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Our Dragoman 91
street for us when we commenced looking at things in his
window, which had no glass. He kept his change and his
spectacles and his snuff-box in that bowl, so my attention
was constantly drawn to it. One day as I passed I held up
an Egyptian two-shilling piece and pointed to that bowl.
He had evidently bought it cheap, so he emptied out its
contents with grave politeness and handed it to me. He saw
by my eye that I was not going to buy any rings or daggers
or Ethiopian necklaces that day. These were his specialities.
So the bowl was handed to Ali, and we pursued our march
through the bazars. When we got to the Turkish Bazar,
where the brass-shops are, all the shopkeepers asked Ali how
much I had given for it ; he told them this, but he would not
tell them where I had bought it, lest he should spoil my
future bargaining with the old Turk. They at once began
to bid for it, and one man offered me as high as ten shillings
for the bowl I had just bought for two.
Another time I bought from the old female fiend in the
brass market, the brass milk-dipper which is now in my
Moorish room—an embossed and very solid sort of pint-pot,
with an upright handle about eighteen inches long. We
were walking about the old Arab streets for a couple of hours
after this. Every restaurant keeper we passed asked Ali
how much I had given for this, and when he learned that I
had only paid fifteen piastres offered me an advance. One
man had a thing I wanted more, but only worth about half
as much—an old solid brass coffee-saucepan of rather an ele-
gant shape. I offered to exchange. He wanted me to give
him twenty-five piastres as well as my milk-dipper. I knew
better, and the next day bought just such a saucepan in the
Market of the Afternoon for a shilling. Next time we passed
the crafty restaurateur he offered to make the exchange for
nothing. Ali was magnificent. " Your saucepan was only
worth a shilling. My gentleman bought one like it, only
better, for a shilling." The restaurateur grew very heated
over the bargain he had missed, and told Ali never to enter
his shop again. The pugnacious Ali made some withering
retort about the class of his business.