Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/168

 the XXII Mukims has borne for many generations past. He is regarded as the doyen of the chiefs of the sagis on account both of the antiquity of his lineage, the bravery of the men of his sagi and its wealth. His sagi really numbers many more mukims than the name implies. Increase of population has given rise to the formation of new districts, yet the traditional name of the sagi has survived. The same is true, though in a less degree, of the XXV Mukims, while the XXVI continue to correspond with their ancient name.

A tradition which represents the Pòléms as sprung from the sultans is contradicted by them, and is without doubt partly legendary and partly concocted by their enemies to bring a stain upon their family. The legend is as follows: the great Meukuta Alam once suffered from a venereal disease and in order to cure it had recourse to the remedy (held in much repute among natives) of having intercourse with a healthy woman. For this purpose he employed a black slave, and did actually recover from his disease. The slave however became pregnant, and as in Acheh great weight is given to descent from the mother's side, he was distressed at the prospect of having to acknowledge as his son the child of a black woman. Accordingly he sent her forth into the jungle, in other words into the district of the XXII Mukims. In regard to her journey there exist numerous stories which chiefly serve to account for the origin of the names of certain localities. According to the legend, the son, whose life was spared by the highlanders, became the first Panglima Pòlém, chief of what is in many respects the most important sagi of Acheh.

This tradition, of which there are also other versions less insulting to the honour of the Pòlém, does not seem to me to contain a single grain of historic truth. The title of "elder brother" probably typified the original relation between the powerful sagi-chief and the sultan. Just in the same way we find two ulèëbalangs with the official title of "grand-fathers" (nèʾ) of the sultan viz. the chief of the Mukim Meuraʾsa (and also in earlier times of the VI Mukims) and the chief of the IX Mukims of the XXV, Teuku Nèʾ Raja Muda Seutia and Teuku Nèʾ Peureuba Wangsa. The title of the chief of Lhōʾ Seumawè, Mahraja or Mbahraja, is also explained by the Achehnese as expressing such a