Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/174

 At the solemn installation of a new sultan, his own proper ulèëbalangs played more or less the part of masters of ceremonies, while the kalis and ulamas gave as it were their blessing to the marriage of the raja with his country.

We shall now give the most characteristic features of the ceremony of installation, as related to us by eye-witnesses of the last sultan's coronation.

In the neighbourhood of the royal abode and of the balè rōm, in which the sultan received his guests, was a square space surrounded by a low wall. Inside this there was a platform, also square, composed as it seems of stones somewhat roughly piled together, to which access was given by a flight of steps. At the side of the platform, which was called branda seumah or praʾna seumah, was a small wooden gallery supported on posts. The opening in the low enclosing wall giving access to the enclosure in which the platform stood, was in the middle of its rearmost side, that is the side to which the sultan's back was turned when he took his seat on the branda seumah.

This platform seems only to have been used for coronations and was suitably decorated on these occasions; at ordinary times it was neglected, so that anyone passing through the Dalam or Kuta Raja would hardly notice it.

A debate lasting some weeks was first held by the three panglima sagi and other influential chiefs (in consultation, so far as they thought necessary, with the kalis and ulamas) to determine the most suitable candidate for the vacant throne. When their final decision had been sealed by the payment of the "wedding" presents to the three panglimas, a favourable day was fixed for the ceremony.

During the forenoon of this day those court dignitaries whose offices had not shared the universal downfall, were at their posts—especially the Panglima Meuseugit Raya, whose duty it was to keep order in the Dalam, and the Teuku Kali Malikōn Adé, who performed his functions within the space surrounding the branda seumah, with his blunderbuss hanging from his shoulder, and a white cocoanut spathe wound in his head cloth.

The new sultan now took his seat on the platform, while the three head kalis of the sagis and some of the principal ulamas ranged them-