of the transaction which may be taken as a fair sample of Asiatic bartering :
"
One day towards evening a Banian badly dressed, who had nothing on but
a cloth around his loins and a nasty kerchief on his head, saluted me
civilly and came and sat down beside me. In that country (India) no
heed is given to the clothes. A man with nothing but a dirty piece of
calico around his body may all the same have a good lot of diamonds
concealed. On my side, therefore, I was civil to the Banian and after
he had been some time seated he asked me through my interpreter if I
would buy some rubies. The interpreter said he must show them to me,
whereupon he pulled a little rag from his waist-cloth in which were
twenty ruby rings. I said they were too small a thing for me as I only
sought for large stones. Nevertheless, remembering that I had a
commission from a lady in Ispahan to buy her a ruby ring for a hundred
crowns, I bought one for four hundred francs. I knew well that it was
worth only three hundred, but I chanced the other hundred in the
belief that he had not come to me for that alone. Judging from his
manner that he would gladly be alone with me and my interpreter in
order to show me something better, I sent awav my four servants to
fetch some bread from the fortress. Being thus alone with the Banian,
after much ado he took off his turban and untwisted his hair which was
coiled around his head. Then I saw come from beneath his hair a scrap
of linen in
