Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/277

 visitors take with them "for the sake of the blessing" some of those which have lain and withered there. The new white cotton is wound round the tombstones, and torn fragments of previous coverings are taken away in exchange and fastened round wrist or ankle as charms to bring good luck. Then the visitors to the tomb wash with water from the sacred place the head of the subject of the vow.

Whoever can afford the luxury adds to such a general vow the qualification "ngòn geundrang", meaning thereby that his party (consisting as a rule of both men and women) shall be preceded on its expedition to the holy tomb by three or four musicians, one with the srunè, two with geundrangs and sometimes another with a geundrang anaʾ. It is ndeed characteristic of the popular conception of Islam, that the saints re honoured with musical performances, which are most rigorously prohibited by the religious law.

The geundrang orchestra is also employed in the alangan processions, wherein it conflicts with the suléng and its accessories and fills the air with a discordant noise; it is also used in what are known as piasans, and at family-feasts—in this last case usually in fulfilment of a vow.

There is a peculiar Achehnese orchestra composed of the following instruments:

1°. A hareubab, i.e. a native violin. The sounding-board (bruëʾ) is of nangka-wood covered with membrane from the stomach of the buffalo, the strings are of twisted silk and the bowstring of fibres of the aerial roots of the sriphië-tree, stretched on a bow of rattan. A leaden bridge (chapéng) keeps the strings apart, they are strung from a little bow of rattan called guda, and tuned by keys called gaséng.

2°. Two or more geudumbaʾs i.e. kettle-drums. The body of the drum is roughly hewn from a single block of nangka-wood, and is almost cylindrical in shape but tapers towards the bottom, then widens again and forms the foot; this last is shaped like an octagonal pyramid with the top cut off, or a truncated cone. The whole is about 27