passages and dependencies. Towards the middle of the Rue du
Temple, not far from the fountain which stands in the corner of a large
square, may be seen an immense parallelogram, built of wood, and
surmounted with a slated roof. This building is the Temple, bounded on
the left by the Rue du Petit Thouars, and on the right by the Rue
Percee; it leads to a large circular building,--a colossal rotunda,
surrounded with a gallery, forming a sort of arcade. A long opening,
intersecting this parallelogram in its length and breadth, divides it
into two equal parts, which are again divided and subdivided into an
infinity of small lateral and transverse openings, crossing each other
in all directions, and sheltered by the roof of the building from all
severity of weather. In this bazar new merchandise is generally
prohibited; but the smallest fragment of any sort of material, the
merest morsel of iron, brass, lead, or pewter, will here find both a
buyer and a seller.

Here are to be found dealers in pieces of every coloured cloth, of all
ages, qualities, shades, and capabilities, for the service of such as
wish to repair or alter damaged or ill-fitting garments. Some of the
shops present huge piles of old shoes, some trodden down of heel,
others twisted, torn, worn, split, and in holes, presenting a mass of
nameless, formless, colourless objects, among which are grimly visible
some species of fossil soles about an inch thick, studded with thick
nails, resembling the door of a prison and hard as a horse's hoof, the
actual skeletons of shoes whose other component parts have long since
been consumed by the devouring hand of Time. Yet all this mouldy, dried
up accumulation of decaying rubbish will find a willing purchaser, an
extensive body of merchants trading in this particular line.

Then there are the vendors of gimps, fringes, bindings, cords, tassels,
and edgings of silk, cotton, or thread, arising out of the demolition of
curtains past all cure and defying all reparation. Other enterprising
individuals devote themselves to the sale of females' hats and bonnets,
these articles only reaching their emporium by the means of the dealers
in old clothes, and after having performed the strangest journeys and
undergone the most surprising transformations, the most singular changes
of colour.

In order that the article traded in may not take up too much room in a
warehouse ordinarily the size of a large box, these bonnets are
careful