B A Z 



B A Z 



of small slippers, resplendent with gold and silver cm- 

 broidery, no silk, and coloured stones, conveys an im- 

 pression of wealth, luxury, and populousncss which ten 

 tunes the number of shops in a dispersed form would not 

 Ci\o. Wholesale dealers have no open shops in the bazaars, 

 but they have warehouses in it or in iu vicinity, to which 

 the retailers resort a they have occasion. These ware- 

 houses 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 dis- 

 posed of their goods, are generally in or near the ba/aars ; 

 and they frequently make use of the same building with the 

 stationary merchants. The principle of association for faci- 

 lity of reference is the true principle of a bazaar ; the vaulted 

 covering is merely a circumstance of climate. Therefore 

 Paternoster-row with its books, Monmouth-street with its 

 hoes, and Holywell-street with its old clothes, are more 

 properly bazaars than the miscellaneous shops assembled 

 under cover, which are in London designated by the name. 

 Besides the regular business conducted in the bazaars by 

 the professional shopkeepers, there is an under-current of 

 irregular trade, highly characteristic of oriental manners. 

 If a person not in business, or a stranger, has an article of 

 which he wishes to dispose, ho employs a crier, who takes it 

 through the bazaar, proclaiming, at the top of his voice, its 

 praises and its price. Many poor people also endeavour in 

 the same manner, without the services of the crier, to dis- 

 pose of such articles of their property, or produce of their 

 industry, as they desire to sell. These 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 

 sellers who exhibit a little stock of wares upon stools, in 

 baskets, or on cloths spread on the ground. They generally 

 deal in but one commodity, which they profess to sell on 

 lower terms than the shopkeepers will take. It would seem 

 that in respectable towns a preference is given to this mode 

 of selling some one particular commodity. Much tobacco, 

 and most of the little snuff that is used, are sold in this way 

 at Bagdad; much opium is thus disposed of every morning 

 at Tadreez in Persia; 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 arc enabled by the produce 

 to make a private purse for them-elves, and purchase some 

 little indulgences which they might not otherwise obtain. 

 If the truth be told, at Constantinople no small portion ol 

 this supply to the bazaars of that metropolis is contributed 

 by the ladies of the imperial seraglio. 



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. Some- 

 times payment, seldom exceeding the fourth of a farthing, 

 is expected ; but frequently the men are employed to dis- 

 tribute water gratuitously, by pious individuals, who con- 

 sider 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 

 resort 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 even- 

 ing effects a more equal distribution. The bazaar is not 

 the seat of immediate traffic, but of all commercial 

 business ; there all public, mercantile, and private news cir- 

 culates, and there only free discussion can be carried on, 

 unrestrained by the presence of the emissaries of power vim 

 haunt the coffee-houses. Hence in the bazaar the timid 

 becomes bold, and the bold insolent Public measures as 

 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 cose 

 at Constantinople, and in the capitals of the Turkish pa- 

 shahcs, and it is doubtful whether any thing is transacted 

 in the palaces at night, which is not known in the bazaars 

 the next morning. This intercourse has often exercised an 

 inlluence upon public affairs which none but the most 

 minute inuuirers into oriental history would suspeet. 



The various characteristic displays of oriental manner* 

 which the bazaars furnish, the nature of the goods exposed 

 for sale, and the splendid apjicaraiicc the) vuin times make, 

 the manner in which the arlizans conduct their various 

 labours, the endless \ariety of picturesque costumes which 

 meet the eye, and the babel-like confusion of tongues, 

 all combine to form a scene of unequalled singularity and 

 interest. No traveller who does not, in some oriental cos- 

 tume, sedulously frequent the bazaars and make many 

 little purchases for himself, ought to feel assured that ho 

 understands the people, or has materials for fairly c-ti- 

 mating their condition. The remarks here made are the 

 result of the writer's intimate personal acquaintance with 

 the bazaars of the East. 



BAZAS, a town in France, in the department of Gimnde, 

 41 miles S.E. of Bordeaux, and 419 miles S.S.W. of Pans. 

