Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/306

 The principal part of their merchandize consists of masses of silver, cloths, silk, clothes of silk and gold, clasps, jewels, and gold in filagree; and sometimes, at its proper season, they bring some things of a paltry character from which they derive no little profit. It often even happens that every one is anxious to buy a certain article, and he who becomes the first possessor of it makes more than a fair profit by it. Then when several merchants bring a great quantity of the same articles, the price will fall to such an extent, that he who sells his goods for the highest price will buy them again when the price has fallen, and carry them back again to his own country after having made a large profit. The articles of merchandize which are exported from Russia into Germany are skins and wax; into Lithuania and Turkey, leather, skins, and the long white teeth of animals which they call mors, and which inhabit the northern ocean, out of which the Turks are accustomed very skilfully to make the handles of daggers; our people think they are the teeth of fish, and call them so. Into Tartary, moreover, are exported saddles, bridles, clothes, and leather; but arms or iron are not exported to other places towards the east or north, except by stealth, or by the express permission of the officers. They take, however, cloth and linen dresses, knives, hatchets, needles, mirrors, and purses, or anything of that sort. They traffic most deceitfully and craftily, and not with few words, as some have stated that they do. Moreover, when they are bargaining and bating down an article to less than half its value, in order to cheat the seller, they will sometimes hold the merchants in suspense and uncertainty for a month or two, and indeed lead them on to the point of desperation. But any one who is aware of their habits and the cunning language with which they depreciate the value of an article and lengthen out the time, makes no to-do or dissimulation, but sells his goods without any abatement. A certain citizen