Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/66

. You look about, and there being no counters, can handle all the goods in sight. If he thinks you want to purchase, and can appreciate a nice piece of bronze or a fine lacquered cabinet, he will perhaps invite you into the back room or up into the attic, where his choicest goods are kept. Although the front shop is so small you are surprised at the extent of the rear premises, and the large amount of stock on hand. He can furnish you with a hundred lacquered cabinets of which you have only seen one sampleor five hundred fans of any one of twenty different varieties. It is just at this time an especially favorable opportunity to buy old and rare bronzes and lacquend [sic] ware. The recent revolution having ruined many of the rich Daimios, who formerly kept up large establishments at Yeddo, where they were compelled by law to reside six months of every year, all the articles of vertu with which their palaces were filled, are now offered for sale. The best and most valuable pieces of bronze and lacquer the proprietor assures you are “very old,” and “came from Yeddo.”

If you believe all this literally you are in danger of being made to pay double price, although it would scarcely be polite to look incredulous. The “Japs” are good traders, and to one of their own people it is said that they never ask more than the actual value of their goods. But the curio dealers have become demoralized by contact with foreigners, and have as many prices for their goods as they have customers. Unless you have been round enough to know the actual market value of the goods, it will not be safe to offer more than a half or a third the price asked. He will never take offense at the smallness of the offer, but if he claps his hands, which means that “it is a bargain” too quick, you may be sure that your offer was too high. If after spending an hour in examining his finest goods, he does not accept your offers, and permits you to go away, you can return the next day, add a trifle to your bids, and conclude your purchase, tolerably certain that you have secured a bargain. But whether you purchase or not, you are treated with equal courtesy, offered a cup of tea, and, with a polite “sionara,” bowed into the street.

Shopping in this way takes a great deal of time, and is not altogether pleasant to one who counts his “time as money.” But