Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/280

 portion of the things on the tray formed part of the emoluments of the descendant of the sainted founder of cannon.

In Java almost precisely the same objects as those we have just described as contained in the tray, are added to a sacrifice by those who adhere to old fashions. The teaching of Islam contains nothing of the kind; there must without doubt be some pre-Mohammedan ideas at the bottom of these curious preparations for a sacrifice. At present the practisers of this method have but little to adduce in explanation of it except the conception of the animal as the future steed of him who offers the sacrifice; but it is self-evident that though some of the articles mentioned might have a meaning in this connection, it would require strange reasoning to prove the same of others among them.

With the exception of this busy scene at Bitay, however, the qurbān feast, though called "the great Feast" in the book of the law, is in Acheh and elsewhere the least significant of all. It cannot be compared in importance to the feast at the end of the fast which is officially regarded as its inferior.

In the month Haji in particular (though not exclusively) certain gampōngs club together to give a piasan (from pěrhiasan = ornament), a purely secular feast with a selection of popular pastimes differing according to circumstances. On such occasions a favourite amusement is the letting off of fireworks, and especially the construction of what is called "a firework fort" (kuta bungòng apuy). This is formed of the stem of a cocoanut tree to which are attached, at different elevations, square horizontal wooden frames. These frames grow smaller as they approach the top and are fitted with slow burning fireworks.

The Achehnese are an agricultural people; "Agriculture is the king of all breadwinning", as their proverb has it. Rice-growing, sugar cultivation, pepperplanting in the colonies of the East and West, as well as the growing of useful fruit-trees such as the cocoanut and