Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/210

 It was a custom formerly more common than it now is for young lads, generally of different gampōngs, to have wrestling combats (meulhò) with one another. To start the game a quarrel is picked on purpose, and there have sometimes been bones broken and blood spilt in these mimic battles.

The game, called meusòmsòm ("covering up") is played with a ring made of rope. One of the players conceals this beneath a heap of sand, and the others must in turn prod for it with a stick. If the stick is found not to have been stuck inside the ring, the first "hider" may hide it again, on which a third player "prods". The winner, i.e. he who succeeds in thrusting his stick within the circumference of the ring, has the privilege of hiding it until another wins.

A favourite game of ball is the meuʾawō. The ball is made by plaiting the young leaves of the cocoanut so as to form a sphere, and filling the interior with some hard material such as clay. Two parties of equal number take up their stand at a suitable interval from one another. The side which opens the game (éʾ, lit. = "to come up") stands near a small stick or rib of the arèn-leaf (puréh) which in the game is known as bu (rice). From this position one of the players throws the ball backwards over his head in the direction of the opposing side; if they catch it, the first player is "dead". If they fail, the opposite party has now to endeavour to hit the bu with the ball and overthrow it. Should they succeed in doing so, the first player is then dead. Should he survive, he has another turn, but each turn only gives the right to have a single throw. When the whole side is dead, it is succeeded by another.

There are two other games played with balls, on which there is no winning (meunang) or losing (talō), but which only give an opportunity for the display of bodily strength and skill (meuteuga-teuga). These are football (sipaʾ raga) which is also such a favourite pastime amongst the Malays, and meulagi. In this last the ball (raga, made of plaited