Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/160

 the words: "His Majesty ordered this to be written by the Keureukōn katibulmuluk ."

We have here thus another example of an hereditary title-bearer who became an ulèëbalang pòteu without work or fixed income and without territory. Since the establishment of one of their number in the Mukim Lhèë, the Keureukōns have been among those whose influence was a factor to be reckoned with in that wakeuëh-district, although they have never come to be recognized as its chiefs.

Three of the XXVI Mukims were in like manner free from the control of the Panglima Sagi ; and though it cannot be said that the sultans held supreme control there in more recent times, it still seems probable that this district also was made wakeuëh originally with the intention just indicated.

The mukims Luëng Bata, Pagarayé and Lam Sayun are regarded as properly belonging to the XXV Mukims, yet this trio seems also to have been formerly wakeuëh. Within the memory of man however, the only trace of such a status has been the independence of the chiefs of these mukims. The influential and powerful imeum of Luëng Bata was indeed on many occasions the adviser and ally of the sultan, but this very relation made it necessary for the latter to hold this chief in great respect and treat him with marked distinction.

We must thus regard these wakeuëh-districts of 3 mukims as being merely the relics of earlier conditions; the period during which they served to advance the political aims of the sultans was in any case of very short duration.

Similar survivals of wakeuëh districts of this description are to be found in Pidië and some other dependencies, but their chiefs have long been free from the control of the sultans.

It is said that there were on some of the islands (Pulò Wè for example) wakeuëh lands of a different class, reserved by the sultans with the view of appropriating their produce.

Of the remaining methods resorted to by the sultans for the maintenance of their authority, we have already made mention of several in