Entry 100 · Book chapter 101
September 20 1944
A search for confiscated goods turns up little, and Lewis senses a cooling, more guarded attitude from the Marshal and townspeople toward him. He reflects that what he'd been treating as bribery may really be a customary, expected exchange of courtesy gifts — and that his own rigid refusal of it has cost him local goodwill.
Reflections
Gift-exchange vs. bribery
Lewis reconsiders the routine 100-lire notes offered for travel passes: not bribes in the Western sense, but what he compares to an African tribal system of ritual gift-giving ('dashes') that a well-bred person is expected to honour. By refusing them out of principle, he concludes he has unintentionally offended and lost the trust of people around him.
Use ← → to move between entries