DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0038
28 TURKISH VILLAGE LIFE IN ASIA MINOR
disrespect to pass. Point it out at once ; insist on
redress; and you will always be obeyed, if it is
clear that you mean business. It needs, of course,
both natural sense, sympathy, and some knowledge
of the people and manners, to discriminate between
well-meant manners, different from ours, and actual
disrespect. Some things are intended for compli-
ments, which we do not fully appreciate at their
intended value, as when a man insists on helping
you by peeling your hard-boiled egg with his dirty
fingers : you may acknowledge the courtesy and
lay aside the egg. But it is better to be too strict,
than to pass over anything that may be disrespect-
ful. When in doubt, strike! That is the golden
rule in Turkey. You must speak and act as one
having authority.
Several of the older travellers in Turkey suffered
from not observing this rule. Hamilton, in his
earlier journeys, speaks several times of the annoy-
ance to which he was exposed. In vol. i., p. 193,
for example, he says : " To our disappointment, the
house belonged to a Turk : we always preferred a
Greek or Armenian house, in which we were less
exposed to the inconvenient and sometimes im-
pertinent curiosity of the host: in this case, how-
ever, the ill-timed curiosity of our landlord, who
at once began pulling about and scrutinising the
military buttons of my companion's coat, met with
disrespect to pass. Point it out at once ; insist on
redress; and you will always be obeyed, if it is
clear that you mean business. It needs, of course,
both natural sense, sympathy, and some knowledge
of the people and manners, to discriminate between
well-meant manners, different from ours, and actual
disrespect. Some things are intended for compli-
ments, which we do not fully appreciate at their
intended value, as when a man insists on helping
you by peeling your hard-boiled egg with his dirty
fingers : you may acknowledge the courtesy and
lay aside the egg. But it is better to be too strict,
than to pass over anything that may be disrespect-
ful. When in doubt, strike! That is the golden
rule in Turkey. You must speak and act as one
having authority.
Several of the older travellers in Turkey suffered
from not observing this rule. Hamilton, in his
earlier journeys, speaks several times of the annoy-
ance to which he was exposed. In vol. i., p. 193,
for example, he says : " To our disappointment, the
house belonged to a Turk : we always preferred a
Greek or Armenian house, in which we were less
exposed to the inconvenient and sometimes im-
pertinent curiosity of the host: in this case, how-
ever, the ill-timed curiosity of our landlord, who
at once began pulling about and scrutinising the
military buttons of my companion's coat, met with