Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/474

 Where the mother also dies, the administration of the orphans' property is left to their father's brothers, unless the ulèëbalang has no confidence in them, in which case he takes the matter into his own hands. This he does only too often, when the property is large enough to excite his greed. The same often happens in regard to the estates of absent persons, while those of foreigners who die in Acheh frequently disappear into the bait al-māl (state treasury) which means really that it finds its way into the pockets of the ulèëbalangs.

Such a system of administration furnishes, as may easily be supposed a fruitful source of abuses. Of these the very least is that the ulèëbalang trades with the money under his control and renders little or no account of the profits. As a rule, however, the settlement with the claimants, even when these have attained their majority, is endlessly deferred, and in the protacted "deliberations" as to its disposal, fresh slices are constantly cut off from the principal. Should the ulèëbalang die before the settlement takes place, his son or whoever else succeeds him professes to know nothing of the matter and to have found no notes or reliable witnesses in regard to the administration, and thus excuses himself from making any payment whatever.