ality, as rulers of sixty millions of British Asiatic subjects, ought not to object to pay one respectable missionary for every district, where a Collector of Revenue resides. The good man (having previously studied the peculiar language of the couutry) might be placed under the immediate superintendence of this civil servant, to prevent any improper interference with the established customs of the other natives, when, by a modest and appropriate conduct in the management of a school for the instruction of youth, he might gradually effect a reform in their morals, and thereby lay the foundation for the pure doctrines of Christi anity, of which the Neophites are equally ignorant at present, as the inhabitants of New Zealand, before the arrival of missionaries in that distant land.

Bibles in every Asiatic language have certainly been distributed at an enormous expence throughout British India; but for want of that information which the respectable Mr. Corrie could have granted, and which he is so well calculated to give, the sums hitherto expended have been of little avail; for we cannot expect a child to understand Horace, without being initiated in the rudiments of the Latin grammar.

A missionary in British India must expect nearly the same diffi culties as St. Paul experienced with the Jews and Gentiles, the Musalmans being desirous of retaining the ceremonies of the Muhammadan law, and have an aversion to the Hindus, while the latter are particularly attached to the superstitious rites of their idolatrous worship.

The learned Orientalist, Mr. Colebrooke, being in London, might possibly be induced to favour the well-wishers to the missionary cause in this country, with his sentiments as to the establishment of a particular cast of Protestant Christians, (as Gura Govind did for the Sikhs), with a few primary rules for their good government, founded in the Levitical law, as analogous to Asiatic customs, wherein expulsion from the cast should be awarded against the drinkers of spirituous liquors and eaters of swine's flesh, for reasons which are obvious to every person who has ever resided in British India.

When a solid foundation is thus laid, under the auspices of those who are thoroughly acquainted with the subject, the missionary cause will prosper, and that it may do so, is the hearty prayer and wish of MODERATION.

ARITHMETICAL Science, as taught in the Lilavati, is confined exclusively to the Jyotisis or astronomers. At school children are taught little beyond the four

elementary rules of addition, substraction, multiplication, and division, together with one or two examples of the rule of three, and of interest. In the method of teach

ing these rules, however, there is something peculiar, an account of which may be not altogether uninteresting to those who are fond of observing the various modes of calculation practised in different countries.

As the instruction received at Hindu Schools is almost entirely confined to arithmetic, a few additional remarks will be sufficient to convey a general and pretty accurate idea of the education afforded to Hindu children. The following account being founded chiefly upon information received from natives of the Mahratta country and of Guzerat, and on observations made during visits to schools kept by inhabitants of those countries, must be regarded in some measure as local. At the same time, the conversations which I have had with people from different and remote parts both of Hindustan, and the Peninsula, leave little doubt that, in the general features, it will be found to correspond with the plan adopted throughout the whole of India.

*

On joining the school the young pupil performs the pati puja, or worship of the writing board, in the following manner. The board which is about twelve inhces long and eight broad, is first covered with gulal, ou which is drawn the figure of Saraswati the goddess of learning; it is then covered with perfume, rice, flowers, sugar, beetle-nut and leaf, cocoa-nut, &c. and near it are placed a lighted taper of incense, and also a burning lamp scented with camphor, all of which are presented to the master along with a small sum of money and turband, or some similar present, suitable to the condition of the parent or relation of the child. The rice, flowers, betel-nut, &c. are distributed by the master among the children of the school. Trifling presents are also made to such brahmans as may attend upon the occasion. The scholar then prostrates himself before the writing board, which is supposed to represent the goddess Saraswati, and the master writes the words "Sri Ganesayanama”—“ reverence to Ganesa, the god of wisdom;'"Om"-the mystic name of god; after

* Gulal is fiour dyed of purple colour. The forms of the figures or letters are traced with a

wooden style which displacing the sand or coloured flour leaves exposed the white ground which had previously been formed with a kind of pipe clay.

which he puts a reed pen into the scholar's hand, and directs it a few times over the forms of the letters.

