1836.] 



Native Education. 



106 



Mahoraedan schools also ; for the Koran, in its original Ara- 

 bic, is the only book first placed in the hands of every Mus- 

 sulman boy. 



" Capt. Harkness, our late Secretary, has the merit of hav- 

 ing done his utmost to remedy this crying evil. Under him. 

 the College head masters, and others, prepared a series of ele- 

 mentary books in Tamil, Teloogoo, Hindoostanee and 

 Sanscrit. 



****** 



" The number of these books which have been sold (2,358) 

 shews that their value has been appreciated by the natives ; 

 and that the attempt, so far as it has gone, to introduce into 

 the native schools books intelligible to the learner, has been 

 successful. But it appears to me that the books themselves 

 admit of great improvement ; and that, thus improved, the 

 distribution of them should be attempted on a much more ex- 

 tensive scale. 



" " The whole of these consecutive works might, with much ad- 

 vantage, be compressed into a single volume in each language, 

 for they are at present unnecessarily numerous and compli- 

 cated. The alphabet of each language should be given in 

 the largest character — then all the different combinations of 

 letters used in the language, omitting such -as never occur in 

 it, some of which have found their way into these books 

 merely because they occur in other tongues. A few pages 

 may then be devoted to words of one, two, three and 

 more syllables respectively ; and the book should close, like 

 an English spelling book, with moral verses and moral tales^ 

 such as children can easily understand and get by heart, and 

 such as may be calculated to produce salutary impressions 

 on the youthful mind. I am not sufficiently master of the 

 language to pronounce a judgment as to the successful exe- 

 cution of this last part of Vencatachella Moodely's Tamil 

 works — but the novel attempt he has made, to convey to 

 native children lessons of morality in verse, in the colloqui- 

 al dialect of the Tamil language, though a humble, is a power- 

 ful means for the promotion of virtue and useful knowledge, 

 deserving of the utmost encouragement. 



