valuable ring and will pay well to recover it; another the Pheidon
has a desirable horse that he will sell cheap. One must stand
still for some moments and let eye and ear accustom themselves to
such utter confusion.


15. The Booths and Shops in the Agora.--At length out of the chaos
there seems to emerge a certain order. The major part of the square
is covered with little booths of boards and wicker work, very frail
and able to be folded up, probably every night. There are little
lanes winding amid these booths; and each manner of huckster has
its own especial "circle" or section of the market. "Go to the
wine," "to the fish," "to the myrtles" (i.e. the flowers), are
common directions for finding difficult parts of the Agora. Trade
is mostly on a small scale,--the stock of each vendor is distinctly
limited in its range, and Athens is without "department stores." Behind
each low counter, laden with its wares, stands the proprietor, who
keeps up a din from leathern lungs: "Buy my oil!" "Buy charcoal!"
"Buy sausage!" etc., until he is temporarily silenced while dealing
with a customer.

In one "circle" may be found onions and garlic (a favorite food
of the poor); a little further on are the dealers in wine, fruit,
and garden produce. Lentils and peas can be had either raw, or
cooked and ready to eat on the spot. An important center is the
bread market. The huge cylindrical loaves are handed out by shrewd
old women with proverbially long tongues. Whosoever upsets one of
their delicately balanced piles of loaves is certain of an artistic
tongue lashing. Elsewhere there is a pottery market, a clothes
market, and, nearer the edge of the Agora, are "circles," where