still living. The parents "put her forth" (peungklèh) in the presence of all the authorities of the gampōng and other notabilities as witnesses, and mark the occasion by a public ​feast (kanduri) consecrated with prayers. In the set speech in which the father abandons all direct interference with the concerns of his daughter for the remainder of her married life, he sums up all that she has received from him, so that no unpleasantness may arise on any subsequent distribution of her property. Either he or another in his name delivers himself somewhat as follows:—"The reason why I have summoned you hither, Teuku Keuchiʾ, Teungku and all ye elders, is that I have now "put forth" my daughter N; be this known unto all of you, O elders. What I have given her is as follows: a pair of anklets 6 bungkay in weight, one yōʾ of rice land, a pair of earrings, this house and all its equipment. This is what I wished to inform you of, be it known unto you all." The keuchiʾ replies in the name of the assembled company: "We have heard it."
Laba sihareukat.Just as all that the husband brings to the home of the pair, even in the form of presents to his wife, remains with few exceptions his own property, so the wife retains an indisputable right of ownership over all that she can show to have been brought thither by her. In districts where it is the custom for the wife to assist the husband in his employment, the property accumulated during the marriage by their respective toil is in the event of a divorce divided in equal shares between the man and the woman or their respective heirs. Where one of the two dies, the survivor obtains in addition to this half share his lawful portion of the heritable property, to which the other half of their common earnings is regarded as belonging. Thus we find in Acheh the same peculiarity that exists in Java and Madura; and most Malayan countries, viz. that where the woman is the ​fellow-worker of her husband, there gradually grows up a kind of partnership between the two.
Such property acquired by common labour is especially to be met with in the highland districts of Acheh, where the wife assists her husband in field work. In the lowland districts, such sharing of their labour by their wives is naturally excluded in the cases of fishermen, traders and manufacturers, but here the same is the case also with regard to agricultural work which is entirely performed by the men, It is only of late, owing to the Achehnese war and the disordered conditions arising therefrom, that the women have ceased to be ashamed of field labour and accordingly are entitled to the half share, as allowed by the adat, of accumulations during marriage.
This property acquired in common is called atra or laba sihareukat (goods or profits gained by common toil), or atra or laba meucharikat (goods or profits held in partnership). As opposed to this all that is derived from other sources is characterized as atra baʾ ku (property that one receives from one's father).
Where the adat of division of the atra sihareukat into equal portions is firmly established, it is sometimes applied although the grounds for it are non existent or very far-fetched. Suppose for instance that a highlander goes to the West Coast to plant pepper, and returns later on with his earnings, it might be said that such gains could not possibly be classed as atra sihareukat; in fact the adat forbids the husband to take his wife with him to another district. Yet it often happens that the half of all that the husband has accumulated by such means is made over under the name of common earnings to the wife or her heirs in case of a dissolution of the marriage by divorce or the husband's death. To give this a show of legality, a formal enquiry is made as to whether the wife gave her husband at his departure bu kulah with fish and sirih as provender for his journey. Such provender is then regarded as the capital with which the man embarks on his work since his subsequent requirements (some very simple tools of husbandry and rice for the first year) are supplied him by the chief in whose territory he proceeds to plant pepper.
§ 4. Divorce.
Compulsory marriages.Before proceeding to describe the most usual methods of divorce in Acheh, we should point out that marriages to which the man, or both man and woman, are compelled (in conflict with the Mohammedan law), are of much less common occurrence in Acheh than in Java, yet do occasionally occur in the former country.
Most chiefs prefer to punish pregnancy in the unmarried by imposing a money fine and directing that abortion be caused, rather than by compulsory marriage; but there are nevertheless some who employ the latter method. Cases also occur here (just as in Bantěn) where the man is compelled to marry the woman on her complaining to the chief of his overtures to illicit intercourse and producing as evidence (tanda), like Potiphar's wife, a fragment of a garment worn by him.
Faskh.Separation is rare in Acheh as compared with other Mohammedan countries. We have seen that the woman, even when abandoned by her husband for years together, does not readily resort to a demand for pasah (faskh) or judicial separation, for she seldom wants for lodging or the means of support. Where, however, such a demand is made before the kali, he, like the pangulus in some parts of Java, grants the pasah rather more readily than is consonant with the strict interpretation of the Mohammedan law. Still the Achehnese kali cannot pronounce faskh without the special permission of the ulèëbalang, and where the latter forbids its exercise in a particular case, the faskh does not take effect, even though all the conditions required by the religious law may be fulfilled.
Ṭalāq/ The ordinary divorce (Ach. taleuëʾ from the Arab. ṭalāq) of the woman by her husband is also of less frequent occurrence in Acheh than in other parts of the Archipelago. The man feels himself under a deep obligation, for many obvious reasons, to the family of his wife, his relations with whom border on dependence. This withholds him in most ​cases from breaking the marriage tie for the many trifling reasons which in other places, as in Java for instance, give rise to such separations.
Neither momentary anger nor the cooling down of first love, but violent and irreconcilable differences between the pair form the cause of most cases of taleuëʾ which occur in Acheh.
The law, as we know, prescribes after a single ṭalāq a period (ʿiddah) during which the woman may not marry, and during which the husband may, if he please, reconsider his decision. This latter privilege the man enjoys only after the first and second time he has pronounced divorce against a given wife; the third divorce is irrevocable. After a first and second divorce, if the man has not made timely use of his right of recall (rujuʾ) a new marriage can still be concluded between the pair by mutual consent. When divorce has been pronounced three times against the same woman by her husband, this method of reunion becomes impossible, and they can only remarry if the wife has meantime been wedded to another man and separated again from him. In districts where the ṭalāq is extensively resorted to, it frequently happens that both parties desire reunion even after three divorces. In such cases a middleman is employed, who for a certain fee enters into a marriage with the divorced woman, and then at once divorces her again to give his principal the chance of remarrying her.
This device, however, can be made use of twice only, for after 3 × 3 divorces the marriage is irrevocably and for ever dissolved.
As may easily be supposed from the comparative rarity of divorce in Acheh, the lay-folk are but little conversant with the rules controlling this subject, of which only a few of the main principles have been sketched above. In Java on the other hand, most of the people are tolerably familiar, through experience amongst their own surroundings, both with what we have described above and with many other similar technicalities as well.
As a result of the fact that the ṭalāq as applied in Acheh is not an ​expression of ill-temper, but the means used to terminate a position which has become impossible, the permission given by the law to pronounce three ṭalāqs all at the same time and thus make the separation at once irrevocable seems to have} been made use of from the earliest times. Thus arose the idea popular in Acheh, that a divorce is necessarily composed of three parts.
There are two different ways of pronouncing the ṭalāq in Acheh. Some take three fragments of ripe betelnut (lhèë kraʾ pineung masaʾ) and hand them over one by one with a kind of dignified anger to the wife with the words "one taleuëʾ, two taleuëʾs, three taleuëʾs, thou art to me but as a sister in this world and the next." Thereupon they give notice of the dissolution of the marriage to the teungku. The idea of divorce is thus intimately connected in the minds of women with these three pieces of betelnut. When particularly angry with her husband a woman will ask him to give her "the three bits of betelnut."
Others, however, betake themselves to the teungku of a neighbouring gampōng, and charge him with the task of giving notice in writing in their name to the authorities of the gampōng that they have pronounced the threefold ṭalāq. This notification, called surat taleuëʾ is addressed to "the Teungku, the Keuchiʾ and elders of the gampōng." It is wrapped in a cover of fine cloth costing about two dollars, called lapéʾ surat.
Recall.Recall (rujuʾ) is thus as a rule excluded under this method. It occasionally happens that a man says in anger to his wife: "I divorce you," adding no further words, and afterwards repents of what he has done. In such a case most are aware that a remedy exists, since the three pieces of betelnut have not been employed, but as a rule they have to go in the first place to an ulama to ask him to explain in what that remedy consists. After enquiry, he declares that in the case in question only one ṭalāq has "fallen," and that what has been done ​may therefore be set aside, but adds that the reconciliation should be consecrated by giving a feast to a number of devout poor (peujamèë paki), and this is generally done.
The ʿiddah.The ʿiddah is just as little understood by the laity as the rujuʿ. It is known indeed that a woman cannot marry again immediately after a divorce, but as a rule she seldom wants to do so. Where there is any doubt, the teungku's advice is again sought and he decides that according to the adat of Acheh three months and ten days must be allowed to elapse except in case of pregnancy. The use of intermediaries to make reunion possible is practically nonexistent and is known only to such as have studied the kitabs or books of the law.
Where the ground of divorce is incompatability of temper, it is almost always the woman who urges her husband to the final step of giving the three taleuëʾ. If he is slow to yield, she imprisons him in the house, generally in the inner room, until he meets her wishes by giving her the "three pieces of betelnut." He might easily set himself free from this temporary confinement, but most men are ashamed of the diabolical outcry raised on such occasions by their wives, who sum up all their evil characteristics, real or imaginary, in the most unflattering form in the hearing of the whole gampōng.
Khulʿ.Should the measures of compulsion adopted by the woman prove fruitless, she may have recourse to the remedy known in the Arabic law-books as khulʿ, which consists in the purchase of the ṭalaq by the wife from her husband. In such a contract even a single ṭalāq is irrevocable, as is implied in the very idea of purchase. In Acheh this ​is known as the "redemption of a divorce" (teubōih taleuëʾ), and it usually costs double the amount of the jinamèë. Cases of such bought divorce are however rare and only to be met with among the lower classes.
Position of the woman.The comparative rarity of the ṭalāq, the fact that the woman is mistress of the house (prumòh), the efforts of the men to obtain wives of social standing not inferior to their own, all this and much more besides testifies to the position of the woman in Achehnese society, a fairly high one for a Mohammedan country. This is indeed what we should expect to find in a country where the throne was occupied for more than half a century (1641–1699) by four successive female rulers. Even now there are instances of female government in the dependencies, and it is the rule rather than the exception to find the wives of ulèëbalangs and other chiefs exercising a very considerable influence on all their actions. It is very common for the wife of a chief to wield her husband's authority in his absence, and a case occurred not long ago on the East Coast, where a woman of the ruling class, with her hair hanging loose, took actual part in a civil war.
Great freedom of action, some knowledge of affairs (within the limits of the ordinary Achehnese horizon) and a sound understanding are to be met with even among women who do not belong to the ruling families.
The women are also the hereditary guardians of old-fashioned words and expressions, the meanings of proverbial sayings and so forth. When enquiring into such matters I have been often told by Achehnese that they must refer to their wives or mothers, and I can say that the latter seldom failed to supply the desired information.
§ 5. Pregnancy and Birth. Early years of childhood.
Pregnancy.Before proceeding to consider the relations of child to parent in Acheh, let us say a few words as to the birth of the child and the early days of his life.
At some time between the 4th and 6th months of pregnancy, the ​adat prescribes a formal visit of the husband's mother to her daughter-in-law. The former is accompanied on such occasions by about ten other women. This ceremony is called "bringing rice" (jaʾ mè bu or jaʾ ba bu) or where persons of wealth and position are spoken of, "bringing a great pot of rice" (jaʾ mè dangdang). Of humbler folk it is said that they "bring a naléh." As a matter of fact well-to-do people take with them a large pot (kanèt) of boiled rice, another of goats'-flesh and a great tray (dalōng) of fruit, to the total value of about 25 dollars, or else they save themselves the trouble by giving "the dangdang uncooked" (dangdang meuntah), i. e. the actual sum of money named above. Those of humbler rank confine their gift to a katèng of cooked rice and a bowl of meat, or to bu kulah and some additional dishes.
The mother-in-law remains for two or three nights under her daughter-in-law's roof, but it is only on the day of her arrival that she is entertained in the way we have described (peujamèë). At her departure she is presented with some tobacco or clothing material as a return gift.
A second visit of the same description and of similar duration is paid by the mother-in-law about a month after the mè bu, and is known as ba meulineum. On this occasion she brings with her sundry kinds of sweetmeats (peunajōh) and fruits.
Pentang rules.In Acheh, no less than in Java, the pregnant woman must pay particular regard to certain mysterious rules (pantang), carelessness in the observance of which is supposed to be attended with evil results both to herself and her child. For instance, she must not sit at the top of the steps leading up to the house (baʾ ulèë reunyeun), lest her ​labour be difficult, nor must she be allowed to see monkeys for fear the child should resemble them. If her husband goes out for the evening (outside the gampōng) he must not return direct to the house, but must first go and sit for a time in some other place, as for instance the meunasah. Should he neglect this rule, the dreaded burōng, the Achehnese pontianak (of which more anon) will most likely follow him into the house. Superstitions of this sort are very numerous. In Java the husband is forbidden to slaughter animals during his wife's pregnancy, for fear the child should come into the world mutilated; but in Acheh disregard of this prohibition is supposed only to affect the meat, causing it to have a nauseous smell (hanyi).
The relations and friends of the woman also pay her occasional visits at this period, bringing her dishes of food (mè bu); but these visits are not so ceremonious as that of her mother-in-law. Women in this condition are much given to organizing picnic-parties (meuramiën). They go with a crowd of friends to the seashore or some other suitable place out in the country, or else to a mosque. There they pass the day in gossip and enjoy a feast, the food being either cooked on the spot or brought ready prepared from home.
In the seventh month the mother of the woman summons the midwife and makes a preliminary engagement of her services. "Should God will," she says "that my daughter should fall ill, I leave it all in your hands." After this the midwife pays no more visits till the confinement, unless she considers occasional massage (urōt) necessary.
The confinement.All expenses of the first confinement fall on the parents of the woman. The husband may evince his good will by contributing some fish, oil and tobacco towards the housekeeping, but he gives no money save in the form of fees or presents.
The confinement generally takes place in the back verandah (sramòë likōt). At the beginning of labour the woman simply lies down on the plank floor, or on a mat if the flooring be of bamboo. Fastened to the ceiling above her head is a rope which she employs to raise herself slightly during labour; she leans against another woman and holds ​fast by the rope. Hence the expression for a woman in childbirth, ureuëng mat taloë = "she that holds the rope."
Meanwhile the husband waits in the jurèë or in the front verandah, but when the confinement is difficult his help is sometimes invoked. The custom in Acheh in this respect resembles that in vogue in Java. He must step backwards and forwards (lingkeuë) seven times over his wife's body, and blow hard through his fist on a spot (mbōt-mbōt) just above her forehead. He must also recite a certain prayer (duʾa or tangkay seulusōh) over a bowl of water which the woman then drinks; this is supposed to make her delivery more speedy. This incantation is just as meaningless as most others of the kind, but the general intention is clear enough—to open that which is closed, and to clear away all hindrance.
