Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/209

 standpoint, he was unsurpassed in his hatred of the infidel, while not behind the majority of his countrymen in his reverence for saints and ulamas.

The great defect in most of the hereditary chiefs consisted and still consists in this, that their religious and political convictions never impel them to action on behalf of Acheh; they wait as long as possible to see whether their own territory will be threatened. Even where some responded to the repeated calls for help by coming to the rescue with their followers, they were unable to hold the latter together and the auxiliary force soon melted away. For it is an evil custom with most of the Achehnese chiefs when they call out their subjects for a distant expedition, to make little or no proper provision for their maintenance on the journey or in the foreign territory which is their objective. The obvious result is that even the most frugal and kafir-hating Achehnese soon abandon a contest with superior forces under such circumstances.

Hereditary chiefs, newly created panglimas and devout volunteers organized their bands of fighting men as well as they knew how, but complaints were rife of the inconsiderable levies sent up by the people of Pidië and the highlanders with all their vaunted courage. Meanwhile in the Dalam old cannons were dug up out of the ground and loaded with an extraordinary collection of projectiles, which on various occasions proved more fatal to the Achehnese gunners than to the soldiers of the Gōmpeuni.

In the beginning the trust of the Achehnese in God's help seemed now and then to be justified. Where they met with reverses the representatives of religion were ever ready with their explanation. "He that will carry on a holy war with assurance of victory must begin," said they, "by turning from all his iniquities.' Small wonder that Allah did not always cause the arms of Acheh to be victorious since he had so much maʿsiët (trangression) to visit on the people. When the Habib returned from his travels and assumed the leadership of the resistance to the Dutch, the ulamas pointed with satisfaction to every additional success achieved. Here was one who carried on the war according to the rules of the sacred books, while the adat chiefs knew nought of them and spent their spare time in forbidden pleasures.

Finally there came severe lessons; in particular, the marches of the Dutch troops through the highlands established the conviction that