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convert this small port to a mart of importance. Both here and at all the other halting-places on his route, the prince receives the chiefs of the surrounding country and urges the adoption of measures[1] which will tend to make the rice culture more productive and to save the people from falling into poverty through sloth and ignorance. He also distributes money and robes of honour to all that come to wait on him, and by his kindly demeanour succeeds easily in adding hundreds to the ranks of his followers.
In Padang Teuji (Tiji) he remains as long as is necessary for regulating the affairs of the VII Mukims and winning over the people to his cause, and at Reubèë, where he pays all due homage to the saint that lies buried there, he does the same in respect of the V Mukims. So with other places, till Pòchut Muhamat, thanks to his powers of persuasion and the distribution of costly gifts, is able to reckon on almost every part of the old kingdom of Pidië.
There remains but one ulèëbalang of the province, the most powerful of them all, whom he knows he will have great trouble in inducing to forsake the cause of Jeumalōy, to whom he is attached by innumerable bonds of friendship and obligation.
This is the Pangulèë Beunaròë or Meunaròë[2], the predecessor and it is said forefather of the chiefs who now rule under the title of Béntara Keumangan. This title is in fact given in the poem alternatively with that of Pangulèë Beunaròë, and his territory is alluded to as the IX Mukims.
The chiefs of Pidië who have ranged themselves on the side of Pòchut Muhamat are ready to join with him in making war on Pangulèë Beunaròë, though they are not blind to the danger of the undertaking. Pòchut Muhamat is however advised by a discreet ulèëbalang first to write a letter to the chief, who is as powerful as he is courageous,
- ↑ He especially advises irrigation. As a matter of fact the people of Pidië at the present day utilize the rivers for their wet rice cultivation, instead of depending on the rain as they do in Acheh.
- ↑ This word is the Achehnese form of the Malay pěnghulu běndahari, meaning chief treasurer or chief of the royal storehouses. Whatever may have been the original function of the bearer of the title in Acheh, it soon lost its proper significance (compare Vol. I, pp. 98, 126–7), and its bearer became an ulèëbalang, whose descendants and successors were in the lapse of time called Béndara Keumangan, chiefs of the federation of the "VI ulèëbalangs" which was more or less at variance with the federation of the "XII ulèëbalangs", with Teungku Pakèh of Pidië at its head.
