"The bazaars of Damascus are so much like those of Cairo that it is unnecessary to describe them, as the picture of one will be almost identically that of the other. The mode of bargaining is the same; and if there is any difference at all in testing a stranger's patience it is in favor of Damascus.
"One of our party wanted to buy some of the silk handkerchiefs for which Syria is famous, and we stopped in the silk bazaar for that purpose. The merchant asked twenty francs, and the buyer offered six; after chaffering for a full hour they met at twelve francs, and the transaction was closed.
"The merchant then unrolled a piece of silk, which he assured us was of native manufacture. While he was praising it, and declaring he was offering it for half its value, he unrolled a little farther, when out dropped from the end of the roll a ticket with the name of a French manufacturer at Lyons!
"He took it in as hastily as he could, but was not quick enough to prevent our seeing and reading it. This confirmed what we had heard before, that a great deal of the silk sold in Constantinople, Cairo, Beyroot, Damascus, and other Oriental places as native manufacture, is made in Europe in imitation of the genuine article. The counterfeit is so well executed that it cannot be distinguished from the genuine except by an expert, and frequently the only difference is in favor of the finish of the European goods.
"We went through one bazaar after another, and were offered all sorts of articles we did not want, together with a few that we did. What we most wanted were the genuine Damascus blades, and we looked for them in the arms bazaar for quite a while.
SWORD-BLADES OF DAMASCUS.
"They offered us a good many swords, but none that came up to the stories of the ancient weapons, which could be tied in a knot or doubled up into a loop without the least injury. They asked a hundred dollars for one, but fell slowly to twenty, and as this seemed too cheap for an article once worth at least a thousand dollars, we declined to buy.