Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/268

 rest of the reciters are maléms and leubès who in many cases have taken no share in the trawèh at the meunasah, preferring to celebrate it elsewhere in a more becoming manner under the leadership of an ulama.

The people of the gampōng do not remain listening to the meudarōih till much past 10, but the recitation continues till about 1 , when the tambu begins to sound as a warning that the time for the sawō-meal is at hand. They exhibit their interest in the proceedings, however, by bringing, each in turn, trays containing various sweetmeats, fruits etc., for the use of the reciters and their audience.

Where a party thus assembles together to recite the Qurān, it is customary to celebrate the conclusion of the Sacred Book in somewhat festive wise. For this occasion there are special prayers, ḍikrs and rātibs, and a special meal. Feasts of this sort are held in every meunasah on one of the nights of the fasting month subsequent to the 15$th$. In deciding on the night, however, it is not so much considered whether the thirty parts of the Qurān have been exactly completed, as whether the time will suit the people of the gampōng and their guests.

The people of the entire mukim are not invited to this peutamat darōih (as they are to the kanduri Mòʾlōt), but only those of the gampōngs in the immediate neighbourhood.

Some days beforehand, the authorities of the gampōng begin collecting the money contributions. Goats are slaughtered and the rice with its accessories is of course provided. These viands serve not only to break the fast, but also to satisfy the appetite, so that on this evening the people do not go home for their supper.

On this occasion the trawèh is succeeded not by the usual meudarōih but by an excessively noisy ratéb. This (the ratéb Saman, so called from Sammān, the founder of a ṭarīqah or mystic order, who died at Medina, 1152 Hijrah), is especially popular among all native Mohammedans of the old stamp. The constant use of this ratéb has given rise in various places to the introduction of sundry variations and additions, which without exception serve to accentuate the appalling noisiness of this religious exercise.

Such is especially the case in Acheh. First of all certain formulas in praise of Allah are chanted in measured time by the assembled company. Then the time grows gradually faster and faster, the incess-