Having performed these preliminary ceremonies, which are supposed to have a mighty influence over his future progress, the scholar proceeds to learn first the vowels, then the consonants, and finally the combinations of the vowels and consonants. Five or six vowels being written down on the board, he retraces their forms by drawing his pen over the characters which have been written in the sand, until the forms of the letters given in the lesson have become so familiar that he can write them without a copy, and pronounce their names. In the next lesson five or six letters more are put down, which the scholar learns to write in the same manner as before; and thus he proceeds until he have learned to write and read the whole number of vowels and consonants, and the combinations of these letters, in the Devanagari alphabet, which, in this part of India, is called Balbodh.

After learning the letters of the alphabet, the scholar proceeds to the numeral figures. A copy of these being written down on the board, together with their names, he retraces their forms, and at the same time pronounces audibly the name of each figure, according as was done in learning the letters of the alphabet. The lesson is thus put down on the board :1 ek 2 don

3 tin
4 char

5 panch 6 saha

one

two

three

....

four

five six

After writing these figures, and repeating their names, until he is able to write them even when no written lesson is placed in his view, the scholar is then taught to put down and read the figures as far as one hundred, in the following manner :11 before one is eleven

12 one before two is twelve, and so on. This species of enumeration being acquired, the scholar proceeds to the multiplication table called Pare. In the Mahrata schools, this table consists in multiplying ten numbers as far as thirty, and

After learning to multiply in this manner, the scholar proceeds to the tables of weights and measures.

Having committed to memory the multiplication tables, and also the tables of weights and measures, which are the ground work of his future arithmetical practice, the scholar next proceeds to what is termed miloune, which signifies adding.

It has been already remarked, that in going through all these operations the scholar speaks in a loud singing tone. An European would naturally suppose that this practice must produce great confusion, and distract the mind of each scholar. In the Hindu schools, however, it does not seem to have this effect; but, on the contrary, this audible repetition appears to keep up the scholar's attention, and to fix his mind firmly on the subject about which he is employed. It also affords the teacher means of observing when any one is idle and inattentive to his lesson; and by connecting the sound with the thing signified, the calculator may perform the operation by a kind of mechanical process. Besides, it takes away the idea of mental exertion, and converts the exercises at school into a kind of play and amusement.

Before the scholars are dismissed in the evening, it is usual to repeat the different multiplication tables in the following

manner :

All the scholars stand up, when one of them, by directions of the master, takes his station in front, and goes through the different tables with a loud voice, all the other scholars repeating after him at once. The boy who is the greatest proficient is generally chosen to take the lead; but at other times the master selects one of the younger boys, in order to ascertain whether he be able to go through the tables with accuracy. This proves no small incentive to each boy to make himself master of these tables, as any failure in this conspicuous situation is accompanied with great disgrace.

The multiplication tables being thus daily repeated are fixed indelibly on the

mind of the scholar; and in this way he acquires a facility in performing arithmetical operations off hand, which frequently astonishes an European observer. For instance, I have often heard a series of pretty intricate questions, involving fractions and the Rule of Three, put to half a dozen of boys, one question being put to the first boy, another to the second, and so on in succession; and by the time that a question had been given to the last boy, the first boy would answer the one which had been put to him, immediately after which the second boy would answer his question; and thus it went through the whole; so that in the course of two minutes, six different questions would be put to as many boys, and answered by them with the utmost correctness.

The children learn to write and cipher on a board covered with sand or brick dust, and the letters or figures are traced with a reed, or small wooden style, which the scholar is permitted to hold in whatever manner he finds most convenient. In the more advanced stages, however, and when the arithmetical operations extend to some length, I have observed in the schools here, that they paint the board with a black ground, and then write upon it with a mixture of chalk and water. This occupies much less room than in writing upon sand, is less liable to obliteration, and at the same time shews the figures in a plain and distinct form.

In the system of education thus briefly detailed, several very judicious arrangements will be noticed, both in regard to economy, and as to saving of time.

First, by writing upon a board covered with sand, there is saved the expense of paper, ink, and pens.

