The French have an expression, "se fourrer dans la peau d'autrui,"
"to shove yourself into another person's skin," and therefore to
be able to see things as they would present themselves to the mind
of a man of a different race and of a different mentality, and
from his point of view. All young diplomats are enjoined to
cultivate this art, and some few succeed in doing so. Colonel
Erskine had it to perfection. On arriving in a village he would
call for a carpet, and a dirty cotton dhuree would be laid on the
round. He would then order a charpoy, or native bed, to be placed
on the carpet, and he would seat himself on it, and call out in
the vernacular, "Now, my children, what have you to tell me?" All
this was strictly in accordance with immemorial Eastern custom.
Then the long line of suppliants would approach, each one with a
present of an orange, or a bunch of rhododendron flowers in his
hand. This, again, from the very beginning of things has been the
custom in the East (cf. 2 Kings, chap. viii, vers. 8, 9: "And the
King said unto Hazael, Take a present in thine hand, and go, meet
the man of God.
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