Should the ië seulusōh be of no avail, a teungku whose prayers are known to be efficacious is called upon to charm some water with his incantations. For the rest, matters are left to nature. Deaths in childbirth seem to be of common occurrence.
Lucky children.Great expectations are cherished in regard to children born feet foremost (jaheuë) and these born with a caul (meusarōng). The first are supposed to have an incomparable natural gift for massage (urōt), and their prayers and their spittle are thought to have great curative properties. Those born with a caul are believed to be invulnerable (keubay). To ascertain whether they are likely to possess this gift in a high degree, a cocoanut is placed in the fold of the caul (sarōng) and left to sprout. If it bursts through the skin of the caul it is a bad omen, but if it is constrained by the covering to assume a crooked growth, then it is certain that neither lead nor steel will ever threaten the infant's life. The caul is kept, and at the circumcision of the child it is roasted and given him to eat.
​The younger brother (placenta).As in Java, the placenta is regarded as the younger brother or sister (adòë) of the new-born child, but the estimation of the liquor amnii as the elder brother is unknown in Acheh.
The oven.The child, still united to its adòë, is placed for the time being on a fine large betel-nut spathe. The woman, after being cleansed and treated with sundry oils which her mother holds in readiness, is laid upon a bench or platform (prataïh). After the woman has recovered a little, an oven is placed beneath this platform, and in this a fire is kept up continually for forty-four days. The idea is that the almost insupportable heat and smoke will counteract the collection of damp in the woman's body and assist in quickly restoring her figure to its former shape. During this period it is said of the woman that she is "engaged in drying herself over the fire" (madeuëng). She is then called ureuëng didapu i. e. "one that lies close to the hearth."
The woman suffers dreadfully under this process, and tosses hither and thither to save her skin from being scorched. She is not allowed to quench her thirst with water, but must be content with a little tea. She gets nothing to cool her parched mouth except some sugarcane and pineapple which she is allowed to chew. Of late a less severe treatment of women after childbirth has begun to be adopted in imitation of the Javanese.
As an instance of "pantang" during this period of drying, the woman ​must eat rice from a bowl and not off a plate. It is thought that neglect of this rule would cause her body to swell in an unbecoming manner after childbirth.
After the mother has been laid on the prataïh, the infant is attended to. The navel-cord is, as in Java, cut with a piece of sharp bamboo (teumèn=the Jav. wělad), and to ward off evil influences the midwife spits (seumbō) upon the child from her mouth a slaver composed of chewed sirih, turmeric (kunyèt), betel-nut, gambir and lime.
The midwife then wraps the child in some strips of cloth and hands it over to the father. If it is a boy, the latter repeats in his right ear the adan or bang (the formula used as a summons to the five daily prayers), and in his left the kamat or final exhortation before the performance of a religious exercise. In the case of a girl he limits himself to the last. The intention of this pious custom is to make the child hear, immediately after its birth, the Mohammedan confession of faith, which occurs frequently in both these formulas. Where the father is incapable of performing this office, the services of a teungku are engaged. At the same time the father gives a fee of one or two dollars to the midwife, who after her first attendance on the child also receives a money present from the woman and another from her mother-in-law.
A first born child (aneuʾ phōn) is presented by his father with a couple of dollars, which he puts under the infant's sleeping-place, to be spent by the mother’s parents for the child’s advantage.
The burōng.The child is now laid beside its mother on the prataih, and care is taken to spread some raw rice beneath its pillows. This is one of the numerous devices employed both about the prataïh and all through the house, to avert the dreaded burōng (pontianak). Pieces of wood of a variety with a malodorous bark supposed to frighten away the burōng, are laid all round the platform. Over the mother's head is hung, bell-wise, the hollow half-shell of a cocoanut, suspended by a cord passing through its top. To the end of this cord, inside the bell, is fastened a duròë rungkōm, the thorn of a large tree which bears small sour-sweet fruits.
The stairway or ladder leading up to the house is protected against ​the attacks of the burōng by means of a strip of rattan (awé) slung round the steps on one side; this is first consecrated by a tangkay or incantation. Sometimes an arèn-rope (talòë jōʾ) to which the burōng is equally averse, is used in place of this. Seven or thrice that number of filaments of the arèn-bark (puréh jōʾ), charmed in a similar way, are also placed under the pillows or sleeping-mat of the mother, or else fixed in the ground beneath the stairs.
The burōng (like the kunti of the Sundanese) is generally believed to be much afraid of palm-leaf fibres (Mal. lidi) and old fishing-nets, yet these are not used in Acheh as charms.
Under the stairs and also under the guha (the hole in the floor of the back verandah, which serves as a latrine for sick people and young children) some thorny twigs of pandan (duròë seukè) are laid on the ground to scare away burōng.
The burōng of Achehnese superstition has much in common with the kunti or kuntianak of the Sundanese and the sunděl bolong which is an object of dread in certain parts of Java. Like the latter the burōng is conceived of as having the form of a woman with a great hole in her back, showing the vital organs. It is supposed that many of them are the spirits of women who have led an unchaste life and come to an unhappy end in consequence. It is also believed that the number of this malignant race of spirits is added to by the ghosts of women slain by a burōng in childbed, and who then become burōngs themselves.
The means resorted to for protection against the burōng are also to a great extent the same as those employed to drive away the kunti. The incantations used to exorcise the burōng are essentially identical with the jampe or japa customary in Java. Recourse is also had to abuse of the burōng, and she is driven away by being shown that her ​enemies know her name and origin and that they have a greater mastery of charms than she.
Leubè Peureuba.As might be supposed, however, the burōng has some characteristics which are peculiarly Achehnese. Sundry strange tales are told by the Achehnese as to her origin. These exhibit local differences, but agree in some respects, especially in the assertion that one Leubè Peureuba, who in his lifetime was a hatib or Friday preacher in a mosque, played a principal part in connection therewith.
This man had an intrigue with a certain woman, and his passion for her was so great that one Friday he was still dallying with her when the time for the weekly service arrived. He betook himself in all haste to the mosque, and omitted the bath of purification which is indispensable after sexual intercourse for the efficacy of a çalāt or prayer. He also forgot to return to his mistress her earrings, which for a jest he had hidden on the bara or main beam of the house.
When he had mounted the pulpit and commenced the service in the customary manner, leaning on his great staff, his paramour entered the mosque and enquired of him "where are my earrings?" In reply he recited the Arabic words from the service barra ʾrraʾūf arraḥīm, indicating the bara as the place where the earrings were hidden. The woman asked him other questions all of which he answered by fragments of the Arabic service, whose sound recalled Achehnese words. This unholy by-play ended in the hatib Peureuba suddenly falling from the pulpit and being killed by the iron point of his own preacher's staff.
According to one view he now became the burōng, parent of all subsequent burōngs, some of whom were derived from deceased women of loose morals, and others from those who fell a prey to burōngs during pregnancy or at child-birth. Others narrate that his mistress was killed by the congregation immediately after her lover's fall, and ​that her spirit became the forerunner of the burōngs. The first notion, though open to the objection that it makes the feminine burōng spring from a man, finds support in the tangkay burōng (charms against the burōng) where the latter is often thus addressed "I know who thou art; thou art Hatib Peureuba" and "thou hast not taken thy bath of purification."
In addition to this story of the origin of all the burōngs, each of the more celebrated of these spirits has a history of its own, though there is a general resemblance between the various legends.
In Lam Bada (XXVI Mukims) may be seen the grave of a famous burōng woman, named Tuan Siti or Pòchut Siti. She was of good lineage, but having allowed herself to be seduced and having become pregnant was in the end treacherously drowned by her lover while on a pleasure trip to which he had invited her.
Most dreaded of all, however, at the present time is the burōng Srabi or Seurabi, whose tomb is situated in gampōng Tanjōng (mukim of Pagarayé) close to the capital of Acheh. She is also known as burōng Tanjōng.
The proper name of the woman who after death was changed into this monster, appears to have been Rabiah (abbreviated in Srabi = Si Rabi). She is said to have been the daughter of a religious teacher, but in spite of the pious lessons and strict discipline of her father she was seduced into an intrigue. When she had been some time pregnant her lover induced her to fly with him to the West Coast. They dropped down the river in a boat, but before they reached the open sea, the man slew his paramour and casting her body into the water, pursued his journey to the West alone. Her body was found near the gampōng Kajèë Jatòë (just about where the hospital at Kuta Raja now stands), and was pulled out of the water by the people of that gampōng. When they found it was the body of a woman belonging to Tanjōng, they brought her thither and she was buried there. Meantime the unhappy woman had been transformed into a burōng, which rested not until she had overtaken and slain her murderer. After having thus appeased her passion for revenge, she seized a man in the gampōng of Kayèë Jatòë, but on his reminding her that his people had rescued the body of Rabiah or Srabi from the waves and made her burial possible, she let him go, and at the same time swore never to molest a woman of that gampōng. All the more violent however were her ​onslaughts on pregnant women and those in childbed in other gampōngs.
Like the Sundanese kunti, the burōng sometimes announces her presence by a shrill scream, a sustained nasal iiii! But she is most to be feared when she creeps upon her victim without any such warning. This she does more especially when a pregnant woman heedlessly ventures out of doors after sunset, or when her husband or some other inmate of the house after having been out for the evening comes in directly without taking the proper precautions.
Occasional loss of consciousness and delirium are regarded as unmistakeable symptoms of possession by a burōng. As the women from their earliest youth hear countless stories about these evil spirits and are convinced that possession by them is the greatest danger that threatens them during pregnancy or shortly after confinement, it is not astonishing that their ravings while delirious appear like utterances from the mouth of the burōng.
Like the zārs which are wont to "possess" the women of Mekka, the Achehnese burōngs have certain desires which they express to the comprehension of expert enquirers through the lips of the victims whom they have bereft of their senses. These experts do not confine themselves simply to repeating a tangkay or exorcising incantation; they must first know what burōng it is they have to do with. They thus enquire whence they come and what are their intentions and wishes. The last question is generally that first answered, and the rest may be deduced from the reply.
Where the delirious patient through the interpretation of the expert expresses a desire for murōng-leaves (the leaves of the plant known as kèlor, which are used as a vegetable), for dried buffalo's flesh (balu) and salted ducks' eggs (bòh itéʾ jruëʾ), it is then regarded as certain that it is the dreaded Burōng Tanjōng that has to be contended with.
As long as the woman lies over the fire (madeuëng), that is to say for the space of 44 days after childbirth, some anxiety is felt in regard to the burōng, but most of all during the first 10 days, and especially on the 3$^d$, 5th, 7th and 10th days. During this period care is taken ​to avoid all needless mention of the burōng within hearing of the patient, while all the precautions mentioned above are taken to guard against its approach.
Vows to the burōng.Should the burōng have entered into the woman ("ka tamòng burōng"), a man who is acquainted with the proper incantations is called in; on the dangerous days this is done in any case as a measure of prevention. Sometimes the mother of the sick woman makes a vow to visit the tomb of the evil spirit in case of her daughter's recovery. She promises "to go and fulfil her vow at the tomb of her grandmother," (jaʾ peulheuëh kaʾōy baʾ jeurat nèʾ), thus euphemistically describing the ill-omened burōng.
Such a vow is performed in the company of a large party of friends after the 44th day. Goats or fowls are killed as the occasion may require, and a feast is given. Flowers are also offered at the tomb, together with a piece of white cloth to serve as a covering for one of the tombstones. At the same time a piece of one of the white coverings already surrounding the tombstone is brought away, and strips of this are worn as charms round the neck and wrists of the mother and child, until they wear out.
The circumstance that these spirits which torment women in childbirth have definite names, and especially the fact that they have tombs which are revered in the same manner as those of departed saints is peculiar to Acheh, at least in contradistinction to Java.
During this first critical period of ten days there must always be a lamp burning by the patient's side, and some one must keep watch beside her. To facilitate this task the women from the neighbourhood come in off and on at night. Where the company is numerous they often while away the time by reciting popular stories (hikayat).
When the burōng reveals itself these women of course evince much sympathy, which they express chiefly by conversing through the medium of the patient with the invisible being.
"Who art thou?" they ask for example. "That shall I not tell."—"Wherefore comest thou hither?"—"I am taking a walk."—"What ​dost thou seek for, what dost thou desire?"—"Fishes' heads, murōng leaves, dried flesh, ducks' eggs."
The answers given by the burōng to the leubè who comes to withstand her with his incantations (tangkay) are regarded as of greater consequence. It is thought a very good sign when the patient grows quiet after the exorciser has said emphatically to the burōng "get thee gone to thy home" (jaʾ wòë). Should this be of no avail, the expert then employs sundry phrases to drive the burōng out of the inner room, through the passage, down the steps and out on to the gampōng-path (jurōng); this is called bringing down the burōng (peutrōn burōng). But woe to the victim if in reply to all his admonitions the spirit replies through the lips of the delirious patient: "I will not go down unless I bring (the sick one) along with me" (meung hana kupeutrōn, han kutrōn). Then all hope is lost.
The chawat.One of the duties of the midwife is to prepare, on the first or second day after the birth, what is known as the chawat. This word generally denotes a fold of cloth twisted round the middle and between the legs so as to convey the impression of a short pair of trousers. In the sick-chamber, however, the chawat denotes a long bag in which are placed the indispensable "44 herbs", pounded fine and mixed with various simples. This is placed in situ and fastened with a band at back and front to the ordinary girdle. This chawat is renewed once or twice during convalescence, and on each occasion the nurse receives a fee of about a dollar.
The placenta, or "younger brother" (adòë) of the infant, is mixed with some salt and ashes from the kitchen, and folded up in a piece of cloth. It is then placed behind the cooking place, probably in order that it may dry quickly. In Java there are many superstitious notions about this adi ari-ari, as it is there called. It is thought for example that the placenta returns to its place after the confinement, and is ​thus the same at every birth, and that it is a source of danger to its elder brother (the babe) at the time of his birth. None of these ideas are current in Acheh.
