Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/21

 common with other Indonesians, but the pronunciation, for example, of an accented u or an as èë is peculiarly Achehnese. Here, as in Java, these national peculiarities have of later years begun to disappear, since many of the best teachers are now schooled in Mekka. The lesser pandits learn of these or of professional Egyptian Qurān reciters, who occasionally make a tour through Acheh.

When the pupil has practised the Arabic character with the aid of a wooden tablet (lòh), he is given the last of the 30 portions (Ach. juïh) of the Qurān, written or printed separately, and recites this under the guidance of the teacher (ureuëng pumubeuët or gurèë). This portion is called juïh ama from its initial word, and that which precedes it juïh taba from the first two syllables of its initial word. In the curriculum the juïh taba comes after the juïh ama, and it is not till he has spelled out (hija) and chanted both of these to the satisfaction of his teacher, that the pupil begins the recitation of the whole Qurān from the fātiḥah, the Mohammedan Lord's Prayer, to the end of the 114$th$ Surah.

Those who are content with a minimum of further study, that is to say almost all girls and most boys, next proceed to learn the absolute essentials of religious lore from a small catechism, which we shall met with later on, in Achehnese prose and verse, in our description of their literature (n$os$ XCI to XCVII). They are also exercised either by word of mouth or with manuscript to guide them, under the supervision of parents or schoolmasters, in the performance of the five daily ritual prayers (Ach. seumayang) prescribed for all Mohammedans.

The majority acquire this indispensable knowledge simply by imitation of what they see and hear others do. Those who employ documentary aid are not as a rule content with the Achehnese works. They read under proper guidance Malay text-books such as those named Masaïlah and Bidayah, which treat in a simple manner of the absolute first principles of religious doctrine and of the religious obligations of the Moslim. The teacher (male or female) must however explain it all in Achehnese, since a knowledge of Malay is comparatively rare in Acheh. A work such as the rhyming guide to Malay (see n°. XCVIII of the