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genders and numbers, jih (ji-), which is employed without distinction, and gòbujan (geu-), which betokens a certain respect for the person spoken of. Yet this honour which is paid as a matter of course to a simple keuchiʾ is regarded as too high for Dutchmen, even for the Governor of Acheh; nay, for the Gōmpeuni itself, which is regarded as the supreme ruler. The title of Tuan beusa or great Tuan (Malay běsar) which the Achehnese apply to the Governor of Acheh carries with it no respect. It is for them a foreign word[1] which they occasionally use to describe high officials of the Gōmpeuni, and which sounds to their ears very much as the "Great Mogul" does to ours.
Even the people of Meuraʾsa and Gampōng Jawa, who have wholly compromised themselves by complete submission, call all Dutch authorities jih and speak without the slighest intention to give offence of the regulations of the kaphé, thus in their common talk denying to the ruling authority even a comparative degree of lawtul right.
I have myself actually experienced a case where in presence of a European official who did not know the language, Achehnese who had submitted unconditionally to Dutch rule spoke of him continually as jih, and the only person in the company who made use of the more polite form geu was an Arab long settled in Acheh.
This state of things is largely due to the fact that the people of Meuraʾsa etc. do not regard our policy and laws as the outcome of common sense but as equally burdensome to friend and foe, so that even though they might in general admit the possibility of a lawful infidel authority (to which in time the title geu might be applied), the Dutch Government could never become such in their eyes. In this connection how- ever it must not be forgotten that the narrow limitations of the Dutch position in Acheh gave the actively hostile party the control over the the common talk, over the views generally expressed as to the situation as well as the situation itself. Even had a favourable opinion existed in Meuraʾsa and other places which tendered their submission to the Dutch, it would have been speedily silenced by this hostile influence.
From the very commencement, the peacefully inclined exposed themselves to the hatred of their fellow-countrymen by their attitude during the first and second expeditions. After the excursions of General van der Heijden the feeling towards them began to amend, but later
- ↑ "Great" in Achehnese is raya or rayeuʾ.
