Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/317

 selves. Thus they are obliged to have recourse to middlemen, and these fish-buyers are called mugè. Fish-dealers on a small scale divide among them the catch of one sampan if it be a big one, for they are their own coolies, and thus cannot carry more than a single basket a-piece. Those who deal on a larger scale have lesser dealers under them, and give each of them for sale a portion of the catch of the one or two sampans with which they have a fixed agreement.

As soon as the catch has been landed, the pawang discusses the price of the fish with his contract buyer. The latter tells him that the market is at present greatly overcrowded, and that he therefore dares not promise more than such and such a price, which is as a matter of fact far below the expectations of the master of the fishing-boat. He can at any time determine his contract with the mugè, but this profits him nothing, for he wants to sell his fish at once while fresh and must employ his usual dealer or else enter into protracted negociations with a new one. The pawangs have learnt by experience that there is no advantage in such changes, as it simply means getting out of the frying-pan into the fire. Accordingly, most pawangs spend a considerable portion of their time on land in squabbling with their buyers, the more so as they know that the verbal agreement as to price, which they make immediately after landing, is by no means always final. The dealer should properly retain as his commission the difference between the price agreed on and what he succeeds in making by driving hard bargains in the market. When he returns from the market, however, he often declares that the sum agreed on is too high, and compels the pawang to content himself with much less; adding that he has not earned a single pèng for himself.

Just as the pawang deals with a head mugé or fish-dealer, so the latter contracts with sub-dealers, but he does not let himself be cheated so much by them since he is of the same trade.

The mugès are not the only doubtful friends who view with an interested eye the industry of the pawang and his crew and await their coming with impatience on shore. A number of onlookers from the gampongs along the coast come down to meet them, and unless the catch has been too paltry, these have a right in accordance with the adat to a present of fish.

Nor is it merely respect for the adat that causes the pawangs to distribute these presents. They know that if they did not observe this