What pleased the young folks, more than all else, was the bust of a Saracen. This was a copy of a real Turk, with a turban on his head. His hair was black, and his face swarthy. His mouth was wide open, as if ready for some one to throw a pill down his throat, which he should swallow, without chewing it.
This was called “The Gaper,” and was instantly popular with the apothecaries, who made the pills and sold them in boxes at a high price.
On the very first day, Nyken and Bulb had sold out their whole stock, and the three girls, Beck, Beff and Jin had already, in their minds, [[175]]selected the new dresses and lace collars, which they intended to buy. Soon, all through the Netherlands, there was a “gaper” over every druggist’s shop. New medicines, and strange-looking bottles and boxes were seen on the counters.
There were “Saracen Sure Cure for Corns,” “Buccoleon Liniment,” “Dragons’ Elixir of Life,” “Palestinian Pills,” “Tulip Cure-Alls,” “Thousand-Years-of-Life Syrup,” “Crusaders’ Balm,” “Dragon-Scale Plasters,” “Oriental Ointment,” and a hundred other remedies.
Meanwhile, what had become of the Aleppo dragon?
It turned out, just as the fairies and hill dragons had predicted; that, as soon as the war was over, and peace came, this dragon’s eyes would dry up. Then, the energy, that was so long wasted, as they thought, on tears, would excite this dragon to travel, and then, also, the dry ground would turn no more into flowers. Instead, the stream of tears would strike inward, and all of a sudden, the dragon’s scales would become gold.
It happened just so, and soon Buccoleon’s skin was a mass of golden scales.
Hearing that the Flemings had done such wonders, with the turban flower, and the turban pottery, the dragon was filled with admiration [[176]]and envy. He wanted to fly at once to Flanders, and see things. He had learned, rather to like Crusaders, but when further, a traveler told the dragon about the Turk’s Head, made of earthenware, for cooking, and the Gaper, for the medicine shops, Buccoleon laughed so loudly, that people in Aleppo thought it thundered.
But alas for men’s treachery!
There was always so much envy and jealousy among the guilds in Ghent, that riots sometimes broke out. Then the bells called out the people to put down the rioters, and do justice to all.