Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/225



Amongst the games so far described there are several which are played for love or for money according to preference. There are also, however, a large number of purely gambling games, the issue of which is quite independent of the player's skill, and the object of which is to fleece the opponent of his money.

The passion for gambling betrays itself even among young lads who have no money to stake. Boys whom their fathers send out to cut grass for the cattle often play the „hurling-game" (meutiëʾ) which is won by whoever can knock down or cut in twain a grass-stalk set up at a distance by throwing his grass-knife (sadeuëb) at it. The players wager on the result equal quantities of the grass they have cut; so it often happens that one of the party has no grass left when it is time to go home. Then he hastens to fill up his sack with leaves and rubbish, putting a little grass in on top to cover the deficiency, but should his father detect this fraud the fun of the meutiëʾ is often succeeded by the pain of a sound thrashing at home.

As might naturally be expected, there are sundry gambling games which correspond with our "pitch and toss". For instance meuʾitam-putéh (black or white") so called owing to the Achehnese leaden coins originally used for this game having been whitened with chalk on one side and blackened with soot on the other. The name is still in use, though the two sides of the Dutch or English coins now employed are called respectively raja or patōng ("king" or "doll") and geudōng (store house). In "tossing" (mupèh) one player takes two coins placed close together with their like sides touching each other, between his thumb and forefinger and knocks them against a stone or a piece of wood letting them go as he does so. Should both fall on the same side the person who tossed the coins wins; otherwise his opponent is the victor.