COFFEE MANUFACTORY."

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acquainted with the manufacture of coffee, which far surpasses ours in flavour and aroma. The preparation of this is another royal monopoly. I visited the factory, a large oblong room, containing a series of roasters over stoves running down the centre. Here the fresh beans are placed, attended with the greatest care, and watched with such nicety that a single minute is not allowed to elapse after they have acquired the desired state of torrification until they are removed. They are then placed in large stone mortars, set in a raised bench of stone-work, which surrounds the whole apartment, and opposite each of these is placed a man who pounds the contents with an immense metal pestle, worked with both hands, to a state of the finest comminution. The coffee is then sifted, the coarser grains separated, and again submitted to the pounding process, which is continued till it is reduced to an almost impalpable powder, so fine, indeed, that it not only imparts its flavour and essence to, but absolutely mixes with, the water. All the men engaged at the work were black slaves, nearly naked, as the heat is very great; and in producing the finest description, some spend a whole day at a few pounds of berries. It is not ground in a mill, but is always reduced by pounding to a state of the finest powder. When the coffee is about to be prepared for use, the water is boiled in the coffee-pot, the coffee put in at the point of boiling, suffered to simmer some time, the vessel

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shaken, and allowed to stand a few minutes in order to settle, and then poured off; and it has this peculiarity over every other, that so fine is the powder that both with what is dissolved and suspended in the fluid, it is thick, and at the same time perfectly clear. This is its state of perfection, a state not always got in the kahwehs or coffee-shops, where it is often muddy, and always too thick for the taste of Europeans.

How much of life and manners are to be seen in a coffee-shop! the solemn visages and portly persons of the turbaned visiters are revealed in momentary glimpses, as the veil of smoke clears away, upon the renewal of a pipe or the sipping of a cup of coffee; and the Arab story-teller, singing his tale from the beauties of the thousand-and-one nights, or some popular romance, in all the glowing imagery, all the rapid enunciation, and all the touching pathos of an eastern bard. 'Tis true, that as I sat and listened among the crowd I could not understand one word he uttered; but I saw the fire of his eye, I felt the power though not the meaning of his language, and caught the spirit of his song, though I could not fully appreciate the letter; for such is eloquence-proudest, noblest of the innate powers of man, which all can feelthe untutored Indians surrounding the Mohawk warrior, equally with the refined audience of the gifted senator.

It may appear strange that an article so much

abused as tobacco is in England, is yet made use of in one shape or another by nearly one-half of the inhabitants of the world, yet such is the fact. Here in Cairo it is smoked by all, rich and poor, male and female, and the consumption is immense; but then it must be acknowledged that it is as perfectly different an article in flavour, perfume, and effect, as any two things can well be, from the stuff manufactured for general use in Great Britain. The description most in use is the Gebalee Latakea. It undergoes no artificial process; but the dried leaves are placed in a semicircular case or box, with a smooth face on an inclined plane ; into which they are packed very tight and cut down in very fine shreds with an instrument not unlike a hay-knife, worked by the right hand, while with the left the tobacco is pushed gradually forward to meet the edge of the cutter. This tobacco, which, as the name implies, comes from Latakea, (the ancient Laodicea), is exceedingly mild, and has a natural perfume, that would not be disrelished even in a European drawing-room; its fragrance is peculiar to itself, and its action on the nervous system is perfectly different from any in common use here, as, even when a quantity is smoked, it has neither the sickening nor narcotising effect of ours, but a gently stimulating action on the intellectual powers, at the same time that it soothes and tranquillizes the spirits. It is smoked through a long pipe of cherry-tree; or plain wood, ornamented with

blue, pink, or scarlet silk, fastened on with gold thread, wrought in a frame in a most ingenious manner. The bowl is of plain red clay, but the principal part of the tchibook is the mouth-piece,— some of which cost upwards of twenty dollars ;-it is of amber, ornamented with enamel, and in some with precious stones. The form and colour of this mouthpiece is as much subject to the caprice of fashion as is the form and cut of any article of dress with us. The present form is a long oval piece of a pale yellow colour, opaque and uniform, without marks or veins. The Mohammadan is often as extravagant in the number and equipment of his pipes as is an Englishman in his dogs, guns, or horses. For each of his guests or visitors a separate one is brought; and when he rides abroad to any distance, his pipe-bearer goes along with him.

There is another form of pipe, more like the hookah, consisting of a glass or wooden vessel, containing water, through which the smoke is made to pass, and received by the person in a long flexible tube. The tobacco used differs from the other, in its being much more narcotic. It is called Toombak; and being damped, it is laid in small pieces on a grating at the top of a brass tube leading into the water-vessel with some lighted charcoal over it. Considerable difficulty is experienced in smoking this pipe, and as a very strong inhalation is necessary, a quantity of the smoke mixes with the atmospheric air, and is received into the lungs, and

this, added to the increased exertion in respiration, makes this form of smoking unpleasant, nay, absolutely dangerous. The apparatus used is called a sheesheh, but I would strongly advise all Europeans to abstain from it. A third form of pipe, that is used by the lower orders, is constructed on the same principle as the last, but is merely a cocoa-nut, and a piece of cane for a tube: it is carried in the hand, and is that from which the fumes of the hemp* as well as tobacco are inhaled by those who are addicted to that species of intoxication. Opium-eating is a practice little known in Egypt, at least among the aboriginal inhabitants.

I made particular inquiry as to whether the use of coffee and tobacco shortens life, or is injurious to health. As far as I could judge they do not; and now, as regards the former of these two substances, in such constant use throughout the east, no possible comparison can be made between it and those beverages

*The leaves and capsules of hemp, called in Egypt hasheesh, were employed in some countries of the east, in very ancient times, to induce an exhilarating intoxication. Herodotus informs us that the Scythians had a custom of burning the seeds of this plant in religious ceremonies and also in baths, and that they became intoxicated. Chewing or smoking it, for a similar purpose, prevailed in India at a very early age; thence it was introduced into Persia, and, about six centuries ago, was adopted in Egypt, but chiefly by the lower order; though Mr. Lane, who has written upon it, says that "several men, eminent in literature and religion, and numbers of fakeers, yielded to the fascination of this degrading custom. The leaves are used alone, or mixed with tobacco for smoking. The term hashshash, or hemp-smoker, is one of