Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/137

 We might to some extent apply to the relation of the ulèëbalang to his kali the expression which the Achehnese use to denote the mutual positions of the chief of the gampōng (keuchiʾ) and the teungku meunasah, and represent the ulèëbalang as the father and the kali as the mother of the ulèëbalangship; but with this distinction, that the position of this "mother" of a province is relatively very much lower than that of the "mother" of a village.

Thus the administration of justice remains mainly in the hands of the ulèëbalangs. It is only however in the direst necessity that their mediation is sought, for these chiefs hold it before them as their principal aim to get as much hard cash as possible for themselves, and take but little pains with cases, however weighty, from which there is not much profit to be won. We shall now enumerate the principal matters which give rise to blood-vengeance or to sentences of the ulèëbalangs.

Bodily injuries, hurt or manslaughter originating in ordinary quarrels, are as a rule avenged without recourse to any authority by the injured party with the help of his kawōm or kindred. If however at the end of the mutual reprisals a considerable debit balance remains over on one side, the matter is submitted to the ulèëbalang, who in this case simply directs the payment in accordance with religious law of the diét or price of blood by the offender to the injured party. For this diét a tariff is to be found in the Moslim law-books. Where the ulèëbalang is himself unlearned, he applies for enlightenment to a kali or ulama.

Long continued petty wars only arise out of blood feuds in such cases as when a simple hurt is avenged by manslaughter, or the recognized limits overstepped in some other such way.

We have already alluded to the peculiar gampōng-adat of meulangga which is employed to wash away the insult inseparable from the injury done, and which does not interfere with the debt in blood or money which accrues therefrom.

We may add that an insult offered by a person of high rank to an ordinary citizen is obliterated without recourse being had to meulangga, simply through the so-called cooling (peusijuëʾ) or another form of