Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/151

 We should rather have said "her house," because in the division of inheritances houses are as far as possible assigned to female heirs. The father of the family can hardly be said to "change his residence," since he either lives in the house of his wife or occupies a temporary lodging.

Sale of rice-fields, sugarcane gardens or court yards cannot take place before the owners of the lands bounding those that are for sale have waived their privilege of buying in the immovable property in question for the price offered by the would-be purchaser.

Both sale and mortgage of real property are executed with some ceremony in presence of the authorities of the gampōng, and also, where possible, of a large number of witnesses. On such occasions certain formalities of the Mohammedan law are also observed, 1%, or over of the value of every rice-field sold must be paid to the ulèëbalang.

Suits for the recovery of debts are submitted to the ulèëbalang when all other means of settlement are found to be fruitless. The chief requires both parties to deposit a sum equal to that in dispute. This deposit is called haʾ ganchéng, lit. = means of including or binding. This the Achehnese regard as a tanda jih maté lam jaròë hakim = a token or pledge that the suitor hands himself over as a dead body into the hands of the judge to deal with as he will. After the decree of the ulèëbalang has been carried out, he restores the haʾ ganchéng, but deducts from the debt settled by his intervention a portion (sometimes amounting to from one-half to one-third of the whole), by way of recompense for his trouble.

So far we have sketched the functions of the ulèëbalang as military leader, administrator and judge; we shall now add, partly by way of recapitulation, and partly to complete the picture, a resumé of the principal revenues and profits arising from the office.

a. The three chief ulèëbalangs or panglima sagi used to receive a present from the sultan on the latter's accession to the throne. This "wedding gift" (jinamèë) has in later times amounted to $ 500, but against this it became later the established rule for a newly constituted panglima sagi to pay at least an equal sum to the sultan for the letters patent by which he confirms his appointment. These three chiefs also