There are many little facts about peddlars that I can tell you, so this page is going to tell about them.

• Many Canadian peddlars were Syrian/Lebanese. They were mistaken for Jews on many occasions. When they came to Canada, they came in small numbers, carrying almost nothing. They took up less than 1% of PEI's population.
• Peddlars were also called hawkers.
• The first peddlar to come to PEI was Elias Basha.
• Most of them couldn't speak English when they first came to PEI, so when they were at houses, the children would help them to learn the language.
• For business, they would change their names to English names. The new names normally were close in pronunciation with the old ones.
• During bad weather, when they were peddling, they would give news of what was happening around town.
• They had their own areas that they peddled so that people wouldn't have more than one peddlar coming to the house.
• Some stayed at other peoples house's for the night if they were travelling. If the peddlar didn't stay when hospitality was offered, the customers were offended.
• At first, people were scared of the peddlars because they didn't know who they were.
• Some peddlars accepted trading (goods), if there was no money to be given.
• There were some female peddlars, but only a few.
• Peddling came to a halt by the 1950's.