wood and charcoal which they sell in
wholesale quantities to the smaller shopkeepers, who purchase from
other countryfolk donkey loads of ripe melons and luscious black figs.

There is a glorious inconsequence in the arrangement of the wares.
Here you may see a pile of women's garments exposed for sale, and not
far away are sweet-sellers with honey-cakes and other unattractive
but toothsome delicacies. If you can catch a glimpse of the native
brass-workers busily beating out artistic designs upon trays of
different sizes and shapes, do not fail to seize the opportunity
of watching them. You may form one in the ring gathered round the
snake-charmer, or join the circle which listens open-mouthed and with
breathless attention to that story-teller, who breaks off at a most
critical juncture in his narrative to shake his tambourine, declaring
that so close-fisted an audience does not deserve to hear another
word, much less the conclusion of his fascinating tale.

But before you join either party, indeed before you mingle at all
freely in the crowd upon a Moorish market-place, it is well to
remember that the flea is a common domestic insect, impartial in the
distribution of his favours to Moor, Jew and Nazarene, and is in fact
not averse to "fresh fields and pastures new."

If you are clad in perishable garments, beware of the water-carrier
with his goat-skin, his tinkling bell, his brass cup, and his strange
cry. Beware, too, of the strings of donkeys with heavily laden packs,
and do not scruple to give them a forcible push out of your way.
If you are mounted upon a donkey yourself, so much the better; by
watching the methods of your donkey-boy to ensure a clear passage for
his beast, you will realize that dwellers in Barbary are not strangers
to the spirit of the saying, "Each man for himself, and the de'il take
the hindmost."

Yet they are a pleasant crowd to be amongst, in spite of insect-life,
water-carriers, and bulky pack-saddles, and there is an exhaustless
store of interest, not alone in the wares they have for sale, and in
the trades they ply, but more than all in the faces, so often keen and
alert, and still more often bright and smiling.

One typical example of Moorish methods of shopping, and I have done.
Among those who make their money by trade, you may find a man who
spends his time in bringing the would-be purchaser into intimate
relations with the article he desires to obtain. He has no shop of his
own