Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/377

 part to be played in the concluding of marriage contracts by the authorities of the gampōng, and by the kalis in marriages of the kind which we shall presently proceed to describe. A marriage would not indeed be pronounced invalid in Acheh any more than in Java, on the ground that it was concluded without the coöperation of the heads of the gampōng (in Java of the district pangulu). But while in the latter country the maker of the marriage would escape with a mere censure, all concerned would be heavily fined in Acheh. The keuchiʾ and teungku are zealous in maintaining their authority and the profits which they derive from its exercise. In this they are supported both by their overlords the ulèëbalangs, and by the people of the gampōngs, whose rights and claims they maintain against invasion.

The part played by the keuchiʾ in the preparations for the marriage is, as we have already seen, of great importance; his authority is also required for the concluding of the contract. In this the teungku, the "mother" of the gampōng, is the active agent, since he alone is acquainted with the requisite formalities, but he would not venture to carry out his task without the presence and authority of "father" keuchiʾ. And although the teungku is the person who actually enters into the contract (peukatib, peunikah or peukawén) it is to the keuchiʾ alone that the adat allots a fixed sum as recompense. This fee is called haʾ katib, haʾ nikah or haʾ chupéng, speech-maker's money, marriage-money or chupéng-money, chupéng being the little metal plate which young girls wear to cover their persons.

The haʾ katib amounts to one mas (samaïh) as it is still called, i. e. ¼, of a dollar. The teungku is paid so much as the parties concerned see fit to give him. He can adduce no right founded on adat, but on the other hand he has this advantage, that his fee, though not definitely fixed, is made to correspond with the requirements of the occasion. He usually receives one dollar, sometimes more; half of this sum he makes over to the leubès who stand by him as witnesses.