Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/303

 the trusses being spread out so as to form a circle, with their heads containing the grain meeting in the centre. During the days occupied in gathering the padi into sheaves, it has time to get a slight preliminary drying.

After this, mats are spread, on which is placed a certain quantity of padi to be threshed (lhò, properly = "to stamp"). The threshing is done with the feet; in order to tread with greater force, the thresher supports himself on two sticks as he walks slowly over the mat.

The grain, when sufficiently threshed, is piled in a heap and then cleansed by rubbing between the hands (tinteuëng, teuminteuëng), by which process the stalks, chaff and dirt are separated from the grain.

Those who help to tread the corn usually receive as their sole reward a little tapè, a fermented liquor prepared from rice.

The second cleansing of the unhusked rice is done with the help of the wind. When there is a good breeze, an eumpang (sack of plaited leaves) full of padi-grain is lifted on high and the grain strewn out so that the empty husks and particles of dirt are blown away. This operation is called peukruy or peuʾangèn. It takes place in or close by the padi-field, unless there happens to be no wind for a long time after the threshing, in which case it is done in the gampōng, the padi being left for the time being uncleaned, and brought home in this state.

After the cleansing the harvested grain is measured (sukat), and those who faithfully observe their religious duties set apart one-tenth of the whole as jakeuët (Arab. zakāt). According to the law, which is pretty literally interpreted by the Shafiʾite school on this point, this tax should be distributed among 8 classes of persons. Let us now see what the practice is in Acheh in this respect.

1°. The amils of the books of the law, who are charged with the collection and distribution of the jakeuët, must receive no fixed share, but merely a fair recompense for their trouble. The amils are in Acheh represented by the teungkus of the meunasahs. The adat, however, confers on them no right to collect the jakeuët by force, so that measures of compulsion are resorted to only in districts where some ulama or other representative of religion has for the time being gained the upper hand, or where the chiefs retain a share of the jakeuët for themselves. As a rule the teungku waits for the share that is brought to his house, or has his portion fetched home from the rice-field if notice has been given him of the completion of the harvest.