AN ARAB'S GEJ\ UINE DOLLAR. 13 



prayers from the mosque at our side brought, perhaps 

 for the first time, to the recollection of most of us that 

 the necessarily busy day we had just ended was really 

 Sunday. After dinner, our friends from the opposite 

 side of the mosque paid us a visit, and Marcopoli, ever 

 ready to give us useful information, explained to us how 

 to know the only Maria Theresa dollar which the Arabs- 

 of this country will accept. <~~i 



In consequence of some alleged forgeries perpetrated ' 

 upon them, these dollars, before being accepted, are 

 always examined very closely, and on the crown must 

 be counted seven stars, though they are only just visible 

 to the naked eye, and also nine, equally small, on a 

 brooch over the right shoulder. If in either case more 

 or less stars are found, the dollar will not be taken, so in 

 the payment of natives there appears to be a prospect 

 of an expenditure of much time and patience. There is, 

 also another point about which they are very particular 

 viz., to have their money, like Scotch or Irish il. bank- 

 notes, decidedly dirty. No gold coin will pass here, and 

 only two silver ones, a piastre of an old Egyptian cur- 

 rency of the same value, but three times the size of the 

 modern coin, and very much thinner, and the Maria 

 Theresa dollar. These dollars are a decided nuisance 

 owing to their great weight and bulk, but divided into \ 

 bags of 500 we have managed to stow them away in our i 

 tin boxes 



