Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/302

 strict watch had to be maintained against these destructive intruders.

The various kinds of caterpillars (ulat padé) which prey on padi do but little harm in the opinion of the Achehnese, provided that the rice is planted at the proper time. Against these there is no known remedy.

If the padi looks sickly, abèë or ashes of burnt cow-dung is spread once or twice over the umòng.

As we have seen, superstition plays its customary part in the rice-cultivation of the Achehnese; by no means, however, so important a part as in Java, where a description of the padi-planting constitutes a perfect treasury of folklore. Nyi Sri is not even known by name. We can at most point to the defunct custom of the inòng padé as a rudiment of the ideas on which the worship of the rice-goddess in Java is based. To this we must add a custom prevailing in the highlands; when the rice is on the point of ripening (dara, marriageable, or rab bunténg, all but pregnant), various kinds of sweet meats are laid on the little bunds or banks surrounding the rice-plots. Apart from these trifles, the system of rice-cultivation in Acheh as compared with that in Java may be called, if not rational, at least rationalistic.

The various tasks connected with the cultivation of rice are in the lowlands performed by men only; in Pidië, Daya and some parts of the highlands the planting out (pula) is left to the women, who work for a small daily wage (formerly 1 gupang = 12½, cts.). Persons of wealth and distinction, who possess many umòngs, invite crowds of people to assist them in the planting out, reaping and threshing of the padi, and give them a good meal for their pains. This is called meuseuraya, and through such voluntary aid great tasks are easily completed in a single day.

Simpler folk get in their harvest with the help only of their own households and a friend or two; the latter accept similar assistance in return. The padi when cut is collected in trusses (gasay), containing as much as can be held in the open hand, each truss being tied up with padi-straw (baʾ padé). When the reaping is finished, the trusses are gathered on high ground close by, where there are some trees to give shade. Here they are formed into sheaves (puy) of a man's height,