Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/275

 be paid in kind; but there is nothing to prevent the teungku from selling to each of his visitors as much rice as they require to pay the pitrah for themselves and their people. This rice the teungku then receives back again from the donor of the tax, and thus a few arès which he keeps in store suffice for the collection of the whole pitrah.

In Java also this evasion of the law is pretty general. It enables the poor to contribute without difficulty, and at the same time gives the recipients the chance of collecting more than they otherwise could, for those who have only a few cents to offer, can purchase with these the necessary quantity of rice from the "desa-priest", even though it be worth more than they pay for it, since the seller knows that he will at once receive it back again.

No sooner is the pitrah paid, than all put on their new clothes, fill their bungkōih with an extra large supply of sirih and its accessories, and start off to pay the necessary visits of felicitation. The husband receives at home by way of congratulation the seumbah of his wife and children, which he acknowledges with a gesture, but without words. The mothers sometimes, in answer to the seumbah of their young children, take their heads in their hands and say "may you be happy (bá meutuah)!" Men who meet one another on the road take each other by the hand (mumat jaròë) in the well-known native fashion, sometimes adding the words "forgiveness for my sins" (meuʾah dèësa lōn), to which the reply is "the same on my side" (di lōn pi meunan chit).

The visits prescribed by the adat are few in number. The man must at the very least go and pay the compliments of the season with due respect to his parents and parents-in-law, while the visits of the women are as a rule limited to these two.

Visits even to the chief of their own gampōng are not customary unless he happens to be a person of means. The heads of the mukim (imeums) are waited on by all their subordinate keuchiʾs and teungkus, and many of the common people as well. The latter make obeisance from a respectful distance, just as in an ordinary visit. Sirih is first served to the visitors, followed by jeumphan and other sweetmeats. The drinking of coffee on such occasions is quite a modern custom but is gradually becoming more in vogue.

The ulèëbalangs are visited by few below the rank of teungkus. The latter with the keuchiʾs and imeums put in an appearance if they reside in the immediate neighbourhood of their chief, but neglect to