e was the very incarnation of Boker's "Prince Adeb."

The girls of Damar paused to see me pass,
I walking in my rags, yet beautiful.
One maiden said, 'He has a prince's air!'
I am a prince; the air was all my own.

This Bashkir, however, was not in rags; he was elegantly attired. His
silken vest was bound with a girdle of gold-thread studded with jewels;
and over it he wore a caftan, with wide sleeves, of the finest dark-blue
cloth. The round cap of black lamb's-wool became his handsome head. His
complexion was pale olive, through which the red of his cheeks shone, in
the words of some Oriental poem, "like a rose-leaf through oil"; and his
eyes, in their dark fire, were more lustrous than smoky topaz. His voice
was mellow and musical, and his every movement and gesture a new
revelation of human grace. Among thousands, yea, tens of thousands, of
handsome men, he stood preeminent.

As our acquaintance ripened, he drew a pocket-book from his bosom, and
showed us his choicest treasures: turquoises, bits of wonderful blue
heavenly forget-me-nots; a jacinth, burning like a live coal, in scarlet
light; and lastly, a perfect ruby, which no sum less than twenty-five
hundred dollars could purchase. From him we learned the curious
fluctuations of fashion in regard to jewels. Turquoises were just then
in the ascendant; and one of the proper tint, the size of a
parsnip-seed, could not be had for a hundred dollars, the full value of
a diamond of equal size. Amethysts of a deep plum-color, though less
beautiful than the next paler shade, command very high prices; while
jacinth, beryl, and aqua-marine--stones of exquisite hue and lustre--are
cheap. But then, in this department, as in all others, Fashion and
Beauty are not convertible terms.

In the next booth there were two Persians, who unfolded before our eyes
some of those marvellous shawls, where you forget the barbaric pattern
in the exquisite fineness of the material and the triumphant harmony of
the colors. Scarlet with palm-leaf border,--blue clasped by golden
bronze, picked out with red,--browns, greens, and crimsons struggling
for the mastery in a war of tints,--how should we choose between them?
Alas! we were not able to choose: they were a thousand dollars apiece!
But the Persians still went on unfolding, taking our admiration in pay
for their trouble, and seeming even, by their pleasant smiles, to
consider themselves well paid. When we came to the booth