CHAP. IV. 
MORZOUK. 
187 
with great rapidity, cannot peruse a line of any other book. Arith- 
metic is altogether out of the question. — For children who learn 
by the month, the general pay is about two Saa, or two quarts of 
corn, and by the year one dollar. 
When the boy is considered to have finished his stutUes, the 
parents, if they can afford it, present the master with some clothes, 
or a few dollars ; if poor, they give him something to eat, and the 
usual salutation of Alia iebarek, or God prosper you. On breaking 
up for the day, the master and all the scholars recite a prayer. 
The school hours are by no means regular, being only when the 
Fighi has nothing else to do. jMornings early, or late in the even- 
ings, are the general times for study. The punishments are, beating 
with a stick on the hands or feet, and our good old English custom 
of whipping, which is not unfrequently practised. Their pens are 
reeds, their rubber sand. 
While learning their tasks (and perhaps each boy has a different 
one), they all read aloud, so that the harmony of even a dozen boys 
may be easily imagined. 
In the time of the native Sultans, it was the custom, on a fixed 
day, annually, for the boys who had completed their education, to 
assemble on horseback, in as fine clothes as their friends could pro- 
cure for them, on the sands to the westward of the town. On an 
eminence, stood the Fighi, bearing in his hand a little flag rolled on 
a staff : the boys were stationed at some distance, and on his un- 
furhng the flag, and planting it in the ground, all started at full 
speed. He who first arrived and seized it, was presented by the 
Sultan with a fine suit of clothes and some money, and rode round 
the town at the head of the others. These races have ceased since 
the arrival of Mukni, and parents complain that their sons have 
now no inducement to study. 
All the houses are infested by multitudes of small ants, which de- 
B B 2 
