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lection still survives. The lowlanders even say that their highland brethren are in the habit of making a profit from their murders by collecting several times the amount due from the fellowtribesmen whose existence they only remember on such occasions.
Rhymes on the mutual relations of the tribes.The relation of the Imeum Peuët to the three united kawōms has found expression in a popular doggerel of a somewhat partial description. As appears from the conclusion, which is the same in every version, the verses may be considered to have originated with the Imeum Peuët, as this clan is therein celebrated as the most powerful of all. But the other sukèës have, partly by giving a special explanation of what is said of them in this popular ditty and partly by giving a different version, extracted the sting so that they are able to quote it in honour of themselves[1].
Sukèë Lhèë Reutoih
ban aneuʾ drang
Sukèë Ja Sandang
jra haleuba.
Sukèë Ja Batèë
na bachut-bachut;
Sukèë Imeum Peuët
nyang gōʾ-gōʾ dōnya.
If we translate the verses in the sense originally given them by the Imeum Peuët, the meaning is: "The tribe of the Three Hundred is (insignificant) as the seeds of the drang (a bush which grows like a weed along fences); the people of the clan Ja Sandang are even as anise and cummin (thus a little more valuable); those of the Ja Batèë (count) for something; the Imeum Peuët it is which makes the world to tremble."
When a member of any of the three united tribes explains these verses, he prefers to ascribe the comparison of the Lhèë Reutoïh with drang-seeds to their numbers and the cummin and anise to the choice flavour of the Ja Sandang, who though not great in point of numbers
- ↑ Van Langen has quoted this doggerel in his Atjehsch Staatsbestuur and in his Achehnese Dictionary under (
Arabic characters) with some different readings and not without errors. Every verse of an Achehnese poem consists of 4 lines of 2 feet each. The pair in the middle rhyme with one another (like drang with Sandang above, and also bachut with peuët allowing for the customary poetic license). The last syllable of each verse rhymes with the last syllable of the next (haleuba with dōnya). It must be understood that the necessities of rhyme and metre exercise some constraint on the contents of the verses; the sense is clear enough, but too much stress not be laid on the exact wording.
