21 



BAZAAR. 



BAZAAR. 



value ; but an imposing effect is produced by the exhibition of the 

 several stocks in a connected form, so that the whole of a particular 

 street in a bazaar will appear as one great shop for the article in which 

 it deals. This is the cause of the reported splendour and riches of an 

 oriental bazaar. Of this kind of effect the bazaar for ladies' slippers in 

 Constantinople is a very remarkable instance ; such an extensive display 

 on each side, through a long covered street, of small slippers, resplendent 

 with gold and silver embroidery, and silk, and coloured stones, conveys 

 an impression of wealth, luxury, and populousncss which ten times the 



number of shops in a dispersed form would not give. Wholesale 

 dealers have no open shops in the bazaars, but they have warehouses in 

 it or in its vicinity, to which the retailers resort as they have occasion. 

 These warehouses are frequently in a large house or khan, occupied in 

 common by several wholesale dealers. The khans also, to which the 

 itinerant merchants resort until they have disposed of their goods, are 

 generally in or near the bazaars ; and they frequently make use of the 

 same building with the stationary merchants. 



Besides the regular business conducted in the bazaars by the pro- 



[Turkish Bazaar.'from the French work on Egypt.] 



fenional shopkeepers, there in an under-current of irregular trade, 

 highly characteristic of oriental manners. If a person not in business, 

 or a stranger, hoa an article of which he wishes to dispose, he employs 

 a crier, who takes it through the bazaar, proclaiming at the top of his 

 voice it* praises and its price. Many poor people also endeavour in the 

 ame manner, without the services of the crier, to dispose of such 

 articles of their property, or produce of their industry, as they desire 

 to sell. Them are mostly persons who imagine they shall be able to 

 obtain a better price from the purchasers or idlers in the bazaar than 

 they have found the shopkeepers willing to give. There is also a class 

 of Hellers who exhibit a little stock of wares upon stools, in baskets, or 

 on cl,,ths spread on the ground. They generally deal in but one com- 

 v, which they profess to sell on lower terms than the shopkeepers 

 will take. It would seem that in respectable towns a preference is 

 gtan t'j this mode of selling some one particular commodity. Much 

 >. and most of the little snuff th.it is used, are sold in this way 

 at Bagdad ; much opium is thus disposed of every morning at Tabreez 

 in I'ernia ; and at Constantinople many women post themselves in the 

 bazaars, displaying embroidered handkerchiefs and other needlework, 

 often wrought by the hands of ladies of quality, who are enabled by 

 the produce to make a private purse for themselves, and purchase some 

 little indulgences which they might not otherwise obtain. 



In hot weather, oriental bazaars are traversed by men laden with a 



skin or pitcher, from which they deal out to the thirsty a draught of 

 excellently filtered water. Sometimes payment, seldom exceeding the 

 fourth of a farthing, is expected ; but frequently the men are employed 

 to distribute water gratuikmsly, by pious individuals, who consider it 

 an act of charity acceptable to Allah. 



The contrast between the deserted appearance of the streets in an 

 oriental town and the thronged state of the bazaars surprises a stranger. 

 The women, except those of the lowest class, go little abroad ; and of 

 the men, the idle resprt to the bazaar for amusement or conversation ; 

 and those who are not idle generally have some business there in the 

 course of the day, which collects the visible population much into that 

 part of the town, until the approach of evening effects a more equal 

 distribution. The bazaar is not only the seat of immediate traffic, but 

 of all commercial business ; there all public, mercantile, and private 

 news circulates, and there only free discussion can be carried on, 

 unrestrained by the presence of the emissaries of power who haunt the 

 coffee-houses. Public measures are keenly investigated, and the 

 popular voice is often loudly expressed even to the ears of princes or 

 ministers if they appear in the bazaars, as they sometimes do. Through 

 the medium of slaves, eunuchs, and other agents, a constant intercourse 

 is maintained between the innermost recesses of the seraglio and the 

 bazaar. This is particularly the case at Constantinpple, and in the 

 <:.-i;>italn of the Turkish pashalics, and it is doubtful whether any thing 



