DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0042
32 TURKISH VILLAGE LIFE IN ASIA MINOR
clear to him that there will be no real harm done
to the building, that the soil removed can be put
back again so that no one will know the difference,
or that the piece of plank which you want to saw
away is close to the wall and the want of it will
never be noticed; and the objections, which he
makes at first, all disappear when you give him a
small coin and show him the larger sum which
shall be his, as soon as the obstacle is removed.
He will manage the other villagers. The women
are harder to deal with ; and, when they are roused
(which is only very rarely), the situation becomes
complicated, and one must trust to accident and
chance for some favourable opening. The man
of weight and influence, who could sway the other
men with a word, often shrinks and becomes dumb
when the women appear ; and the code of manners
forbids you to negotiate privately with a leader
among them. This is one of the difficulties from
which the archaeologist is saved by his wife's
company: the women then become almost always
favourable, and in many cases I have got freedom
in my wife's company to do what I should hardly
have been permitted to do alone.
Too much stress must not be laid on our experi-
ence. We were a holiday and a show to the village,
like a visit of WombweH's Menagerie, Barnum's
Greatest Slfbw on Earth, or Professor Pepper's
clear to him that there will be no real harm done
to the building, that the soil removed can be put
back again so that no one will know the difference,
or that the piece of plank which you want to saw
away is close to the wall and the want of it will
never be noticed; and the objections, which he
makes at first, all disappear when you give him a
small coin and show him the larger sum which
shall be his, as soon as the obstacle is removed.
He will manage the other villagers. The women
are harder to deal with ; and, when they are roused
(which is only very rarely), the situation becomes
complicated, and one must trust to accident and
chance for some favourable opening. The man
of weight and influence, who could sway the other
men with a word, often shrinks and becomes dumb
when the women appear ; and the code of manners
forbids you to negotiate privately with a leader
among them. This is one of the difficulties from
which the archaeologist is saved by his wife's
company: the women then become almost always
favourable, and in many cases I have got freedom
in my wife's company to do what I should hardly
have been permitted to do alone.
Too much stress must not be laid on our experi-
ence. We were a holiday and a show to the village,
like a visit of WombweH's Menagerie, Barnum's
Greatest Slfbw on Earth, or Professor Pepper's