The Critic in the Orient Part 12

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE LXIV

The Great Sphinx, Showing the Temple Underneath. This is the Best View of the Face, Which Has a Certain Majesty. The Lion's Figure is Sixty-six Feet High and One Hundred and Eighty-seven Feet Long]

APPENDIX

HINTS FOR TRAVELERS

SOME SUGGESTIONS THAT MAY SAVE THE TOURIST TIME AND MONEY

For a round-the-world trip the best plan is to buy a Cook's ticket for six hundred and thirty-nine dollars and ten cents. This provides transportation from any place in the United States around the world to the starting point. The advantage of a Cook's ticket over the tickets of other companies is that this firm has the best organized force, with large offices in the big cities and with banks as agencies in hundreds of places where you may cash its money orders. This is a great convenience as it saves the risk of carrying considerable sums of money in lands where thievery is a fine art. Cook's agents may be found on arrival by boat or train in all the princ.i.p.al cities of a world-tour.

These men invariably speak English well, and thus they are a G.o.d-send when the tourist knows nothing of the language or the customs of a strange country. At the offices of Cook and Son in all the large Oriental cities one may get accurate information about boats and trains and may purchase tickets for side excursions. Some of the Oriental offices I found careless in the handling of mail because of the employment of native clerks, but this was not general. Cook will furnish guides for the leading Oriental tours and in India and Egypt these are absolutely necessary, as without them life is made a burden by the demands of carriage drivers, hotel servants and beggars. Cook will furnish good guides for j.a.pan, but it is unsafe to select natives unless you have a guarantee that they know the places usually visited and that they speak intelligible English. The p.r.o.nunciation of j.a.panese differs so vitally from that of English that many j.a.panese who understand and write English well make a hopeless jumble of words when they attempt to speak it. Their failure to open their mouths or to give emphasis to words renders it extremely difficult to understand them. Good foreign hotels may be found in all the j.a.panese cities and even those managed by j.a.panese are conducted in European style. It is a pity that the hotels are not modeled on the j.a.panese style, like the Kanaya Hotel at Nikko, where the furniture and the decorations of the rooms are essentially j.a.panese and very artistic. The average charge for room and board in j.a.panese hotels of the first cla.s.s is four dollars, but some of the more pretentious places demand from five to six dollars a day.

The cost of travel in India is not heavy because of the moderate scale of prices. Hotels usually charge ten rupees a day for board and lodging or about three dollars a day. Carriage hire is cheap, especially if you have a party of four to fill one carriage. A Victoria, holding four people, may be had morning and afternoon for twenty rupees, or an average of about one dollar and seventy-five cents a day each. Railway travel is absurdly cheap. Our party traveled second-cla.s.s from Calcutta to Delhi, thence to Bombay, Madras and Tuticorin, a distance of about thirty-five hundred miles--farther than from New York to San Francisco--for one hundred and forty rupees or about forty-five dollars in American money. The first-cla.s.s fare was nearly twice this amount, but no additional comfort would have been secured. We made the trip at low cost because a bargain was always made with hotelkeepers and carriage drivers. Always make a definite bargain or you will be overcharged. A native guide is necessary not only to show you the places of interest but to arrange for carriages and to pay tips to servants.

Secure a Mohammedan guide and you may rest content that you will not be cheated. His antipathy to the Hindoo will prevent any collusion with servants. A good guide may be had for two rupees a day or about sixty-five cents, and he will board himself.

Murray's Guide books for j.a.pan, China, the Straits Settlements and India are the most useful. These give the best routes and describe all the princ.i.p.al objects of interest. Without such a guide-book, one is helpless, as the professional guides frequently omit important things which should be seen. It is needless to look for conscientiousness or honesty in the Orient. You will not find them.

To avoid trouble when hiring carriage or jinrikisha, make a definite bargain by the hour or by the trip. This you may do through the hotel porter. Then, on your return, if the driver or the rickshaw-man demands more, refer the matter to the porter, and refuse to pay more than your bargain. If you do not take these precautions you will be involved in constant trouble and will be persistently charged twice what you should pay. Even with these precautions, you cannot escape trouble in Singapore, which is cursed with the greediest carriage drivers in the world.

Many travelers purchase Cook's hotel coupons which provide for lodging and meals at certain hotels in every large city of the Orient. My experience is that it is a mistake to buy these coupons, as all the hotel managers speak English or have hall porters who understand the language. You gain little by the arrangement, and you lose the choice of good rooms, as hotel managers are not partial to tourists who carry coupons, since the profit on these is small.

In Egypt, Cook's tours, which are arranged to suit all tastes, are the most convenient. The best plan is to go up the Nile by train and to come down by boat. Do not neglect the ride down the river. It consumes more time but it is the only way in which you can get an idea of the charm of the scenery, the primitive life of the people, and the beauty of sunrise and sunset over the desert.

