wind from the floor, and tollub which the people smoke in pipes.  Therefore the merchant said if he offered a piffek more the poor folk must go without their toomarunds when the winter came, and without their tollub in the evenings, or else he and his aged father must starve together.  Thereat the captain lifted his scimitar to his own throat, saying that he was now a ruined man, and that nothing remained to him but death.  And while he was carefully lifting his beard with his left hand, the merchant eyed the merchandise again, and said that rather than see so worthy a captain die, a man for whom he had conceived an especial love when first he saw the manner in which he handled his ship, he and his aged father should starve together and therefore he offered fifteen piffeks more.

When he said this the captain prostrated himself and prayed to his gods that they might yet sweeten this merchant’s bitter heart—­to his little lesser gods, to the gods that bless Belzoond.

At last the merchant offered yet five piffeks more.  Then the captain wept, for he said that he was deserted of his gods; and the merchant also wept, for he said that he was thinking of his aged father, and of how he soon would starve, and he hid his weeping face with both his hands, and eyed the tollub again between his fingers.  And so the bargain was concluded, and the merchant took the toomarund and tollub, paying for them out of a great clinking purse.  And these were packed up into bales again, and three of the merchant’s slaves carried them upon their heads into the city.  And all the while the sailors had sat silent, cross-legged in a crescent upon the deck, eagerly watching the bargain, and now a murmur of satisfaction arose among them, and they began to compare it among themselves with other bargains that they had known.  And I found out from them that there are seven merchants in Perdondaris, and that they had all come to the captain one by one before the bargaining began, and each had warned him privately against the others.  And to all the merchants the captain had offered the wine of his own country, that they make in fair Belzoond, but could in no wise persuade them to it.  But now that the bargain was over, and the sailors were seated at the first meal of the day, the captain appeared among them with a cask of that wine, and we broached it with care and all made merry together.  And the captain was glad in his heart because he knew that he had much honour in the eyes of his men because of the bargain that he had made.  So the sailors drank the wine of their native land, and soon their thoughts were back in fair Belzoond and the little neighbouring cities of Durl and Duz.