The Reflections Which I Have Thus Ventured To Submit To My Readers
On This Important Subject Naturally Suggested Themselves To My Mind
On Perceiving The Encouragement Which Was Thus Given To Learning
(Such As It Is) In Many Parts Of Africa.
I have observed that the
pupils at Kamalia were most of them the children of pagans; their
parents, therefore, could have had no predilection for the doctrines
of Mohammed.
Their aim was their children's improvement; and if a
more enlightened system had presented itself, it would probably have
been preferred. The children, too, wanted not a spirit of
emulation, which it is the aim of the tutor to encourage. When any
one of them has read through the Koran, and performed a certain
number of public prayers, a feast is prepared by the schoolmaster,
and the scholar undergoes an examination, or (in European terms)
takes out his degree. I attended at three different inaugurations
of this sort, and heard with pleasure the distinct and intelligent
answers which the scholars frequently gave to the bushreens, who
assembled on those occasions and acted as examiners. When the
bushreens had satisfied themselves respecting the learning and
abilities of the scholar, the last page of the Koran was put into
his hand, and he was desired to read it aloud. After the boy had
finished this lesson, he pressed the paper against his forehead and
pronounced the word Amen, upon which all the bushreens rose, and,
shaking him cordially by the hand, bestowed upon him the title of
bushreen.
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