How would you like to go to school at six o'clock in the morning? That
is the time many children go to school in India. India is a large
country in Asia. The children stay in school till nine o'clock. Then
they go home for breakfast, and go back to school at ten. At two
o'clock they go home for dinner. They go back again at three to stay
till evening. You will think that this is a long time to be at school.
[Illustration: Hindoo Children at School.]
In some of the schools they have no desks or chairs, but the boys and
girls sit on the floor. In other schools they have long tables instead
of desks.
They do not learn their letters as we do. The teachers write five
letters in sand on the floor. Then the boys and girls write the
letters in the sand. They write the letters many times, until they
know them well. Then the teachers write five more letters, and so on
until the children know all the letters. When they can make the
letters in the sand, they next learn to write them on palm leaves with
pens made of wood. The last thing they do is to write them on slates
and on paper.
[Illustration: Native Children of India.]
In some of the large towns they learn to read and write English. But
English is not the language that most of the people speak. They have a
language of their own.
[Illustration: A Hindoo Family at Home.]
The people of India are called Hindoos. They have dark skin, dark
eyes, and dark hair.
It is so warm that most of the people wear very little clothing. Many
of the boys and girls wear no shoes. The girls are very fond of
jewels. No matter how poor a family is, they try to buy some jewels
for their girls. So the girls in India always have jewelry to wear.
They have no Christmas in India. They have what they call the "Feast
of the Cakes." At the Feast of the Cakes they have three holidays.
Then they have cakes of all kinds.
The boys are very fond of swinging. They are also very fond of
swimming. In some places they have diving wells. The boys plunge from
a high bank down into the water below.
[Illustration: A Tiger.]
The rich people have very fine houses, with gardens and flowers and
fountains. There are carpets, cushions, and tables in the houses, but
no chairs. They sit on cushions on the floor.
The beds are very low, and the legs are often of silver or gold or
ivory. They have no sheets or pillow cases, but covers of velvet or
satin.
The people who are poor live in houses made of dried mud, with roofs of
bamboo poles and straw. They have hardly any furniture. They sleep on
mats made of palm leaves.
[Illustration: Cobras.]
In many of the houses they have no tables. They eat off of leaves on
the floor. Their food is mostly rice. All the family do not eat
together. The father of the family always eats first. When he has
eaten, the mother and children sit down to eat.
The women do most of the work. So the girls have to learn to work.
But the men and boys do all the sewing. How queer this seems!
[Illustration: An Elephant Piling Lumber.]
There are a great many wild beasts in India--tigers, leopards, cobras,
and crocodiles. The tigers are very fierce. They sometimes come into
villages at night and carry off men, women or children, and kill and
eat them. There are logs. They do work of many kinds. An elephant is
much stronger than a horse. He can carry a far heavier load.
Sometimes all the family ride on one elephant's back.
[Illustration: Riding on an Elephant.]