Egypt : handbook for travellers / edited by K. Baedeker.

Date:
1885-1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egypt : handbook for travellers / edited by K. Baedeker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    generally a zarf,, or kind of saucer of egg-cup shape. To he passed over when coffee is handed round is deemed hy the Beduins an insult of the gravest kind. Having emptied his cup, the visitor must not put it down on the ground, which is contrary to etiquette, hut keep it in his hand until it is taken from him hy the servant, after which he salutes his host in the usual Oriental fashion hy placing his right handf on his hreast and afterwards raising it to his forehead, and pronouncing the word '‘daimavH (he. ‘kahweh daiman’, may you never want coffee). This custom originated with the Beduins, who only regard the persons of their guests as inviolable after they have eaten or drunk with them. When vi- sited hy natives, the European should in his turn regale them liberally with coffee. It is also usual to offer tobacco to the visitor, the cigarette being now the ordinary form. The long pipe (shibuk) with amber mouth-piece, and its bowl resting on a brazen plate on the ground, is more in vogue with the Turks. Visits in the East must of course be returned as in Europe. Those who return to a place after an absence receive visits from their acquaintances before they are expected to call on them. Europeans, as a rule, should never enquire after the wives of a Muslim, his relations to the fair sex being sedulously veiled from the public. Even looking at women in the street or in a house is considered indecorous, and may in some cases be attended with danger. Intimate acquaintance with Orientals is also to be avoided, disinterested friendship being still rarer in the East than elsewhere. Beneath the interminable protestations of friendship with which the traveller is overwhelmed, lurks in most cases the demon of cupidity, the sole motive of those who use them being the hope of some gain or bakshish. The best way of dealing with persons who ‘do protest too much’ is to pay for every service or civility on the spot, and as far as possible to fix the price of every article beforehand, a plan which is usually effectual in limiting their mercenary designs. On the other hand the most ordinary observer cannot fail to be struck with the fact that the degraded ruffianism so common in the most civilised countries is unknown in Egypt. The people of the country, even the poorest and the entirely uneducated, often possess a native dignity, self-respect, and gracefulness of manner, of which the traveller’s own countrymen of a far more favoured class are sometimes utterly destitute. Notwithstanding their individual sel- fishness, too, the different native communities will be observed to hold together with remarkable faithfulness, and the bond of a common religion, which takes the place of ‘party’ in other coun- tries, and requires its adherents to address each other as ‘yd akhuya’ (my brother), is far more than a mere name. f Tlie right hand is alone used in greeting and as much as possible in eating, stroking the heard, and the like, the left hand being reserved for less honourable functions.
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