The
founders thought best to adopt the commercial principle; but no one as yet
has asked for profit, and the school shows signs of prosperity and
progress. The Annie Walsh Memorial School for Girls, dating from a bequest
by the lady whose name it bears, is under the management of the Church
Missionary Society. The Catholics are, as usual, well to the fore. The
priests keep a large school for boys, and the sisters educate young women
and girls. I have before described the dark novice,--
Under a veil that wimpled was full low;
And over all a black stole shee did throw.
The masters also make their children learn Arabic and English. There is a
manliness and honesty in the look of the Mandenga and the Susu never seen
in the impudent 'recaptive.' The dignity of El-Islam everywhere displays
itself: it is the majesty of the monotheist, who ignores the degrading
doctrine of original sin; it is the sublime indifference to life which
_kaza wa kadar_, by us meagrely translated 'fatalism,' confers upon the
votaries of 'the Faith.' These are not the remarks of a prejudiced
sympathiser with El-Islam: many others have noted the palpable superiority
of the Moslem over the missionary convert and the liberated populace of Sa
Leone.
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