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This night is seldom enlivened by celebrations; piasans (a word which signifies much the same as is expressed by fantasia in the jargon of the Levant) take place frequently on the three preceding evenings, but not on the wedding-night itself. There is more than enough to do, however, for the time wears on to morning before the completion of all the ceremonies etc., which we have described.
Achehnese weddings of course exhibit some small local differences. We have assumed, too, that the bride and bridegroom belong to two different gampōngs, which is often though by no means always the case. Where they are of the same gampōng, their fellow-villagers divide themselves as it were into two parties, one headed by the teungku and the other by the keuchiʾ, and all the formalities are gone through as though two gampōngs were interested in the event. Speaking generally, however, the above description holds good for the whole of Great Acheh.
At the conclusion of the feast, the bridegroom, escorted by his fellow-villagers, returns once more to his parents' house.
First days of married life.The next day nothing of note occurs, but towards night, about 8 P.M., the bridegroom again goes to his wife's house (wòë), attired as on the previous evening, but now escorted by a small number of peunganjōs, half of whom are men and half women.
A bedstead is now set up in the jurèë or inner chamber, furnished with a mosquito-net and a vast pile of cushions[1] with costly embroidery. In the centre of the room is a thick square sitting-mattress (tilam duëʾ), for one person, intended for the bridegroom's use, and at a short distance from it a sitting-mat for the bride, who thus sits on this occasion on a lower level than her spouse.
Some of the peunganjōs who accompanied the bridegroom, reinforced by one or two of their fellow officials from the party of the bride, now prepare to conduct the young man to the jurèë. The bride is at this time in the back verandah; she is supposed to wash the feet of the bridegroom on his entering the jurèë, but as a matter of fact she is relieved of this task by one of the old women, and her share in this ceremony is confined to a timid glance from a distance.
As soon as the bridegroom has taken his place on the tilam, the
- ↑ Bantay susōn = piled up cushions somewhat resembling our bolsters in shape. The two ends are covered with shining metal plates or tampō's. As many as fifteen of these are to be found in a well-furnished Achehnese bed. The sleeper of course only uses one of these pillows, while the rest are for show only.
