DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0057
TURKISH VILLAGE LIFE IN ASIA MINOR 47
tall, about 5 ft. 11 in., fair of hair and complexion,
quick at picking up new ideas and methods, adapt-
ing himself easily to new circumstances. He
thoroughly recognised that his business was to find
inscriptions; and he literally left no stone un-
turned. Everything he was told to do was done
well; and he showed himself in a great variety
of characters during our four and a half months'
travelling, ending up with a public sale of horses,
in which he proved a most skilful auctioneer. He
possessed that character which English people, when
they see it in other nations, stigmatise as grasp-
ing, but which in themselves they consider as a
proper regard for their own interest. The Hadji
had his way to make in the world ; the connection
with us gave him his first chance in life, and he was
resolved to use it. He realised from his service a
number of pounds, which would enable him to retire
to his own country and live as a man of wealth for
the future. Money which once touched his palm
never left it except to enter the folds of his girdle ;
but he was strict in his accounts ; and if he exacted
a full toll for all that he did—as for example the
auctioneer's percentage on the selling-price of every
horse—it was done in a strictly business way ; and
I have never had such pleasure in giving any man
his baksheesh, as I had in giving him quadruple my
usual amount. He never shirked any work imposed
tall, about 5 ft. 11 in., fair of hair and complexion,
quick at picking up new ideas and methods, adapt-
ing himself easily to new circumstances. He
thoroughly recognised that his business was to find
inscriptions; and he literally left no stone un-
turned. Everything he was told to do was done
well; and he showed himself in a great variety
of characters during our four and a half months'
travelling, ending up with a public sale of horses,
in which he proved a most skilful auctioneer. He
possessed that character which English people, when
they see it in other nations, stigmatise as grasp-
ing, but which in themselves they consider as a
proper regard for their own interest. The Hadji
had his way to make in the world ; the connection
with us gave him his first chance in life, and he was
resolved to use it. He realised from his service a
number of pounds, which would enable him to retire
to his own country and live as a man of wealth for
the future. Money which once touched his palm
never left it except to enter the folds of his girdle ;
but he was strict in his accounts ; and if he exacted
a full toll for all that he did—as for example the
auctioneer's percentage on the selling-price of every
horse—it was done in a strictly business way ; and
I have never had such pleasure in giving any man
his baksheesh, as I had in giving him quadruple my
usual amount. He never shirked any work imposed