Senhor Oliveira de Figueira is a friendly salesman who can sell even the most trivial of items, from umbrellas to roller skates, to Arab patrons. De Figueira and Tintin first meet in Cigars of the Pharaoh (1932). Tintin and Snowy have been cast adrift in the Red Sea when they are picked up by a dhow. De Figueira is a passenger, and quickly talks Tintin into buying a variety of superfluous objects, Tintin taking the misguided impression that he has not been conned into buying anything useless. He later appears in Land of Black Gold, where he plays a more obviously valuable role in helping Tintin infiltrate Doctor Muller's headquarters, taking Tintin there disguised as his nephew Alvaro while making deliveries and keeping the guards distracted with an elaborate story while Tintin searches.
Oliveira de Figueira is the form used by Hergé in the last appearences of this character. This happened when Hergé realised that this is the correct spelling in Portugese. He uses Oliveira da Figueira in Cigars of the Pharaoh but later, in The Red Sea Sharks, he is correctly named de Figueira.
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