Above all things, arrange your itinerary carefully before you start.

Here is where Cook's agent can help you materially, but you must not rely upon his advice in regard to steams.h.i.+p lines. He will recommend the P. & O. boats, as they are British, but practically every tourist who has made the trip will say that the North German Lloyd steamers give the best service. Engage your state-room several months in advance and pay a deposit, so as to get a receipt for the best berth in a certain room.

Unless you do this, you will have trouble and will probably be forced to sleep in an inside room on hot tropical nights. Get a room on star-board or port-side, according to the prevailing wind. To be on the windward side means comfort and coolness at night. As soon as possible after boarding a vessel see the bath steward and select an hour for your morning bath. Should you neglect this, you will be forced to rise very early or to bathe at night. If you wish certain table companions see the head steward promptly. If you travel on a P. & O. boat, engage an electric fan at the Company's office, as there is a rule that you can't hire a fan after you are on board. The North German Lloyd furnishes fans, which are a necessity in the tropics.

There is a regular tariff for tips on most of the Oriental steams.h.i.+p lines, graded according to the length of the voyage. You can always ascertain what to give to your waiter, room steward, bath steward, boot black and deck steward. These tips are always given on the last day of the voyage. American tourists are criminally lavish in giving tips, with the result that one who adheres to the rules of old travelers, is apt to be regarded as n.i.g.g.ardly. It is to be noted that the richest travelers always conform to the regular schedule of tips.

In all parts of the Orient it is unsafe to drink the water of the country. If you do not relish bottled waters, demand tea; at any rate make sure that the water you drink has been boiled. I found hot tea an excellent drink even in the tropics and I was never troubled with the complaints that follow drinking unboiled water. It is well to make liberal use of the curries and rice which are excellent everywhere.

These, with fish, eggs and fruit, formed the staple of my diet. Never eat melons nor salads made of green vegetables; the native methods of fertilizing the soil are fatal to the wholesomeness of such things.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS WHICH HELP ONE TO UNDERSTAND THE ORIENT AND ITS PEOPLE

In this bibliography no attempt has been made to cover the field of books about the leading countries of the Orient. The aim has been to mention the books which the tourist will find most helpful. Guide books are indispensable, but they give the imagination no stimulus. It is a positive help to read one or two good descriptive accounts of any country before visiting it; in this way one gets an idea of comparative values. In these notes I have mentioned only the books that are familiar to me and which I have found suggestive.

j.a.pAN

Of all foreigners who have written about j.a.pan, Lafcadio Hearn gives one the best idea of the j.a.panese character and of the literature that is its expression. Hearn married a j.a.panese lady, became Professor of English Literature at the Imperial University of Tokio, renounced his American citizens.h.i.+p, and professed belief in Buddhism. He never mastered the j.a.panese language but he surpa.s.sed every other foreign student in his ability to make real the singular faith of the j.a.panese in the presence of good and evil spirits and the national wors.h.i.+p of beauty in nature and art. Hearn's father was Greek and his mother Irish.

In mind he was a strange mixture of a Florentine of the Renaissance and a pagan of the age of Pericles. In _The West Indies_ he has given the best estimate of the influence of the tropics on the white man, and in _j.a.pan: An Interpretation_, _In Ghostly j.a.pan_, _Exotics and Retrospections_, and others, he has recorded in exquisite literary style his conception of j.a.panese character, myths and folk-legends. His work in this department is so fine that no one else ranks with him. He seems to have been able to put himself in the place of the cultivated j.a.panese and to interpret the curious national beliefs in good and evil spirits and ghosts. He has also made more real than any other foreign writer the peculiar position of the j.a.panese wife. Hearn was a conservative, despite his lawless life, and he looked with regret upon the transformation of old j.a.pan, wrought by the new desire to Europeanize the country. He paints with great art the idyllic life of the old Samauri and the loyalty of the retainers to their chief.

Sir Edwin Arnold, who in his old age married a j.a.panese lady, has given excellent pictures of life in j.a.pan in _Seas and Lands_ and _j.a.ponica_.

_Religions of j.a.pan_ by W. E. Griffis gives a good idea of the various creeds. Mr. Griffis in _The Mikado's Empire_ also furnishes a good description of j.a.pan and the j.a.panese.

In _Fifty Tears of New j.a.pan_, Count Ok.u.ma has compiled a work that gives a complete survey of j.a.panese progress during the last half century. Among the contributors are many of the leading statesmen and publicists of j.a.pan.

Of fiction, the scene of which is laid in j.a.pan, one of the most famous stories is _Madame Chrysantheme_ by Pierre Loti, a cynical sketch of the j.a.panese geisha, or professional entertainer. Another good story which lays bare the ugly fate that often befalls the geisha, is _The Lady and Sada San_ by Frances Little, the author of that popular book, _The Lady of the Decoration_.

