feet long and three feet broad, which they fold round their palm-leaves and pen of reeds. The _patshālā_ has no regular term, but keeps throughout the year, holidays excepted, which come almost every month. The Hindoos know no Sabbath nor Christmas. The school opens at six in the morning, and again at three in the afternoon, giving, in the mean time, a recess of four hours. The boy who comes first has a dot for his number, and the names of the rest are written as they come respectively. Now when it is time to close, the teacher strikes on the hands of the boys according to their number. Thus, he who keeps the record, being the earliest of all, gets merely a slight touch of the teacher’s whip, the second two, the third three, and so on. This is simply to enforce early attendance, because the first exercise in the _patshālā_ is the reading aloud the prayer to the Muse, and repeating the multiplication-table. The late boys, of course, lose these exercises. A deep and unsullied reverence for the teacher is considered the best element in the life of the scholar, and very essential to his success; hence the Hindoo boy bows down to the ground before “_gooroo mohashoy_,” saying “_bitha thau_,” grant us knowledge. To serve him a little is worth several hours’ study. The pupils are required to bring tobacco for him, which most of them get at the grocer’s in exchange for the written banana-leaves, which he uses to make packages for salt, sugar, &c. If a boy be absent often, four smart boys are despatched to bring him by force, which errand they perform with great skill and courage. If the absentee be a real truant, and have a grudge against some boy, in this case you would find his enemies would go to bring him as the best chance of retaliation. He is brought into the _patshālā_ in the way that ants carry a crust of bread into their hole. As they bring him, they sing thus:-- “Gooro moshoy, tomar pōrō hazir, Achē-dundo chārā dow jol Khaia ashe.” In English, “Sir teacher, your pupil is come, and give us leave for a few minutes to go out and drink some water,” &c. The patshālā does not give thorough instruction in grammar, history, or philosophy, for the children of the privileged classes learn these in Sanscrith schools. Under the British administration the old native system of training the youth has been almost done away in various parts of India, and English rules of discipline have been established, as far as it could be done without directly interfering with the superstition of the Hindoos.