cotton between the hands. This wick floats around in the oil, and when lighted furnishes a dim, smoky light. The soot from this aboriginal lamp is gathered up and made into ink. This is used to write on a peculiar kind of slate, made of a slab of wood, smoothed and daubed with a white or yellowish brown clay. The pupils write on this with made of a reed.

a pen

The school hours are long and tedious. In order to walk the many miles from home to school and reach there in time, the boy is frequently compelled to start at four o'clock in the morning, often before daylight and without eating any breakfast. School begins at six o'clock in the morning and closes at four. Usually no time is allowed for recess, and there is no noon hour. Sometimes, however, the boys are allowed fifteen minutes to eat their pitifully poor luncheon, consisting of a handful of parched rice or corn. They go without breakfast in summer and in winter they eat no lunch. There is no playground attached to the school. Indeed, the serious, sad faces of the young lads would lead one to believe that the boys of India never enjoy any pleasant relaxation. All their exercise is gained while walking to school or while doing the "chores" at home, before and after school. This kind of exercise does not afford much fun to growing boys. At night the little fellows are too tired to play, and, besides, they are forced to study by the flickering light of the mustard-oil lamp, for if they do not have their lessons perfectly learned the next day, the teacher will punish them severely. Punishment in India is no joking matter. The boys are made to squat on the ground and pull their own ears. Sometimes they are forced to squat, put their arms under their knees from the back, reach up, and pull their own ears. This punishment is especially severe. Frequently the boys are caned. They are compelled to bend over with their hands on their knees while the teacher beats them across the back with a cane or stick.

School boys in India enjoy few vacations; they are allowed one day out of seven. In the case of Government schools this day is Sunday. Mohammedans have Friday as a holiday, and Hindus, Wednesday. On the last Saturday of every month the school children are given either a whole or half holiday. School for them means one incessant grind and little progress, for the teacher is invariably a miserably paid, old-fashioned man, who does not know much more than the untrained boys. About all he can do is to teach them the merest rudiments of reading and writing.

Boys and girls do not go to school together in India. Indeed, until very recently, girls were not sent to school at all. If they do go, it is to a school of their own, where they will not meet a member of the

opposite sex, as it is the custom of the country to keep the boys and girls separate until they are married. Even then there is not much co

mingling of the two sexes.

Life at home is no easier than school life for the boys of India. For the most part the natives of the land are as poor as Job's turkey. The average income of an East Indian is about fifty cents a month. Out of this he must feed and clothe and educate his family, and pay governmental taxes and Brahmanical fees. The Indian boy lives in a shanty made of bamboo, plastered with mud and thatched with straw. There are no glass windows in it; not even wooden shutters cover the holes, about a foot wide and a foot and a half long, which have been left open for light and air. In the winter these holes in the wall are stuffed with dirty rags. The East Indian man is too poor to buy hinges for the door and it swings open and shut on a wooden pivot which works in a hole bored in the ground. The home of the boy in India contains almost no furniture. There is no calcimine on the wall, nor paper covering for the mud plaster; no pictures, no decorations of any sort, lend a charm to the place. The dirt floor is uncovered by carpet or rug, or even by rough boards. The house contains no chairs; everybody squats on the floor or on a mat of straw or gunnysack, or sits on cots. These cots are home made; the bamboo framework is laced across with coarse strings, and often the family is too poor to afford even a sheet to throw over this roping. Not infrequently there is no bedstead at all, the inmates of the house sleeping on the hard dirt floor. As a rule the shanty contains only one room, and everyone sleeps in this room, which also serves as parlor, sitting room, dining room, kitchen, and dairy. Here, also, are stored the household supplies and vegetables. The adjoining room serves as a cow shed, and fertilizer is piled just outside the door. Usually the family eats but one meal a day, or two at the utmost. This meal consists of a morsel of corn or wheat bread with a vegetable stew. Meat is seldom eaten, for two reasons. The people are too poor to pay for it, and their religion forbids it.

You can hardly call the dress of an East Indian boy "clothes." His father is too poverty stricken to provide more than a rag around the waist or a breech clout. If a shirt is worn at all, it is of coarse cloth, rudely made. Many little boys go about naked, without a stitch of clothing upon their bodies. Often the Indian youth goes bareheaded, or wears a small turban or cap. Either no shoes at all, or poor, crude slippers are worn.

All this means that the life of a boy in India is sad, dreary, monotonous. The Hindu's is a deeply religious nature, and the average East Indian commences early to make a religious man of his child.

The little one is made to go to the temple morning and evening, instructed to bow and scrape before the earthen idols, offer them sacrifices of flowers and water, and sing sacred songs. Religious ceremony forms an essential part of the Hindu boy's life.

As soon as the

little one is born prayers are offered to the gods in his behalf and songs are sung. The astrologer is sent for to forecast the life and career of the child. Many formalities are observed, and sweatmeats are distributed to those who take part in the affair. Before the boy is twelve years of age, the the ceremony of the investment of the sacred thread is gone through with. The thread consists of three strands and is worn over the left shoulder and under the right, next the skin. Its investment is looked upon as one of the most important functions of life, since it is the emblem of caste pre-eminence in this world and the next. The sacred thread is worn only by those belonging to the higher castes. It is symbolical of the second birth, the first being the entrance of the child into the mundane world, and the second marking his spiritual awakening.

Rural schools in India are, as a rule, not so pretentious as this one

Soon after the investment of the sacred thread comes the marriage ceremony. On account of the hot climate girls and boys mature very early in India, and therefore their marriage takes place early in life. The marriage contract is made by the parents of the bride and groom, the children themselves not being given any discretion in the affair. The Hindu marriage ceremony is a very elaborate affair. Several days before the date fixed for the wedding the houses of both the little bride and groom present a festive appearance. Relatives have come from far and near to take part in the ceremonies. Songs are sung, scriptures are recited, and the friends of the two young people who are about to embark on life's journey together play pranks on them and have a great deal of fun at their expense. On the evening preceding the day of the marriage the boy who is soon to become a husband is dressed in fan

tastic, gaudy garments. His relatives and friends and the friends of his relatives form a procession and accompany him, riding on horseback, to the home of his girl bride. As it grows dark, firecrackers are exploded, rockets are sent soaring into the air, and fireworks of

all kinds are displayed, while the procession slowly wends its way, by a round-about route, to, the dwelling place of the bride's parents. Arrived there the party is received by the relatives and friends of the little girl with a fusillade of jokes. The boy bridegroom descends from his saddle, and the friends of the bride gather around him and tease