Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/38

 by the XXII Mukims. A comparison with the three angles of a triangle has still more deeply engrafted itself into the language; these three confederations or congeries of mukims are called the thèë sagòë (Mal. tiga sagi) i. e. the three angles of Acheh, and the three ulèëbalangs or chieftains who stand or are supposed to stand at the head of these three districts, are called panglima sagòë, or heads of sagi or angles.

The history of this “triangular kingdom” and of the coast-states and islands which constituted its dependencies remains yet to be written. European sources of information, such as accounts of travels and extracts from old archives, can only furnish us with very fragmentary materials; yet it is to these that we should have to look for the basis of such a work. Malayan chronicles and the native oral tradition, though furnishing us with much of interest as regards the methods of thought of the writers and their coëvals, cannot be relied on as the groundwork of history. They are but collections of fabulous genealogies, legends and tales dressed up to suit the author’s fancy, which must be subjected to a careful process of filtration before they can be brought into unison with more solid materials.

Our present purpose is to describe how the Achehnese live and how they are governed, what they think and what they believe. As the present has ever its roots in the past, a retrospective glance over the earlier history of Acheh might be of great service to us in this enquiry were it not that, for the reasons just stated, this history is to a great extent wrapped in obscurity. As regards history, then, we limit ourselves to what our discussion of existing institutions brings to light en passant and for further information refer our readers to Prof. Veth's Atchin pp. 60 et seq., where the principal historical traditions are set forth in detail.

In the present chapter we propose to give a review of the distribution of population, the government and administration of justice as they existed before the Achehnese war introduced an element of confusion.

As a matter of fact, however, the disorder thus created has left the main features untouched; and anyone who has some knowledge of the public institutions of other kindred nations will if he follow our description be brought to the conclusion that these institutions in Acheh are in a large measure genuinely indigenous and of very great antiquity.