Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/60

 is also pretty generally known in the Indian Archipelago; there are numerous handbooks based directly or indirectly on this work.

Thus in Acheh we find persons possessed of some knowledge of the taʾbi or interpretation of dreams, who are able to enlighten their countrymen as to the meaning of their visions. A portion of this science has been added to the popular wisdom of the Achehnese, and having been augmented still more by native methods of interpretation, has become embodied in the hadih maja or traditions of female ancestors.

This popular Achehnese taʾbi teaches that he who is seen naked in a dream (be it the dreamer himself or another) must expect ill-fortune, but that he who appears to the dreamer with unusually long hair or beard will have good luck. Serious loss awaits him who is shaven or bathes or eases himself in the dream. A long life is destined for him who is dreamt of as dying; early death of himself or his parents or children for him who is seen clad in white or lacking a front tooth, and the death of a brother or more distant relative for him who loses a molar. To see one's house on fire foretells wealth; walking under an umbrella or riding on a horse or elephant are omens of fame or worldly greatness. The Achehnese is however loth to tell his friends when he has seen himself riding thus in a dream, lest they should pester him with mocking questions as to what dignity he thinks is in store for him, or whether the omen of speedy exaltation might not perhaps only mean that the dreamer would shortly find himself sitting as a thatcher astride the ridge-pole of a roof.

The man or woman who dreams of a great fire or a snake, will soon get married; the pregnant woman who sees herself dressed in feminine finery will become the mother of a girl, while she who dreams of putting a cap on her head will bear a boy.

He who dreams of being on board ship, has without knowing it come into conflict with a spirit of the kind known as sanè, but has come off without injury to himself. The eating of rice, especially glutinous rice, is an omen of success.

Some dreams are ascribed to a praja, by which seems to be understood a kind of tutelary spirit, whose chief task is to appear in some visible form and warn the occupants of a house or ship of evil threatening their dwelling-place. The phenomena which foretell a marriage are also called praja.