You will bear in mind, if you please, that I am a Moslem merchant, a
character not to be confounded with the notable individuals seen on
'Change.
Mercator in the East is a compound of tradesman, divine, and T.
G. Usually of gentle birth, he is everywhere welcomed and respected; and
he bears in his mind and manner that, if Allah please, he may become prime
minister a month after he has sold you a yard of cloth. Commerce appears
to be an accident, not an essential, with him; yet he is by no means
deficient in acumen. He is a grave and reverend signior, with rosary in
hand and Koran on lip, is generally a pilgrim, talks at dreary length
about Holy Places, writes a pretty hand, has read and can recite much
poetry, is master of his religion, demeans himself with respectability, is
perfect in all points of ceremony and politeness, and feels equally at
home whether sultan or slave sit upon his counter. He has a wife and
children in his own country, where he intends to spend the remnant of his
days; but "the world is uncertain"--"Fate descends, and man's eye seeth it
not"--"the earth is a charnel house"; briefly, his many wise old saws give
him a kind of theoretical consciousness that his bones may moulder in
other places but his father-land.
To describe my little caravan. Foremost struts Raghe, our Eesa guide, in
all the bravery of Abbanship.
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