squatting on the ground, tailor-fashion, like his pupils, who may number from ten to thirty, repeats the lesson in a sonorous singsong voice, and is imitated by the urchins, who accompany their voices by a rocking to and fro which sometimes enables them to keep time.  A sharp application of the cane is wonderfully effectual in recalling wandering attention; and lazy boys are speedily expelled.  On the admission of a pupil, the parents pay some small sum, varying according to their means, and every Wednesday, which is a half-holiday, a payment is made from 1/4d. to 2d.  New moons and feasts are made occasions for larger payments, and are also holidays, which last ten days during the two greater festivals.  Thursdays are whole holidays, and no work is done on Friday mornings, that day being the Mohammedan ‘Sabbath,’ or at least ‘meeting day,’ as it is called.  When the pupils have mastered the first short chapter of the Koran, it is customary for them to be paraded round the town on horseback, with ear-splitting music, and sometimes charitably disposed persons make small presents to the youngster by way of encouragement.  After the first, the last is learned, then the last but one, and so on, backwards, as, with the exception of the first, the longest chapters are at the beginning.  Though reading and a little writing are taught, at the same time, all the scholars do not arrive at the pitch of perfection necessary to indite a polite letter, so that consequently there is plenty of employment for the numerous scribes or Talibs who make a profession of writing.  These may frequently be seen in small rooms opening on to the street, usually very respectably dressed in a white flowing haik and large turban, and in most cases of venerable appearance, their noses being adorned with huge goggles.  Before them are their appliances,—­pens made of reeds, ink, paper, and sand in lieu of blotting paper.  They usually possess also a knife and scissors, with a case to hold them all.  In writing, they place the paper on the knee, or upon a pad of paper in the left hand.”  The main merit of the village school in Eastern lands is its noises which teach the boy to concentrate his attention.  As Dr. Wilson of Bombay said, the young idea is taught to shout as well as to shoot, and this viva voce process is a far better mnemonic than silent reading.  Moreover it is fine practice in the art of concentrating attention.

[FN#140] Arab.  “Mikshat,” whose root would be “Kasht"=skinning (a camel).

[FN#141] Evidently said ironice as of innocents.  In “The Forty Vezirs” we read, “At length they perceived that all this tumult arose from their trusting on this wise the words of children.”  (Lady’s XXth Tale.)

[FN#142] Ms. iii. 219-220.  For some unaccountable reason it is omitted by Scott (vi. 76), who has written English words in the margin of the W. M. Codex.

[FN#143] In text “Kadum,” for “Kudum,” a Syrian form.

[FN#144] Arab.  “Hidyah,” which in Egypt means a falcon; see vol. iii. 138.