Much less weight is attached in Acheh than in Java to the severance of the umbilicus. When the cord is cut, a little gold-dust is sprinkled in the navel to prolong the life of the child, and the severed portion is wrapped in a piece of cloth and placed above the cooking-place, where it remains till it disappears of its own accord. No feast is given on the occasion of its severance.
The peuchichab.On the seventh day after the child's birth there takes place the ceremony of the peuchichab (lit. = to give to taste), which is generally accompanied by the first shaving of the child's head. Like other ceremonies of the kind, it may be postponed for a day or two, but it is officially understood to take place on the 7th day. The presence of the teungku of the gampōng and some leubès is indispensable at the great kanduri or religious feast given on this occasion, not only for the sake of the prayers with which the feast must be consecrated, but also because it is generally thought to be essential to the sanctity of a feast, that it should be partaken of by some indigent persons who are distinguished from the mass by their knowledge and practice of religion.
Where the peuchichab feast is celebrated on a fairly large scale, the male and female relations of the father and mother are invited in any case, and generally also a number of people from the gampōngs of both.
The guests arrive at about 8 A.M., and are welcomed without any prolix ceremonies. Some of the relatives bring a money present (say a dollar each) for the child; the father's mother gives new mats, pillows, clothes and a little swinging bed which serves as a cradle (ayōn) and is supported by a rope covered with cloth. The male guests give ​biaya peukan (things bought in the market), such as tobacco, fruits, sirih and fish.
Food is served to the assembled guests, but not in so formal a manner as at the peujamèë. An idang of glutinous rice with its accessories and some fruits are set aside for the midwife.
After the feast all the guests depart except the immediate relatives and the teungku and his attendants. The bidan (midwife) after shaving the child's head, lays it in all its finery on a small mattress (kasō) covered with a number of costly cloths, and then brings it in and hands it over in the first place to the teungku. At the same time she sets before the latter a tray containing a bowl of dates, another of cocoanut milk and the savoury paste known as kleumbaʾ, in the midst of which a chěmpaka flower stands erect. The teungku takes a small piece of date, mixes it with the satan (cocoanut milk) and rubs it on the child's lips after invoking the name of Allah.
Both the teungku and after him the relatives of the infant also "give him to taste" a sort of pap (Ach. cheunichah; Mal. and Jav. rujak) made of a compost of raw fruits pounded very fine. It is from this compulsory introduction to human customs as to food that the whole ceremony is called peuchichab.
The "hakikah."The Mohammedan law recommends an offering of two sheep or goats for a male, and one for a female child, by preference on the seventh day after birth, but if this be impossible then at some later date—even when the child is quite grown up. This sacrifice is called ʿaqīqah, and is not only known but actually practised in Acheh under the name of hakikah. In Acheh, no less than in other parts of the E. Indian Archipelago, the people of Mekka have done their best to foster the doctrine that it is an extremely meritorious act to offer this sacrifice for the child in the holy city. The Mekka folk thus of course reap the profits on the sale of the goats, and at the same time enjoy their share of the meat. Many Achehnese are however aware that the hakikah is more properly offered at home. The choice of some later occasion for this sacrifice, and not the seventh day after birth is also common in Acheh.
​The giving of the name, for which the seventh day is also recommended by the law of Islam, generally takes place in Acheh at the end of the period of convalescence, and is not attended by much ceremony. The teungku is called to the house or the child sent to him. He consults a Malay manual which gives the names most suitable for a child born on a given day of the week and month throughout the year. Before the name is fixed, the child is usually called Si Chut or Nyaʾ Chut both meaning "the little one," or else Si Chuëng or Si Khèb, both of which words have a somewhat unsavoury significance; or, if a boy, it may be called Si Gam (mannikin), or if a girl, Si Inòng (little woman). Such names, universal and indistinctive as they are, remain in many cases the only ones by which those that bear them are known all their life long. Many dispense with the Arabic names given by the teungku's skilled advice, and have in their places names borrowed from some object of daily use or mere nicknames indicating some bodily characteristic or defect.
After the 10th day begin the visits of congratulation. Female acquaintances drop in at odd times and bring some little gift for the mother or the child. These presents are called neumè ("things brought"). Those intended for the child consist especially of the little sweet banana known as pisang seumatu or the sourish pisang klat, both of which may be eaten by sucking infants without causing indigestion. Bananas are given to newborn children as early as the seventh day after birth, and it is the universal custom in Acheh to habituate the infant as much as possible from the very beginning to eat regular food in addition to the mother's milk.
The gifts of the visitors to the mother usually consist of fresh fruits such as oranges of various sorts (bòh kruët mamèh, bòh giri), plates of yellow glutinous rice, etc.
From the second day after its birth the child is twice a day, at about 7 A.M. and 5 P.M., bespued (seumbō) by an old woman with ​a slaver composed of the same ingredients which in Java serve as a protection against the evil influences which threaten the infant: sirih, turmeric (kunyèt), sweet-flag (jeureungèë, Jav. dringo), cheukō (Jav. kěnchur, Mal. chěkur) and brown onions. Sometimes a chewed pap of the same articles is laid on the spot above the child's forehead (mbōt-mbōt). After the whole body has thus been overspread, the infant is dressed in a sort of swadding-cloth (ija teumpèë) and over this are thickly wound strips of cloth till he is closely packed (geudōng).
Diseases of children.The indispositions most dreaded for the child are beuténg and sakét dròë. The former is a swelling of the abdomen which is especially common in the first two months and is generally fatal. As a measure of prevention chewed turmeric (kunyèt) or ashes from the cooking-place (abèë dapu) are laid on the navel "that no wind may enter in" as they say. The sakét dròë (sakit diri) appears to derive its name from the idea that every child brings into the world in himself (dròë) the tendency to this disease; it is supposed to depend entirely on the supernatural powers whether the malady will be developed or suppressed.
A European physician would probably divide into several distinct ailments what the Achehnese understand by this single appellation. Fever is said to be often the first symptom of the sakét dròë, but at a later period the hands are clenched and the eyes staring, while the patient moans continually. Hinggu or asa foetida roasted and applied to the forehead and chin is believed to act as a preventive. Remedies are seldom employed for this disease; the tangkay or incantation is alone of avail. It is thought indispensable that a child suffering from this ailment should always be laid on its stomach and it is sometimes placed in this position on a manure-heap, in the hope that this treatment may be of some service!
The sakét dròë is especially feared during the first year of the child's existence, and during this period children are kept carefully indoors ​after sunset, as the "powers of the air" are supposed to threaten them outside. There are however some diseases which are apt to appear later in the child’s life, and these are regarded as arising from the sakét dròë having been imperfectly exorcised. Such for instance are epileptic attacks, for which the mother resorts to the same peculiar remedy which she employs in the case of the sakét dròë; another is a sort of derangement called pungò buy (pigs' madness), in which the patient, besides exhibiting certain symptoms which recall the movements of wild pigs, shows a strong inclination to jump into the water.
The spirits whose malign influence causes the development of the sakét dròë are known as hantu buru. They inhabit the woods, so that the class of persons best acquainted with the proper incantations for neutralizing their influence are the professional deerhunters (pawang rusa), and those who bring honey-combs from the forests (ureuëng pèt unòë). These hold all wood-craft in fee, and their help is invoked both on the appearance of symptoms of the peunyakét dròë and for sundry other diseases as well.
Another disease of children is thought to be caused by loss of the seumangat or of one or more of the seumangat. The popular psychology is not entirely agreed on the question as to whether man has one or seven of these souls.
When a child is badly frightened at some unwonted occurrence, such as a fire, and subsequently continues nervous, it is regarded as certain that the seumangat has been driven out, and that something must be done to call it back again.
This task is undertaken by a skilled old woman, who receives as her fee some husked and unhusked rice (breuëh padé), two eggs, a piece of white cloth and some keumen. This last is unhusked rice opened by roasting, a form of food which we shall have occasion to refer to later in our description of small-pox. She burns incense and recites pantōns by the hour, varying these occasionally by an appeal to the seumangat to return. Finally she enquires of the assembled women: ​"Have you not seen those sparks? They are the seumangats which have now returned." And fortunately for the credit of the expert, there are always one or two women who are kind enough to answer in the affirmative.
Grown-up people speak of the loss of their seumangat only figuratively, to express great astonishment or confusion. The common expression kru seumangat! used to one who has borne himself too politely or submissively towards the speaker, seems to contain the rudiment of a notion of this soul with its occasional departures from the body as a bird which may be summoned back by the word kru, which is used to call fowls home.
End of the oven period.After the 44 momentous days have passed, there takes place what is known as the "removal of the oven" (bòïh dapu); this however as a rule really occurs on the 41st or 43$^d$ day, as a day of even number is considered less lucky. A kanduri is given to a number of teunghus and leubès, at which feast there must be plenty of apam or cakes in addition to the rice and its accessories. One of the guests consecrates the fast by the funeral prayer, in which the mercy of Allah is invoked for all the dead and for the living as well. A number of women are invited to attend the ceremony, but these take no share in the kanduri.
Those whose means allow of it give at the same time a Rapaʾi, the religious play so popular among the Achehnese.
The midwife removes the dapu or oven and pushes it beneath the house, where the platform on which the mother has rested during her confinement is also deposited. The woman is then given a bath, which is called the "bath of 44" (i. e. 44 days). If we may believe the old legends, women of rank in earlier times had this bath served from 44 jars. The water for the bath is mixed with the juice of sour oranges (bòh kruët).
In ordinary cases the midwife can then take her departure. She must first, however, "cool" (peusijuëʾ) the house. For this purpose she employs the means with which we have already become familiar, ​i.e. flour and water which is sprinkled on the places to be "cooled" with an improvised besom formed of twigs or whole plants of sisijuëʾ and manèʾ-manòë and stalks of naleuëng sambō. With this, after solemnly invoking Allah's name, she besprinkles all the 16 or 24 posts which support the Achehnese house, beginning with those called raja and putròë, to which superstition assigns a special importance.
At her departure the midwife receives, in addition to the sum estimated by her as the equivalent of the various drugs etc. which she has prepared for the mother and infant, a douceur in money for her trouble (peunayah) and a complete outfit of garments (seunalén). In Java it is customary for the woman or her husband to ask forgiveness of the midwife for all the trouble they have put her to, but in Acheh this lakèë meuʾah, as it is called, is made by the woman's mother.
The peutrōn.Throughout the whole of the Indian Archipelago it is regarded as a momentous epoch in the life of the child when he first comes into contact with his mother earth. All who have not entirely abjured the old ideas, are careful not to let the child lie or sit upon the ground until such contact has been duly prepared for by a number of ceremonies, of which a religious feast forms an important part; for the earth, which contains so many blessings, holds within it also much that is evil.
Acheh is no exception to this rule. The ceremony which in Java is called nurunkeun (Sund.) or mudun lémah (Jav.), is in Acheh known as peutrōn i. e. "causing to descend," referring to the child's being brought out of the house. This may take place a couple of months after its birth, but preference is given to a month of uneven number, as for example the 3$^d$, 5th or 7th month of the child's age. Up to this time the child must on no account be brought outside the house.
In Acheh, however, not nearly so much is made of this or other important epochs in life, as in ceremony-loving Java. In the former country such events are chiefly marked by the giving of a big kanduri in the house, a goat or buffalo being slaughtered and the occasion ​sanctified by the prayer of the official teungku. This last indeed holds good of all feast of any importance; no leubè and few ulamas of consideration would venture to appear at such a feast and honour it with their prayer except on the special invitation of the teungku of the meunasah.
This feast is also frequently embellished by a Rapaʾi representation, when the givers are persons of means.
When the kanduri is over, some women, including the midwife, who is always invited on such occasions, fetch the child from the house and take it to the tomb of a saint (kubu kramat). Such tombs are to be found in the neighbourhood of almost every gampōng. They take with them as an offering for the dead some flowers and incense, and a piece of white cloth to renew or add to the coverings of the tombstones (salōb batèë). At the grave the child's head is solemnly washed (srah ulèë) either by the keeper of the tomb or by the women themselves, and thus the ceremony is brought to a close.
Vows.All such events in the family life form the occasions for vows. These are sometimes made without any special motive, but particularly in cases of sickness or misfortune, in the hope of furthering the well-being of him in whose behalf the feast is given. The Rapaʾi representations just mentioned may form the subject of such a kaʾōy or vow. It is also a common custom for the father or. mother to vow at the sickbed of a child which has not yet been "brought down," that in the event of its recovery they will not merely bring it to the nearest holy tomb to inaugurate its first contact with the earth, but will take it on a pilgrimage to the resting-place of one of the great saints of Acheh, such as the renowned Teungku di Kuala Abdōraʾōh, the saint of Singkel, or the holy Sayyid Teungku Anjōng buried in Gampōng Java. In such cases the child is escorted to the sacred spot by a great procession of men and women, and cattle are slaughtered and a feast given at the tomb.
Where the vow includes the expression of an intention to head the procession with geundrang, the two drums or geundrang and the flute (srunè) are marched in front.
It sometimes happens that when the time of the peutrōn arrives, the means of fulfilling the vow are momentarily lacking. Then the "descent" of the child takes place simply in the manner described above, and the fulfilment of the vow remains a debt to be discharged as soon as possible.
WOMEN RESTING IN THE GREAT MOSQUE (MEUSEUGIT RAYA) OF KUTA RAJA, ON THEIR WAY TO A SAINT'S TOMB WHERE THEY ARE ABOUT TO FULFIL THEIR VOWS. THE GIRLS ON WHOSE BEHALF THE VOWS WERE MADE, ARE STANDING IN THE FOREGROUND.
In this last case recourse is had to certain mysterious tests in order to ascertain what should be done. For instance the child is watched in its sleep and asked what it is that it really needs. The names of the usual ceremonies etc. are slowly repeated one after another, and it is assumed that the one desired is that at the mention of which the sleeping infant seems most at rest. Sometimes the same method is resorted to in order to ascertain the nature of an unfulfilled vow. It may happen, for instance, that the child's mother has died, and the wise man or woman who is consulted in regard to the illness of the babe may say that there seems to be bimaran in the case, and that probably the mother had made a vow but had not communicated it to others. Under such circumstances nothing seems left but to try and discover the terms of the vow by the means of divination described above.
The most usual kinds of bimaran are the procession to the tomb with geundrangs which we have so often referred to, or the presentation to the child of a peculiar garment of many colours (ija planggi) which now-a-days at least is not worn except in case of vows or bimaran.
