“That depends on you. Travellers like to carry away some little remembrance of places they have visited, and I have too much reason to be pleased with my treatment here not to keep up the custom. What do you advise me to get? You see, you must aid me in choosing, for I haven’t stirred out, and know nothing about the place.” “Our grapes are very fine here in the north of Spain. Possibly----” “No. That won’t do. I want something that will keep.” “The young girls of our country come from ten leagues round to Alagon to buy plated gold and silver trinkets, and necklaces of seed-pearl and coral.” “You must find out something better than that.” “Your worship puzzles me. The country has nothing else remarkable to offer except its inhabitants; but, of course, I could not offer you one of our people to take away.” “That’s a notion! It suggests an idea to me--only it is so peculiar I hardly like to mention it.” “Pshaw! a little shyness will soon wear off.” “I’ll give you a thousand guesses, and you’ll puzzle your brains over it in vain to all eternity.” “Then, sir, don’t let me have to guess.” “You say your knaves here are handsome?” “They have adorable almond-shaped eyes, red lips, white teeth, and complexions of a delightful olive, covered with black down.” “You only speak of their heads.” “I have a reason for doing so, for it is the only good thing they possess; for which reason our girls are accustomed to say, ‘The heart of Castile, the soul of Catalonia, the form of Leon, the limbs of Navarre, and the head of Arragon make a perfect man.’” “By my faith! the idea is a jolly one, and I must give you all credit for having been the first to think of it.” “Your honour is too good. You accredit me with more spirit than I possess.” “Since you originated the notion, you must assist me to put it into execution. Well, then, how can you get me the head of an Arragonese?” “What! you wish to take away a real head--a living head?” “Living is scarcely the word--but a head that has been alive.” “Well, that is an idea that no one has had before you.” “I hope so.” “Our country, sir, is a wonderful one, for this reason--that you can get whatever you want, provided you have the money. If, therefore, you will allow me to manage----” “Do so, and do so quickly. That is all I require, and I shall leave to-morrow.” “I must have thirty pieces of gold in advance. The game you want is strictly preserved, and difficult to procure, Nothing inspirits the hunter so much as to be paid ready money.” So Ali added thirty more pieces to the sixty he had already received, and hastened off to hide it in a secret spot known only to himself. “Now I’ll go and see my fourth customer. I am curious to learn what he has to propose to me.”