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or no property whom their learning, birth or other qualifications render eligible partis are also of very frequent occurrence. No wife would think of enforcing against such a husband her rights to maintenance etc., much less such maintenance as befits her position; indeed they much more often support the man. Even where the means of both are more on a par, such financial obligations are seldom taken into account.
There is thus in this respect a great and generally prevalent difference between the teaching of the law and the reality. The nature of this difference exhibits a special character in each country, to be explained from past history and from the social conditions of the present time.
In Acheh, where the adat assumes the mastery even in questions of domestic law, and the adat-judge is generally the supreme arbitrator, these peculiar departures from the law have not only a greater degree of stability, but also serve — albeit in conflict with the hukōm—as a standard in the settlement of disputes.
The Achehnese adat sets the husband free during a certain period from all obligation to maintain his wife. The length of this period depends on the amount of the dowry, irrespective of whether it is in fact paid in full, or only half, or even not at all[1]. For every bungkay of gold (25 dollars) of the marriage gift, the bride is made dependent for a full year on the support of her parents. All that the man gives her during this period is regarded as a free gift, even though these gifts are themselves to some extent regulated by the adat.
These presents consist first of all in the monthly biaya[2] of 3 or 4 dollars or more, which may be almost considered as boarding expenses for the 10 to 15 days in each month which the young man spends in the house of his wife. In the next place he has to "bring home meat"[3] as it is called, at the two great Mohammedan feasts, and especially that at the end of the fasting month. In our description of the feasts we have seen that it is an established adat in Acheh to form small societies for the slaughter of buffaloes before these feast days, and the ancient custom required the young man to bring home to his wife a handsome share of the meat from the slaughter in his own gampōng.