We shall here enumerate some of the vows most commonly made in Acheh, especially by parents in behalf of their sick children. Two of them we have already noticed, the vows to celebrate with geundrang music or with a Rapaʾi performance the first occurrence of importance ​in the life of the child. The things vowed have always some connection with religion, or else are such as have been shown by tradition or personal experience to act as charms against evil spirits. Where a parent in desperation promises to perform an act which has never before formed the subject of a vow, and the wished-for recovery supervenes, the means that has proved so successful is resorted to by many others, and one more is added to the list of vows.
In addition to the Rapaʾi, the following are some of the vows which are regarded as of a religious nature.
"If you recover, I will take you to seven mosques." The fulfilment consists in taking the child round to seven different mosques and washing its head with water from the reservoir (kulam) of each.
"I shall have the whole Qurān recited". A couple of dollars are given to a leubè, who then performs this pious task.
"I shall take you to 44 saints." This visiting of holy tombs is again coupled with the washing of the head (srah ulèë) of the convalescent child.
"I shall give a kanduri of seven head of buffalo." These are then purchased at the great slaughter preceding the commencement of the fasting month (maʾmeugang) and given as a present to the teungku of the village.
"I shall bathe you with water that has washed the feet of His Majesty." To fulfil this vow, it was customary to beg of the Sultan's servants 'a little of the water that had washed the feet of their royal master', and the latter would generally oblige the suppliants by putting his hand into a jar of water presented for the purpose.
Either in fulfilment of a vow, or simply to avert evil influences, a child's head is often washed near the pulpit of a great mosque, or else some flowers and perhaps a little copper money are laid on the pulpit at the Friday service. Sometimes the child is given to drink some water, in which a congregation of not less than 44 persons all have dipped their hands at the commencement of the Friday service.
Besides the geundrang music, the following are some of the purely superstitious vows classified as puja or efficacious against evil spirits:
"If you recover, I shall go and beg in seven shops." Thereupon ​they beg for some trifle or other in the keudès (shops) where they deal, saying that they do so in fulfilment of a vow, and generally receive a piece of gold thread, which is afterwards sewn on the head cloth (tangkulōʾ) if the child is a boy, and on the kerchief (ija sawaʾ) if it is a girl.
"I shall slaughter a sheep in the midst of the courtyard." When the fulfilment of this vow is accompanied by an invitation to reciters of the Qurān, it assumes a religious character.
The Achehnese mother rocks (ayōn) her child to sleep in a kind of swing, consisting of a rope of which the two extremities are fastened to the ceiling while it is kept apart below by a bar of wood placed horizontally. Under this bar is fastened a handkerchief or cloth so disposed that the child can lie in it with comfort. The mother sings the child to sleep (peulalè) with native lullabies.
The child's age is described in Acheh as in the adjacent countries by allusion to the movements it is capable of making. Thus they distinguish between the stages of "lying on the back" (meulinteuëng) "turning on the side" (baléʾ), "lying on face and hands" (dugòm), "sitting" (duëʾ), "crawling" (meuâeuy), "standing" (dòng), "walking" (jaʾ) and "running" (pluëng).
To practise the child in its movements a rounded stick is planted in the ground; to this is attached a section of bamboo, so placed that its hollow end covers the point of the stick, round which it easily revolves. To the bamboo is fastened a wooden handle, the end of which is given to the child to hold, so that thus supported he can toddle round the stick. This instrument is called wéng.
​Circumcision of girls.In the case of girls circumcision follows very soon after the peutrōn. It is performed with great secrecy. Even the father does not know when his daughter is circumcised. The haste with which this operation is got over is attributed to the fear lest the girl so soon as she can speak should mention it in her childish innocence. Not a semblance of festivity attends the ceremony; some yellow glutinous rice is simply brought to the teungku and he repeats the fatihah over it a single time. In presenting it to him the women say: "we have here a small offering in honour of the Prophet" (na hajat bachut keu Pangulèë), without further elucidation. The teungkus receive such little gifts almost daily with a request for a fatihah or a prayer. The secrecy observed in this matter is much greater in Acheh than in Java. In the latter country there is not indeed a feast given to celebrate the circumcision of girls, but there is on the other hand no concealment where they are circumcised at the feasts given to celebrate the performance of the same rate upon their brothers or cousins. The midwife acts as surgeon.
Piercing of ear-lobes.The "piercing of the ears" (tòb glunyuëng) of girls is performed in their 6th or 7th year.
This ceremony is restricted to the “open season of the year” (musém luaïh blang) as it is believed that if it is done during the "narrow" or "closed" season (musém pichéʾ blang) the holes in the ears will have a tendency to contract. Neglect to fulfil a vow made with reference to the feast of ear-boring is considered likely to result in the complete splitting of the ear-lobe.
It is only the very poor who have this operation performed at home, inviting but few guests to witness the ceremony. It is more usual to take the girl in procession to a neighbouring holy tomb, so that the saint's blessing may rest upon the act. This is done even when the mother has made no vow with reference to the piercing of her daughter's ears. But it seldom happens that the mother has not made some such kaʾōy or vow, the most customary being that the ceremony shall take place at the tomb of some famous saint, such as Teungku Anjōng or Teungku di Kuala.
On such an occasion both men and women of the gampōng are invited in great numbers, and a procession is formed to the sacred ​spot, escorted if possible by the gampōng authorities (keuchiʾ and teungku) and with the two traditional drums (geundrang) and a flute (srunè) leading the van. After the leubès have recited some passages from the Qurān followed by the customary prayers, an animal is slaughtered and a kanduri held.
The woman whose task it is to bore the ears begins with the usual precautions against evil influences. Invoking the name of Allah, she scatters breuëh padé (husked and unhusked rice) over the child, and besprinkles her with a besom formed of the three "cooling" plants, which she dips in flour and water (teupng taweuë). Finally both she and the other old women who are present at the ceremony rub yellow glutinous rice behind the ears (peusunténg) of the young maiden. The expert then bores the holes with a thorn or a golden needle.
Every time of life has its special amusements, which play no inconsiderable part in the bringing up of the young. These will be described in a subsequent chapter. We shall also discuss later the elementary instruction of children, but one or two points which rather concern the attitude of the parents in respect to such teaching may fitly be dealt with here.
Instruction in the Qurān.At the age of about 6 or 7 the boys are brought by their father, and the girls by their mother, to the school where they are taught to recite the Qurān. This instruction is given chiefly by women, though some men who have not been able to find a more lucrative means of livelihood also act as ureuëng pumubeuët, as these teachers are called.
Wednesday is generally chosen as the day for bringing the children to the schoolmaster or mistress. As a gift for the teacher, they bring a large dish of glutinous rice with grated cocoanut and red sugar on top. The parent addresses the teacher somewhat as follows: "I come to hand over my child to you. Teach it and spare not the rod; so you make it not lame or blind, let the rest be at your discretion."
From this time forth the child attends school pretty regularly until ​the tamat, i. e. until it has completed the recitation of the whole Qurān to its teacher's satisfaction. Some teachers give notice to the parents when the task is half finished, whereupon the latter are considered bound to send the teacher a dish of yellow glutinous rice (bu kunyèt) with little cakes of rice-flour (kětan) and cheuneuruët, a sort of gelatinous network of the same kind of rice, or grated cocoanut and sugar (u murah), for the "cooling" of the Qurān, as they express it. When the teacher's task is entirely finished, the adat prescribes that the guru should subject the pupil to a final "cooling." As we have repeatedly observed, every important act or occurrence, according to the popular belief, sets in motion "hot" (i.e. dangerous) influences, against which precautions are necessary. Thus husked and unhusked rice (breuëh padé) are sent to the teacher to scatter over his pupil, and flour and water, together with the plants which serve as sprinklers, so that he may perform therewith the usual ceremonies. Besides this, he gives his pupil a bath. This is called "the bathing (of the pupil) on account of the completion (of the recitation)"—pumanòë tamat—and is recompensed by certain gifts, viz. a large dish of yellow glutinous rice, (whence may be taken at the same time what is required for the peusunténg), a piece of white cloth, an under-garment, a kerchief and from two to ten dollars in money. The ceremony takes place in the house of the teacher, in presence of the father and a few guests.
Well-to-do people, however, invite the teungku (for this title is applied to instructors in the Qurān both male and female) to their house, and give a great kanduri to which, besides the teungku, a number of people from the gampōng, and in particular the keuchiʾ and many leubès are invited. A teungku, whether the teacher or another, but in any case a man, directs the peutamat, the making of the tamat or completion, in the front verandah where the guests sit. As a matter of fact, however, this ceremony only serves to set a seal on the already finished task; for the custom that prevails elsewhere, as in Java for instance, of making the pupil give a sample of his proficiency, is unknown in Acheh.
When the pupil is a boy, he sits arrayed in his best clothes along with the others in the front verandah, with an open Qurān before him, ​but takes no active part in the proceedings and simply listens to a number of leubès chanting certain chapters (Surah 93–114) from the sacred book. When they reach the 112th Surah, all present join in and close the ceremony with one of the prayers specially used for concluding every recitation from the Qurān (meuhatam).
If it be a girl, she sits inside the house with an open Qurān before her, for it is always considered unbefitting for men and women to sit together during such religious ceremonies.
When the reading is finished, the paraphernalia of "cooling" are brought into the house, always by a woman.
Owing to the early marriages of Achehnese maidens, it often happens that a girl becomes a bride long before this elementary instruction is at an end. When such a young wife is with child, the ceremony of peutamat is performed in all haste, for fear of her dying before she has completely chanted the word of Allah. Either simultaneously with, or immediately after their instruction in the Qurān, the children learn how to fulfil the principal duties prescribed for every grown-up person by the creed of Islam, and especially the ritual washings and prayers (seumayang). This knowledge they gain either by actual practice or from the pages of a Malay hand-book.
Circumcision of boys.In the case of boys the peutamat is usually followed by the circumcision (kòh bòh or peusunat), either immediately or after the lapse of a couple of days. In contradistinction to the practice in the great majority of Mohammedan countries, this ceremony is often unattended by festivities of any kind, so that even near relations and neighbours are sometimes ignorant that the operation has been performed.
Under the Mohammedan law circumcision is a duty but not a chief obligation or "pillar" of religion. Popular feeling, however, attaches great importance to this rite, regarding it more or less as the outward form of adoption into the Mohammedan community. In Acheh, however, this special significance is given to circumcision only in case of unbelievers who embrace Islam and not for the children of Mohammedan parents.
It is the vows (kaʾōy) which in many cases lend distinction to the ceremony of circumcision. In accordance with such vows, Rapaʾi performances are sometimes given on one or more nights, but oftener still the parents bind themselves to visit a holy tomb (in some cases accompanied with geundrang music) one or two days before the performance ​of the rite. A great procession is organized; the boy is dressed just like a bride, except that he wears the high Achehnese kupiah or cap, round which is folded a tangkulōʾ (head-cloth). Sometimes he is set on horseback and rides to the holy place. His head is washed (srah ulèë), at the foot of the tomb, and a great kanduri is given.
If one of the boy's ancestors happens to have been in his lifetime a very learned or distinguished person, the grave of the latter is first visited, and the procession then moves on to the tomb of the saint.
Persons of wealth and rank inaugurate the circumcision with other festivities, which owing to their purely secular character cannot form the subject of a vow, such as the ratéb sadati, pulèt or a piasan.
The bath which in Java is regarded as an indispensable prelude to circumcision is not made compulsory in Acheh. The boy is simply cleansed prior to the operation. He is placed on a mat which is strewn with ashes from the cooking-place covered with plantain leaves, or upon a krikay, a small tray standing on a foot and thus serving as a table. The implements used in the operation are a puréh (a piece of the bark fibre of the arèn palm, of which native pens are also made), chalk to make a line to guide the operator, a forceps and a razor.
As a rule the only styptic used is a prayer (duʾa peudòng darah), that employed being the first part of a formula used to exorcise the burōng, or some other such tangkay or charm, in which occurs the word teutab (motionless or fixed) and the words that rhyme therewith from the 111th chapter of the Qurān. This symbolizes the checking or stopping of something—as the blood in the case in point.
The injured part is simply wrapped in a white rag, and it is not till the following day that it is covered (after being first washed with warm water) with a healing drug composed of gambir and tamarind-​bark grated fine. This treatment is repeated daily till the patient is convalescent.
Meantime, as in Java, a strict dietary is observed. No vegetables must be eaten, and no fish except the eungkōt chuët and the stockfish (keumamaïh) from the Maldives, with dry rice, eumpiëng and the like. Fruits and pungent herbs are forbidden, and as it is thought dangerous for the patient’s feet to come into contact with human ordure or the dung of fowls or horses, they are wrapped in cloths as a precaution. The cure is generally complete in from 7 to 10 days.
The operator (mudém, probably from the Arabic muʾaḍḍin, which is in Java also entirely wrested from its proper meaning) obtains as a recompense for his trouble a quantity of husked and unhusked rice (breuëh-padé), a piece of white cotton cloth, a dish of yellow glutinous rice and one dollar.
Boys are generally circumcised at from 9 to 10 years of age. A well-to-do father often has one or two poor lads circumcised along with his son, but the same peculiar significance is not attached to this as to what is known as béla in Java.
The filing of the teeth (kòh gigòë) does not take place with women till after their marriage, as it is thought proper to leave the decision of this matter to the husband; in the case of boys it is done in their 12th or 13th year. Many omit this form of mutilation altogether, either because their teeth are not naturally too large or ugly, or from religious motives.
So far from giving this custom a devotional origin, as some Javanese do by alleging that it is in conformity with the example of the Prophet, whose teeth are said to have been shaped as though filed from the time of is birth, or according to others, after having been injured in the battle of Uḥud, the Achehnese regard it simply as a personal embellishment; and some of their ulamas are opposed to it as being self-mutilation. The filer of teeth (an operation usually performed by women) uses for her work a whetstone (batèë chanè). The better to keep the patient's mouth open, a piece of betel-nut is thrust between the molars on one side. The teeth to be operated on, i. e. the four front teeth (gigòë dikeuë) and the two "dog's teeth" (gigòë asèë) of the upper jaw, are rubbed with white onions before the operation, "to make them soft."
​After they have been ground down to the desired length, the line of the teeth is filed until all unevenness disappears. This filing is known as asah. Baja (soot) is then laid on the surface so formed as a curative. Baja Kléng (Kling) is to be found with the medicine-sellers, but many make the baja themselves by catching the soot off a burning cocoanut-shell on a wet knife or other steel weapon.
