A CAMBODIAN PRIMARY SCHOOL. 689 



tliermore, having been consecrated with a little ceremony which 

 does not always take place in the temple, they are obliged to have 

 their heads shaved like the bonzes and to recite with them cer- 

 tain prayers which they have consequently to learn, and they 

 live in the monastery. While the ordinary pupils may some- 

 times reside in the monastery under special conditions or for 

 special purposes, they usually live with their parents, and resort 

 every morning to the Vdat to take their lesson, go home to 

 breakfast, then return to study and perform a few household 

 duties and play with their comrades for a large part of the 

 day under the eye of their kindly and somewhat too careless 

 professors. 



All children who present themselves at the Veat for study are 

 received. It is not even required that their parents bring them 

 or visit them. The newcomer chooses his professor, and, if ac- 

 cepted, begins at once to study under his direction, installs him- 

 self in his cell or in the school hall, and becomes his servant. If 

 the professor has already too many pupils, he refuses the new 

 pupil and advises him to choose another teacher ; sometimes he 

 guides his choice, directing him to a master who has few or no 

 pupils, or takes him to the superior, who will select a teacher for 

 him. The choice of a professor is always a grave affair, because 

 it is held in Cambodia, as in all Buddhist and Brahmanic coun- 

 tries, that professor and pupil are bound by strong ties of spirit- 

 ual affinity, and that the pupil ought to respect his master as he 

 does his father and mother. The law inflicts the same penalty 

 upon an offense of the pupil against his master and an offense by 

 a son against his father and mother, and it prescribes that in cer- 

 tain cases the pupil may be the heir of his professor when he has 

 cared for him or supported him or served him when studying 

 under his direction; not only a family bond, but a religious 

 bond, too, is established between them, for the professor makes it 

 his business to teach his pupil the course by which he may earn 

 a more advantageous reincarnation and reach the Nirvana, and 

 becomes his spiritual guide. 



Four implements are used in studying : a tablet about two 

 feet by one, blackened with black lacquer ; a crayon stick ; a 

 bamboo ruler as long as the board, with which to draw the lines 

 at which the tops of the characters must stop ; and a cloth for 

 wiping the board when it is full. The pupil generally uses the 

 corner of his scarf or girdle for the last purpose. 



The teacher writes on the tablet the characters the pupil is 

 to learn, and names them to him ; the pupil learns to write and 

 name them all at the same time. His professor is near him^ 

 answers him, draws his attention to the often inconspicuous de- 

 tails that differentiate the characters, and to the accents and 



VOL. XLIX. 54 



