Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/175

Rh of his school, the boys who are out are called in, and reasons given for the absence of others.

The classes are now called up and examined. The little ones spell and repeat their catechism, and the older classes answer to questions in Bible history, read, and recite from the higher Tamil school-books, that we may know whether they have been properly instructed. It is the custom to hold the teacher responsible, and to pay him in proportion to the amount taught the boys. The little fellows, when reciting, stand up in rows, with their arms crossed upon their naked breasts, for a cloth around their middle is their only dress; their heads are shaved except a little tuft upon the crown, which is suffered to grow long, and is a mark of Hindu nationality.

The more advanced pupils use books printed by the mission or the tract society; and the little ones have the sanded floor for primer and copy-book, writing, as in the girls' school, with their fore-finger, and reading as they write. They still, however, in many lessons, adhere to the Hindu custom of writing with an iron style or graver upon strips of palm-leaf, as in the days when Alexander the Great invaded India. The leaf of the palmyra-palm is cut into pieces