and is of two sorts; in the first, the letters of the alphabet in the
order of the Abjad being taken to denote units, tens, and
hundreds to a thousand; and in the second the letters
composing the names of the letters of the alphabet being
employed for the same purpose. Arithmetic, by means of the
Arabic numerals, and instruction at great length in the different
styles of address, and in the forms of correspondence, petitions,
etc., etc., complete a course of Persian instruction. But in the
Persian schools of this district, this course is very superficially
taught, and some of the teachers do not even profess to carry
their pupils beyond the Gulistan and Bostan.
In a Persian school, after the years of mere childhood,
when the pupils are assumed to be capable of stricter
application, the hours of study with interval extend from six in
the morning to nine at night. In the first place in the morning
they revise the lessons of the previous day, after which a new
lesson is read, committed to memory, and reported to the
master. About mid-day they have leave of absence for an hour
when they dine, and on their return to school they are instructed
in writing. About three o’clock they have another reading lesson
which is also committed to memory, and about an hour before
the close of day they have leave to play. The practice with regard
to the forenoon and afternoon lessons in reading, is to join the
perusal of a work in prose with that of a work in verse; as the
Gulistan with the Bostan and Abdulfazl’s letters with the
Secundar Nameh, the forenoon lesson being taken from one and
the afternoon lesson from the other. In the evening they repeat
the lessons of that day several times, until they have them
perfectly at command; and, after making some preparation for
the lessons of the next day, they have leave to retire. Thursday
every week is devoted to the revision of old lessons; and when
that is completed, the pupils seek instruction or amusement
according to their own pleasure in the perusal of forms of prayer
and stanzas of poetry, and are dismissed on that day at three
o’clock without any new lesson. On Friday, the sacred day of
Mussalmans, there is no schooling. In other districts in
respectable or wealthy Mussalman families, besides the literary
instructor called Miyan or Akhun, there is also a domestic tutor
or Censor Morum called Atalik, a kind of head-servant whose
duty it is to train the children of the family to good manners, and
to see that they do not neglect any duty assigned to them; but I
do not find any trace of this practice in Rajshahi.