BROKERS.] The instant
you turn from the disappointed merchant, you are assailed by twenty Jew
brokers at once, who, having espied their quarry from afar, have
assembled from all quarters of the bazar, and, like a flock of vultures,
are waiting near to devour you, congratulating themselves on your
unwillingness to buy of the cunning Armenian. One attacks you in bad
Italian, another in modern Greek, interlarded with a few words of
unintelligible English or French. Each is master of a stall; where,
according to his own account, you can purchase whatever you want at the
greatest advantage, though, as yet, they know not what that is, even if
you do yourself. Thus, like Actaeon, the unfortunate stranger is exposed
to the chance of being torn to pieces by the dogs who profess to call
him master, and to do his utmost bidding.

The bazar is always crowded with buyers, sellers, and idlers, so that it
costs some little squeezing and pushing to get through its various
passages. When a large purchase is contemplated, or if the seller be an
Armenian or Greek, he will adjourn with you to the neighbouring
coffee-house, and there, over a pipe and a cup of coffee, the bargain is
concluded on much better terms than in public, where, possibly, the
merchant's pride would not relish the exposure of abating some hundred
piastres, and where the sharks of brokers might lay claim to a good
recompense, for bringing the _Ingles capu dou_ to be plucked.

[Sidenote: INTERIOR OF THE BAZARS.] In the bazar the noise is deafening
from the screams of the disputing parties, and the vociferating of
prices by those who have articles for sale. It is a sort of Babel in
miniature, where Jews and brokers push by you every instant, hastily
shuffling along, and loaded with some piece of second-hand finery to be
put up at auction; such as, for instance, an incense salver, a piece of
Persian silk, an Albanian rifle, an old silk or velvet robe, embroidered
with gold, the property of some gay Turkish lady, who having exhausted
her purse the day before in a party of pleasure to the Keathane "Sweet
Waters," wishes to replenish it by the sale of a portion of her
wardrobe. To these may be added, amber mouth-pieces, bundles of long
pipe-sticks, a lot of worn-out clothes, a Persian battle-axe, China
ornaments for scents, coffee cups with their silver filigree stands, a
Cashmere shawl, &c. Each seller bawls out the last bidding for his
separate commodity in the highest not