more robust than the natives of Coromandel, or the Tamulians on the eastern coast of India. The education of youth in India is much simpler, and not near so expensive as in Europe. The children assemble half naked under the shade of a coconut tree; place themselves in rows on the ground, and trace out on the sand, with the fore finger of the right hand, the elements of their alphabet, and then smooth it with the left when they wish to trace out other characters. The writing master, called _Agian_, or _Eluttacien_, who stations himself opposite to his pupils, examines what they have done; points out their faults, and shews them how to correct them. At first, he attends them standing; but when the young people have acquired some readiness in writing, he places himself cross-legged on a tyger’s or deer’s skin, or even on a mat made of the leaves of the coco-nut tree, or wild ananas, which is called _Kaida_[160], plaited together. This method of teaching writing was introduced into India two hundred years before the birth of Christ, according to the testimony of Megasthenes, and still continues to be practised. No people, perhaps, on earth have adhered so much to their ancient usages and customs as the Indians. A schoolmaster in Malabar receives every two months, from each of his pupils, for the instruction given them, two _Fanon_ or _Panam_. Some do not pay in money, but give him a certain quantity of rice, so that this expence becomes very easy to the parents. There are some teachers who instruct children without any fee, and are paid by the overseers of the temple, or by the chief of the cast. When the pupils have made tolerable progress in writing, they are admitted into certain schools, called _Eutupalli_, where they begin to write on palm leaves (_Panà_), which, when several of them are stitched together, and fastened between two boards, form a _Grantha_, that is, an Indian book. If such a book be written upon with an iron style, it is called _Granthavari_, or _Lakya_, that is, writing, to distinguish it from _Alakya_, which is something not written.