Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/119

 formulas. In these particulars he was of course in the habit of conforming to the tastes and requirements of his public.

Dōkarim's great object was to win the approval of his hearers, so that they might set a high value (and that too in the material sense of the word) upon his recitations.

Now his public consisted chiefly, not of the members of the guerilla bands which fought against the Gōmpeuni, nor yet of persons specially trained up in religious ideas, but of the common folk of the gampōngs; and they, as we know, comprise reconcilable as well as fanatical spirits, even though the former may not be for the moment ripe for reconciliation. Thus it has been Dōkarim's endeavour to express, in verses pleasant to the ear, the impressions and feelings of the mean between these two extremes of Achehnese society. Accordingly we meet with him, as elsewhere, that hatred of the infidel which has become a matter of custom, but no deep-seated and unyielding fanaticism. Indeed I feel convinced that a gentle transition might under certain circumstances induce him to recast his poem into a glorification of the Gōmpeuni.

The fact that he tells his tale as an Achehnese and a contemporary of the events of which he sings, of course raises the historical reliability of his epic immeasurably above the nonsensical Malay poem which has been printed at Singapore under the title of "Prang Acheh". This does not prevent some of his facts, seen as they are through Achehnese spectacles, from assuming a wrong perspective. Indeed some of his statements in connection with the origin of the war in Acheh belong entirely to the domain of legendary tradition. Nor is there any lack of intentional romance, introduced in all innocence.

As might be expected, events in which the VI Mukims, the author's own country, were more or less specially concerned, are treated at greater length and with more closeness of detail than any others. To the poet's being a resident of that place is also due the respect he