Secondly, writing and reading are taught together, instead of being made different branches of instruction. While tracing the forms of the letters or figures, the scholar at the same time repeats their names, a practice which is followed also when he proceeds to ciphering.

Thirdly, the scholar is taught the effect of placing one or more figures before another, and thus learns to distinguish between the nature of this position and the result of adding numbers together, a distinction which often puzzles beginners to whom it has not been carefully pointed out.

the succulent extremities of the young branches, sometimes upon the petioles of the leaves, but never on the trunk, or large branches, probably on account of the rigidity of their cuticle, and deficiency of juice.

By the middle of January they are all fixed in their proper situations; they appear as plump as before, but shew no other signs of life. The limbs, antennæ, and sitæ of the tail are no longer to be seen around the edges; they are environed with a spified, sub-pellucid liquid, which seems to glue them to the branch; it is the gradual accumulation of this liquid which forms a strong and compleat castle for each insect, and is what is called gum lac, so useful to the arts of men, as well as the preservation of this valuable insect.

I had no opportunity of seeing the operations of this insect, from the 25thof January until the 16th of March, when. the cells were completely formed over the insect; they had the appearance of an oval, or rather subrotund, smooth red bag without life, about the size of a small cochineal insect, emarginated at the obtuse end, full of a beautiful red liquid, seemingly contained in cellulæ, as in the albumen ovi. At this time the young insects cannot be distinguished in the fluid. Here again there is a blank in my observations; I did not see the insect until November, when the cells and insects were at their full size; and we find a vast number of little oblong red bodies, intermixed with the red fluid of the mother; these are the young offspring, each enveloped in its proper membrane; when all the red liquid is expended, they throw off their membraneous coverings, and pierce a hole through the side of the mother, and superior part of the cell, and walk off one by one to a distant part of the branch, leaving their exuviæ behind, which is that white substance found in the empty cells of the sticklac.

Those insects are the parasitic inhabitants of three different trees, viz.

1st. Ficus Religiosa, Bengali Pipul, Anglice Banian tree.-2d. Ficus Bengalensis, in Bengali Bhur, Anglice Banian tree. The third is a valuable tree called Pros or Pras by the natives.

The insects fix themselves so close together, and in such numbers, that I imaAsiatic Journ. -No. 14.

are

gine only one in six can have room enough to complete her cell; the others die, and eat up by various insects. The extreme branches appear as if they were covered with a red dust, and their sap so much exhausted, that they generally wither, produce no fruit, and the leaves drop, or turn to a dirty black colour. The insects are transported, I imagine, by birds; if they perch upon these branches they must carry off a number of those insects upon their feet, to the next tree they rest upon. It is worth observing, that these fig-trees, when wounded, drop a milky juice, which instantly coagulates into a viscid, ropy substance, which, hardened in the open air, is similar to the cell of the coccus laccæ. The natives boil this fig milk with oils into a birdlime which will hold peacocks or the largest birds; in the same manner a red medicinal gum is produced from the wounded prass tree, so similar to the gum lac, that it may readily be taken for the same substance; hence it is probable that those insects have little trouble in animalizing the sap of these plants in the formation of their cells.

The gum lac is said to be produced from the ber or beyer tree, which is frequent in this country, it is the rhamnus jujuba Linnæa, or jujube tree; I will not deny the fact, but what has been shewn to me as such, was a substance very different from the lac: there is a fungous excrescence frequently grows from the small branches of this tree, the little tender granulations of which are at first covered with a red bloom, which soon turns black, and neither contains insects, lac, nor colour, that ever I could find," even with the utmost care in my inquiries. This tree is much frequented by ants, flies, and various insects, which destroy the flowers, leaves and fruit; this mistake has probably led Bontius, father Tachard, and their copiers into

error.

The lac of this country principally found upon the uncultivated mountains on both sides of the Ganges, where bountiful nature has produced it in such prodi❤ gious abundance, that was the consumption ten times greater the markets might be supplied by this minute insect! The only trouble in procuring the lac, is in breaking down the branches, and carrying VOL. III. 2 G