The peumite beueh ordeal (Achehnese peumite beueh, “bolting of raw rice”) was one of the judicial ordeals used in Acheh for the discovery of thieves, and, like its companions the peulieh beusoe and the peutasa’, it could be applied only by the uleebalang. The suspect was required to swallow a quantity of raw rice which had been prepared with the appropriate incantations; the guilty alone would fail to swallow it, while the innocent would bolt it without difficulty.
Mode of operation
The ordeal depended, like the others, on the conjunction of two elements: the physical test, which was the swallowing of raw rice, and the magical operation, which was the recitation of the necessary incantations over the rice. Without the incantations, the rice was simply rice; with them, it became a divine instrument for the separation of the guilty from the innocent. The principle was the same as that of the peutasa’ (boiling the hands in oil), in which the hand of the guilty and none other was scalded, provided that he who boiled the oil knew by heart the necessary formulas and was able to perform the operation in the proper manner. The peumite beueh differed only in the choice of the testing element.
Practical effect
The usefulness of the ordeals, Snouck Hurgronje observes, lay in the belief which the majority of the people had in them. Where they were conducted with the requisite circumstance and solemnity, the guilty party often confessed at once, before recourse was had to the actual trial; and even if this were not so, the demeanour of the criminal at the commencement of the ordeal generally proclaimed his guilt. To heighten this effect, some uleebalangs invited to the ceremony a teungku from some distant place, distinguished by a great beard or some other impressive characteristic; this startling apparition, appearing for the first time among strangers, often broke down the resolution of the suspect before the rice was even produced.
Place among the ordeals
The peumite beueh belonged to a recognised triad of Achehnese ordeals — the peutasa’ (boiling oil), the peumite beueh (raw rice), and the peulieh beusoe (hot iron) — to which may be added the teunggaknom or “burying something,” in which an enchanted kundur-fruit was buried at the entrance of the gampong and the stomach of the guilty was expected to swell or burst. Below these again stood the simpler procedure of the oath administered by the keuchi’ in the meunasah, which was an affair of the gampong and required no intervention from the uleebalang. The ordeals were thus the higher grade of judicial process, called into use when the gentler means of the gampong had failed.
See Also
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.