The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-04-13
Shopping in Cairo.

shabby imposture. 1t is only a wretched
hole in the wall, and its entire resources
seem to be half.dozen pieces of dusty
stuff goods. You look long enough to
take in the situation and turn to walk
away in disgust. Your dragoman, how
ever, mildly begs that you will not I've i'm
patient. "Seat yourself" he entreats,
upon the divan'-which is simply the
edge of the raised platform that forms the
floor of the shop ton which, meanwhile,
the proprietor is sitting with an air often
of profound Indifference" and make
known your wants." You wish to see
some shawls. Your wish is translated to
the merchant, and he rises, evincing now
at length something of affable alacrity,
and produces from some recess behind
him bundle. This is placed before you,
and with abundant dcliberation he ex-
tracts from it ard unfolds before you a.
table-cOver. For an instant it arrests your
attention, and you look at ii, especially if
it be something unfamiliar, with faint
sign of interest. You are not going to
housekeeping in Cairo, and you remind
your dragoman that you asked not for
table. cloths but for shawls. This being
laboriously explained to the merchant, he
smiles assentingly, aud Immediately pro-
duces another package of table cloths.
much rarer and handsomer than the 9TH
ers. No! Nor you say, impatiently,
determined not to be lured in this way
into unintentional extravaganza, "shawls!''
g shawls!" AT once the table-cloths are
showed aside, and the merchant places
another parcel before you containing en-
broidered jackets. Cunning wretch! 1t
is as if he had been secretly advised of
your weakness. As you have watched the
gay equipages of his Highness the Khe-
dive and of the pashas who are attached
to the court, nothing has impressed you
so much as the rich and picturesque dress
of the sess, or runner (most of the hand
somer eguirages preceded by two>, whose
fleet feet and sharp cries have announced
their approach. Now, much the most
splendid part of the dress is the en-
broidered jacket, which may easily he
made striking feature OF feminine cos
tune; and as you are in the tolls, before
you know it one after another of these gay
and graceful vestments are turned over,
and in few moments half dozen have
been put aside {" on appreciation" and the
chances are thousand to one that you
will not be allowed to escape without
taking them with you.
The indulgence of this momentary
weakness has, however, the usual effect Of
making you resolve upon answering
firmness in the future. Once more you
cry shall! shall! (shawls! shawlsD in a
tone as imperious as you can command.
1t makes no difference. When this placid
Oriental has shown you everything that
he has to sell, has exhausted every oppor-
tunity of inducing you to buy what you
~ of 1o
you ask for. At this point the contest
assumes an entirely new character. You
not only want shawl, but handsome
prefers to keep his handsome shawls and
sell only those that are inferior. Of
course this is part of Eastern artifice,
but underneath it there must exist, think,
something of that preference to cling to
values in kind, which is so dis
tinctive of Oriental ideas of wealth. 1
shall not soon forget an afternoon which
was passed before the shelves of
Cairene merchant whose whole stock
in trade apparently consisted of two insig-
niticant piles of cheap shawls, but who
proved to be possessed Of rarest fabrics
of exquisite beauty, both of pattern and
texture. 1t we had been drawing his
teeth, one by one, he could not have sur
rendered them with greater reluctance
than he evinced in producing his goods;
and when my companion turned away at
length without making any purchase, my
own relief at the conclusion of the nego-
tiations was not greater than that with
which the shawl-dealer put away his
goods and saw his chance of exchanging
them for English sovereigns vanishing in
the distance. To his view British gold
had, apparently, more doubtful value
than his precious goods, and his conscious
ness of wealth was far deeper when turn
ing them over on his shelves than in rat
Ting any amount of money in his pocket.
Cairo EGYPT Cor. N. Y. Euening Post.