FOREWORD 
ni 
he is still a young man with a modern view 
point. He speaks the languages of many 
countries and speaks them well. His infor 
mation is first-hand, reliable data gathered on 
the ground where he lived and worked, whose 
people he knew and could speak to in their 
own tongue, not the unreliable, superficial va- 
porings of some dilettante globe-trotter who 
has given the high-spots of civilization the 
“once over” and therefore considers himself a 
competent authority to write upon the com 
merce, customs and manners of foreign coun 
tries the very languages of which he does not 
understand without the aid of an interpreter, 
or who could not find his way back to the 
railway station or dock without the assistance 
of a guide. 
Doctor Aughinbaugh is no such lightweight. 
He has not written this book because he be 
lieves he knows it all. Left to himself he 
would never have written it. It was only 
after repeated urgings on the part of some of 
his friends who appreciated his ability to 
write an unusual book, that he consented to