Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/318

 custom, many an evil eye would rest on their vessel and their pukat, with the result that much ill-luck would attend their next venture, for many of the onlookers would exhaust all their magic arts to cause the fish to be driven out to sea, the nets to be torn and the like.

So the pawang has secret hostility to dread from the general mass of the onlookers if he does not keep them in good humour; but from the rakans or followers of the territorial chiefs he must expect open enmity, should he fail to set apart for them a gift suitable to their rank.

Woe to the pawang who falls short in this respect! He must expect a punishment like that visited on the planter who has incurred the displeasure of his ulèëbalang and whose land is placed under a ban (langgéh) by the latter. His sampan and pukat are placed under the ban for a month or sometimes even for an unlimited period, and he thus finds himself deprived of his livelihood, and can only get the ban removed by appeasing the ulèëbalang with a money present, which may in fact be called a fine. Where his sin of omission is trifling, so as merely to cause the wife of the ulèëbalang to complain to her lord that his contribution of fish is so small as to disappoint her house-keeping expectations, he is punished indirectly. A couple of rakans go down to the market, and having ascertained which of the buyers has in his charge the fish of the defaulting pawang, take from him so much as they consider "fair." The buyer is then justified in paying to the pawang less than he had promised him.

How oppressive this tax may be to the pawang may be seen, for instance, at Ulèë Lheuë (Olehheh), where the pukat-fishermen have to deal with at least three chiefs, the ulèëbalang Teuku Nè, his banta Teuku Sandang and Raja Itam, a son of a deceased Teuku Nè. These three always enforce their demands for fish and punish defaulters with the ban. There are, besides, other smaller dignitaries whom the pawang cannot continually overlook without being punished in the end.

The pawangs have occasionally trade disputes with one another, which chiefly arise from their fishing in each others' neighbourhood. These are generally settled by the headman of the pawang guild, himself also a pawang, who bears the title of panglima and owes his office to the choice of his fellows of the guild with the approval of the territorial chief. The sphere of action of a panglima is called lhōʾ (= Malay