Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/419

 biaya peukan (things bought in the market), such as tobacco, fruits, sirih and fish.

Food is served to the assembled guests, but not in so formal a manner as at the peujamèë. An idang of glutinous rice with its accessories and some fruits are set aside for the midwife.

After the feast all the guests depart except the immediate relatives and the teungku and his attendants. The bidan (midwife) after shaving the child's head, lays it in all its finery on a small mattress (kasō) covered with a number of costly cloths, and then brings it in and hands it over in the first place to the teungku. At the same time she sets before the latter a tray containing a bowl of dates, another of cocoanut milk and the savoury paste known as kleumbaʾ, in the midst of which a chěmpaka flower stands erect. The teungku takes a small piece of date, mixes it with the satan (cocoanut milk) and rubs it on the child's lips after invoking the name of Allah.

Both the teungku and after him the relatives of the infant also "give him to taste" a sort of pap (Ach. cheunichah; Mal. and Jav. rujak) made of a compost of raw fruits pounded very fine. It is from this compulsory introduction to human customs as to food that the whole ceremony is called peuchichab.

The Mohammedan law recommends an offering of two sheep or goats for a male, and one for a female child, by preference on the seventh day after birth, but if this be impossible then at some later date—even when the child is quite grown up. This sacrifice is called ʿaqīqah, and is not only known but actually practised in Acheh under the name of hakikah. In Acheh, no less than in other parts of the E. Indian Archipelago, the people of Mekka have done their best to foster the doctrine that it is an extremely meritorious act to offer this sacrifice for the child in the holy city. The Mekka folk thus of course reap the profits on the sale of the goats, and at the same time enjoy their share of the meat. Many Achehnese are however aware that the hakikah is more properly offered at home. The choice of some later occasion for this sacrifice, and not the seventh day after birth is also common in Acheh.