Читать книгу The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 346, December 13, 1828 - Various - Страница 7

(For the Mirror.)

The origin of this word is contested; some derive it from the French broyer, "to grind;" others from brocader, to cavil or riggle; others deduce broker from a trader broken, and that from the Saxon broc, "misfortune," which is often the true reason of a man's breaking. In which view, a broker is a broken trader, by misfortune; and it is said that none but such were formerly admitted to that employment. The Jews, Armenians, and Banians are the chief brokers throughout most parts of the Levant and the Indies. In Persia, all affairs are transacted by a sort of brokers, whom they call "delal" i.e. "great talkers." Their form of contract in buying and selling is remarkable, being done in the profoundest silence, only by touching each other's fingers:—The buyer, loosening his pamerin, or girdle, spreads it on his knee; and both he and the seller, having their hands underneath, by the intercourse of the fingers, mark the price of pounds, shillings, &c., demanded, offered, and at length agreed on. When the seller takes the buyer's whole hand, it denotes a thousand, and as many times as he squeezes it, as many thousand pagods or roupees, according to the species in question demanded; when he only takes the five fingers, it denotes five hundred; and when only one, one hundred; taking only half a finger, to the second joint, denotes fifty; the small end of the finger, to the first joint, stands for ten. This legerdemain, or squeezing system, would not do for the latitude of London.

P.T.W.