Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/277

 11. Meuʾapét (Dul-qaʿdah). In various other native languages as well as Achehnese, this month is known by names which signify "pinched" or "shut in". The name is now generally believed to have originated in the fact that this month comes in between the two in which the official feasts of Islam are celebrated.

On account of this "shutting in", the 11$th$ month is considered unsuitable for the undertaking of any work of importance, such as a marriage or circumcision etc.

12. Haji (Ḍul-ḥidjah). On the 10$th$ day of this month the great neat sacrificial feast in connection with the Hajj is celebrated in the valley of Muna (the ancient Mina), which lies to the east of Mekka. The books of the law recommend, though they do not imperatively prescribe, the holding of public prayers in other places some time after sunrise on this day. These prayers are followed by the sermon proper to the festival, and it is also considered highly meritorious to sacrifice animals. The two preceding days are also regarded as specially eligible for voluntary fasts. Those who are performing the hajj, however, do not usually fast, as this cannot be required of them in view of the fatigues of their journey.

It is a very popular view in Java, that the feast-day of this month derives its significance from this identical fast. And yet there are but few in Java, who submit to what is there called the antarwiyah and ngarpah, the fast on the days of tarwiyah and ʿarafah, i. e. the 8$th$ and 9$th$ of this month.

This two-days fast is only known in Acheh among devotees, and little practised even by them,—the less so, as the feast is preceded by a three-days fair of the same kind as we met with in the months Kanduri Bu and Puasa. The 7$th$ is uròë peutrōn, the 8$th$ uròë pupòʾ, the 9$th$ uròë seumeusië, and the three taken together uròë maʾmeugang. In