Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/163

Rh and so on with the other letters of the alphabet, comes ringing in your ears, mingled with the voices of the spelling-class, and those of the readers, until you wonder what these little throats are made of, that they do not wear out with the constant strain.

The teacher sits cross-legged before the girls, giving the most of his attention to the upper classes, and appointing the more forward of these to hear the little ones. The studies in schools of this grade are to a very great degree religious—much more so than in any schools in America. The pupils read and study Scripture catechisms, the Gospels, Psalms, Scripture history, and hymns, with arithmetic, a little geography, and sewing.

Among the Hindus, learning is not a female accomplishment. “Why should women read," say they? “They can boil rice, make curry, and take care of the house without reading. Moreover, if you give them learning, it will make them proud and wicked; they will not be obedient to their husbands, and we shall have no peace at home.” When we point to females from Christian lands, and show them their superiority to Hindu women, they reply that learning may answer for white women, but it