All disputes among merchants are settled by the mushtaheds, or teachers of religious law. No court fees are paid openly, but heavy bribes are often administered. Most questions are submitted by mutual consent to arbitration, and a mejlis (council of merchants) appointed by the disputants generally meet at the house of some mūlla, or religious personage. These, acting as assessors, settle the matter to the satisfaction of both parties. A definite judgment is seldom given for either plaintiff or defendant. A compromise is nearly always suggested and carried out. Cases of flagrant miscarriage of justice are not frequent. When they do occur, the merchants generally decline to resort to the court of the particular judge until he reconsiders the unsatisfactory decision, or by petition to the capital they effect his removal if obdurate. As _both_ sides bribe, as a matter of course the judgments are generally fair, always specious. These bribes are termed “rūshwah” (manure). [Illustration: THREE SHOPS IN THE BAZAAR. (_From a Native Drawing._)] The bazaaz, or shopkeeper, is the class next below the merchant. He obtains everything on credit, and has frequently no capital of his own. As a rule he has two prices, one for cash, the other for credit. To his credit customers he gives the worst of his merchandise, and tries to defraud them in the weight. The cash customers, whom he is very desirous of retaining, he treats better. The “kossib,” or handicraftsman, is, as a rule, an honest man. Healthy competition is kept up by the various trades being located together, but this is merely by force of custom, and is not compulsory. Thus, all the coppersmiths work in one bazaar, and the noise caused by their hammering is deafening. All of the wares made by natives are of the most solid and substantial kind; cooking pots, always of solid copper, last for generations, and when eventually worn out, are sold as old copper, at half the price of new ones. The silversmiths also usually work in the same neighbourhood; some among them are very skilful, but the coarse work required by the villagers tends to lower the tone of the articles turned out. Thin plates of silver hammered into patterns of raised flowers and arabesque work are in great request as mirror frames; the sheet of silver is backed with pitch and hammered; the effect is good. Silver articles are made which are afterwards chiselled in high relief in patterns similar to the Scinde work. Armlets to hold talismans (telism) are in great demand; they are called bazū-band, and are made of gold, silver, or damascened steel, often inlaid with gold. The “pūlad,” or damascened steel, is beautifully veined, and much of it is ornamented with work _à jour_ and inlaid with gold. But the almost prohibitive prices asked for this pūlad work and the constant demand for export render it very expensive.