Achish

“ But the princes, i.e., the four other princes of the Philistines, not the courtiers of Achish himself, were angry with Achish, and demanded, “Send the man back, that he may return to his place, which thou hast assigned him; that he may not go down with us into the war, and may not become an adversary (satan) to us in the war; for wherewith could he show himself acceptable to his lord (viz., Saul) , if not with the heads of these men?” הלוא, nonne, strictly speaking, introduces a new question to confirm the previous question. “Go down to the battle:” this expression is used as in 1Sa 26:10 ”

“ David joins the enemies of his God and of his country, acts a most inhuman part against the Geshurites and Amalekites, without even the pretense of a Divine authority; tells a most deliberate falsehood to Achish, his protector, relative to the people against whom he had perpetrated this cruel act; giving him to understand that he had been destroying the Israelites, his enemies. I undertake no defense of this conduct of David; it is all bad, all defenceless; God vindicates him not. The inspired penman tells what he did, but passes no eulogium upon his conduct ”

“ In consequence of this, however, he was brought into a state of dependence upon this Philistian prince (1Sa 27:1-12) ; and shortly afterwards, when the Philistines made an attack upon the Israelites, he would have been perfectly unable to escape the necessity of fighting in their ranks against his own people and fatherland, if the other princes of the Philistines had not felt some mistrust of “these Hebrews,” and compelled Achish to send David and his fighting men back to Ziklag (1Sa 29:1-11) . ”

“ Acha of Diphta, proposed as principal of the Sora academy, 2, 627. Acha ben Jacob, on Chama of Nahardea, 2, 595. Achaï bar Huna, Amora, compiler of the Babylonian Talmud, 2, 631. Achaia, Paul establishes Christian communities in, 2, 227. Achbâr, teacher of the Law among the Arabic Jews, 3, 59. Acher. See Elisha ben Abuya. Achiab, prevents Herod from committing suicide, 2, 116. Achish, Philistine king, in friendly relations with David, 1, 101–2. acknowledges David king, 1, 108. Achitub, grandson of Eli, high priest at Nob, 1, 79. Achiya, first Exilarch known, 2, 509. Achiya. See also Chiya. ”

“ The Philistines at this time collected their forces together, to attack the Israelites. To which service Achish summoned David, (8) and met with a cheerful compliance.
** Ver. 8. *** Ver. 9, 11. **** Query, whether David might not compose a psalm upon this occasion. (5) Josephus. (6) 1 Sam. xxvii. 10. (7) Ver. 12. (8) Ch. xxviii. 1.
"Surely," says David, "thou shalt know what thy servant can do."* He accordingly marched his adherents with the troops of king Achish ”

“ The different persons, captains, etc., who joined themselves to David at Ziklag, vv. 1-22. Those who joined him at Hebron, out of the different tribes; Judah, Simeon, Levi, the house of Aaron, Benjamin, Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, Naphtali, Dan, Asher, Reuben, etc., to the amount of a hundred and twenty thousand, [176] . Their unanimity, and the provisions they brought for his support, [177] .
Verse 1
Came to David to Ziklag - Achish, king of Gath, had given Ziklag to David, as a safe retreat from the wrath of Saul. ”

“ And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites.
09:027:011 And David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philistines.
09:027:012 And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever. ”

“ Not by any means all of the sayyids of Acheh are theologians or pandits. Most of them devote themselves to trade or in later generations to agriculture, but they enjoy none the less the customary reverence based on religious feeling, even where their life is far from testifying to a devotional spirit on their part. Such is often the case not only with sayyids who have found their way over from Arabia in the guise of random adventurers, but also with those born in Acheh, who quickly make their own of Achehnese manners and vices. ”

“ Jeumalōy, whose tomb is still to be seen not far from the principal mosque of Acheh, is universally revered as a saint by the Achehnese. Pòteu Uëʾ, for whose sake his younger brother drove out the sayyid, and that too with the help of subjects turned from their allegiance, is the founder of the present Achehnese dynasty. No wonder then that the scions of the royal house of Acheh will brook no mention of the Hikayat Pòchut Muhamat and regard it as a forbidden thing for anyone of their family to order or listen to its recitation. ”

