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The Arab and Bedawin Markets of Cairo 135
curling spouts called ibreek ^ for their ablutions. But there
are a variety of smaller brass objects which you may pick up
out of the dust at the Market of the Afternoon—such as little
chased boxes, fantastic scissors, openwork cigarette cases,
old-fashioned scriveners' inkpots, manacles for the punishment
of harem women, bangles, and charms.
The old folding lanterns, with sides of waxed paper, exactly
like the lanterns used by riksha boys in Japan to-day, have
their brass tops richly chased sometimes ; the water vessels
may be charming alike in form and decoration, but one of the
best things to collect is coffee-sets.
The little brass cups, which look much more suitable for
eggs, and are hardly stable enough to hold an egg without
spilling it, are not actually used for the coffee ; they are really
saucers which hold little china cups. They are sometimes
exquisitely shaped and decorated. It is always worth while
picking up a beautiful one ; they make such charming
presents if you can persuade yourself to part with them.
Once in a way you find a handsome tray ornamentally
battered, not often. You have a better chance with coffeepots.
An accident happening to an old and beautiful one
may relegate it to the rag-and-bone man. A shilling will
often set the damage right when you get back to England,
and you are the possessor of a lovely object, for the coffee-
pots of the rich are made with great elegance.
Daggers are cheap and numerous. Their blades will be
damascened with a phrase from the Koran. The brass candlesticks
to be bought here for a shilling or two would be cheap
at ten times the price in England.
Most people enjoy the bargaining more than what they
buy in such places. The bargain-hunter in the Market of the
Afternoon will do best if he looks out for damaged objects
' The
regular Brassmarket is in the sort of piazza between the Suk-en-
Nahassin, the Bazar of the Copper- and Brass-workers and the Beit-el-Kadi, the
grand old Arabic palace just restored, which was once the court of the Grand
Kadi, and earlier still was the palace of the Cahph. The number of stalls in it
varies : the most important is the bottom except one, almost under the shadow of
the Kalaun Mosque ; it is always there, as is the bottom stall, a much humbler
affair, but the others are only there at certain market hours.