Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/92

 lection still survives. The lowlanders even say that their highland brethren are in the habit of making a profit from their murders by collecting several times the amount due from the fellowtribesmen whose existence they only remember on such occasions.

The relation of the Imeum Peuët to the three united kawōms has found expression in a popular doggerel of a somewhat partial description. As appears from the conclusion, which is the same in every version, the verses may be considered to have originated with the Imeum Peuët, as this clan is therein celebrated as the most powerful of all. But the other sukèës have, partly by giving a special explanation of what is said of them in this popular ditty and partly by giving a different version, extracted the sting so that they are able to quote it in honour of themselves.

If we translate the verses in the sense originally given them by the Imeum Peuët, the meaning is: "The tribe of the Three Hundred is (insignificant) as the seeds of the drang (a bush which grows like a weed along fences); the people of the clan Ja Sandang are even as anise and cummin (thus a little more valuable); those of the Ja Batèë (count) for something; the Imeum Peuët it is which makes the world to tremble."

When a member of any of the three united tribes explains these verses, he prefers to ascribe the comparison of the Lhèë Reutoïh with drang-seeds to their numbers and the cummin and anise to the choice flavour of the Ja Sandang, who though not great in point of numbers