"When I first visited Egypt I was sometimes impatient of delay, and used to tell the dealers I had only one price to give, and would not bargain with them. I thought I could bring them to terms, though my friends told me I could not. One day I went to the Hamzowee, and tried to buy a _cafieh_, or silk handkerchief, in gaudy colors, and embroidered with gold, which was worth about fifteen francs. The merchant demanded thirty-five francs for it. I offered him sixteen, and he fell to thirty at once. "I did not raise my bid, but repeated my offer two or three times. He fell to twenty-five francs, and would not go lower. I did not rise above sixteen, and he allowed me to go away. A friend of mine stood by, but pretended not to know me, and when I had finished my effort and gone he began to bargain for the cafieh, just as you bargained for the necklace. He offered five francs to begin with, and by spending half an hour over the matter he bought the article for fifteen francs, or one less than had been refused from me! "There was a shrewd old Syrian who used to come around the hotels to peddle silk goods. Knowing the fondness of English and Americans for the one-price system, he would say, when exhibiting an article worth twenty francs, "'If you want to bargain for it, it is fifty francs; but if you want the last price, without bargaining, it is thirty-five francs.' "Strangers were occasionally tricked in this way, and gave him his price without question, if they wanted the article; but those who had been a week or two in the country knew better, and began to bargain with thirty-five francs as the asking price. The result would be that they would bring him down to twenty francs after the usual amount of haggling. You must bargain for everything here when dealing with natives, and they are not to be believed if they say they have only one price. I have heard a man offer an article in about these words, after a bargain had been progressing for some time: "'The very lowest I can sell this for--I give you my word of honor it cost me that--is fifty francs. I will take nothing less than fifty francs, and you need not offer me anything under it.' "You believe he is not speaking the truth, and offer him thirty. He declares that the thing cost him fifty, but he will take forty-five, and absolutely nothing less. You offer him thirty-five--he falls to forty, and the bargain is concluded." Frank profited by the advice, but carried the lesson too far. When he went the next day to the post-office to send some letters to America, the clerk weighed the letters, and told him the postage amounted to two francs and a half. The youth offered one franc and a half, and on the clerk refusing to accept it he turned to walk away. Suddenly realizing the mistake he had made, he returned, bought the necessary stamps, affixed them to the letters, and dropped them in the letter-box.