The people of Pidië file their teeth in such a manner as to make it appear as if they projected outwards, and end by making them entirely black, as the Javanese used to do in earlier times. Some fops and women of light reputation use baja every day to blacken the space between each pair of teeth.
§ 6. The Parents as Bringers-up of their children.
Share of the father and mother in the bringing up of the child.As we have already seen, the woman after marriage continues to live in her own house or that of her parents. Thus the children are as a rule brought up in the house of their mother, in which the father is in a certain sense a stranger. In a certain sense, for though some Achehnese institutions bear clear traces of an earlier "matriarchate," they are still traces and nothing more. In Acheh no one would dream of prohibiting the father from seriously concerning himself in the bringing up of his children, and reserving that right for the mother's brother, as is done in the highlands of Padang. As we have already seen, the wife's family are only too anxious to leave the ground free to the husband, and it is not till after years of wedded bliss that the ban which severs the latter from his wife's people is gradually removed to some extent. Thus the father has as great a share as he pleases to take in the bringing up of his children.
On the whole, however, it may be asserted without hesitation that the children grow up more under the protection of the mother and her relations than that of the father. The latter has many reasons which cause him to be repeatedly absent from home for long periods. When, for instance, he has more than one wife, his spouses are gene​rally established in different gampōngs, and the man divides his time between them, not indeed according to the strict rules of the Mohammedan law in respect of the ḳasm, but as suits his own liking. But he also spends much of his time with his own family, or travels about visiting friends or on business etc. There are also the pepper-planters, seamen, fishermen etc., who often remain absent from their wives' homes for years at a time.
The attitude of the married couple in the matter of their childrens' bringing up is shown most characteristically by the adats observed when one of the two happens to die.
Fatherless children.If the father dies, such of the children as have reached a discriminating age (say 7 to 10 years) usually remain with the mother, or if the latter marries again they are free to choose whether they will take up their abode with her or with the family of their deceased father.
Where there are children below this age, the adat requires the male relations (wali) of the deceased to interest themselves pro forma in their destiny. They must, however, before taking the first step, perform the task, so important in native estimation, of setting up tombstones (pula batèë) on the grave of their deceased relative; otherwise they have no right to interfere. When this duty has been fulfilled, they depute the keuchiʾ of the gampōng to go to the widow and demand the young children at her hands. The mother always replies that she admits that they have a right to the children, but earnestly begs that she may not be separated from them till her death. The keuchiʾ is then again deputed to enquire whether the mother can assure befitting support for the fatherless infants. A woman of means exhibits on such occasions a sum of money, or some article of value, or a house (where the child is a girl), with the assurance that these things are destined to defray the cost of bringing up the children. Others give tokens of good intent in proportion to their means, and the walis rest content with these assurances. Apart from the question as to whether this formal demand is or is not a rudiment of an older in​stitution of Achehnese family life, which has now fallen into disuse, it may be asserted conclusively that both the demand and the enquiry as to means of support are now mere formalities. These are, however, never omitted by the walis of the deceased, because otherwise public opinion would condemn them as completely indifferent to the fate of children closely related to them.
Disposal of the fatherless on the re-marriage of the mother.When the widow re-marries, new formalities are observed. The adat is for the walis of a deceased person to offer his widow a new marriage subject to her consent. Sometimes one of the walis offers himself as the dead man's successor; or another suitor is sought, who is regarded as a suitable person to act as father to the surviving children in the future. If this suitor is accepted, the childrens' interests are considered to be as well assured as where the widow does not marry again.
She has of course full liberty to contract another marriage. If she makes use of this freedom, the walis of the deceased lie in wait for and "steal" pro formâ the latter's child, which cannot yet choose for itself. After a day or so, the new husband, attended by an elder from the mother's gampōng, comes and politely begs for the restoration of the child. This request is generally granted; the walis however remain on the watch, as becomes careful guardians, and if the step-father proves to be a good-for-naught, they demand back the pledge which they have entrusted to him.
Motherless children.Where the woman dies leaving a young child, its surrender is demanded in like manner, but of course in the father's name. As a rule it is only entrusted to him if his wife's mother be already dead. Should the latter be still living, she begs to be allowed to retain the child. This request may be made in one or other of two ways. She may reply, when called on to surrender it, "give me the child in life and death", and if this wish is acceded to, the father or his wali have no right to demand the body of the child in the event of its death. Sometimes however the grandmother says "Give it to me during life; should it die I shall return it to your hands".
Contest for the disposal of the bodies of the dead.Great importance is indeed attached to the disposal of the body ​and the question as to where it shall be buried, whether in the bhōm or family burying-place of the mother's family, where it will not perhaps enjoy the company of any of its walis, or in that of its father, where most of them repose.
This question is regarded as of equal importance when the husband dies before the wife. The death of course very frequently occurs in the house of the wife. The walis of the husband in such a case are unwilling to leave the disposal of the body to the woman, since she will probably marry again later on, and her first husband would thus lie buried among strangers. This objection is not raised if the couple have already lost a child by death and have buried it in the bhōm of its mother's family. If however the man dies in his own original gampōng, the walis assume the entire disposal of his body, which is only just brought for a moment, before burial, into the inner room (jurèë) of the wife's house. For this service she rewards the bearers with a present.
A characteristic specimen of Achehnese prolixity is furnished by the negociations which take place between the gampōng of the husband and that of the wife in respect to the dead body of their first child (aneuʾ phōn). It may be inferred that at an earlier period of Achehnese civilization more substantial reasons existed for such a contest for the possession of the bodies of the dead than is the case at present. All this speech-making now seems rather objectless, and suggests a petrified adat.
Like all other important domestic events, the burial of the dead is treated as a public affair of the gampōng. The authorities of the husband's gampōng proceed in a body to that of the wife, and there hold with the chiefs and elders a colloquy, of which the following may serve as a model. The prelude forms a sort of theatrical dialogue between two speakers of the husband's gampōng. This takes place after their arrival in the gampōng of the wife, and in presence of the authorities there assembled. We shall call the speakers A and B; the latter speaks in the name of all his fellow-villagers.
A. Well now, where are ye all, my brethren? We have arrived at our destination. Time moves on (lit. the sun advances), and we sit doing nothing. Of walking a single step; of speech a single word; it is now your turn to speak, my brethren.
B. Well then, Teuku, as concerns us your younger brethren, what saidst thou? "Of walking a step, of speech a word." With us it is even ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/440 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/441 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/442 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/443 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/444 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/445 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/446 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/447 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/448 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/449 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/450 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/451 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/452 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/453 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/454 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/455 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/456 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/457 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/458 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/459 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/460 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/461 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/462 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/463 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/464 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/465 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/466 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/467 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/468 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/469 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/470 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/471 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/472 ​Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/473 ​Where the mother also dies, the administration of the orphans' property is left to their father's brothers, unless the ulèëbalang has no confidence in them, in which case he takes the matter into his own hands. This he does only too often, when the property is large enough to excite his greed. The same often happens in regard to the estates of absent persons, while those of foreigners who die in Acheh frequently disappear into the bait al-māl (state treasury) which means really that it finds its way into the pockets of the ulèëbalangs.
Such a system of administration furnishes, as may easily be supposed a fruitful source of abuses. Of these the very least is that the ulèëbalang trades with the money under his control and renders little or no account of the profits. As a rule, however, the settlement with the claimants, even when these have attained their majority, is endlessly deferred, and in the protacted "deliberations" as to its disposal, fresh slices are constantly cut off from the principal. Should the ulèëbalang die before the settlement takes place, his son or whoever else succeeds him professes to know nothing of the matter and to have found no notes or reliable witnesses in regard to the administration, and thus excuses himself from making any payment whatever.
* ↑ Kawén mantòng, hana wòë.
* ↑ Cases in which young wives suffer serious physical injury are rare, since great circumspection is enjoined on the husband by the adat and public opinion. On the other hand, where Arabs or other strangers wed Achehnese virgins, such painful results often follow.
* ↑ Hantòm mòn mita tima. This proverb cannot be taken as in itself proving the rarity of such a case, for in Java, where a proposal of marriage on the woman's side is not uncommon, it is still called lumpang angulati alu = "the mortar seeking the pestle"; and even the people of Minangkabau, among whom the rule is for the relations of the woman to seek her a husband, have a saying anau mauchari jangjang = "the arèn-tree seeking the ladder". But in Acheh this practice is really exceptional.
* ↑ His visit to the girl's parents to make the proposal is called meuseuleungeuy.
* ↑ The books or tables used for these calculations are called phay (Arab. (Arabic characters)); the act of working them out is muphay. The common name for a memorandum book containing notes on these and similar subjects (Jav. primbon) is téh (Arab. (Arabic characters)); see p. 198 above.
* ↑ This wilful neglect of calculations generally in vogue is called in Java bělo or gudèl bingung and much practised by pious men (santris).
* ↑ These time-tables or methods of computation are known as surat kutika or katika; those most in use are the Malay kutika lima, kutika tujōh, pintang tujōh or bintang dua blaïh.
* ↑ For a description of the betrothal ceremonies of the Malays of the Peninsula, see Skeat's Malay Magic pp. 364–368. (Translator).
* ↑ These prolix discourses on weighty occasions are also to be met with in other parts of Sumatra and in Java. A good example of those employed in Menangkabau may be found in the essay on the adats in use at the appointment of a pangulu andiko in the district of Kapau, lithographed at Padang in 1890 at the house of R. Edw. van Muien. But even in Java, where the adat has suffered so much from the great power of the chiefs and a foreign rule, there are floods of stereotyped oratory at every village wedding. These "speeches" sometimes furnish important historical and ethnographical material, for crystallized forms of this kind generally live longer than the adats on which they are founded.
* ↑ Wòë; see p. 295 above.
* ↑ The Malays have the same custom, which they call běrhinei. (Translator).
* ↑ At Mecca also one of the festive gatherings to which a marriage gives occasion is called ḥinna after this very practice of staining the bride's hands and feet. See my Mekka. Vol. II p. 165.
* ↑ See below Vol. II Chapter III, § 3.
* ↑ This offering of gifts is called teumeuntuëʾ. In Javanese it is known as nyumbang, in Sundanese as nyambung.
* ↑ The bridegroom's relations, even though they be really senior to the bride in age, are regarded as junior to her when they are younger than the bridegroom. It is usual for husband and wife each to address the others relations in the same way as that other would do. Thus an elderly man may be heard calling a mere boy abang (elder brother), if the latter be the elder brother of the speaker’s wife.
* ↑ Hana peuë, idin lōn taʾandam,
* ↑ Peuchruëng in the highlands.
* ↑ This properly means unflavoured flour or dough, since no salt or flavouring component is mixed with it.
* ↑ The use of this "neutralizing rice-flour" (těpong tawar) with a sprinkling-brush formed of leaves and twigs of certain plants is also universal among the Malays. See Skeat's Malay Magic pp. 77–80 etc. (Translator).
* ↑ This cooling plant is known at Batavia as chakar (elsewhere chochor or sosor), bebek (the Sundanese bun tiris), and is used in Java as in Acheh for certain mysterious purposes of "cooling". The plants so used are however really of different sorts, but the same name is given to all alike in different localities. All have this in common, that the shape of the leaves bears a rough resemblance to a duck's foot.
* ↑ This is, according to Dr. P. van Romburgh, the Eleusine India. It is known in Java as jampang and used as cattle-fodder.
* ↑ See p. 264 above.
* ↑ The general meaning of the word, like that of its equivalent in Malay, is "smearing or inserting behind the ears", and is used to describe the custom so much in vogue among the youth of Acheh of wearing flowers stuck behind their ears. It is also used however in a technical sense to denote the smearing with yellow rice for purposes of cooling. [The Malay word běrsunting means according to Marsden the wearing of flowers or other ornaments on the head or behind the ears. (Translator).]
* ↑ Cf. Skeat's Malay Magic p. 353 et seq.
* ↑ Cf. the notes in the Tijdschrift voor Binnenlandsch Bestuur Vol 7 p. 221 as to the counting up to seven as an introduction to invocations of gods or spirits in Timor.
* ↑ See the explanation of peusunténg on p. 306 above.
* ↑ This word is identical with the Malay měmplai, which is borrowed from the Tamil, but it is never used (like the original word) in the sense of "bride" or "bridegroom". It is used in Acheh to indicate the procession alone. The expression jaʾ euntat mampleuë is indeed employed in the sense of to escort the bridegroom on his way to the bride's house, but to the Achehnese these words convey the notion of joining the "bridegroom's procession".
* ↑ Salawalé is the Achehnese pronunciation of the Arabic çallû ʿalaih = utter the çalat-prayer for him (the Prophet).
* ↑ This sentence is expressed in the Achehnese rhythm (sanjaʾ).
* ↑ E. g. Basa Meulayu | pisang teupèh | — basa Achèh | pisang teuchucha | Bèʾ lé teuku | meutulèh-lagèh | — salèh-salèh | malam ka jula. | Here teupèh rhymes with Achèh and lagèh with salèh; also teuchucha with jula.
* ↑ We who are not familiar acquaintances have no claim to be received within the house.
* ↑ Close to the Meuseugit Raya.
* ↑ The sound of the rice-pounder in the leusōng or mortar.
* ↑ I. e., now that we have conducted the bridegroom to your gampōng, our task is completed.
* ↑ The bird called měrbah in Malay.
* ↑ A sort of wild cotton-tree.
* ↑ A sort of Achehnese game at marbles.
* ↑ Roasted glutinous rice, which is eaten with a sort of lump sugar or jujubes (gula taréʾ).
* ↑ Ureuëng meuruhé. Haba ruhé properly means a story handed down by word of mouth and composed wholly or in part in rhyme, which is usually of a laughter-moving character and singles out some special person or thing for ridicule. It is however used to designate other compositions also, which cannot be referred to the headings of hikayats, pantōns and nalams.
* ↑ A yellow bird often kept in cages.
* ↑ The name given to the old women who act as the attendants of the bride throughout all the wedding ceremonies.
* ↑ A gampōng in the XXVI Mukims.
* ↑ See p. 304 above.
* ↑ See p. 304 above.
* ↑ A pattern of sikin now as rare in Acheh as it is eagerly sought after.
* ↑ See p. 310 above.
* ↑ One mas (maïh) = ¼ dollar.
