purpose, as can well be imagined. The teachers are all Kath-
Mollas, that is, the lowest grade of Mussalman priests who
chiefly derive their support from the ignorance and superstition
of the poor classes of their co-religionists; and the scholars are
in training for the same office. The portion of the Koran which is
taught is that which begins with Chapter LXXVIII of Sale’s
Koran, and extends to the close of the volume. The Mollas,
besides teaching a few pupils the formal reading of this portion
of the Koran, perform the marriage ceremony, for which they are
paid from one to eight annas according to the means of the
party; and also the funeral service with prayers for the dead
continued from one to forty days, for which they get from two
annas to one rupee, and it is in these services that the formal
reading of the Koran is deemed essential. The Mollas also often
perform the office of the village butcher, killing animals for food
with the usual religious forms, without which their flesh cannot
be eaten by Mussalmans; but for this they take no
remuneration. In several cases, the teacher of the school
depends for his livelihood on employment at marriages and
burials, giving his instructions as a teacher gratuitously. In one
instance a fixed allowance is received from the patron of the
school, fees from some of the scholars, and perquisites besides,
amounting in all to four rupees eight annas per month, and in
this case the patron professes the intention to have the scholars
hereafter taught Persian and Bengali. In another the patron
merely lodges, feeds and clothes, the teacher who receives
neither fixed allowance nor fees. In three instances the only
remuneration the teacher receives is a salami or present of five
or six rupees, from each scholar when he finally leaves school. In
two instances the teachers have small farms from which they
derive the means of subsistence in addition to their gains as
Mollas. They give instruction either in their own houses, or in
school-houses, which are also applied to the purposes of prayer
and hospitality and of assembly on occasions of general interest.
No institutions can be more insignificant and useless, and
in every respect less worthy of notice, than these Arabic schools,
viewed as places of instruction; but, however worthless in them-
selves, they have a certain hold on the Native mind, which is
proved by the increased respect and emoluments as Mollas,
expected and acquired by some of the teachers on account of the
instruction they give; the expense incurred by others of them in
erecting school-houses; and by the general employment by the
Mussalman population of those who receive and communicate
the slender education which these schools bestow. In the eye of