Page:Adam's reports on vernacular education in Bengal and Behar, submitted to Government in 1835, 1836 and 1838.djvu/25

Rh “The boy who first comes to school in the morning receives one stroke of the cane on the palm of the hand, the next receives two strokes, and so each in succession, as he arrives, receives a number of strokes equal to the number of boys that preceded him,—the first being the privileged administrator of them all.“

On the tricks played on the Guru Mahashay.—“In preparing his hookah, it is a common trick for the boys to mix the tobacco with chillies and other pungent ingredients; so that when he smokes, he is made to cough violently, while the whole school is convulsed with laughter;—or, beneath the mat on which he sits, may be strewn thorns and sharp prickles, which soon display their effects in the contortions of the crest-fallen and discomfited master or, at night, he is way-laid by his pupils, who, from their concealed position in a tree, or thicket, or behind a wall, pelt him well with pebbles, bricks, or stones;—or, once more, they rehearse doggerel songs, in which they implore the gods, and more particularly Kali, to remove him by death—vowing, in the event of the prayer being heard, to present offerings of sugar and cocoanuts.“

On the plans for escaping from School.—“The boys have cunning plans for escaping from school: To throw boiled rice on domestic vessels ceremonially defiles them;—hence, when a boy is bent on a day’s release from school, he peremptorily disobeys his admonishing mother, saying. No; if you insist on my going, I shall throw about the boiled rice—a threat which usually gains him the victory. If a person of a different caste, or unbathed, or with shoes on his feet, touched the boiled rice or pot of another, it is polluted;—hence, when a boy effects his escape from school, he often hastens to some kitchen, touches the boiled rice, or the pots in which it has been boiled, and thus becomes himself polluted; and until he bathes, no one can touch or seize him without being polluted too. A temporary impunity is thus secured. At other times the boy finds his way to filthy and unclean places, where he remains for hours or a whole day, defying the master and his emissaries to touch him—knowing full well that they cannot do so without partaking of his own contracted pollution. So determined are boys to evade the torturous system of discipline that, in making good their escape, they often wade or swim through tanks, or along the current of running drains, with a large earthen pot over their heads, so that the suspicion of passers by, or of those in a suit, is not even excited—seeing that nought appears on the surface but floating pot;—or they run off and climb into the loftiest neighbouring tree, where they laugh to scorn the efforts of their assailants to dislodge them. In the recent case of one personally known to our informant, the runaway actually remained for three days on the top of a cocoanut tree, vigorously hurling the cocoanuts, as missiles, at the heads of all who attempted to ascend for the purpose of securing him.”

Such were the Schools,—no wonder Mr. Adam concludes his study with the following remarks:—

“I cannot, however, expect that the reading of the report should convey the impressions which I have received from daily witnessing the mere animal-life to which ignorance consigns its victims, unconscious of any wants or enjoyments beyond those which they participate with the beasts of the field—unconscious of any of the higher purposes for which existence has been bestowed, society has been constituted, and government is exercised. I am not acquainted with any facts which permit me to suppose that, in any other country subject to an enlightened government, and brought into direct and immediate contact with European civilization, in an equal population, there is an equal amount of ignorance with that which has been shewn to exist in this district. While ignorance is so extensive, can it be matter of wonder that poverty is extreme, that industry languishes,