themselves into two classes, agricultural and commercial, in one
or both of which instruction is given more or less fully according
to the capacity of the teacher and the wishes of the parents. The
rules applied to agricultural accounts explain the forms of
keeping debit and credit accounts; the calculation of the value of
daily or monthly labour at a given monthly or annual rate; the
calculation of the area of land whose sides measure a given
number of kathas or bigas; the description of the boundaries of
land and the determination of its length, breadth, and contents;
and the form of revenue accounts for a given quantity of land.
There are numerous other forms of agricultural accounts, but no
others appear to be taught in the schools of this district. The
rules of commercial accounts explain the mode of calculating the
value of a given number of sers at a given price per maund; the
price of a given number of quarters and chataks at a given price
per ser; the price of a tola at a given rate per chatak; the number
of cowries in a given number of annas at a given number of
cowries per rupee; the interest of money; and the discount
chargeable on the exchange of the inferior sorts of rupees. There
are other forms of commercial account also in common use, but
they are not taught in the schools. The fourth and last stage of
instruction generally includes a period of two years, often less
and seldom more. The accounts briefly and superficially taught
in the preceding stage are now taught more thoroughly and at a
greater length, and this is accompanied by the composition of
business letters, petitions, grants, leases, acceptances, notes of
hand, etc., together with the forms of address belonging to the
different grades of rank and station. When the scholars have
written on paper about a year, they are considered qualified to
engage in the unassisted perusal of Bengali works, and they
often read at home productions as the translation of the
Ramayana, Manasa Mangal, etc., etc.
This sketch of a course of Bengali instruction must be
regarded rather as what it is intended to be than what it is, for
most of the school-masters whom I have seen, as far as I could
judge from necessarily brief and limited opportunities of
observation, were unqualified to give all the instruction here
described, although I have thus placed the amount of their
pretensions on record. All, however, do not even pretend to teach
the whole of what is here enumerated; some, as will be seen from
Table II, professing to limit themselves to agricultural, and
others to include commercial accounts. The most of them
appeared to have a very superficial acquaintance with both.