“ Thence they draw a considerable portion of their knowledge of the world and of life, and almost all that they know of what has happened in the past, or what goes on outside their own country. Whoever wishes to understand the spirit of the Achehnese must not fail to bear in mind the nature of this, their mental pabulum; and should anyone desire to try to lead the civilization of Acheh along a new channel, it would be undoubtedly worth his while to make his innovations palatable to them by presenting them in 'hikayat' form. ”

“ Imagination runs riot throughout the whole, but the method of expression is thoroughly Achehnese; the thoughts which the poet puts in the mouths of his characters and the scenes which he has lavishly embroidered on the framework of his story, are all derived from the everyday life of the Achehnese people.
Contents of the epic.The poem begins with the first tokens of enmity on the part of Si Ujut, a son of the raja of Malacca, against his benefactor Éseukanda Muda, the powerful ruler of Acheh. ”

“ Alcibiades looked at the vines with happy eyes. “They grow,” he said softly.
Yaxis nodded and produced a pot of forget-me-nots. He had been tending them for three weeks—for Alcie. They bent over the pot, blue with blossoms, talking eager words and little gestures and quick laughs. And Achilles, coming out, smiled at the two heads bending above the plant. Yaxis had been lonely—but now the little laughs seemed to stir softly in the close rooms and wake something happy there.
XXIII ACHILLES HAS A PLAN
The next day, life in the little shop went on as if there had been no break. ”

“ In the beginning the trust of the Achehnese in God's help seemed now and then to be justified. Where they met with reverses the representatives of religion were ever ready with their explanation. "He that will carry on a holy war with assurance of victory must begin," said they, "by turning from all his iniquities.' Small wonder that Allah did not always cause the arms of Acheh to be victorious since he had so much maʿsiët (trangression) to visit on the people. ”

“ Two heroic poems (Malém Dagang and Pòchut Muhamat) dealing with historical facts and legends of the past of Acheh, have been known in written form as far back as the memory of the people extends. Another, which in form and character quite corresponds with the two mentioned above, and which celebrates the heroic deeds of the Achehnese in their war with the Dutch, was composed gradually by a man who could neither read nor write, and was first reduced to writing in its entirety at my own instance. ”

“ Achilles held a card in his thin fingers—a card that would admit him to his boy. Yaxis’s eyes were gloomy with dread, and his quick movements were subdued as he went about the business of the shop, carrying the trays of fruit to the stall outside and arranging the fruit under the striped awning. He was not to go out with the push-cart to-day. There was too much work to do—and Achilles could not let the boy go from him. Later, too, Achilles must go to the hospital—and to the big house on the lake, and someone must be left with the shop. ”

“ Political foresight is, in these days at least, foreign to the nature of all Achehnese. A raja of Acheh in particular, who plunged into the fray with persevering self-sacrifice in the interests of the people or their religion would be a phenomenon that the Achehnese themselves would be unable to explain except as a revelation of the boundless miraculous power of God.
To this we may add that nowhere could worse material be found for organizing a stout resistance to foreign invasion than in the lowland districts of Acheh in the immediate neighbourhood of the Dalam. ”

“ The Sultans of Acheh were in part Malayan, in part Arab, and in part—as with the line of princes who have now occupied the throne for more than a century and a half—of Bugis origin. The great literati or holy men were almost without exception foreigners, and the same is true of many of the rich traders and high officials. The Klings and Arabs settled in Acheh, nay even some of the slaves have after several generations become an integral part of the Achehnese people. ”

