Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/363

 with the exception of raiment in he most limited sense of the word, are always regarded as the husband’s property and dealt with accordingly.

As the reader will have remarked, it is the adat which has so far almost exclusively controlled an Achehnese marriage as we have described it; we have laid more stress on the customary element than upon the rules of law. Most of these customs are, it is true, looked on as indispensable by the Achehnese where the bride is a virgin, even though the bridegroom has been already several times married and is of a considerable age. At the same time exceptions may be made by agreement of both parties, nor will anyone dispute the legality of the marriage on the ground of neglect to perform some of the ceremonies above described.

Let us now summarize the Achehnese marriage customs which are of importance from a legal point of view. The principal are:

1°. The power of the keuchiʾ (headman of the gampōng) to prevent a marriage on grounds connected with the interests of the gampōng;

2°. The betrothal-gift (tanda kòng narit) and its legal consequences.

3°. The adat-law under which the woman can never be required by her husband to leave her home with him, nay is even prohibited from doing so. The only exception to this rule is where both her family and the authorities of her native place consent to her departure. This usually happens only (at the instance of course of the husband) where the woman's family is very inferior in rank or social position to that of the man, so that the customary gifts etc. on his part are not fully reciprocated on hers. In such cases the marriage is said "to be without adat" (hana adat).

4°. The gift after consummation of the marriage and the rules which govern it.

Anyone who is not entirely a stranger to Mohammedan law will not need to be reminded that these four matters are, to use a much-abused term, among the "departures" from the law of Islam which characterize the native race.

By-and-bye, when we proceed to examine the chief results of marriage as affecting the children born thereof, and the property of the married couple, we shall find that here also the social life of the Achehnese