289
as those which we have just described, viz. "I sell you this buffalo for the price of 40 dollars." "I buy from you this buffalo for the price of 40 dollars." In repeating these words great care is taken to let the pronoun "you" precede the mention of the buffalo or cow, since the reverse sequence is regarded as highly improper. The same applies to the formula used in the purchase of land.
Consecration of a new plough-buffalo.When a man purchases a buffalo for agricultural purposes, he performs a further ceremony of a superstitious sort at the bringing home of the animal. Leading him to the foot of the steps of his house, he calls to the inmates to fetch him down a chinu[1] full of water and a handful (reugam) of husked and unhusked rice (breuëh padé). After crying béseumélah ("in the name of Allah!"), the owner first pours the water over the buffalo's head and then besprinkles the latter with the raw rice.
Although the sale of land cannot be said to be infrequent in Acheh, still public opinion stamps as a spendthrift the man who alienates the whole or a part of his inherited rice-field. This reprehensible action is known as pupipaʾ umòng = the breaking up of his rice-field. It amounts indeed to an attack on the "king of all breadwinning" (pangulèë hareukat).
Letting of lands.Letting (peusiwa) of rice-fields used[2] to be rare in the lowlands, but very common in the highlands and in Pulò Breuëh (Bras) where the cultivated ground is too extensive for the population. The rent is usually paid in husked rice (breuëh).
Gardens used also to be let in the lowlands, and in this case money was used. A high rent for a good sugar-cane garden with the necessary cuttings for planting was 20 dollars per annum.
The letting of houses is entirely at variance with the social institutions of the Achehnese, on which we shall enlarge further in our chapter on family life. Shops and stalls (keudè) are indeed let for hire, but these are only frequented by the traders on market-days, and at other times serve merely as storehouses for goods ready for sale.
Hiring out of cattle.Buffaloes and cows are also let out for hire, the usual rate being about 3 gunchas of unhusked rice (padé) per annum.
- ↑ The chinu is a ladle made of a cocoanut shell. The use of this utensil to the exclusion of all others for the consecration of a buffalo may be explained by the fact that the chinu is the most old-fashioned utensil of its kind. It is also employed, as we shall see later on, at the "laying" of certain evil spirits supposed to cause sickness.
- ↑ Under native rule, before the conquest by the Dutch. (Translator).
