acrossasiaminoro00chiluoft

220 ACROSS ASIA MINOR ON FOOT
keen -faced, with small black moustache, and what
Americans call the ** dollar eye." Dressed in red
fez, black frock-coat and trousers, and red slippers,
he made altogether a typical Greek merchant of the
interior. He spent much time endeavouring to sell
me silk - embroidered towels and handkerchiefs and
shawls, which he displayed alluringly with curious
flourishes of the hand. Of more interest, however,
was the information he gave incidentally of how he
carried on business. During the summer he generally
travelled, going wherever he thought he could
profitably buy or sell ; during the winter he remained
at Kaisariyeh. There were no limits to the distance
he would travel in search of business. He had now
come from Angora, by way of Kirshehr, on the road
home, but Nevshehr had drawn him a day's journey
aside—without benefit as it proved ; and that he bewailed,
holding the people of Nevshehr in diminished
respect. For he recognised only two distinctions in
cities—where he profited and where he did not ; and
only two sorts of mankind—those who bought and
those who sold.
When I went into the town after breakfast next
morning the market - place was beginning to fill.
Asses and camels were standing or kneeling in groups,
stalls were being set up and loaded with goods, and
many figures in bright-coloured garments were moving
briskly about, for though the sunlight was clear there
had been hard frost. And yet, as I noticed afterwards
in this dry, high-standing region of sand and
porous stone, visible signs of frost were absent. There
was a keen, tingling temperature with brilliant sunshine,
but until you came upon a vessel with solid
ice in it, or a frozen fountain or stream, you were deceived
by appearances, and never realised the degree
of cold. And so this market-place, with its bright
colours and camels in sunlight, looked warm and
Eastern in spite of skating weather.
I had not gone far in Urgub this morning before
discovering why the town had looked so vague and