Timor is an island in the eastern part of the Indian Archipelago which is mentioned in The Achehnese Vol. I in a comparative footnote on the Achehnese practice of counting up to seven as an introduction to ceremonial acts. The reference is one of a series of comparisons by which Snouck Hurgronje sought to place Achehnese usages in the wider context of Indonesian ritual.
Counting to Seven at the Andam Ceremony
Snouck’s reference to Timor comes in his description of the andam ceremony, the ritual shaving of the bride’s hairline performed by an old woman as part of the marriage preparations. “An old woman first sprinkles the patient with teupong taweu’ë, then scatters a little breu’eh-padë over her body and smears her forehead with some cocoanut water from the cocoanut which is placed ready for the purpose. Before commencing her task, she repeats the formula prescribed by Islam for the inauguration of all matters of importance — Bismillah! ‘in the name of Allah!’ The scattering of the breu’eh-padë is performed seven times, each being solemnly counted: sa, duë, lhèë, peuet, limöng, nam, tujōh! This counting is also employed on other occasions, such as the use of charms, and in children’s games.”
In a footnote to this passage, Snouck adds the comparative observation: “Cf. the notes in the Tijdschrift voor Binnenlandsch Bestuur Vol. 7 p. 221 as to the counting up to seven as an introduction to invocations of gods or spirits in Timor.”
The Wider Indonesian Context
The point of the comparison with Timor is to show that the Achehnese practice of counting to seven — clearly significant in the context of Islamic numerology, where seven is a sacred number (the seven circumambulations of the Ka’bah, the seven rounds between Ṣafā and Marwah, etc.) — is at the same time a survival of a pre-Islamic Indonesian usage. The fact that the same counting-to-seven is used in Timor as an invocation of indigenous gods and spirits suggests that the Achehnese practice, although Islamicised in form, was rooted in an older stratum of Indonesian religion.
Significance
Timor appears in Vol. I only in this brief comparative note, but the note is characteristic of Snouck’s method. Throughout The Achehnese, he uses comparisons with other Indonesian peoples — including Nias, the Batak, the peoples of Celebes, and now Timor — to distinguish what is specifically Islamic in Achehnese usage from what is an inheritance from the older Indonesian substratum. The reference to Timor in particular shows that the sevenfold counting of the andam ceremony is one such inheritance.
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.