Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/74

 another's hair, a practice as necessary and popular among the Achehnese as among the Javanese. Here too the little children play.

By the house door access is gained to the front verandah or as the Achehnese call it, the stair verandah (sramòë reunyeun), which is separated from the rest of the house by a partition in which are the doors of the inner chambers (jurèë) and the aperture leading into the central passage, filled generally either by a curtain or a door.

This is the portion of the Achehnese dwelling to which the uninitiated are admitted. Here guests are received, kanduris or religious feasts are given and business discussed. Part of the floor (aleuë) is covered with matting; on ceremonial occasions carpets (plumadani or peureumadani) are spread over this, and on top of these again each guest finds an ornamentally worked square sitting-mat (tika duëʾ) placed ready for him. A sort of bench made of wood or bamboo called prataïh sometimes serves the master of the house as a bedstead during part of the night, when he finds the heat excessive within. Here too are to be found a number of objects which betray the calling or favourite sport of their owner, some on shelves or bamboo racks (sandéng) against the wall, some stuck in the crevices of the wall itself. There the fisherman hangs his nets (jeuë or nyaréng), the huntsman his snares (taròn), all alike their weapons; there too are kept certain kinds of birds such as the leuëʾ (Mal. těkukur, a kind of small dove), which are much used for fighting-matches.

The passage (rambat) is at one side in a house of three sections, but in one of five it is right in the middle between the two bedrooms. It is entered by none but women, members of the household or the family, or men on very intimate terms of acquaintanceship, as it only gives access to the back verandah, the usual abode of the women, who there perform their daily household tasks.

Some provisions are stored in the rambat, as for instance a guchi or earthenware jar of decayed cocoanut (pi u) for making oil, and a jar of vinegar made from the juice of the arèn (ië jōʾ) or the nipah. Here too stands the tayeuën, a smaller portable earthenware jar in which the mistress of the house or her maidservant fetches water from the