Insulting Tourists (c. 1907)

Submitted by David (United Kingdom), Dec 31, 2010 at 10:56

Sir Ronald Storrs recalls in his autobiography Orientations (p.63) an event in an Egyptian bazaar circa 1907: "as I passed a cafe, an idle wit ... called out in Arabic, "God curse your father, O Englishman." I was young then and foolishly could not refrain from answering in his own language that I would also curse his father if he were in a position to inform me which of his mother's two and ninety admirers his father had been. ...In a few seconds I felt a hand on each arm. "My brother" said the original humorist, "return, I pray you, and drink with us coffee and smoke. I did not think that Your Worship knew Arabic; still less the correct Arabic abuse, and we would fain benefit further by your important thoughts".

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