Mothers, in the earliest times, suckled their offspring themselves, and that from thirty to thirty-six months. The day when the child was weaned was made a festival, Gen. xxi, 8; Exod. ii, 7, 9; 1 Sam. i, 22–24; 2 Chron. xxxi, 16; 2 Mac. vii, 27, 28; Matt, xxi, 16. Nurses were employed, in case the mother died before the child was old enough to be weaned, and when from any circumstances she was unable to afford a sufficient supply of milk for its nourishment. In later ages, when matrons had become more delicate, and thought themselves too infirm to fulfil the duties which naturally devolved upon them, nurses were employed to take their place, and were reckoned among the principal members of the family. They are, accordingly, in consequence of the respectable station which they sustained, frequently mentioned in sacred history, Gen. xxxv, 8; 2 Kings xi, 2; 2 Chron. xxii, 11. The sons remained till the fifth year in the care of the women; they then came into the father’s hands, and were taught not only the arts and duties of life, but were instructed in the Mosaic law, and in all parts of their country’s religion, Deut, vi, 20–25; vii, 19; xi, 19. Those who wished to have them farther instructed, provided they did not deem it preferable to employ private teachers, sent them away to some priest or Levite, who sometimes had a number of other children to instruct. It appears from 1 Sam. i, 24–28, that there was a school near the holy tabernacle, dedicated to the instruction of youth. There had been many other schools of this kind, which had fallen into decay, but were restored again by the Prophet Samuel; after whose time, the members of the seminaries in question, who were denominated by way of distinction “the sons of the prophets,” acquired no little ...

CHILDERS, Robert Caesar (1838-1876), an eminent Oriental scholar, was the son of the Rev. Charles Childers, English chaplain at Nice. In 1860 he received an appointment in the civil service of Ceylon, which he retained until 1864, when he was compelled to return to England owing to ill health. He had acquired some knowledge of Pali during his residence in Ceylon, but it was not until the autumn of 1868 that, under the advice of Dr Rost, he gave himself to the scientific study of the language. Entering at once on the task of preparing a Pāli dictionary, he laboured at it with such extraordinary assiduity that he was able to publish the first volume in 1872, and the second and concluding volume in 1875. The work is an enduring monument of learning and zeal, and has been gratefully acknowledged by a competent authority as “the most valuable contribution that has yet been made to the knowledge of Pāli, and as the foundation of all future study of that language.” Mr Childers was a frequent contributor on subjects connected with Buddhism to scientific and literary periodicals. In 1872 ' he was appointed sub-librarian at the India Office, and in the following year he became the first professor of Pāli and Buddhist literature at University College, London. He died at London on the 25th July, 1876.