Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/217

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

182

ated (kaleuët) for from seven to forty successive days in a cave at the source of the Kruëng (river) Darōy, a place which was from ancient times chosen for such devotions[1].

His followers had also occasionally to submit to a similar course of tapa; it was in fact one of the ordinary punishments imposed by him for various offences.

Opinions of the teungkus in respect to the Achehnese within the linie.Habib Samalanga also differed from Teungku Tirò in his opinions respecting those Achehnese who either lived within the linie or went thither to trade.

During the greater portion of the period of his activity "the Teungku" declared such persons to be little better than unbelievers, and did not raise a hand in protest when his troops robbed them of their property or even of their life. He refrained indeed from giving open orders in this spirit, since he would have had in that case to reckon with ulèëbalangs of distinction who were guilty of the same offence. Still his views were generally known, and when certain of the chiefs implored him to deter his troops from slaying their fellow-Mohammedans even though they lived or had intercourse within the linie, he used always to change the subject with some meaningless remark.

It was only when Teuku Uma had convinced him that it was in many respects desirable[2] for the chiefs and notables within the linie to keep in touch with the court, that he at length changed his tactics. Causing these Keumala pilgrims to appear before him, he received them in a friendly manner, and said that under existing circumstances he would only urge them in a general way to an increase of religious zeal, and would place no obstacle in the way of their journeys to Keumala.

Habib Samalanga on the other hand consistently taught that all submission to or intercourse with the infidels was a sin, though not one which made the offender a complete outlaw. Whoever was brought before him convicted of this sin, was condemned to isolation in the cave, there to do penance for some days and prepare himself for conversion from his heresy.

After the death of Teungku Tirò, the friends of Habib Samalanga succeeded in obtaining for him from the court a nine-fold seal similar


  1. A Javanese whose tomb is now an object of veneration at Ulèë Lheuë is known by the name of Teungku Lam Guha, having done tapa for successive years in this cave of the Darōy.
  2. See p. 150 above.