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material thrown round the posts, and in which the newly harvested rice is kept till threshed, and the threshing itself takes place; the krōngs, great tun-shaped barrels made of the bark of trees or plaited bamboo or rattan, wherein is kept the unhusked rice after threshing, which barrels are also sometimes placed in separate open buildings outside the house; the press (peuneurah) for extracting the oil[1] from decayed cocoanuts (piʾ u), and a bamboo or wooden rack (prataïh or panteuë) on which lies the firewood cleft by the women; these are the principal inanimate objects to be met with in the yub mòh.
Should the space beneath the house happen to be flooded in the rainy season, the store of rice is of course removed indoors.
Dogs, goats, sheep, ducks and fowls are also housed in the yub mòh. The brooding hens are kept under a cage-shaped seureukab[2], the others at night in a sriweuën or eumpung (fowl-run), while the fighting-cocks are in the daytime fastened up here by strings to the posts, though at night these favourite animals are brought into the front verandah[3].
Cows and buffaloes are housed in separate stalls or weuë, while ponies are tied up here and there to trees. The Achehnese however seldom possess the latter animals; those who have them use them but little and treat them with scant care[4].
All the small live stock huddled together in the yub mòh naturally
- ↑ This foul-smelling oil (minyeuʾ brōʾ) is used for lamps etc. What is required for culinary purposes is first boiled and prepared so as to remove the smell and is then called minyeuʾ masaʾ. The Achehnese seldom boil out the oil from the fresh santan (cocoanut milk) since the quantity obtainable in this way is smaller. Such oil is called minyeu leutéʾ.
- ↑ The Malay sěrkap, a conical cage or basket. The Malays give the same name to a similar basket which they use to catch fish in wet padi-fields and standing pools. The sluggish fish are caught by plunging the basket down into the water, and the fish are then withdrawn through an aperture at the top. (Translator).
- ↑ With regard to the fowls it should be added that they also are generally collected in the evening and placed on a bamboo or plank platform projecting outwards horizontally from the house and unprovided with any covering or fence. This is a precaution against the perpetual thefts of fowls. If the birds are gathered together in a coop, the thieves come and besprinkle them with water; this artificial rain makes them keep still, and the plunderers can carry off their booty unnoticed. But when the fowls are sitting on an open surface, they will fly in all directions at the first attempt the thief makes to catch them.
- ↑ They are let loose in the fields by day and tied up to trees at night, generally without any shelter. Their owners often forget to water them for one or two days at a time, so that the expression "to water a horse" (bri ië guda) is used proverbially as a reproach to someone who puts off the performance of a duty, as one who should pay a daily visit, but only puts in an appearance one day in three or four.
