Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 661
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[Page 661]
convent. About half of it is roofed over, the other half open to high heaven, except for the intervention of a trellis upon which grows a vine, this when the leaves are on will modify the heat of the suns rays. A seat for the dominie, & his senior assistant. A junior was 'mongst the scholars. Rudley built desks & forms were closely packed Some forty children held each a metal tablet, like a slate, and a brush. With the latter representations of Arabic characters were printed on the former, in sequence from right to left. A portion of one wall was was blackened doing duty for a black board, on it were painted characters & figures.
In response to my request the youngsters were started at a lesson. Off each voice started at its top, rattling out sounds, which to me appeared to be a race without meaning. "What are they saying? "Repeating verses from the Khoran." The Khoran is the book for the Mahomedan, which corresponds to the bible with us. No boy would allow me to look at his tablet till permission had been given by the head teacher.
The conditions, under which the instruction was being given, would be classed by me as most insanitary, and likely to lead to the spread of all sorts of diseases, amongst the children and the people generally. Does it do so here? I do not know. My guide told me that "Mena village is a very healthy place. Not like Cairo which is unhealthy". If it be so then to me, 'tis wonder, 'tis, tis so. But this is Egypt, not Australia. Every inhabitant of today's Pharoe's land is afflicted with hydrophobia as much as we may imagine had been their ancestors. The flood waters of Old Nile come from far off Abyssinia to deposit mud and revive the land, not for wetting the mortal parts of the people