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Turks, and exhibit more anxiety to obtain custom. The 

 writer has often been constrained by the former to turn 

 aside and smoke of their pipes, and eat of their onions and 

 bread, without being directly urged to make any purchase; 

 but it is more pleasant to deal with a Turk, though he 

 would not do this, because he deserves more confidence, yet 

 not implicit confidence, in matters of purchase and sale. A 



French wnter (M. Aubert de Vitry) says, ' It is not neces- 

 sary to offer a Turk less than two-thirds of the price he de- 

 mands ; to a shopkeeper of any other nation one-half may 

 be safely offered ; and in the case of the Jews there is no 

 limit to the abatement.' This is perfectly true ; and no 

 stranger in the East could have a better rule for his guidance 

 in such matters. 



\ 



(Torkkh Buur, from the French work on Egypt.] 



Business commences and terminates with daylight in 

 oriental bazaars. No trade or handicraft employment is in 

 general carried on in the East by candle-light. None of 

 tin? shopkeepers or artizans reside in the bazaars. When it 

 pets dark, every one shuts up his shop and goes home. 

 The fastenings of the shops are very slight ; but the bazaars 

 are in general well watched, and frequently secured with 

 strong gates. In very warm countries it is usual for the 

 majority of the shopkeepers to close their shops at mid-day, 

 and go home to have their lunch and enjoy a siesta. The 

 bazaars have then a very deserted appearance. Larcenies 

 in the bazaars are scarcely known in Turkey ; hence the 

 shopkeepers do not hesitate to leave their shops quite open, 

 without anyone in charge, during their occasional absences; 

 but when a rather long absence is intended, and the goods 

 are of great value, a net, like a cabbage-net, is sometimes 

 hung up in front, or laid over the goods. 



The peculiar principle of oriental bazaars is that all the 

 ^ of a city are there collected, instead of being dis- 

 persed in different streets as in Europe, and that in this 

 collected form the different trades and occupations are 

 severally associated in different parts of the bazaar, instead 

 of being indiscriminately mingled as in our streets. Thus 

 one passage of the bazaar will bo exclusively occupied 



by drapers, another by tailors, another b^- cap-makers, 

 another by saddlers, and so on. In the 'oazaars of Persia) 

 and, although less usually, in thos><; o f Turkey, the shops 

 of provisions for immediate use form an exception to the 

 rule. The shops of cooks and bakers are dispersed in dif- 

 ferent parts of the bazaar ; the preparations in the former 

 seldom extend beyond soups, and a sort of sausage without 

 skin, called kaboob, a highly-selsoned and savoury article, 

 which is much relished both in Turkey and Pers'ia. Not 

 only are trades carried on, but handicraft employments 

 are exercised in the bazaars of the East; and thus while 

 one part is very quiet, another resounds with the hammers 

 of carpenters, smiths, and shoe-makers. The stocks of the 

 individual dealers are seldom of much value. It would 

 bo difficult to find a shop which contains a greater stock 

 than that of a small retail tradesman in London ; but an 

 imposing effect is produced by the exhibition of the several 

 stocks in a connected form, so that the whole of a par- 

 ticular 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 Con- 

 stantinople is a very remarkable instance : such an exten- 

 sive display on each side, through a long covered street, 



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