Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/183

 the Achehnese have greatly adulterated or improved, however we choose to express it.

Hikayat asay padé (LV).

The aim of this poem is to explain the origin of rice and of some of the customs and superstitions connected with its culture.

When Adam and Hawa (Eve) were driven from paradise, and after they had wandered apart over the earth and met once more near the mountain of Rahmat, Jébraʾi (Gabriel) gave Adam lessons in agriculture and brought him the necessary seeds from paradise.

When he had ploughed and sown all his fields, Adam's seed supply ran short. By God's command he slew his son, who bore the four names Umahmani, Nurani, Acheuki and Seureujani. The members of his body were turned into rice-grains of various kinds wherewith Adam sowed his last field.

Hawa on learning of this, went to the padifield and begged her son who had been turned into seed, not to remain away too long. He answered that he would come home once a year—the yearly harvest.

Hawa took with her seven blades; in imitation hereof it is customary for the Achehnese women, on the day before the harvest begins, to pluck from the neighbourhood of the inòng padé of the field seven blades, which they call the ulèë padé (head or beginning of rice).

At the sowing of the rice an abundant crop is assured by the utterance of the four names of the son of Adam who was changed into seed.

From this it may be concluded that the tilling of the soil is a sacred and prophetic task which brings both a blessing in this world and a recompense hereafter.

The writer, who tells us that he is a native of the gampōng of Lam Teumèn and that he wrote the book in the month Haji 1206 (1792) also appends to his story an explanation of the significance of the Rainbow (beuneung raja timòh). He warns his readers against a pagan conception of that phenomenon prevalent among the ancient Arabs, and explains it in connection with the history of Nòh (Noah) as a token of storm and rain, of overflowing and prosperity.