Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/261

 This is nearly identical with the portion given as recompense to the teungku in Acheh, who is allowed to appropriate three fingers breadth behind the ears. This is called the seumeuléhan = "reward for slaughter."

The hide becomes the property of the meunasah. It is converted into a leathern prayer carpet or else sold, the proceeds being spent in the purchase of kettles or such other utensils as are required for the preparation of kanduris.

Until the later years preceding the establishment of the Dutch in Acheh, this three-days' fair was one of the most bustling of festivals. We can conjecture from this what it must have been when the port-kings of Acheh as such were at the zenith of their glory. The direct participation of the Dalam (the Sultan's Court) in this annual market was in these latter days limited to certain traditional customs which merely kept alive a feeble reminiscence of the past. These paltry survivals of the old ceremonial are however the only portion of it of which we have any accurate knowledge.

On the first day of the fair, just before noon, the Sranta took place. This was a proclamation with beat of gong, in the name of the Sultan, that the annual market had begun.

Five or six young men of the Sultan's suite (which as we have seen was not recruited from the best class of the people) appeared in the market, where buyers and sellers had already assembled in unusually large numbers. Business was however in full swing in the market before its official inauguration, for every one knew that the fast was close at hand, and even the exact date of the first day of the Puasa became generally known long before its official announcement.

The emissaries of the Sultan now proceeded to beat loudly and repeatedly on a great gong in the midst of the bustling crowd, and in the intervals between the strokes one of their number, who acted as herald, cried aloud the following words "Twenty-six, twenty-five, twenty-two ! Such is the command of our lord (the Sultan): on this day (the cattle is) brought down (from the highlands); to-morrow let the beasts fight; the next day let them be slaughtered."

The adat permitted these royal messengers to take without payment