four o’clock
Each group of these booths , of all sizes and shapes , formed a separate quarter particularly dedicated to some special branch of commerce . There was the iron quarter , the furriers ' quarter , the woolen quarter , the quarter of the wood merchants , the weavers ' quarter , the dried fish quarter , etc. . Some booths were even built of fancy materials , some of bricks of tea , others of masses of salt meat -- that is to say , of samples of the goods which the owners thus announced were there to the purchasers -- a singular , and somewhat American , mode of advertisement . In the avenues and long alleys there was already a large assemblage of people -- the sun , which had risen at four o'clock , being well above the horizon -- an extraordinary mixture of Europeans and Asiatics , talking , wrangling , haranguing , and bargaining . Everything which can be bought or sold seemed to be heaped up in this square . Furs , precious stones , silks , Cashmere shawls , Turkey carpets , weapons from the Caucasus , gauzes from Smyrna and Ispahan . Tiflis armor , caravan teas .