Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/237

 We may here give a small specimen of each of these interludes to the ratebs. Like almost every composition in the Achehnese language they are made in the common metre known as sanjaʾ. The following is a sample of nasib from a men's ratéb :

"The holy mosque (i. e. that at Mekka), Alahu, Alahu, in the holy Mosque are three persons: one of them is our Prophet, the other two his companions. He sends a letter to the land of Shām (Syria), with a command that all Dutchmen shall become Moslems. These Jewish infidels will not adopt the true faith, their religion is in a state of everlasting decay".

The following is a sample of chakri from a wemen's ratéb :

"In Paradise how glorious is the light, lamps hang all round; the lamps hang by no cord, but are suspended of themselves by the grace of the Lord."

There is one variety of the ratéb Saman which far surpasses the ordinary sort in noisiness. This is performed more especially in the fasting month at the meudarōïh, when the recital of the Qurān in the meunasah is finished. The assembled devotees recite their ḍikr first sitting down, then standing and finally leaping madly; from two to four of those present act as leaders and cry leu ileuheu, the rest responding ilalah; the words: hu, hu, ḥayyun, hu ḥayat also form part of the chorus.

This ratéb is called kuluhét but more commonly mènsa by the Achehnese, who do not however know the real meaning of either word. Mènsa is, as a matter of fact, the Achehnese pronunciation of the arabic minshār = "saw". In the primbons or manuals of Java we actually find constant mention made of the ḍikr al-minshārī i. e. the "saw-dikr"; this is described in detail, and one explanation given of the name is that the performer should cause his voice on its outward course to penetrate through "the plank of his heart" as a carpenter saws through a wooden board. These descriptions are indeed borrowed from a manual of the Shaṭṭarite ṭarīqah, but