Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/352

 Molasses in a cup,

A rambutan-fruit with a red skin,

Say not that he is not here, he whom you have come to bring.

What way is this to jest?

B. Well, Teukus, what say my comrades here?

Pi is planted, and stakes are placed to prop it,

Kundur is planted, and let creep along the ground.

The reason why we said "no" to grandmother peunganjō,

Is that we know not the appearance of the bridegroom.

As we are all stupid and confused, be so good as to describe his appearance,

A. Well then, Teuku, I have enquired of grandmother peunganjō, and she says that the bridegroom's appearance is described in the ten following headings:

In the first place, says she, his hands are dark,

For they have been stained with ḥinna for three days past.

Secondly his clothing is laced with gold thread,

Which follows the pattern of the cloudy firmament.

Thirdly, he is shaven (andam) upon the forehead, which was done before the sun attained the zenith.

Fourthly, she describes him as clad in a white baju,

With golden buttons as it were heaped together over the breast.

Fifthly he wears a battle-sword with octagonal handle,

On which the smith has worked for thirty days.

Sixthly he wears a handkerchief on which is embroidered gold thread in the shape of a twisted cord,

While flowers hang from it and an ulèë cheumara (an old-fashioned gold ornament) is fixed therein.

Seventhly, a cap with a golden crown,

Round which are eight smaller crowns, set with precious stones.

Eighthly, I may mention the sirih-bag,

From whose four corners hang the golden acorns.

Ninthly, when ye came, ye cried aloud with one voice, salawalé.

The tenth token is; four clans, eight families, sixteen relatives, thirty