_ 64 _ obtained it from local banks, where it was deposited by their agents in Cairo. In Suez they hired camels to go to Cairo, which cost them four cruzados per camel, and they transported their spices there. Each camel carried not more than four “quintais”, because it also had to carry provisions, and water for the owner of the merchandise and the guide. This was because it was otherwise impossible to make the journey, for the area is a desert. Sometimes there are such fierce winds there that the sand buries the camels and men, killing them. There is a ceremony for these men who die in the desert, which is called Solda. After this arduous journey which took the merchants three days, they arrived at a big house half a league outside Cairo, and there they unloaded the merchandise which was registered by the Sultan’s scriveners. After registering it they took it to Cairo, where one “bahar” of pepper fetched 80 cruzados. The merchants who bought pepper here were obliged to acquire it from the Sultan, in the following way: if a merchant brought ten quintais of pepper he had to buy one bahar from the Sultan, which cost him 100 cruzados. He then sold it again straightaway for 80 cruzados, which was its local price, thereby losing 20 cruzados for every bahar, besides a 5% duty which he had to pay the
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