Lane’s Modern Egyptians]
[Page 293
Buying and selling are here very tiresome processes to persons unaccustomed to such modes of bargaining. When a shopkeeper is asked the price of any of his goods, he generally demands more than he expects to receive; the customer declares the price exorbitant, and offers about half or two-thirds of the sum first-named; the price thus bidden is, of course, rejected: but the shopkeeper lowers his demand; and then the customer, in his turn, bids somewhat higher than before: thus they usually go on until they meet about half-way between the sum first demanded and that first offered, and so the bargain is concluded. But I believe that most of the tradesmen are, by European travellers, unjustly blamed for thus acting; since I have ascertained that many an Egyptian shopkeeper will sell an article for a profit of one per cent., and even less. When a person would make any but a trifling purchase, having found the article that exactly suits him, he generally makes up his mind for a long altercation: he mounts upon the mastab′ah of the shop, seats himself at his ease, fills and lights his pipe, and then the contest of words commences, and lasts often half an hour, or even more. Sometimes the shopkeeper, or the customer, interrupts the bargaining by introducing some irrelevant topic of conversation, as if the one had determined to abate his demand no further, or the other to bid no higher: then again the haggling is continued. The bargain being concluded, and the purchaser having taken his leave, his servant generally receives, from the tradesman, a small present of money, which, if not given spontaneously, he scruples not to demand. In many of the sooks in Cairo auctions are held on stated days, once or twice a week. They are conducted by “delláls” (or brokers), hired either by private persons who have anything that they wish to sell in this manner, or by shopkeepers; and the purchasers are of both these classes. The “delláls” carry the goods up and down, announcing the sums bidden with cries of “harág” or “haráj,” etc.—Among the lower orders, a bargain of the most trifling nature is often made with a great deal of vehemence of voice and gesture: a person ignorant of their language would imagine that the parties engaged in it were quarrelling, and highly enraged. The peasants will often say, when a person asks the price of anything which they have for sale, “Receive it as a present:”[[437]] this answer having become a common form of speech, they know that advantage will not be taken of it; and when desired again to name the price, they will do so, but generally name a sum that is exorbitant.
It would be tedious and uninteresting to enumerate all the trades pursued in Cairo. The principal of them are those of the draper, or seller of materials for dress (who is simply called “tágir,” or merchant), and of the seller of ready-made dresses, arms, etc. (who has the same appellation); the jeweller (“góhargee”); the goldsmith and silversmith (“sáïgh”), who only works by order; the seller of hardwares (“khurdagee”); the seller of copper wares (“nahhás”); the tailor (“kheiyát”); the dyer (“sabbágh”); the darner (“refta”); the ornamental sewer and maker of shereet, or silk lace, etc. (“habbák”); the maker of silk cords, etc. (“’akkád”); the maker of pipes (“shibukshee”); the druggist and perfumer (“’attár”), who also sells wax candles, etc.; the tobacconist (“dakhákhinee”); the fruiterer (“fákihánee”); the seller of dried fruits (“nukalee”); the seller of sherbet (“sharbetlee”); the oilman (“zeiyát”), who sells butter, cheese, honey, etc., as well as oil; the greengrocer (“khudaree”); the butcher (“gezzár”); and the baker (“farrán”), to whom bread, meat, etc., are sent to be baked. There are many cooks’ shops, where kebáb and various other dishes are cooked and sold; but it is seldom that persons eat at these shops, generally sending to them for provisions when they cannot conveniently prepare food in their own houses. Shopkeepers often procure their breakfast or dinner from one of these cooks, who are called “tabbákhs.” There are also many shops in which fateerehs, and others in which boiled beans (fool mudemmes) are sold. Both these articles of food have been described in a former chapter. Many persons of the lower orders eat at the shop of the “fatátiree” (or seller of fateerehs), or at that of the “fowwál” (or bean-seller).
