Page:A Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Description of the District, or Zila, of Dinajpur.djvu/93

Rh Even these small fees are far beyond the reach of the bulk of the people, and the number of Pathsals is inconsiderable, as appears from the general statistical table No. 1.; so that were not many parents at the pains to instruct their own children, very few would be able to read and write. Even with this assistance, I am persuaded, that not more than one-sixteenth of the men born in this district acquire these accomplishments. Women are totally out of the question. My inquiries on that subject were always answered in the negative, and generally produced a smile of contempt.

Children usually go to school at five years of age, and are instructed to read and write at the same time, which seems to be an excellent method. They begin with tracing the letters on the floor with a pencil of steatite (Ram khori), beginning with a consonant, and afterwards joining the vowels so as to form syllables. In five or six months they are thus able to read and write. They then begin to write cyphers on palmira or plantain leaves with a reed and ink, and at the same time they learn numeration, and the sub-divisions of weights and measures. The sub-divisions of time belong to astronomy, or rather astrology. This occupies 18 months. They then begin to write on paper, to learn to keep accounts, and at the same time to multiply, divide, and subtract, with the rule of practice, in which the usual Indian arithmetic consists. Accounts and arithmetic are divided into two kinds, one for agricultural, and the other for commercial affairs: where both are to be learned, the former is the one usually taught first; but very few of the natives of this district ever acquire that knowledge, or are able to tell how many bigahs, or fractions, a rectangled parallelogram of a given length and width contains; for the Hindú geometry, so far as is known in ordinary practice, extends no farther. Practical surveyors have no means of ascertaining the extent of irregular figures, but by reducing them to rectangled parallelograms, in which they are guided merely by a rough estimation, or what is called the eye; while, even in measuring parallelograms, they are destitute of any instrument that can ascertain whether or not all the angles are equal. In general, the parents of this country are contented with instructing their children in mercantile accounts, that is in being able to calculate how much of any article may at a certain rate be procured for a certain number of rupees; and keeping a very full day or waste book, in which every transaction is carefully recorded, and to which is added a kind of ledger, in which the transactions with each person are separately detailed; but their books do not admit of a regular balance, like what is called the Italian method. It is only the arithmetic commercial and agricultural, that is taught at Pathsals; and the application to mensuration, and to the keeping of books, either of a merchant or land-holder, are acquired in some office or shop, into which the lad enters as an assistant, and where he also learns the style and manner of correspondence. Boys are fitted for entering into an office, as assistants, when from 8 or 10 years of age, according to their industry.

The use of the sharp iron style, for writing on bark or leaves, although the original manner of Hindú writing, has been entirely retinquished, and a pen made of reed or bambu, and ink, introduced by Muhammedans, are universally employed, even in writing on the palmira leaf, which is still often used in works of value, as being more durable than paper.

The education in common schools is not only defective from not being sufficiently diffused, but is liable to still greater objections. Nothing whatever is taught in these schools, except the mere reading and writing of the common language of the country, or opobhasha of Bengal, together with arithmetic. The youth read no book in which any moral doctrines or any liberal knowledge is contained, so that their education being confined entirely to accounts, tends