Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/242

 These papers are thrown into sea, river or well, and the water is thereby believed to be given salutary powers.

Others drink water from a platter on which these verses are inscribed, the writing being partially dissolved in the water.

With this bathing are connected other regulations in regard to the toilet such as shaving, cutting of nails etc. but the Achehnese do not pay much attention to these.

Those who live near the sea-shore are especially fond of the Rabu Abéh picnics. Each brings his contribution (ripè) for the feast, which exhibits not the smallest trace of its religious origin. These social gatherings are called meuramiën. In Java also these picnics generally take place in seaside localities. The common people know no more than that this "Final Wednesday" is appointed for bathing, drinking charmed water and holding social gatherings and do not concern themselves at to the traditional origin of the custom. Such is also the case in Arabia.

Some pious persons perform on the afternoon of the Rabu Abéh a special voluntary seumayang consisting of two or more divisions, on the ground of a tradition characterized as "weak" by the expounders of the law.

3. Mòʾlōt (Rabiʿ al-awwal) is in every Mohammedan country, but especially in the Eastern Archipelago, a month of feasts. According to the now generally accepted tradition the 12$th$ of this month was the date both of the birth and of the death of the Prophet, and on this day many other important occurrences took place during the 63 years which separate these two events.

We know with what brilliancy the birthday of the Apostle of God is celebrated in the Javanese courts, and how universal is its public observance even in the smallest of Javanese villages. Although this festival is not one of the two officially ordained by the law—since, as may be supposed, it did not begin to be observed until long after