Mediterranean seaports and sea routes including Madeira, the Canary Islands, the coast of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia : handbook for travellers / by Karl Baedeker.
- Karl Baedeker
- Date:
- 1911
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Mediterranean seaports and sea routes including Madeira, the Canary Islands, the coast of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia : handbook for travellers / by Karl Baedeker. Source: Wellcome Collection.
29/786 page 25
![steward or stewardess usually expects at least 1 fr. per day, and the other attendants receive fees proportioned to the services rendered. Medical Attendance and medicines, in case of illness, are nominally free, but a reasonable fee is usually paid. Baths in the larger steam- boats are free, fixed hours being allotted to passengers on application. Passengers may bring their own Deck Chairs or hire them from the chief steward. IV. Intercourse with Orientals. The objects and pleasures of travel are so unintelligible to most Orientals that they are apt to regard the European traveller as a lunatic, or at all events as a Croesus, and therefore to be exploited on every possible occasion. Hence their constant demands for ‘bakshish’ (‘a gift’). To check this demoralizing cupidity the tra- veller should never give bakshish except for services rendered, unless occasionally to aged or criifpled beggars. Small fees are, however, not unreasonably expected by drivers, guides, donkey-boys, and others, over and above their stipulated hire. Excursionists should therefore always be well provided with small change. If no previous bargain has been made the charges and fees stated in the Handbook are usually ample. While the traveller should be both cautious and firm in his dealings with the natives, he should avoid being too exacting or .suspicious. Many of those he meets with are like mere children and often show much kindliness of disposition. In most cases their attempts at extortion are comparatively trifling; but if serious, the matter may be referred to the police or to the traveller’s consul. On the other hand exaggerated professions of friendship should be distrusted, loyalty towards strangers being still rarer in the. East than elsewhere. The natives are apt to make common cause against European visitors. While their religion usually requires them to address each other as ‘i/d alchUya’ (my brother), their bro- therhood does not extend to outsiders. As the Orientals are often remarkably dignified and punctilious in their bearing, the traveller should show corresponding respect and consideration for their customs and prejudices. He should never, for exam])le, photograph a Mohammedan without his leave, nor look too curiously at the veiled women, nor don Oriental cos- tume. Sacred places, such as mosques, chapels, and religious houses and their schools, must not be entered without removing one’s shoes or putting on slippers, lest the carpets and mats on which prayer is offered be polluted. Korans must never he touched; and when prayers are being recited, strangers must keep carefully aloof. In every part of the Orient the traveller meets with ‘saints’ (often imbecile or insane), who go about in faTitastic rags and some- times stark naked. Needless to say he will give them a wide berth.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29011176_0029.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