* ↑ See note on p. 311 above.
* ↑ These four injunctions are always given to one into whose charge another is committed. Even in the letters of appointment of the sultans with the nine-fold seal (chab sikureuëng) the same precepts are enjoined on the subjects in respect of a newly appointed (or rather confirmed) chief, or of a servant (kadam) of the Sultan, or other officials.
* ↑ This cermony is called seupeuëʾ breuëh-padé.
* ↑ Cf. p. 305 above.
* ↑ He is supposed to surrender it as a "token" or as a recompense to the door-keeper for opening the door. This giving up of the reunchōng is also a farce; the weapon being introduced for the purpose by the peunganjō herself. The bridegroom has, as is customary with all guests on entering a strange house, laid aside his weapon on arrival.
* ↑ Na neu keunòë tuan dumna? = "are ye all there, ladies?"; and the reply is: na kamòë ulōn-tuan = "we are here at your service".
* ↑ Such formal entertainment is called peujamèë, and takes place on certain special occasions, as for instance on one of the rare visits paid to one another by those who are connections by marriage.
* ↑ These covers are called sangè. The handsomest are manufactured in Daya; they are formed of pandan-leaves and are adorned on the outside with coloured threads and on the inside with goldleaf. The common hemispherical covers made elsewhere are called sangè gampōng to distinguish them from these beautiful sangè Daya.
* ↑ Bu leukat: see p. 31 above.
* ↑ Pisang peungat, the Javanese kolaʾ.
* ↑ These are called peunajōh, a word really meaning "food", but which in the colloquial is almost synonymous with the Javanese jajan pasar.
* ↑ All, both men and women, who join in escorting the bridegroom are for this evening called bisan. This name is at other times only used to express the connection between the two pairs of parents whose children have married one another.
* ↑ This is called meurab bu = "to eat rice close together".
* ↑ See p. 306 above.
* ↑ See p. 316 above.
* ↑ Bantay susōn = piled up cushions somewhat resembling our bolsters in shape. The two ends are covered with shining metal plates or tampō's. As many as fifteen of these are to be found in a well-furnished Achehnese bed. The sleeper of course only uses one of these pillows, while the rest are for show only.
* ↑ Upah leuëng tika.
* ↑ They sometimes thus admonish the bride: "Turn not your back to your husband, for that is a sin", bèʾ tapeulikōt lakòë, dèësa.
* ↑ Peujamèë; see p. 320 above.
* ↑ Keunòng èʾ = "he has obtained filth" is the technical expression for this punishment. It is also applied in other cases, as for instance where a young man neglects constantly to attend the noisy trawèh-recitations in the meunasah during the fasting month. See p. 234 above.
* ↑ Peutōʾ hukōm arab.
* ↑ This is called biaya masaʾ (lit. "ripe" or "cooked").
* ↑ Biaya meuntah (lit. "unripe" or "raw").
* ↑ See p. 305 above.
* ↑ See pp. 305–6 above. Thus both undergo the peusijuëʾ, the bridegroom alone the peusunténg.
* ↑ See p. 324 above. These gifts of the young husband are called seuneumbah.
* ↑ The saying is, uròë lhèë geupeutujōh = "they have made the third day into the seventh". The converse of this may be observed in Java, where the slamětans prescribed by the adat for the 3$^d$, 5th and 7th months of pregnancy, often resolve themselves into a single feast held in the 7th month.
* ↑ Thus the wife is very properly called prumòh = pò rumòh, the "mistress of the house".
* ↑ The word in the original Dutch is "afwijkingen" (Translator).
* ↑ Ordinance of the 14th March 1881 with respect to the administration of Justice among the native population of Great Achch, with an explanatory memorandum by Mr. T. H. Der Kinderen, Batavia 1881, p. 17.
* ↑ "Beginselen van het Mohammedaansche recht".
* ↑ In the Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indie, at the Hague, for the year 1892, p. 454 et seq. This essay is, according to the writer (p. 455), based on various writings "supplemented by the notes made by him in person". He would have been wiser to have omitted this last unintentional evidence of his ignorance. It is now abundantly clear that these notes really contain hardly a trace of what is peculiarly characteristic of the practice in Java and Madura. To quote a single instance; in Batavia marriages are never concluded by the pangulus as such, recourse being had to a contrivance called taḥkīm in the books of the law, but all mention of which is lacking both in this essay and in Van den Berg's "Beginselen". The information given by the writer of this essay now for the first time in regard to the very characteristic institution of the taʾliq (p. 485; the very name of this institution does not appear in the third edition of the "Beginselen") comprises nothing more than what we find in the printed books on this subject, and is thus very incomplete and often absolutely incorrect. The part played by a pangulu at a marriage in Java and Madura (p. 458 et seq.) is ignored by Van den Berg. In short, this essay shows that Van den Berg has never studied on the spot the subjects he treats of, and that the printed works containing comments thereon by sundry lay writers were never even opened by him until after his return to Europe. The woman is of the subject of the contract into which her guardian enters on her behalf, as Van den Berg states in his Afwijkingen; certain Shafiʾite teachers allege that the subject is the woman, others the man and wife, but they always add, that it is not their persons, but the enjoyment of connubial bliss that is intended to be signified. That the woman is a party to the contract appears most clearly from the fact that she herself may prefer before the judge independently and without the intermediary of a wali, any claims arising from the marriage, such as the claim to maintenance, to suitable lodging or even to divorce. The duty of the wali is to maintain the honour of the family, and to take care that the woman does not contract an undesirable marriage ((Arabic characters), as the law-books have it), and thus the contract is concluded through his intermediary. After completing this task he has nothing more to say to the marriage and to the woman who contracts it, till such time as she desires to marry again.
* ↑ In the books of Mohammedan law certain "conditions" are cited as permissible, but these are in fact closer definitions of the subject of the contract, as for instance that the bride should be a virgin. In such cases separation (faskh) is allowable if the contrary prove to be true. What we might call conditions in the real sense of the word are not admissible under the law of Islam; the Law is supposed to regulate all the results of marriage for all alike, and if one of the parties wishes to surrender any of his or her rights, he or she can do so in practice, but cannot forego them in the contract.
* ↑ The wali must be of the Moslim faith, of full age, of sound understanding and (at least at the moment of making the contract) of an upright life (ʿadl), as opposed to the unsanctified state branded by the Law with the name of fāsiq.
* ↑ The minimum distance of the wali's dwelling-place from that of the woman which renders reference to the judge necessary is about 84 miles (Arabic characters).
* ↑ According to the precept handed down by the Prophet (Arabic characters) = "To her that hath no wali the civil authority is wali".
* ↑ The power to give in marriage women who have no wali at their disposal, is in Java called kuwasa kakim; this name is never applied to the authority of those who conclude other marriages, as Van den Berg would have us suppose (p. 459). In Java a distinction is drawn between the wali nasab or wali bapa (wali by blood-relationship) and the wali hakim or kakim. The part played by the panghulu or naib in the celebration of a marriage with wali nasab is not regarded in any part of the Archipelago as a special, not to speak of its being an indispensable, ministration; it is generally understood that he simply takes oyer as an expert substitute the task of the wali.
* ↑ In regard to these mumliks and the "absolute" identity of their functions with those of the district pangulus in Java, see my, Mekka, Vol. II p. 160 et seq.
* ↑ (Arabic characters) After undergoing an examination they receive a license from the qādhī.
* ↑ It is these and not the pangulus of the larger "divisions" who conclude ordinary marriages in Java, even in the chiefs towns of the divisions which are of course at the same time the capitals of their own districts ("distrik kota"). Very often the official mariage-maker is a minor mosque-officer, for suitable persons are found among the personnel of the mosques, and the naib has often other work to do. It is only the marriages of women who have no wali which are always concluded by the pangulu or some one appointed by him, who exercises the kuwasa kakim; but occasionally where the bride is of very good family, an ordinary marriage is concluded by the pangulu in person.
* ↑ In making this authorization, however, the wali is not restricted to any particular formula; he may make it by simply replying in the affirmative to a question of the registrar.
* ↑ This is quite manifest from the third edition of his Beginselen which came out in 1883. He there states (p. 145) that the bridegroom and the wali may empower another to represent them, but fails to note that this is almost invariably done in the wali's case. Again on p. 149 we find a further error: "In Netherlands-India and probably (sic) in other Mohammedan countries as well, this takes place in presence of a "priest", who receives for his pains some small recompense, and who recites a passage from the Koran or a prayer". In his latest essay Van den Berg revokes this absurdity, it is but he substitutes a new one in its place when he says: "he (the "priest" in Java) does not invoke a blessing on the marriage, but he joins the couple in marriage, just as the Registrar does with us". This is not so; in Java as in other Mohammedan countries the official as wakil or agent offers the woman to the bridegroom, in the name of the wali who has empowered him.
* ↑ See p. 459 of his essay above quoted on the "Afwijkingen". Even the uninitiated can see that the function of this agent of the wali is entirely distinct from the exercise of the kuwasa kakim, which Van den Berg has identified therewith.
* ↑ See my Mekka, Vol. II p. 161.
* ↑ Here again Van den Berg has gone quite astray. "Unless", he says "he (the "priest" or official marriage-maker) declares the marriage to have been concluded, the parties are not man and wife, even though the formalities by which their willingness to wed is declared are complete in every other respect". Such marriages have in fact been often declared valid by the Mohammedan courts in Java, in which those who are interested in a seperation are allowed to sit, [Recent legislation in Java has now (by ordinances passed in in 1895 and 1898) confirmed and protected that adat by which marriage contracts are concluded by permanent district pangulus. Those who aid in the making of a Mohammedan marriage without proper authority, are punished, but the marriage itself is not declared unlawful, as this would conflict with the religious laws and customs of the natives].
* ↑ The Arabic (Arabic characters) = "just", since they are declared by the qādhī to be men of upright life and conversation.
* ↑ I. e. of the bride's gampōng. The teungku meunasah of the bridegroom's gampōng and his keuchiʾ share indeed in the introductory negociations and the procession to the gampōng of the bride, should such take place, but bear no part in the concluding of the contract.
* ↑ Ka jeuët jidòng wali keu dròë jih.
* ↑ See p. 332 above.
* ↑ Wakilah ulōn tuan baʾ Teungku neupeunikah oneuʾ (sèëdara) ulōn tuan si N. ngòn lintō teuka. The teungku as a rule dictates this formula to the wali word for word. If the wali happens to be one of the immediate next of kin of the bride, as for instance her father or brother, the adat forbids him to be present at the concluding of the contract (see p. 302), and thus the authorization is given beforehand in some other place. Indeed this often happens even where the relationship is much more distant.
* ↑ This word sheds a remarkable light on the history of the Achehnese marriage. Derived as it is from jamèë = guest, it can only be construed to mean, in its original sense, the gift or recompense given by a guest to him who extends his hospitality towards him, In spite of the great change unquestionably wrought by Islam in the Achehnese conception of marriage, there still remains, as we have seen, much that is based upon the idea of the husband as a guest in the house of his wife (prumòh; see p. 327 above).
* ↑ A bungkay of gold is reckoned at 25 dollars for the purpose of marriage contracts,but at 20 only in gambling and in the pepper trade. A tahé = ⅕ th of a bungkay, so that in marriage contracts it is equivalent to 5 dollars.
* ↑ This is entirely different from the custom in Java, in many parts of which it is usual to regard the dowry as a debt, which remains unpaid until separation or the death of one of the pair. In most parts of the province of Preanger it is considered to be pamali, or forbidden by the adat for the woman to receive any portion of the dowry even in case of a divorce.
* ↑ P. 300. It is also called "marriage sirih" (ranub nikah).
* ↑ Jaʾ gampōng linto; see below.
* ↑ Persons who understand and observe to some extent the precepts of religion. These are called santris in Java. It is noticeable that witnesses are selected in Acheh in the same way as in Java and other parts of the Archipelago. (See p. 337 above).
* ↑ See p. 71 above.
* ↑ Learned teungkus (who are indeed few and far between) know by heart a longer kōteubah, which treats of marriage as an institution ordained of heaven.
* ↑ ʿòh ka lōn-yò taseuʾōt lé.
* ↑ The Achehnese is: lōn-peunikah gata ngòn Si N., aneuʾ (sèëdara) Si X., nyang ka jiwakilah ubaʾ ulōn (ngòn jinamèë … bungkay).—Lōn-trimòng nikah ji (ngòn jinamèë ji … bungkay). The portions in parentheses are often omitted.
* ↑ It must be remembered that the wali's absence is legally accepted whenever he who is entitled from his relationship to the bride to fulfil this function resides at some little distance from the bride's home, or is unwilling to lend his assistence. Cases of this kind (in which takhīm is resorted to) are of very common occurrence.
* ↑ Nyang ka jiwakilah dròëji baʾ ulōn or nyang ka jipeutahkim dròëji baʾ ulōn.
* ↑ [Since the above was written the Government has interfered in this matter, and both in Java and Madura amateur marriage makers are now punished by fine].
* ↑ Many teungkus do not possess the requisite knowledge; these call in the assistance of some more experienced fellow-villager, who acts only at the teungku's request and in his presence.
* ↑ The action of the registrar is called peukatib because its most difficult part is the enunciation of the kōteubah, which the law requires from the wali. In Arabia the person authorized by the wali is said to conclude the contract ((Arabic characters)).
* ↑ This expression is to be found in the Tuḥfah (Vol. VI p. 442 of the marginally noted edition of as-Sharwāni of Cairo, A. H. 1305): (Arabic characters) and further on (Arabic characters) "And the married state may not be entered into with her who cannot yet endure it; for this there is required the testimony of four women." In Java also the "handing over" of a girl to a husband before she is of mature age is common enough, for in the opinion of the Mohammedan teachers the usual signs of puberty are not necessary to constitute a capacity to endure the married state.
* ↑ This word is also used by the disciples of any given school with reference to that school and its founder; for example, the recognition of the imām as-Shafiʾi by the Shafiʾites is eminently taqlīd, But in its technical use the word is more especially applied to the adoption in exceptional cases of the ritual of another imām. So it is said in answer to the question why such and such a Shafiʾite does a certain thing which is at variance with the teaching of his school, such as drinking fermented liquors (other than wine); "he resorts to the taqlīd" (that of Abu Ḥanīfah in the case in point).
