Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/259

 could tell in advance what the last three days of Shaʿbān would be, whether 27–29, or 28–30.

The chief object of the preparations during these three days is to ensure an abundant provision for breaking the fast every evening at sunset and enjoying a final meal before earliest dawn. It is also sought to provide against being obliged to make purchases of any kind during the fasting month. The fasters are as a matter of fact too exhausted to give the ordinary amount of attention to trade in the daytime, so that the markets are nearly empty during these thirty days of mortification.

The two meals per diem between nightfall and daybreak which form each man's allowance in the month of Puasa, are made as nourishing as possible, as otherwise he would not have strength to fulfil the religious obligation of abstinence. At the same time the most palatable food, such as is not in daily use at other times, is chosen in order to guard against a gradual loss of appetite and consequent indisposition. Thus the stockfish which forms the staple animal food daily consumed by the Achehnese, is during the fasting month replaced by meat, which is at other seasons rarely used in most households and regarded as a luxury.

Hence comes the ancient custom of buying a stock of meat in every gampōng during the three days preceding the commencement of the fasting month. On the last day before the fast, the people feast abundantly on the meat, and pickle the remnants with salt, vinegar etc. to form a provision calculated to last about 15 days. To satisfy this universal demand for meat, the highlanders come down with their cattle for sale to the chief town. In former times there was a regular fair in Banda Acheh during those three days, as a store had to be laid in not alone of meat, but of all other household necessaries as well, sufficient to last for a month. Both men and women in Acheh