ows of
countrywomen, haggling with tall Persians, who in broken Arabic try to
beat down the prices, and generally end by paying only double what
they ought. The swaggering, broad-faced, Bagdad camel-drivers, and
ill-looking, sallow youths stand idle everywhere, insulting those whom
they dare, and cringing to their betters like slaves. Persian gentlemen,
too, with grand hooked noses, high caps, and quaintly-cut dresses of gay
patterns, saunter about, discussing their grievances, or quarrelling
with each other, to pass the time, for, unlike an Arab, a Persian shows
at once whatever ill-humour he may feel, and has no shame in giving it
utterance before whomever may be present; nor does he, with the Arab,
consider patience to be and essential point of politeness and dignity.
Not a few of the townsmen are here, chatting or bartering; and Bedouins,
switch in hand. If you ask any chance individual among these latter
what has brought him hither, you may be sure beforehand that the word
"camel," in one or other of its forms of detail, will find place in the
answer. Criers are going up and down the camp with articles of Persian
apparel, cooking pots, and ornaments of various descriptions in their
hands, or carrying them off for higher bidding to the town.

Having made our morning household purchases at the fair, and the sun
being now an hour or more above the horizon, we think it time to visit
the market-place of the town, which would hardly be open sooner. We
re-enter the city gate, and pass on our way by our house door, where we
leave our bundle of eatables, and regain the high street of Berezdah.
Before long we reach a high arch across the road; this gate divides the
market from the rest of the quarter. We enter. First of all we see a
long range of butchers' shops on either side, thickly hung with flesh of
sheep and camel, and very dirtily kept. Were not the air pure and the
climate healthy, the plague would assuredly be endemic here; but in
Arabia no special harm seems to follow. We hasten on, and next pass
a series of cloth and linen warehouses, stocked partly with
home-manufacture, but more imported; Bagdad cloaks and head-gear, for
instance; Syrian shawls and Egyptian slippers. Here markets follow the
law general throughout the East, that all shops or stores of the same
description should be clustered together; a system whose advantages on
the whole outweigh its inconveniences, at least for small towns like
these, in the l