* ↑ The doctrine of the taqlīd is somewhat complicated and the authorities differ considerably from one another in details. The best exposition of the subject is to be found in the above-mentioned edition of the Tuḥfah vol. VIII pp. 315 et seq. The question is akin to that as to whether the layman (i. e. he who is not endowed with authority as a teacher) has a maḍhab or not; on this latter point also the Shafiʾite authorities are divided. In regard to this we must recollect that as measured by theoretical law, all or almost all Mohammedans of the present time, even the so-called doctors, are only laymen ((Arabic characters)).
* ↑ That is to say, such as only partially fulfil the requirements which the Law makes of a qādhī.
* ↑ It will be observed that the function of the wali as such consists simply in looking after the honour of his family; and this is recognized by the Mohammedan teachers themselves; but actual guardianship of the son over his mother is of course unknown.
* ↑ As to this see the Sharh al-wiqâyah (Kasan 1881) p. 124.
* ↑ This is permitted among the Shafiʾites, the asking of the woman's consent being only recommended, The Ḥanafites consider even the marriage of a woman of full age without a wali permissible and only admit a right of protest when the woman marries beneath her and thus brings dishonour on her family.
* ↑ Sharḥ al-wiqâyah pp. 122–23.
* ↑ Or the bridegrooms guardian if he be under age.
* ↑ Baʾ imeum geutanyòë han sah tapeukawén aneuʾ nyòë, sabab hana kuji, hana nèʾ: meung kòn baʾ imeum Hanapi.
* ↑ Ban nyang hukōm Teungku.
* ↑ Geutanyòë tatamòng baʾ imeum Hanapi, meunòë taʾéʾtikeuët: ulōnteu ikōt imeum Hanapi baʾ masaʾalah nyòë, mèë peukawén aneuʾ nyang chut, nyang hana ku ngòn ja; ulōnteu eʾtikeuët kuat dali Hanapi.
* ↑ The opinion of four women prescribed by the Law, is not insisted on in such cases, that of the mother or perhaps the elder sister being accepted as sufficient.
* ↑ It must be borne in mind that for the man on the other hand the mere expression of his wish is sufficient to disolve the marriage without any further reason, and that the woman who is abandoned by her husband without any severing of the lawful bond of marriage occupies a miserable position in Mohammedan society.
* ↑ The same custom exists in the Straits Settlements, and would in all probability be met with in those parts of Hindustan whence Islam was introduced into the E. Indian Archipelago.
* ↑ In Van den Berg's Beginselen not only do we find no single word about this most important adat, but even the possibility of a "conditional talāq" is only barely alluded to (p. 157). In 1888, when I verbally informed Mr. Van den Berg that I had been told of the existence of this adat by many Javanese at Mecca, he denied that any such special custom existed, and when I maintained my ground and proved to him that it did exist at Batavia by referring to an allusion to it in an application for fatwa (verdict of a religious judge) composed by Sayyid ʿUthmān, the most he would allow was that something of the kind might perhaps appear sporadically. In support of his view that it was exceptional, he alleged that he had found no mention of any such adat in the registers of the Mohammedan courts. Since then, as appears in his essay on the Afwijkingen (Bijdr. Instituut, 1892 pp. 485 seqq.), Van den Berg has gleaned some popular information on the subject and finds himself compelled to speak of "the use sometimes made of (the permission) to pronounce a conditional divorce." Not a trace of 'personal observation', though in the introduction to his essay he speaks of notes personally made by him (Van den Berg). Had he taken trouble to enquire, he would have found that the custom is the established rule throughout the whole of Java, its omission being sporadic and requiring explanation; he would have known that among the commonest questions arising before the Mohammedan courts are those which spring from the taʾlīq, the pěrkara rapaʾ as they are called; he would have furnished us with examples of the very characteristic and instructive Javanese and Sundanese taʾlīq formulas, and we should not have to complain of the omission from his essay of the most important technical terms connected with this question such as janji ningratu, janji dalěm and rapaʾ. Now he only supplies the small amount of information given him by certain popular books,—information which he has acquired 20 years too late—draws wrong conclusions therefrom, and gives misleading explanations.
* ↑ In Batavia it is a year in each case, and the following condition is added to the other two: failure to maintain the wife for one month or serious ill-treatment. Even as regards Batavia, Van den Berg supplies misleading information. He might have collected better data from any Batavian; or else as he chose to form his ideas of the adat in the East Indies from printed works which he studied in Holland, he might in place of consulting Sayyid ʿUthmān's tabular treatise have referred to the fatwa pronounced by the authorities at Mekka on the application of that writer, and especially the wording of the application itself to which this fatwa conveys the reply, and which is printed under the title (Arabic characters). On page 2 in the description of the contents of the taʾlīq at Batavia, we find the following words: (Arabic characters)
* ↑ So that the woman if she wishes to obtain a separation is not bound to prove her husband's incapacity to maintain her.
* ↑ The nature of the assault is sometimes defined, as for instance striking her so as to draw blood, or pulling out her hair, or smashing to pieces her loom, the silent witness of many a forbidden intrigue.
* ↑ Although the marriage can be dissolved by the judge (faskh) at the instance of the woman in case of impotence on the man's part, Van den Berg is wrong in concluding that the man is bound to give "marital rights" (see his essay quoted above, p. 482). All Mohammedan law-books teach the opposite; it is only the woman who is bound to surrender her person. Divorce owing to impotence only takes place because the object to be attained by marriage (that is, according to the law-books, sexual union) is thereby rendered impossible, so that there is no longer any reason why the marriage should continue.
* ↑ In some districts we find conditions whose object is simply religious, e. g. "If I neglect the obligatory prayers or fasts or drink arak or gamble" etc. etc.
* ↑ Absurd as it may appear, neither of these are mentioned by Van den Berg.
* ↑ This declaration is called rapaʾ ((Arabic characters)), a word which in Arabic may be used to signify all kinds of declarations, but is used in Javanese and Sundanese as the technical term for the declaration of a woman that a taʾlīq condition has been fulfilled and that she wishes the marriage dissolved. The taʾlīq-formula usually runs as follows: samangsa-mangsané kula (here follow the conditions) ora trimané rabi kula, rapaʾ maring kakim, mangka runtuh talāq kula siji maring rabi kula N.
* ↑ There are indeed Mohammedan courts which give faskh on simple proof that the husband has failed in his obligations, but such verdicts are based simply on the ignorance of the judges, and not on any rights conferred by adat, far less on Moslim law. Some courts also wrongly apply the name pasah to proof of the talāq which has arisen through taʾlīq, but we must not draw from this use of the term any negative conclusions in regard to the adat of the taʾlīq. In certain parts of Jogjakarta (where taʾlīq is universal and faskh in its proper sense very rare) the word pasah is used to designate the official who is elsewhere called naib or district pangulu.
* ↑ The fact that "the majority (of the Javanese) even of the lower classes, do not enter into matrimony with a settled intention of being guilty of wilful desertion of their wives" (Van den Berg, Afwijkingen, p. 487) is but a poor consolation to the woman whose husband is compelled to migrate as a labourer for hire or cultivator into districts where possession in common prevails, but does not possess the means or the inclination to take his wife along with him. It is sought to arm the woman, not against a base intent conceived beforehand, but against unfortunate eventualities which as experience shows very frequently occur. Even Arabic teachers, who are otherwise always inclined to frown on native customs, exhibit a great regard for the "conditional separation" and do their best to maintain it.
* ↑ He ought properly speaking to dictate the words to the bridegroom in the first person. This has of late become customary in most localities owing to the increasing influence of Mekka in such matters.
* ↑ Here the taʾlīq has begun to be employed in some places on the coast.
* ↑ The word tuëng means to "fetch away," and meunarō is formed from marō = barō (dara barō means "the bride"); cf. meuneuri (present) = beuneuri from bri, "to give."
* ↑ See pp. 320, 324 above.
* ↑ Nyang tōʾ langkah lōn keunòë baʾ dròënen, geujuë jaʾ tuëng Si Nyaʾ nyòë. Si Nyaʾ is a pet name for children.
* ↑ The technical expression is jaʾ gampōng or rumòh lintō = "to go to the gampōng (or house) of the bridegroom."
* ↑ The idang of sweetmeats (peunajōh) consists of only a single dalōng; the idang for feasts is, as we have already seen, composed of two.
* ↑ This ring consists of a succession of thick knobs or balls held apart by little thin strips of metal.
* ↑ See p. 340 above.
* ↑ Peunulang is the special term applied to all that children receive from their parents for their support. It is thus opposed to peusaka or inherited property, but is taken into account on a division of the latter, so that a child who has received more peunulang than the others, gets less peusaka.
* ↑ The technical name for these visits is jaʾ bri ranub = going to offer sirih. The sirih is brought in the form of the ranub dòng already described.
* ↑ This is technically known as wòé baʾ meunarō = "returning from the meunarō" (see note on p. 356).
* ↑ See pp. 320, 324 above
* ↑ I must here observe that while opium-smoking is very common on the West and North-East coasts, it is not at all so prevalent in Acheh Proper as is usually supposed.
* ↑ The man is never bound to connubial intercourse (see p. 352 above); and is only required to pay regular visits to his wife where he has more than one. In the latter case the claims of the wives are relative only and not absolute, i. e. he is bound to spend as much time with one as he does with the other.
* ↑ The dowry is not infrequently (especially by persons of position) handed back after the conclusion of the contract.
* ↑ See p. 327 above.
* ↑ Puwòë siè; cf. p. 237.
* ↑ These gifts of meat are not however entirely discontinued. Most men whose gampōngs are not too far off from those of their wives bring presents of meat as well as of money.
* ↑ See p. 326 above.
* ↑ See p. 327 above.
* ↑ This properly means "the dowry period agreed on" since the length of this period depends upon the amount of the jinamèë.
* ↑ If the dowry has been only paid in half (see p. 340 above), the widower pays the remaining half and afterwards receives it back as haʾ balèë.
* ↑ Haʾ is the Arab. haqq = right, that which appertains to a person, and balèë means both widow and widower.
* ↑ It is said: mate adòë, pulang balèë ngòn a = "to make use, after the younger sister's death, of the right of wedding her elder sister without paying a dowry" and vice versâ, maté a, pulang balèë ngòn adòë. Cases of both such marriages occur.
* ↑ Peungklèh, which properly means "to set apart, to give up control of," is the technical term for the action of the parents or next of kin in this matter. After the conclusion of the ceremony it is said of the woman that she ka meungklèh, i, e. is put forth and placed under the protection of her husband.
* ↑ Van den Berg mentions this adat in his essay on the Afwijkingen pp. 474 et seq. In regard to this subject he makes fewer of the gross blunders into which he elsewhere falls, but here again he gives us nothing but what he has derived from books without a trace of "notes personally made by him." He might for instance have discovered by personal enquiry that the exceptions he mentions (Bantěn and a number of other places) are really no exceptions at all; the only reason why the saguna-sakaya or common earnings are not divided in these districts is that they have no existence, since the women there do not assist their husbands in their work. He might also have found out that the division in the proportion of 2 to 1, though of frequent occurrence, is by no means universal, since in many places it is the custom to enquire first into the circumstances, and then to decide what is the just proportion which each has earned. In Madiun for instance, division into equal parts is very customary. On page 477 Van den Berg makes the curious deduction that this adat is specially Javanese, because it is also to be met with in outlying Dutch possessions such as Southern Celebes."
* ↑ Hareukat means "occupation," and the profits derived from one's employment. It is "also used as a verb in the sense of "to earn one's bread," "to carry on an employment," "to go forth to seek one's fortune."
* ↑ The name given to rice folded up in a peculiar way in plantain leaves. Fishermen, travellers, etc., often take their food from home in this fashion.
* ↑ In Java such marriages, especially between persons who have been detected in illicit intercourse, are much more frequent than would appear to be the case from Van den Berg's oft quoted essay (p. 466). They take place when the night watch on their rounds find a pair on terms of too great intimacy. Chiefs compel their followers, pangulus the inhabitants of their districts, to marry a pregnant woman simply on her unsupported assurance as to who her seducer is. The woman is generally divorced after a short time, but in the meantime this expedient has provided the yet unborn child with a father.
* ↑ For a woman who has periods the ʿiddah amounts to three seasons of sexual purity, the first of which may be that during which the ṭalaq was pronounced, thus comprising at least three periods; for others it is three full months. In the case of a pregnant woman it lasts till about 40 days after childbirth. Inall Mohammedan countries of the E. Indian Archipelago it has been usual to fix the ʿiddah of all non-pregnant women at three months and ten days, through fear of errors arising from ignorance or miscalculation on the part of the women. Of late however, Arabic influence has caused an increasing tendency to adhere to the letter of the law.
* ↑ The Malays have the same custom, but with them any small objects, such as pieces of paper etc. may be used as tokens, and not fragments of betelnut only. (Translator).
* ↑ Sitaleuëʾ, dua taleuëʾ, lhòë taleuëʾ, gata sah sèëdara dōnyaʾ akhérat.
* ↑ Ka kutalenuëʾ, ka kupeulheuëh or gata ka chré ngòn lōn.
* ↑ In most of the languages of the Archipelago the words used indicate "falling," the idea being that the three ṭalāqs are as it were suspended over the woman's head, and that one or more of them may fall at a given time. Another very common notion is that the man originally "possesses" three ṭalāqs of his wife, and that as often as he pronounces one of these, he "gives" it to her. From this we can readily understand the prevailing idea that the woman can, with her husband's consent, purchase from him one of the three ṭalaqs that are in his possession.
* ↑ After the death of the husband an ʿiddah is also observed in Acheh lasting 4 months and 10 days. This is quite in accordance with Mohammedan law.
* ↑ Called těbus talak by the Malays. It is occasionally resorted to in the Peninsula, but is not a general practice. (Translator).
* ↑ This again seems not to have been understood by Van den Berg. On p. 484 of his Afwijkingen appears a note, wherein he expresses surprise at Winter's applying the term khulʿ to the temporary divorce of a wife brought into practice by the princes of Java, when they wish to wed a concubine with child. If he employed the ordinary single divorce, the prince, who always has four wives, would not be able at once to marry another, but would have to await the conclusion of the ʿiddah and the period (rujuʿ) allowed for recall. On the other hand if he gave his wife a three-fold divorce, although he might then immediately wed another, he could not remarry the divorced one later on, as he wishes to do. He therefore selects the khulʿ method as the only one which combines the power of eventual remarriage with immediate separation. Some teachers even hold that the khulʿ can take place more than three times without preventing a renewal of the marriage, and the princes of the Native States adhere to this dictum.
