60 
SCHOOLS. 
operation was unnecessary^ that it was dangerous at my age, 
and that I could go to heaven without it. 
The marabouts* do not usually inhabit the same camp 
with the hassanes ; four of them only were to be found in 
that of Hamet-Dou. One of these was very poor ; he was 
a schoolmaster, taught girls and boys, and when their edu- 
cation was completed the parents presented him with a cous- 
sabe or a bullock. Evening and morning the children are 
engaged in picking up fire- wood ; it is always after dark at 
night, and before it is light in the morning that they take 
their lesson. By the light of a great fire, they recite some 
verses of the Koran, chanting them in a loud tone ; these 
verses the master writes upon their boards and they have to 
learn them by heart. At night they meet again at the 
master's tent to repeat their lesson. Whilst he is hearing his 
class, the master walks round the fire, singing himself to give 
the note to his scholars, and holding in his hand a long 
stick, with which he lays about him, when he sees any one 
inattentive. When a pupil is perfect in his lesson, he goes 
all round the camp repeating it, and obtains great applause. 
The Moors have a profound reverence for the Koran; 
they never lay it on the ground, not even on a mat, without 
putting a pagne under it. Before they venture to touch it 
they perform an ablution, raising their hands above their 
heads first, and then rubbing them over their faces and arms; 
any one who should do otherwise, would be despised and 
considered as an infidel. 
The boys are not admitted into the schools till they 
have been circumcised, and before this epoch they are for- 
bidden to touch the holy book. The slaves are never al- 
lowed to handle it, being regarded as impure. When the 
boards, on which the Koran has been written, are removed, 
they must be taken by the cord which serves to hang them 
* The marabouts are the priests ; they are not armed and do not go 
to war. 
