SYSTEM OF EDUCATION. 
61 
up by^ and neither be turned wrong end upwards nor trailed 
on the ground. When school is over^ these boards are laid 
upon the thorn fence^ and a slave who should presume to 
meddle with them would be beaten without mercy. 
The education of the girls is very limited; they are 
taught to repeat the salam^ and a few prayers^ but seldom 
to write ; some of them however are tolerably well in- 
formed. The boys learn the Koran by heart ; but it is to 
the education of the marabouts that most attention is paid ; 
some of them are very well read in the precepts of their reli- 
gion, and pretend to know more than we do of sacred histo- 
ry. They were quite surprised that I should know any thing 
of the Bible, and 1 gained great applause by reciting some of 
the adventures in the lives of the patriarchs ; but they were 
still more astonished that I was acquainted with the history 
of Mahomet, and this gained me their good-will more than 
any thing else. 
Till the education of the children is supposed to be fi- 
nished they go very ill clad, or even naked ; the boys have 
only a coussabe made out of a pagne; the girls are usually 
naked till the age of puberty; some wearing a small guinea 
cloth when they have left school, or when they have made 
especial progress in their studies, by way of distinction. 
A father seldom instructs his own children, unless there 
is no school in the camp, in which case he teaches the girls, 
because it is not the custom to send them to school in another 
camp. The father does not complete the education of the 
boys; they commonly learn the first elements from him, 
and are then sent to some marabout who keeps school. The 
parents give each of them two cows, the milk of which sup- 
plies them with food; the master does not receive his salary 
till the education of the pupil is finished. The hassanes sel- 
dom learn to write, and their principal ambition is to ride a 
horse well and to fight. 
The Moors assemble to prayers five times a day, the 
