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fellow-worker of her husband, there gradually grows up a kind of partnership between the two.
Such property acquired by common labour is especially to be met with in the highland districts of Acheh, where the wife assists her husband in field work. In the lowland districts, such sharing of their labour by their wives is naturally excluded in the cases of fishermen, traders and manufacturers, but here the same is the case also with regard to agricultural work which is entirely performed by the men, It is only of late, owing to the Achehnese war and the disordered conditions arising therefrom, that the women have ceased to be ashamed of field labour and accordingly are entitled to the half share, as allowed by the adat, of accumulations during marriage.
This property acquired in common is called atra or laba sihareukat[1] (goods or profits gained by common toil), or atra or laba meucharikat (goods or profits held in partnership). As opposed to this all that is derived from other sources is characterized as atra baʾ ku (property that one receives from one's father).
Where the adat of division of the atra sihareukat into equal portions is firmly established, it is sometimes applied although the grounds for it are non existent or very far-fetched. Suppose for instance that a highlander goes to the West Coast to plant pepper, and returns later on with his earnings, it might be said that such gains could not possibly be classed as atra sihareukat; in fact the adat forbids the husband to take his wife with him to another district. Yet it often happens that the half of all that the husband has accumulated by such means is made over under the name of common earnings to the wife or her heirs in case of a dissolution of the marriage by divorce or the husband's death. To give this a show of legality, a formal enquiry is made as to whether the wife gave her husband at his departure bu kulah[2] with fish and sirih as provender for his journey. Such provender is then regarded as the capital with which the man embarks on his work since his subsequent requirements (some very simple tools of husbandry and rice for the first year) are supplied him by the chief in whose territory he proceeds to plant pepper.
- ↑ Hareukat means "occupation," and the profits derived from one's employment. It is "also used as a verb in the sense of "to earn one's bread," "to carry on an employment," "to go forth to seek one's fortune."
- ↑ The name given to rice folded up in a peculiar way in plantain leaves. Fishermen, travellers, etc., often take their food from home in this fashion.
