Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/378

 Under the Mohammedan law there is no reason why the marriage of a maiden of full age who has no wali should not be performed through the mediation of the same official who acts for a divorced woman or a widow under similar circumstances. In both cases it is the custom in most Mohammedan countries to have recourse to the qādhī or the official charged with like functions, even where the law admits of resorting to taḥkim under certain conditions. In Acheh the taḥkim is habitually applied in the latter case, subject to the choice of a ḥakam being limited to the teungku of the woman's gampōng, so that we might naturally expect to find the same method adopted for the marriage of a maiden of full age.

This however seldom happens, the intervention of the kali being deemed necessary in such cases. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that in Acheh the great majority of maidens are given in marriage before they arrive at the age of puberty, and the help of the kali is indispensable in view of the peculiar manner in which most of these marriage contracts are concluded among the Achehnese. There is thus also a tendency to invoke the assistance of the kali in the absence of a wali in those rare instances where a girl is married for the first time after reaching maturity.

It must be borne in mind that according to the Shafiʾite law it is only the agnates in the ascending line that have the right to give a maiden in marriage without her consent. Thus where such ascendant relatives are wanting the marriage of a maiden is impossible under the Shafiʾite ritual, since the refusal or consent of a minor has no force.

In Acheh, however, there is a universal and deeply-rooted prejudice against allowing a maiden to remain unmarried till she attains her majority. This we have already noticed in the beginning of our description of the marriage ceremony, but to guard against error we must here supplement this by observing that Mohammedan law not only places no impediment in the way of contracts of marriage between children, but even expressly permits girls under age to be handed over to their husbands when, as the saying is, "they can endure the married state". This last contingency is considered by Mohammedans in all