"antiseptic perfumed cream"
My friend and I were recently pashmina-bartering in the splendor and squalor of Calcutta’s New Market, where you can find stacks of eggs in extraordinary bulk, baskets of chickens, butchered animals, spices, and loads of Indian fabrics. After we purchased a rainbow of pashminas for about 2 dollars each, an overly solicitous man whispered in our ears about a secret store in the basement where we could buy shahtoosh — a type of shawl woven from the finest neck-hairs of endangered Tibetan antelopes, making it the most coveted (and illegal) scarf in the world.
Our salesman claimed that his shahtoosh was “all natural” so it was not technically illegal. But during my entire time in India I never saw a single policeman (only a few traffic directors in uniform), so I don’t think the salesman was too concerned about legal issues.
He was so determined to sell us his shahtoosh that he started recounting stories of his childhood as an orphan and being raised by Mother Theresa. Apparently all his shahtoosh profits go to “the children.” He and his troop of associates swarmed around us for almost an hour, offering us glasses of sweet chai and thrusting so many scarves, tablecloths, leather jackets, and jewels in our faces that we left the New Market feeling dazed and endeared by these charmingly brazen salesmen.
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I found some basement bargains while I lived in Brazil, like what you seem to have found. The shops there would pay off the police to look the other way while they sold items that you would never be able to take back to the states on a plane. It was like a black market of sorts and it got the adrenalin going! I never saw anything that was really illegal I think the store owners told us it was in order to enhance the item. Rare Tiger tooth! Only sold here!