lk,
most delicious but sticky. In bottles above, the eye roams from highly
coloured confetti to _Abnabad_ and _Kors_ or other deadly-looking
lozenges, while a crowd of enraptured children deposit shais in the hands
of the prosperous trader, who promptly weighs and gives in exchange a
full measure of _rahat-ul-holkoom_, "the ease of the throat," or candied
sugar, duly packed in paper bags.

There is nothing very attractive in the butchers' bazaar; the long rows
of skinned animals black with flies, and in various degrees of freshness,
made even less artistic by ornamentations of paper rosettes and bits of
gold and silver paper. Beef, camel, mutton, game and chickens, all dead
and with throats cut--the Mahommedan fashion of killing--can be purchased
here, but the smell of meat is so strong and sickening that we will
promptly adjourn to the leather-work bazaar.

For a man, this is probably the most typical and interesting section of
the Persian retail commerce. There is something picturesque and artistic
in the clumsy silver or brass or iron mounted saddles, with handsome red,
or green, or brown ample leather flaps, gracefully ornamented with more
or less elaboration to suit the pockets of different customers. Then the
harness is pretty, with its silver inlaid iron decoration, or solid
silver or brass, and the characteristic stirrups, nicely chiselled and
not unlike the Mexican ones. The greater part of the foot can rest on the
stirrup, so broad is its base. Then come the saddlebags of all sizes, the
_horjin_, in cloth, in sacking, in expensive leather, in carpeting, of
all prices, with an ingenious device of a succession of loops fastening
the one into the other, the last with a padlock, to secure the contents
of the bag from intrusive hands.

These _horjins_--or double bags--are extremely convenient and are the
most usual contrivance in Persia for conveying luggage on horseback or
mules.

Then in the lower part of the shop there is a grand display of leather
purses, sheaths for knives, and a collection of leather stock whips,
gracefully tied into multiple knots.

In this same bazaar, where everything in connection with riding or
loading animals can be purchased, are also to be found the bell shops.
These confine themselves particularly to horses', mules' and camels' neck
decorations. Long tassels, either red or black, in silk or dyed
horsehair, silk or leather bands with innumerable small conical shrill
bells, and s