“ Like a great beast it snarled and snorted and stood out and waited the lash—and came to terms, gliding at last, by a touch along the smooth road—the face of Achilles transfigured in a dream.... The Acropolis floated behind him in the haze. The wings of the morning waited his coming and his hands gripped hard on the wheel of the world. Yaxis watched the car as it flashed and floated in the sun and was gone—down the roadway—around the distant corner—out of sight, with its faint triumphant “honk-honk-honk!” ”

“ Many chiefs of Achehnese coast-dependencies formally gave in their submission in order to protect their commerce from injury, but the number who withheld their allegiance was greater; and many chiefs in the interior did not consider themselves bound by the promises of the raja of the coast. Furthermore the state of war—as may be learnt from our first chapter—added to the many chiefs who already disputed authority in Acheh a countless number of others: adventurers, religious leaders, military chiefs of every type. ”

“ The smile of Achilles held the glory in its depths. “I tell you,” he said.
The clear face reflected the smile. A breath of waiting held the lips. “Yes.”
Achilles leaned again upon his counter. His face was rapt, and he spread his finger-tips a little, as if something within them stirred to be free.
“It stands so high and lifts itself”—Achilles raised his dark hands—“ruined there—so great—and far beneath, the city lies, drawing near and near, and yet it cannot reach... And all around is light—and light—and light. Here it is a cellar”—his hands closed in with crushing touch—“but there—!” ”

“ Even at the present day there are to be found in Acheh persons whose good taste is sufficient to make them prefer a recitation of Pòchut Muhamat to one of any of the numerous Malay stories that have been translated into Achehnese verse, tales of fabulous princes who performed all kinds of impossibilities to gain possession of the chosen one of their soul. ”

“ That these tailed or tail-less strangers contributed their quota to the composition of the Achehnese race is as little doubted as that the multitude of Klings (Kléug, ureuëng dagang [28] ) in Great Acheh and on the East Coast have brought more half-caste progeny into the world than now commands recognition as such. There have been within the memory of man a large number of Klings in the highlands of Great Acheh (XXII Mukims) living entirely as Achehnese and engaged in agriculture. There were even gampōngs, such as Lam Aliëng, the entire population of which consisted of such hybrid Klings. ”

“ Achilles closed the door softly and turned to him. “Tell me, Yaxis, what happened,” he said.
The boy’s face opened dramatically. “I look up—I see Alcie—like that—” his gesture fitted to the room—“He stand in door—all covered mud—blood run—cart broke—no fruit—no hat.” The boy’s hands were everywhere, as he spoke, dispensing fruit, smashing carts and filling up the broken words with horror and a flow of blood. Achilles’s face grew grave. The Greeks were not without persecution in the land of freedom, and his boy had lain all day suffering—while he had been lost in the great house by the lake. ”

“ He returns home with very little more knowledge of the world than he possessed when he went on his travels; all he learns is an ever-increasing contempt for the adat of his country (which conflicts with Islam in many respects) so that later on, as a dweller in the gampōng, he looks down on his fellow-countrymen with a somewhat Pharasaical arrogance.
It is needless to observe that the morals of the inhabitants of the rangkangs in Acheh are still less above suspicion than those of the pěsantrèn-students in Java. ”

“ It is no empty saying which the Achehnese quote to one another in their councils—keuchiʾ eumbah, teungku ma="the keuchiʾ is (our) father and the teungku (our) mother".
All peace-loving inhabitants of a gampōng are convinced of the necessity for having one person to speak or negotiate in the name of all; the more so because as we shall presently see, sundry family matters such as marriage, divorce, the bringing up of orphans or changes of residence are treated in Acheh as matters affecting the whole gampōng. ”

“ In the capital and the coast towns of tributary states, they form an item of greater importance, for it is precisely the most influential families that are of foreign origin. All the holy men and most of the noted scholars of the law in Acheh were foreigners. So too with many great traders, shahbandars, writers and the trusted agents of princes and chiefs; nay, the very line of kings which has ruled with some interruptions since 1723 is according to tradition of Bugis origin.
Nias slaves.Slaves are a factor of importance in the development of the Achehnese race. ”