 It is on a rivulet which flows into the Garonne, a few miles 

 to the N. of the town, 44 27' N. lat., 13 W. long. 



Under the name of Cossio it existed in the Roman times, 

 and is mentioned by Ptolemy ; but in the latter period of 

 the Roman empire, the name of the people whose metro- 

 polis it was, the J'asatrs (called also Vasarii), prevailed over 

 the older designation: we read in Ammianus Marcellinus, 

 of Vasatip, as a place of some consequence in Novempo- 

 pulana ; and in other authorities of Civitas Vasatas and 

 Civitas Vasatica. 



Bazas early attained the rank of n bishopric, which how- 

 ever it has now lost. A bishop of Bazas sat in the council 

 of Agde in 506, and at the council of Orleans in 511. The 

 bishop of Bazas was, during part of the tenth and eleventh 

 centuries, the only bishop in Gascony.the towns having been 

 destroyed by the Normans, and the cathedral heinj; without 

 clergy. During this interval he took the title of bishop of 

 Gascony, Vasconensis Episcopus ; but when the churches 

 were again supplied with clergy, he shrunk into bishop of 

 Bazas. 



The town is situated on a rock, and has little in it that is re- 

 markable except the cathedral, a fine edifice of the fourteenth 

 century. In front of the cathedral is a place (or an open 

 space), surrounded by a piazza. The walls of the town are 

 in ruins. Among the manufactures are druguets. leather, 

 glass, pottery, white wax, and wax-candles. The trade car- 

 ried on is in the above mentioned goods, wood of all kinds, 

 including timber for ship-building, and saltpetre. The 

 population in 1832 was 2165 for the town, and 4'J55 for the 

 whole commune. 



The arrondissemcnt of Bazas comprehends C97 square 



miles, or 446,080 acres. It had, in 1 832, a population of 53,802. 



The district of Bazadois was a subdivision of Guienne. 



(Dictinnnaire Universe! de la fiance ; Piganiol de la Force, 



Nouvelle Description de la France, $c.) 



BAZOIS, the name of a small district in France, forming, 

 under the old division of that country, the eastern part of 

 Nivernois, now included in the department of Nievre. It 

 comprehended several valleys, and was bounded on the 

 N.E. by the mountains of Morvan. It is watered by several 

 small streams, the Airon, Aron, or Avron, a tributary of 

 the Loire, being the principal. It produces little corn, "but 

 there is abundance of good pasturage and wood. Coal is due. 

 The chief town of the district is Moulins in Gilbert. The 

 dimensions are usually given as nine or ten leagues, or about 

 twenty-seven to twenty-eight miles long, and as many bread. 

 B AZTA'N, or B ASTA'N, a valley in the Pyrenees to the 

 north of Pamplona, extending twenty-three miles from north 

 to south, and two from cast lowest: but authorities differ 

 considerably as to the width of the valley ; Miiiano states it to 

 be fifteen miles wide, and the dictionary of the Academy only 

 two. The truth probably lies between them. It is bounded 

 on the north and east by France, and on the south and west 

 by the valleys of Ulzama and Basahurua Menor. It is sur- 

 rounded on the north and cast by the heights of Otamlmrdi, 

 Otsondo, Auza, Ariete, Izpegui, and L'rriohiquia, and on 

 the south by those of Ernazabal, Arcesia, Velate, and Oc- 

 lumendi. Several streams descend from these mountains, 

 and form in the valley a river, which is called by the in- 

 habitants Baztan-zubi. This river, after it leaves the valley, 

 H the name of Bidassoa. The valley produces Indian 

 corn, wheat, pulse, mid (lax. The meadows and forests arc 

 held in common. Kvcry man is bound by law to plant a 

 certain number of trees every year. 



Baztan is the sixth partido or district of the raerindnd or 

 province of Pamplona. It is governed by its particular 

 fucros or privileges, which wen collected in 'a body of rural 