Other books that will be found valuable are Norman, _The New j.a.pan_; Chamberlain, _Things j.a.panese_; Treves, _The Other Side of the Lantern_; Murray, _Handbook of j.a.pan_; Clement, _Handbook of Modern j.a.pan_; D'Autremer, _The j.a.panese Empire_; Hartshorne, _j.a.pan and Her People_; Fraser, _A Diplomatist's Wife In j.a.pan_; Lloyd, _Everyday j.a.pan_; Scidmore, _Jinrikisha Days In j.a.pan_; Knox, _j.a.panese Life In Town and Country_; Singleton, _j.a.pan, As Described By Great Writers_; Inouye, _Home Life In Tokio_.

MANILA

The acqusition of the Philippine Islands by the United States has led to a great increase of the literature on the islands, especially in regard to educational and industrial progress. Among the old books that have good sketches of Manila are _A Visit to the Philippine Islands_ by Sir John Browning.

For sketches of the city since the American occupation see Worcester, _The Philippine Islands and Their People_; Landor, _The Gems of the East_; Dennis, _An Observer in the Philippines_; Potter, _The East To-day and Tomorrow_; Moses, _Unofficial Letters of An Official's Wife_; Hamm, _Manila and the Philippines_; Younghusband, _The Philippines and Round About_; Stevens, _Yesterdays in the Philippines_; Arnold, The Philippines, _the Land of Palm and Pine_; and LeRoy, _Philippine Life in Town and Country_.

HONGKONG

Good descriptive sketches of Hongkong may be found in Norman, _The Peoples and Politics of the Far East_; Des Veux, _A Handbook of Hongkong_; Colquhoun, _China in Transformation_; Penfield, _East of Suez_; Treves, _The Other Side of the Lantern_; Ball, _Things Chinese_; Thomson, _The Changing Chinese_; Singleton, _China As Described by Great Writers_; and Liddell, China, _Its Marvel and Mystery_.

SINGAPORE

Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore, was one of the British Empire builders who was very shabbily treated by the English government. Unaided, he prevented the Dutch from obtaining exclusive control over all the waters about Singapore and he was also instrumental in retaining Malacca, after the East India Company had decided to abandon it. He was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Java after the English wrested the island from the Dutch in 1810.

His ambition was to make Java "the center of an Eastern Insular Empire," but this project was thwarted by the restoration of Java to Holland. The Raffles Museum in Singapore, one of the most interesting in the Orient, was his gift.

Sketches of Singapore may be found in Sir Frank Swettenham's _British Malaya_, _Malay Sketches_ and _The Real Malay_; Wright and Reed, _The Malay Peninsula_; Belfield, _Handbook of the Federated Malay States_; Harrison, _Ill.u.s.trated Guide to the Federated Malay States_; Ireland, _The Far Eastern Tropics_; Boulger, _Life of Sir Stamford Raffles_; Buckley, _Records of Singapore_.

RANGOON

There is a large literature on Burma, which seems to have appealed to British travelers. Among the books that have chapters devoted to Rangoon are c.u.ming, _In the Shadow of the PaG.o.da_; Bird, _Wanderings in Burma_; Hart, _Picturesque Burma_; Kelly, _The Silken East_; MacMahon, _Far Cathay and Farther India_; Vincent, _The Land of the White Elephant_; Nisbet, _Burma Under British Rule and Before_; Hall, _The Soul of a People_ and _A People at School_.

INDIA

The literature about India is very extensive, so that only a few of the best books may be mentioned here. To the tourist the one indispensable book is Murray's _Handbook for Travelers in India, Ceylon and Burma_, which is well provided with maps and plans of cities. For general description, among the best works are Malcolm, _Indian Pictures and Problems_; Scidmore, _Winter India_; Forrest, _Cities of India_; Kipling, _From Sea to Sea_; Stevens, _In India_; Arnold, _India Revisited_; Low, _A Vision of India_ (describing the journey of the Prince of Wales in 1905-6); Caine, _Picturesque India_; _Things Seen in India_.

For the history of India, some of the best books are Lane-Poole, _Mediaeval India_ and _The Mogul Emperors_; Fanshawe, _Delhi, Past and Present_; McCrindle, _Ancient India_; Rhys-Davids, _British India_; Roberts, _Forty-one Tears in India_; Holmes, _History of the Indian Mutiny_; Innes, _The Sepoy Revolt_; Curzon, _Russia in Central Asia_; Colquhoun, _Russia Against India_.

On the religions of India: Rhys-Davids, _Buddhism_; Warren, _Buddhism in Translations_; Clarke, _Ten Great Religions_; Hopkins, _Religions of India_; Arnold, _The Light of Asia_.