During all this time Hassan had never spoken a word, neither had a single mark or movement of the horses escaped him; the merchant now turned towards him, saying—
“My son, tell me your opinion of these horses; are they not very fine?”
“They are not very bad,” replied the youth drily; “but they have many faults, and are much too dear.”
“And pray what are their faults, master busybody?” said the horse-dealer in a rage.
“I am not a busybody,” answered Hassan, looking him steadfastly in the face; “I merely replied to a question put to me by our master the Hadji. As for their faults, if you do not know them better than I, you are not fit to be a dellâl; and if you do know them, you must be a rogue to bring them here and endeavour to pass them on the Hadji at such a price!”
Words cannot paint the fury of the dellâl at being thus addressed by a stripling whom he supposed to be as ignorant of his craft as the other attendants on Hadji Ismael; the heavy courbatch[[17]] vibrated in his hand, and he was about to utter some violent or abusive retort, when the merchant, interposing between them, said to the dellâl—
“Do not give way to anger, and remember if the words of the youth are not true they can do no harm either to you or to the sale of your horses.”
The worthy merchant forgot at the moment that it was probably the truth of the words which gave them their sting; but fate seemed resolved that the horse-dealing transaction should not proceed amicably, for scarcely had the merchant concluded his pacific address to the dellâl when he heard behind him a sharp cry of pain, mingled with a sound resembling a blow, accompanied by the rattling of metal.
It seems that the Damanhouri Arab entertained a shrewd suspicion that Hassan was not a greenhorn in the matter of horse-flesh, and while the merchant was making his pacific speech to the dellâl, he had crept to the side of the youth and whispered to him—
“Brother, say nothing about the faults of the horses; say that they are very good: here is your bakshish” (present), and so saying he slipped five Spanish dollars into Hassan’s hand.