Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/27

XVIII harm nor to give them any serious assistance in the pacification of the country.

It was precisely during the most important years of the Acheh War that the work of translation was going on, with many pauses and at a slow pace. When the book was at last completed in manuscript, and when the first volume had been printed in full and the second to the extent of some pages, Mr. was, in August 1903, carried off by a most sudden death. Shortly before his death it had been arranged between us that he should compile an alphabetical index rerum which would take the place of the lists of contents of chapters as well as of the list of Achehnese words attached to the original edition. Besides this, Mr. planned a translator’s preface to follow mine. This last feature must now be lost to the reader; the compilation of the index as well as the translation of this introduction was kindly undertaken by Mr. who was intimately acquainted with Mr. 's project.

Besides the above-mentioned differences the English translation differs from the original edition in the following respects. Mr. has appended some notes, marked as coming from the translator and dealing especially with the aspect of the phenomena cognate to those in the text whenever they are also met with in the Malay Peninsula. The two geographical maps which accompanied the Dutch edition have been entirly re-cast, as the expeditions which traversed the country during the last years of the war were extremely useful for topographical purposes. The portions still unsurveyed we are able to fill in by means of outline-sketches and reliable data from native sources. All that could be gathered from all the above-mentioned sources of information up to 1903 has been embodied in our two maps which were prepared in the topographical bureau at Batavia. Of the photographic plates which illustrated the first edition, some have been omitted, others replaced by better, and many are inserted for the first time. Some texts in the Achehnese language, of which a summary or translation appeared in the course of descriptions (e.g. regarding the conclusion of a marriage in Vol. I, and regarding the sadati-games in Vol. II), were given in the Dutch text as appendices to the first edition; these appendices are now omitted. Finally the spelling of Achehnese words has been somewhat modified to suit English eyes and ears.

The Achehnese language of which the consonants as well as the