knowledge. Therefore were the bazaars ransacked, and good, bad, and indifferent specimens vanished day by day. Moreover, Turks, Armenians, Persians, and Jews had but one object in view-that of robbing the Giaours, as the officers of Her Majesty's army were called, to the utmost possible extent. And while on the one hand most if not all the buyers were more or less ignorant of the fact that, when asked a hundred piastres-which in some cases might not have been an exorbitant price for the object desired, and was therefore readily given—had they been wise enough to offer twenty-five, the sum would have been cheerfully accepted.

Again, the sellers were more less equally ignorant of the value of that which they sold. It was therefore by no means difficult, having knowledge and experience, every now and then to obtain a gem at a very reasonable-at times, indeed, ridiculously small-outlay. But a change soon came over the dream of both buyers and sellers. The buyers, at the suggestion of interpreters or commissioners,-who all acted in the spirit

of robbery, and stood the friend of either the one or the other, who paid most freely,-would not seldom offer twenty piastres where a hundred had been asked, which would be accepted; and so the sellers soon settled the matter by demanding double, conceiving, as they all did, that an Englishman was not made of flesh and blood, but of gold, and that pieces might be chipped off him as off stone. More: it soon got abroad that the Giaour would buy a tin pot for a sovereign if he were only told it was an ancient specimen from Damascus, or a china cup which he might have purchased in England for a shilling, if informed it was Dresden, or "Sax," as they term it. And the market soon became glutted with the most inconceivable rubbish, much of which found its way back to England and France, whence it originally came, having meanwhile been purchased at a hundred per cent. more than its real value.

Long years have elapsed since those painful, yet at times merry days of war and love. And now, while the Sublime Porte has endeavoured to brighten its face with the varnish of civilization,

thus making it far more dirty than it was wont to be, the bazaars, with equal unsuccess, have in a great measure followed the European example. Let us pass a morning therein. If, however, you have not physical powers, patience, and temper, you had better remain at home, whether the season of your visit be winter or summer: for of all the fatiguing pleasures in life I know of, there are none equal to a day's bric-à-brac hunting in the bazaars of Constantinople. Moreover, in the present year, unless you are greatly favoured by fortune-or by luck, if you prefer to call it so-after all your patience, trials of temper, and fatigues, you may return home without a single addition to your collection.

Now the bazaar in the city of the Sultan, as in all other Eastern towns, as all the travelled world is aware, is simply that portion of the town set apart more particularly for the retail trade of every possible article of Eastern and European produce; and it is also more or less the habitation of those useful relations, termed in common parlance Uncles, or Israelites; kind friends who claim, by imaginary

blood, the right of lending you five shillings on a watch which cost you five pounds, of course giving you a tolerably bad chance of redeeming it. It is also, to some extent, a depôt for the reception of stolen goods. No; I will not be severe. I merely mean to say that if a pasha who has an overabundance of Dresden, or Eastern, or even Sèvres china, desires his attendant to dust it, two or three pieces may possibly be broken in the dusting, or said to be so, and sent to the bazaar to be mended, whence they never return to their rightful owner. I have not unfrequently been informed that there is a vast amount of ceramic treasure in the harems, as in the houses, of the rich pashas, much of which from time to time finds its way to the bazaar. Now, it is perfectly true that the amount of Sèvres coffee-cups, Dresden china, Oriental vases, and so forth, gathered together in the houses of the rich Turks, is probably immense, though for the most part modern, and of no particular value. And so, without fear of contradiction, I assert, that if the whole were placed before the eager gaze of a real connoisseur, he would not

among the lot select a score of objects worthy of consideration. I will tell you why it is so, my friends, whom I more particularly desire should be successful in those researches which I so much love. It is simply because, with very rare exceptions, the Eastern taste, like that of Marseilles, is vulgar and gorgeous in gold and colouring; and I very much doubt if the Sultan-I beg his pardon, the light of the world-the grand vizier, the pasha with fifty tails, or the choicest beauties of their harems are competent to judge, or care whether the gorgeous china that adorns their rooms, or the pretty jewelled cups from which they sip their coffee, or the dishes in which they dip their delicate hands, are made at Dresden, Pekin, Sèvres, or in England; whether they be of hard paste or soft; what marks they bear; in what year they were produced; or who the artist that decorated them. Indeed, a vast quantity of porcelain is made, and has been made, at Meissen, Vienna, and elsewhere, purposely for the Eastern markets, which is marked, truly, but of particular forms, for particular purposes, to contain meats, vege