Friday the 15th of Mo’lot — that is, Friday the 15th day of Rabī’ al-awwal, the month of the Maulud — is the date assigned by the Achehnese adat to a formulaic speech delivered by a slayer of a thief in the proceedings known as peusah panchuri. C. Snouck Hurgronje, in The Achehnese, cites the speech in illustration of the dramatic and stylised character of Achehnese criminal procedure, “characterized no less than their family life by set speeches and dramatic display.”
The Speech of the Slayer
The occasion is the killing of a thief on the spot. The body of the thief, with the objects which serve as testimony, is left undisturbed until the uleebalang, notified as soon as possible, appears in the gampong attended by some imeums and keuchi’s. These authorities seat themselves over against the slayer of the thief, and the people of the gampong crowd around on all sides. The slayer, usually represented by a speechmaker of the gampong but free to speak for himself if he wishes, rises and delivers himself on this wise:
“I beg forgiveness of you all, oh Teungkus, ye that are my kings, for the reason for which I stand here, oh Teuku ampon, is threefold. The first reason is, that I desire to pay homage to you, oh Teukus, who are my kings. The second reason is, oh Teuku ampon, that I wish to relate to you that which has befallen me. The third reason is, oh Teuku ampon, that I have to inform you as follows. During the past night, Friday the 15th of Mo’lot, I was sleeping in the meunasah. At about midnight, as well as I could guess, I was startled and awaked from sleep with a feeling of uneasiness. I took my weapons — a sikin, a reunchong and a spear — and went back into the gampong, for I keep a beast there…”
Form and Function
The speech is constructed according to a fixed tripartite plan, of which the third part narrates the events of the night. The date “Friday the 15th of Mo’lot” is given as the conventional date of the imaginary case; the formulae, Snouck Hurgronje observes, are “invariable.” The speech is one of the most striking survivals in Achehnese adat of the ceremonial forms of a pre-literate society, in which the act of killing a thief had to be publicly accounted for before the assembled authorities of the gampong and the mukim.
The choice of “Friday the 15th of Mo’lot” as the typical date is itself significant. It places the imagined killing in the very middle of the month of the Maulud — a month sanctified throughout the Mohammedan world by the birth of the Prophet — and on the day of public worship. The setting of the slayer in the meunasah (the village prayer-house) at midnight gives the formula a religious colouring; it presents him as a man of pious habit who, wakened by premonition of mischief, has been driven by necessity to the use of his weapons.
See Also
- Peusah Panchuri
- Uleebalang
- Adat Meulangga
- Meunasah
- Feast of the Birthday of Mohammad
- Sikin
- Reunchong
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.