Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/369

 a thorough knowledge of the rules which control such contracts. Otherwise, should questions arise later on, there would be some danger of being unable to prove the existence of the marriage, or of the contract which preceded it being found to be invalid.

This difficulty is least in the case of the bridegroom; he has only to express in a few words his "acceptance" of the "offer" made by the wali, and these words may be and generally are, dictated to him at the moment when he has to utter them. Yet it happens not unfrequently—as the writer knows by actual experience—that this ceremony has to be repeated all over again as often as three or four times, owing to the bridegroom's not following the words quickly enough or from his repeating them inaccurately.

If the wali, however, were left to take his chance, a contract would seldom be correctly made. He is strongly recommended, though not imperatively commanded by the Law, to begin the ceremony with a short discourse on marriage, preferably in Arabic. After this he must express his intentions at some length, adhering strictly to the established legal forms of expression. One would not be beyond the mark in asserting that in Arabia as well as other Mohammedan countries, hardly one wali in a thousand could be found, who would be able to discharge this duty without extraneous help.

We find, then, in all Mohammedan countries, certain persons who lend their help on such occasions and supply the deficiencies in the (necessarily scanty) legal knowledge of the general public. As the validity of the contract they enter into can only be disputed before the qādhī, it follows as a matter of course that these registrars, if we may so call them, stand under the supervision of the qādhī; in some countries he actually appoints, in others only recognizes them. The names they bear vary with the locality; in Mekka they are called mumlik, in Medina "licentiates for the making of marriages" , in Egypt fiqīh, in Java naib or district pangulus or their subordinates (kětip etc.) and in Acheh teungku meunasah.

These officials discharge their duties in one of two ways. They