* ↑ See the essay of Van Langen, entitled Atjeh's Westkust, in Tijdschr. Kon. Nederl. Aardrijks. Genootschap, 2nd Series Vol. VI (longer articles) p. 38.
* ↑ A pot (kanèt) of a very large size when used for cooking rice is called kanèt dangdang.
* ↑ Naléh is a measure (see p. 201 above) for raw rice whether husked or unhusked. Baskets (katéng) are manufactured of rattan or bili, to hold exactly a naléh. These are also sometimes used for carrying cooked rice.
* ↑ We thus find the expressions dangdang masaʾ and dangdang meuntah, on the same analogy as biaya masaʾ and meuntah (see pp. 325–26 above).
* ↑ See note 2 above.
* ↑ See as to this the note to p. 366, The name is taken from the manner in which the boiled rice is packed in leaves.
* ↑ See p. 320 above.
* ↑ Very similar superstitions prevail among the Malays of the Peninsula. In addition to those here mentioned, a pregnant woman must always carry a knife or other iron implement when she walks abroad, and must let no one walk behind her. It is also regarded as extremely dangerous to pass beneath the tree known as chermai or the pisang batu or banġgala. This reminds one of the superstitious objection English people have to walking under a ladder. (Translator).
* ↑ A bogey inimical to pregnant women.
* ↑ An exception is made in cases when such slaughter is required for special purposes defined by traditional custom. On the like pretext almost all pantang prohibitions may be occasionally transgressed.
* ↑ In Java the woman is so placed that her position corresponds with the direction taken by the nearest running water or with the line of the split bamboos which form the flooring. In Acheh no attention is paid to her position.
* ↑ And in Malaya. The Malays explain this custom as an atonement by the woman for any sins she may have committed against her husband. Such faults are supposed to be condoned by this symbolical trampling under foot of the wife by the husband, who should touch her body lightly with his feet as he steps over it. (Translator).
* ↑ Atsi pater nulla talia carmina noscit, satis est ei penem in aquam, quae mulieri dabitur, intrudere.
* ↑ This reminds us of the wellknown superstition among English sailors as to the efficacy of a child's caul as a charm against death by drowning. (Translator).
* ↑ Hence the saying Si N. maté meukamat adòë = "N, (the woman) died because the younger brother was not brought to the birth."
* ↑ The Malays have this notion too; when an infant smiles it is said to be "thinking of its younger brother" (adek). The Malays do not keep the placenta; they put it in a jar and bury it in the ground and plant a cocoanut over it. The tree that grows from this serves as a token of the child's age. (Translator).
* ↑ Minyeuʾ kayèë putéh (kayu puteh), minyeuʾ dòythun (olive oil) and minyeuʾ sribuguna or minyeuʾ kòntò.
* ↑ As to the signifance of a period of 44 days after birth, marriage, death etc., see pp. 264, 324.
* ↑ This is an abbreviated form derived from dadeuëng with the addition of the inserted syllable eum. Dadeuëng = "to dry over the fire." (transitive). As to this custom cf. G. H. Niemann in the Bijdragen van het Koninkl. Inst. voor de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederl.-Indië for 1892, p. 36. [The Malay is bědiang. The Malays only apply the "oven" at intervals as a rule, and the intensity of the heat is gradually diminished. The wood used for fuel must contain no poison; the kind most generally employed is a variety of mangrove known in the Malay Peninsula as api-api. Rambutanwood is also used occasionally. (Translator).
* ↑ The Malays have a curious pantang-rule as to the wood used for the oven; those who tend the fire must be most careful not to break the burning brands, as to do so would be likely to cause sickness to the child. (Translator).
* ↑ The bulōh, the only variety of thornless bamboo found in Acheh.
* ↑ This present is called kòh pusat or lapéʾ pusat. Among the humbler folk it amounts to half a dollar, but those who are fairly well off give two dollars.
* ↑ For instance the kayèë meuïh-meuïh, also called maih-maïh.
* ↑ In the West of Java on the other hand, they are universally so employed.
* ↑ The word is exactly identical in sound with the Malay burong = "bird." But "bird" in Achehnese is chichém, and their expression for the spirit inimical to women in childbed has no connection in the mind of the Achehnese with the Malay word.
* ↑ Compare also the Arabian Umm aç-çibyān or qarīnah (see my "Mekka" Vol. II. pp.123–24). The Malays also believe in the pontianak; but even more dreaded is the pěnanggalan, a sort of second self of certain living persons who have the mysterious power of detaching their heads and pulling out their entrails so as to hang loose in front. These dread beings are supposed to visit at night houses where women in childbed lie, so the midwives often fasten strips of méngkuang below the steps to catch in the protruding entrails and bar the entrance of the pěnanggalan. (Translator).
* ↑ See p. 71 above.
* ↑ (Arabic characters) epithets of God, used in praise of him in the beginning of the service.
* ↑ Thus she is said to have asked him: "What is that tree whose leaves are as big as a rice-sieve and its roots as big as rice-pounders?" whereupon he gave her the name of the tree birah by reciting the Arabic formula biraḥmatika ya arḥam arrāḥimīn = "by thy mercy, O most Merciful of the merciful." In reply to her question "what are the plants which stand in a row?" he recited the words: wakhtilāf al-aili wan-nahār ("day and night succeeding one another") the first of which suggests keutila, a kind of vegetable.
* ↑ Thus the making of such a sound is called by the Achehnese meuʾiʾi lagèë burōng.
* ↑ See p. 373 above.
* ↑ See my Mekka, vol. II, pp. 124 et seq.: also M. J. de Goeje and Th. Nöldeke in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländ-Gesellschaft, Vol. XLIV pp. 480 and 701.
* ↑ These are, it will be noted, the very days which are considered as of importance after a marriage or a death.
* ↑ Bōh bungòng, identical with the Javanese ngěmbang.
* ↑ Salōb batèë.
* ↑ Jaʾ dòm baʾ ureuëng madeuëng as it is called, i. e. "to go and spend the night with one who is drying" (intrans.)
* ↑ Sòë gata?—Han kupeugah.—Pubuët keunòë?—Kujaʾ-jaʾ.—Peuë tajaʾ mita, peuë tameunapsu?—Ulèë eungkōt, gulè ōn murōng, sië balu, bòh itéʾ jruëʾ. As we have seen these last-named objects are those desired by Srabi Tanjōng.
* ↑ Where the speaker is in an Achehnese house, which is raised on posts, the expression "below" is the equivalent of our "out-of-doors."
* ↑ A common form of curse against a pregnant woman is thus: baʾ burōng peutrōn keu = "may the burōng bring you down below."
* ↑ Aweuëh peuët plōh peuët. These will be again referred to in connection with Achehnese medical art.
* ↑ Talòë kiʾiëng. See p. 30 above.
* ↑ Ka srōt pusat is the expression used to denote this occurrence.
* ↑ The use of the separated portion as a charm or medicament for the child, so common in Java, seems to be quite unknown in Acheh.
* ↑ The Malays cut the navel-cord with a bamboo knife; while being severed it is often supported (di-alas) with a strip of silver, which afterwards becomes the property of the midwife. (Translator).
* ↑ See p. 326 above.
* ↑ Malay buayan. The Malay cradle is of basket-work; cords are attached to the four corners and by these it is hung from a beam of the house and swings easily to and fro. (Translator).
* ↑ See p. 320 above.
* ↑ This feast is also observed by the Malays, in much the same way as here described. The child's hair is not shaved, but small pieces snipped off pro forma. Well-to-do people often fasten small diamond-shaped pieces of gold or silver in the child's hair, and these are presented to teachers and others of repute at the discretion of the father. (Translator).
* ↑ Chuëng properly means the smell of urine. In other parts of the Archipelago, as for instance in Java, children's names are very often borrowed from such ideas or from the names of the sexual organs. Thus we find in Java tolé or kontolé, li (contracted from pěli) which signify the male organ; lup or kulup = uncircumcised, for boys, and ruk (from turuk) or mèʾ from těmèʾ (= pudendum muliebre) for girls. [Kulup is a very common name among Malays; they do not however seem to employ any of the others mentioned above. (Translator)].
* ↑ Bèʾ tamòng angèn.
* ↑ This disease is also called peunyakét manyaʾ = the suckling's sickness.
* ↑ Such diseases are called peunyakét dimanyang = "diseases from above," which name refers to the supernatural powers supposed to inhabit the air. Another disease also so classified is peunyakét gajahan, the symptoms of which are a feeling of oppression just above the navel followed by loss of consciousness.
* ↑ Saepe quoque mater, alios modos frustrâ experta, indicem in pudendum suum intrusum osculo pueri adfert.
* ↑ Mal. gila babi; but the disease so called by the Malays is not confined to children, and the name is taken rather from the grunting sound emitted by the patient than from movements recalling those of wild pigs. Other diseases of children so classified by the Malays are sěrâwan, a soreness of the tongue, the chief cure for which is Chinese ink rubbed on the part affected and sawan, a form of fever accompanied by giddiness and delirium. (Translator).
* ↑ The Mohammedan law sets down the average period of purification after childbirth at 40 days, and this is the time observed in Java. As we have seen however the period of forty days customarily observed in other countries is often replaced by forty-four, which latter number plays a prominent part in Achehnese superstition.
* ↑ Compare the bath of the woman in Java in the 7th month of her pregnancy, the water for which is if possible taken from seven wells.
* ↑ See pp. 43–44 above.
* ↑ See pp. 305–306 above.
* ↑ A pair of trousers (silueuë or lueuë), an undergarment (ija pinggang), and a sort of shawl (ija sawaʾ, Mal. and Jav. slendang).
* ↑ The invariable reply to this, as to all other prayers for forgiveness, is hana peuë = "it is nothing."
* ↑ Owing to the fact that the Achehnese houses stand high off the ground, the word for entering the house is éʾ = to climb up, and for going out of doors, trōn = to descend.
* ↑ Aneuʾ nyan kadang na bimaran.
* ↑ The idea is that the thing in question is desired by a jén (jinn) or other supernatural being which afflicts the child with sickness.
* ↑ There is a specimen in the museum of the Batavian Society.
* ↑ When a woman's hair falls out this also is thought to be bimaran; she is then supplied with a golden hair ornament, called ulèë cheumara, consisting of an oblong gold plate on the underside of which is fixed a chain to which is attached a hook to fasten it to the hair. The woman places it in her back hair, but conceals the golden plate, as it is not the custom for grown up women to wear such ornaments. The idea is that the demands of the spirit which caused disease in the hair, or of the hair itself, are thus satisfied.
* ↑ Of such a thing it is said ka geupuja i. e. it has been successfully used as a charm against the jéns.
* ↑ Such a vow can only be fulfilled by well-to-do people; most shops would close their doors against poor folk who come to beg for such a purpose.
* ↑ The Achehnese formulas for the above mentioned vows are as under. The condition meung ka puléh kah = 'if you recover' is to be understood as preceding each one. Kujaʾ mè kah tujōh bòh meuseugit. Kujuë beuët siseun tamat. Kujaʾ mè kah baʾ peuët plōh peuët èëlia. Kukanduri tujōh bòh ulèë keubeuë. Kupumanòë kah ngòn ië srah gaki pòteu. Kujaʾ geumadè tujōh bòh keudè. Kusië kamèng sabòh diteungòh leuën.
* ↑ The singing of these songs (in Java léla-léla, among the Sundanese neng-nengkung) is called in Achehnese meudōdi, from the sound dōdi (Mal. du-duy) which constantly occurs in a more or less modified form in the cradle-songs.
* ↑ The question asked of parents by those who seek to know a child's age is: "what can your child do (peuë thèë aneuʾ gata)", to which the reply is: ka thèë duëʾ, meuâeuy etc.
* ↑ This is also in general use in Java: Sund. kurilingan, Jav. leredan or gritan. [Also used by the Malays of the Peninsula, and called by them kepala payong = "umbrella-top.” (Translator).]
* ↑ Mal. běrtindek telinga. The Malays often bore the ears before the child has completed its first year. (Translator).
* ↑ See page 305 above.
* ↑ This "bringing to school" is called euntat beuët i. e. to take to be taught recitation, and the teachers, not only of Qurān recitation, but also of higher forms of knowledge, are called ureuëng pumubeuët, i, e. the persons who cause (the pupils) to recite or read.
* ↑ This dish is called bu leukat ngòn u mirah.
* ↑ Aneuʾ lōn lōn jaʾ jōʾ keu dròënen, neupubeuët, neupòh, mubèʾ chapiëʾ deungòn buta, laʾén baʾ nyan hukōm dròëneu.
* ↑ See p. 305 above.
* ↑ This kupiah with the kerchief surrounding it really forms a turban as defined in the books of Mohammedan law. In Acheh however the name seureuban is only given to the turban of Arab pattern surrounded by a kerchief twisted in the Arabian fashion. Only a few distinguished teungkus wear the seureuban. There is no proper term for the Achehnese shape, consisting of a high kupiah and a small tangkulōʾ wound round its lower edge: it is described as kupiah palét tangkulōʾ.
* ↑ The operation is absolute circumcision and not incision merely. Incision, which is universal in the Native States of Java, and the removal of a triangular patch from the end of the prepuce which is sometimes resorted to, are unknown in Acheh. The absolute circumcision is becoming more common in Java of later years.
* ↑ The Malays use a dressing formed of fine clay mixed with the yolk of eggs (ubat tasak). See Skeat's Malay Magic, p. 360.
* ↑ This consists of rice which is first roasted and then pounded fine and passed through a sieve.
* ↑ The operation of tooth-filing is equally popular among the Malays of the Peninsula. A full description of the Malayan tooth-filing ceremony will be found in Skeat's Malay Magic, p. 355 et seq. (Translator).
* ↑ This rule of law imposes no special obligations on the husband as to the frequency of his visits to his wives or the length of time which he must spend in their company, but it expressely gives to all the wives of one husband a claim to eguality of rights in this respect, so that he may not spend more of his time with one than another except by the latter's consent,
* ↑ We have already seen (p. 364 above) that if the woman dies before the meungklèh or "putting forth," her family offer a new wife in her place to the widower.
* ↑ Neubri keu lōn udéb maté.
* ↑ Neubri keu lōn udéb, còh maté pulang keu dròënen.