,
are, generally speaking, the most formidable opponents of every
form of school.

The census shows that only 386,000 natives in the whole of India
possess a knowledge of English, and this number includes all
the girls, boys and young men under instruction.

[Illustration: AUDENCE CHAMBER OF THE MOGUL--PALACE--AGRA]

The Parsees and Jains are more eager for learning than the Hindus,
and are taking an active part in educational affairs. The Mohammedans
are also realizing the importance of modern schools, and there
is now quite an energetic movement among that sect. There is
a school connected with almost every Jain temple. We visited
one at Delhi. There were no benches or desks. The children, who
were of all ages, from 4 years old upward, were squatting upon
the floor around their masters, and were learning the ordinary
branches taught in common schools, with the exception of one
class over in a far corner of the room, which was engaged in the
study of Sanskrit. It was explained to us that they were being
trained for priests. Everybody was bare-footed and bare-legged,
teachers and all, and every boy was studying out loud, repeating
his lesson over and over as he committed it to memory. Some of
the youngsters made their presence known by reading in very loud
voices. A few of them had ordinary slates. Others used blocks
of wood for the same purpose, but the most of them wrote their
exercises upon pieces of tin taken from cans sent over by the
Standard Oil Company. We went into a school one day where, for
lack of slates and stationery, the children were copying their
writing lessons in the sand on the floor. It was a new idea,
but it answered the purpose. With little brushes they smoothed
off a surface and formed letters as clearly as they could have
been made upon a blackboard.

Bright colors are characteristic of the Hindus. Their garments
are of the gayest tints; both the outer and inner walls of their
houses are covered with rude drawings in colors; their carts are
painted in fantastic designs; and their trunks are ornamented in a
similar way. They are not always done in the highest form of art,
but you may be sure that the colors are bright and permanent. Some
people paint the hides of their horses and bullocks, especially on
holidays, and their taste for art, both in design and execution,
is much more highly developed than their knowledge of letters.

The present Indian educational system is about fifty years