Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/205

 was concentrated more than ever against the Dutch, who had for years past been the kafirs most detested in Acheh.

The cause of the continuance, with but slight change, of these conditions is rather to be sought for in the fact that the Achehnese throughout their twenty years contest with the Dutch have not yet grasped the uselessness of their resistance to the kafirs. For we must always recollect that reason, education and other similar influences gain no hold upon the self-esteem of Mohammedans until they find themselves opposed to irresistable force. Such is the tendency of their doctrine and their practice entirely accords therewith.

The Achehnese constantly express their conviction that they were wrong in ever vacillating for a moment (as they did in the time of General van der Heijden), that Allah is manifestly on their side, and that the Dutch, infidels worn out by defeat after defeat and beset by sickness and other such troubles, must give in at last in spite of their apparently superior strength. Further, they believe that the estimate of infidels that prevailed in Acheh in ancient times is more reliable than the view taken by the people of Meuraʾsa, Gampōng Jawa and the like, according to which the wisest course would be to submit to the first kafir power that came by.

Some were indeed disposed to submission from the very first, and among them the people of Meuraʾsa are generally regarded as having taken the foremost place. Yet even these have maintained au fond their old doctrine in regard to infidels, owing to the ephemeral nature of the impression they have received during the last 20 years of the power of the Gōmpeuni. They add however that they find it too troublesome to put this doctrine in practice owing to the exposed position of their territory. Such a feeling could never have maintained its ground, if the Dutch Government had steadily extended its influence in Acheh and the people of Meuraʾsa had continued as in the beginning to render the greatest services and enjoy the greateetgreatest [sic] advantages.

The common parlance of the people serves to illustrate the attitude of the Achehnese towards the Gōmpeuni. In talking to one another they only occasionally employ the name Ulanda (Hollander) the commoner appellation being kaphé (Ach. pronunciation of kafir), which they use without the least ill-will. Furthermore, the Achehnese has two personal pronouns, both of which express the third person for all