Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/110

 and to send the missive by the hand of one Tuan Meugat Pò Mat. The prince follows this advice after some demur; for indeed the attitude of Pangulèë Beunaròë is clearly hostile, since he has neglected to wait upon the king's brother though encamped in his immediate neighbourhood. Pò Mat undertakes the mission, and is instructed to declare war against the Pangulèë should he answer unbecomingly. It is thus no pleasant task for Pò Mat, who at first avoids mentioning the true object of his mission, whiling away the time with a long conversation on indifferent subjects. His host has just returned a day or two ago from the West Coast of Acheh? What has led him thither? The Pangulèë Beunaròë replies that he has been engaged on behalf of Jeumalōy, his master, in waging war against the refractory Rawaʾs,—the name by which the Malays of the West Coast are known in Acheh. The poet skillfully avails himself of this opportunity to enlighten us as to the political and social status of the West Coast at this period. The chiefs had shaken off the Achehnese yoke and had dared to send to Jeumalōy, on his demanding the annual tribute, a handsome gilded box full of old clothes and worn-out equipments. They were severely punished and reduced to obedience by Pangulèë Beunaròë.

Finally the envoy comes to the point, and reveals the fact that he has with him a letter from the prince. The poet throughout represents the Pangulèë and all around him as ignorant of the art of reading, a supposition which was no doubt as well justified in regard to many Achehnese chiefs in those days as it now is. But Pangulèë Beunaròë could of course easily surmise the nature of the letter, and refused even to receive it. "I look", he said, "for no orders from that direction; I serve another prince".

Pò Mat then announces that war is inevitable, a war in which all Pidië except the IX Mukims will espouse the cause of the prince against Beunaròë. Here again it is a prudent chief who leads matters into the right track; Tuan Sri Reubèë advises Beunaròë at all events to ascertain the contents of the letter in the first place, and to summon an ulama for this purpose.

Accordingly he sends to fetch the learned Teungku Rambayan, who with his hundreds of devoted disciples lives at a remote place in the highlands. The poet depicts for us, in a few graphic verses, an Acheh-