wn. It is always I who
make their purchases for them."

We had by this time finished our tea; our three friends rose, and with a
simultaneous bow, invited us to accompany them. "My lords, the repast is
by this time prepared, and our chief awaits you." "Listen," said we,
gravely, "while we utter words full of reason. You have taken the
trouble to guide us to an inn, which shows you to be men of warm hearts;
you have here swept for us and prepared our room; again, in proof of your
excellent dispositions, your master has sent us pastry, which manifests
in him a benevolence incapable of exhaustion towards the wayfaring
stranger. You now invite us to go and dine with you: we cannot possibly
trespass so grossly upon your kindness. No, dear friends, you must
excuse us; if we desire to make some purchases in your establishment, you
may rely upon us. For the present we will not detain you. We are going
to dine at the Turkish Eating House." So saying, we rose and ushered our
excellent friends to the door.

The commercial intercourse between the Tartars and the Chinese is
revoltingly iniquitous on the part of the latter. So soon as Mongols,
simple, ingenuous men, if such there be at all in the world, arrive in a
trading town, they are snapped up by some Chinese, who carry them off, as
it were, by main force, to their houses, give them tea for themselves and
forage for their animals, and cajole them in every conceivable way. The
Mongols, themselves without guile and incapable of conceiving guile in
others, take all they hear to be perfectly genuine, and congratulate
themselves, conscious as they are of their inaptitude for business, upon
their good fortune in thus meeting with brothers, _Ahatou_, as they say,
in whom they can place full confidence, and who will undertake to manage
their whole business for them. A good dinner provided gratis in the back
shop, completes the illusion. "If these people wanted to rob me," says
the Tartar to himself, "they would not go to all this expense in giving
me a dinner for nothing." When once the Chinese has got hold of the
Tartar, he employs over him all the resources of the skilful and utterly
unprincipled knavery of the Chinese character. He keeps him in his
house, eating, drinking, and smoking, one day after another, until his
subordinates have sold all the poor man's cattle, or whatever else he has
to sell, and bought for him, in return, the commodities he requires, at
prices