54 
DOTTINGS ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap.IV—B. S. 
remarkable feature of the establishment was a row 
of stocks filling one side of the entire building. On 
my inquiry whether this schoolhouse also served the 
purpose of a prison, I was met by the information that 
the stocks were merely used to make the rising gene¬ 
ration of Achuapa better inclined to learn their lessons. 
I suppose that it must be in remembrance of my 
own educational training, and for the sake of com¬ 
paring my own lot as a boy with that of others, that 
I always find myself inquiring, with almost savage 
satisfaction, what punishments are inflicted in the 
various countries on ne’er-do-weels. On addressing 
one day my favourite questions to a schoolmaster at 
Cairo, he told me he gave the young Egyptians the 
bastinado. “I have often read of this,” I said, “but 
never seen it applied.” “ Then you shall see it now,” 
he rejoined, and forthwith proceeded to collar one of 
the biggest boys, and inflict the usual Oriental casti¬ 
gation. The boy hallooed out tremendously, and I 
naturally inquired for what oflence he was punished. 
“ Oh, no offence,” was the reply ; “I merely gave him 
the bastinado because you said that you had never 
seen it applied.” Of course I at once interceded, 
gave the boy two shillings for his pains, and the 
schoolmaster sixpence for his. 
The man under whose hospitable shed we had 
taken up our abode asked us whether we could not 
employ his son in our journeys, a fine strapping boy 
of about seventeen, with strongly-marked Indian fea¬ 
tures. Having to cross some high mountain-ridges, 
where our cargo-mules would require constant atten- 