Bread, vegetables, and a variety of eatables, are carried about for sale. The cries of some of the hawkers are curious, and deserve to be mentioned. The seller of “tirmis” (or lupins) often cries, “Aid! O Imbábee! Aid!” This is understood in two senses; as an invocation for aid to the sheykh El-Imbábee, a celebrated Muslim saint, buried at the village of Imbábeh, on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Cairo, in the neighbourhood of which village the best tirmis is grown; and also as implying that it is through the aid of the saint above mentioned that the tirmis of Imbábeh is so excellent. The seller of this vegetable also cries, “The tirmis of Imbábeh surpasses the almond!” Another cry of the seller of tirmis is, “O how sweet the little offspring of the river!” This last cry, which is seldom heard but in the country towns and villages of Egypt, alludes to the manner in which the tirmis is prepared for food. To deprive it of its natural bitterness, it is soaked, for two or three days, in a vessel full of water, then boiled; and, after this, sewed up in a basket of palm-leaves (called “fard”), and thrown into the Nile, where it is left to soak again two or three days, after which it is dried, and eaten cold, with a little salt.—The seller of sour limes cries, “God make them light [or easy of sale]! O limes!”—The toasted pips of a kind of melon called “’abdalláwee,” and of the water-melon, are often announced by the cry of “O consoler of the embarrassed! O pips!” though more commonly by the simple cry of “Roasted pips!”—A curious cry of the seller of a kind of sweetmeat (“haláweh”) composed of treacle fried with some other ingredients, is, “For a nail! O sweetmeat!” He is said to be half a thief: children and servants often steal implements of iron, etc., from the house in which they live, and give[and give] them in exchange for his sweetmeat.—The hawker of oranges cries, “Honey! O oranges! Honey!” and similar cries are used by the sellers of other fruits and vegetables, so that it is sometimes impossible to guess what the person announces for sale, as when we hear the cry of “Sycamore-figs! O grapes!” excepting by the rule that what is for sale is the least excellent of the fruits, etc., mentioned; as sycamore-figs are not so good as grapes.—A very singular cry is used by the seller of roses: “The rose was a thorn; from the sweat of the Prophet it blossomed.” This alludes to a miracle related of the Prophet.—The fragrant flowers of the henna-tree (or Egyptian privet) are carried about for sale, and the seller cries, “Odours of paradise! O flowers of the henna!”—A kind of cotton-cloth, made by machinery which is put in motion by a bull, is announced by the cry of “The work of the bull! O maidens!”
As the water of the wells in Cairo is slightly brackish, numerous “sakkas” (carriers or sellers of water) obtain their livelihood by supplying its inhabitants with water from the Nile. During the season of the inundation, or rather during the period of about four months after the opening of the canal which runs through the metropolis, the sakkas draw their water from this canal: at other times they bring it from the river. It is conveyed in skins by camels and asses, and sometimes, when the distance is short, and the skin small, by the sakka himself. The water-skins of the camel (which are called “rei”) are a pair of wide bags of ox-hide. The ass bears a goat’s skin (called “kirbeh”); so also does the sakka, if he have no ass. The rei contain three or four kirbehs. The general cry of the sakka is, “O! may God compensate [me]!” Whenever this cry is heard, it is known that a sakka is passing. For a goat’s skin of water, brought from a distance of a mile and a half, or two miles, he obtains scarcely more than a penny.
WATER-CARRIERS.
There are also many sakkas who supply passengers in the streets of the metropolis with water. One of this occupation is called “sakka sharbeh:” his kirbeh has a long brass spout, and he pours the water into a brass cup, or an earthen kulleh, for any one who would drink.—There is a more numerous class who follow the same occupation, called “hemalees.” These are mostly darweeshes, of the order of the Rifá’ees, or that of the Beiyoomees, and are exempt from the income-tax called firdeh. The hemalee carries, upon his back, a vessel (called “ibreek”) of porous grey earth. This vessel cools the water. Sometimes the hemalee has an earthen kulleh of water scented with “móyet zahr” (or orange-flower-water), prepared from the flowers of the “náring” (a bitter orange), for his best customers; and often a sprig of náring is stuck in the mouth of his ibreek. He also, generally, has a wallet hung by his side. From persons of the higher and middle orders he receives from one to five faddahs for a draught of water; from the poor, either nothing, or a piece of bread or some other article of food, which he puts in his wallet. Many hemalees, and some sakkas who carry the goat’s skin, are found at the scenes of religious festivals, such as the moolids of saints, etc., in Cairo and its neighbourhood. They are often paid, by visitors to the tomb of a saint on such occasions, to distribute the water which they carry to passengers; a cupful to whoever desires. This work of charity is called “tesbeel;” and is performed for the sake of the saint, and on other occasions than moolids. The water-carriers who are thus employed are generally allowed to fill their ibreeks or kirbehs at a public fountain, as they demand nothing from the passengers whom they supply. When employed to distribute water to passengers in the street, etc., they generally chant a short cry, inviting the thirsty to partake of the charity offered them in the name of God, most commonly in the words, and to the air, here following:—
