HOW TO MAKE COFFEE.

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same manner as in Turkey and everywhere in the East, in a very small china cup, beautifully painted and enamelled. The cup is not placed in a saucer as with us, but is held in the hand inside of another cup, which has a foot to it like our egg cups. It is in this little stand or holding cup that much luxury is often displayed. It is generally composed of silver, beautifully wrought in arabesques and filigree work, by the Armenians in the bazar of Stamboul. They are frequently of gold, and often are studded with precious stones of the rarest kind and of great value. It is one of those things like Cashmere shawls and amber mouthpieces for pipes, and enters with them into the regular catalogue of standing presents. Coffee, in the East, is seldom taken with sugar, and never with milk or cream. The berry is roasted as with us, and then pounded in a mortar. The manner of preparing the beverage from it varies from our method.

A vessel of liquid coffee is always kept simmering by the fire. The moment that guests are announced at the gate, the servant, whose particular province it is to prepare the coffee, is informed of the number of visiters, to which number he adds the master or mistress of the house, and all those who may be in presence at the time. He then selects a tin boiler from his set (every set containing from two to ten cup sizes and upward), of the size wanted for the occa. sion, into which he puts its proper proportion of pounded coffee, then fills it up (not with water, but) with the liquid, which is always ready and nearly at the boiling point. A moment over the fire is sufficient to prepare the national beverage for use. It is then put into the small cups, and presented by an upper servant to each guest. These cupbearers perform their offices in a very graceful and respectful manner. If the guest is one of some distinction, the presentation is accompanied by a profound salaam. I neglected to say that the coffee is poured into the cup grounds

and all, and the whole contents of the cup are generally taken together. I assure you that I have become extravagantly fond of the true Mocha prepared in this way. This method of preparing coffee, without carrying it beyond the boiling point for a moment, preserves all the aroma, which, being of a very volatile nature, is always evaporated by our double-refining process. It now makes me laugh when I think of the clarifying ordeal to which the good fraus of Gotham subject the fine ground powder of Arabia's greatest blessing. The chiboukjee always vies with the kafféjee in his attentions to the guests. Pipes and coffee are inseparable, either in the hareem or the men's apartments.

As we were desirous of seeing every part of this curious mansion, Mr. G. suggested that daylight would, perhaps, suit us better; so we left the farther inspection until next day, when we found that the ceilings and doors were composed of a very extraordinary kind of pannel-work in wood. I never saw a greater play of angles in the kaleidoscope than the Saracenic joiner had displayed here. The pannels were from two to six inches in their greatest diameters, generally sunk about one inch, with a small moulding, neatly mitred, and painted in various gay colours.

During the evening Doctor W. came in. I found him a very agreeable, intelligent, and highly educated young man, with exceedingly urbane and polished manners. His pres. ent study is hieroglyphics, and he is, I believe, of the Cham poillon school.

The doctor is, I find, a great archæologist, and deeply read in the monumental lore of Egypt. He has given us much valuable information, some of it quite new to us, by which we shall profit during our intended visit to the upper country.

There is one subject on which I disagree with the learned doctor, and that is the origin of the Masonic Arch; he maintaining its pre-Augustan existence. The whole weight

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of authority which gentlemen of his school can produce, is contained in a few paintings on some old tomb in Upper Egypt, and a certain tomb at Saccarah, hollowed out of the solid rock, and covered inside with a lining of cut stone about four inches thick, laid up the sides and over head, and bound together at the top with something like a keystone. Now I admit the latter to be a tolerable sort of arch, and, perhaps, a masonic arch too. But who can say that the tomb was not finished in this manner for a dwelling perhaps, in the Roman times? It is said also that the tomb itself bears an inscription dating six hundred years before our era. Putting all these very uncertain facts together, the gentleman would perhaps make grandfather Noah the first royal-arch

mason.

Now as I did not come to Egypt to study hieroglyphics, date her temples, or to seek for arches, I took as little interest in this discussion as you will in what I have now related to you.

The pacha has signified his intention of founding a National Museum at Cairo, and there is no person here who stands so fair a chance of getting the first directorship of it as Doctor W., and, I think, very deservedly so.

I have also seen here a Mr. Botta, son of the historian. This young gentleman, I understand, has made himself conversant with the Arabic language, for the purpose of travel. ling into the interior of Africa and Arabia Felix, countries very imperfectly known as yet.

When I looked upon him, I thought of the tomb of our own enterprising young Ledyard, who lies buried in the desert.

During the evening, hearing Mr. G. call various servants by the same name, I was curious enough to inquire if names were so scarce in Egypt that he could not afford a different one for each of his servitors. He said that no two of them were called alike. I replied that all I had heard the whole VOL. I.-L

evening was Mustafa, Mustafa. (By-the-by, the most frequent names in the east are Mustafa and Ali.) True, said the consul, but as I had the good fortune to find three such good servants, with no other fault than one name between them all, I undertook, without changing it, to make each one know when he was called merely by putting the accent on the different syllable. So one I call Mustafa, another Mustafa, and the other Mustafà. The first is chief janizary, the second is chiboukjee (pipe-bearer), the third sais (running footman).

I have several times been delighted by hearing Mr. G. speak Arabic, although I am totally ignorant of that lan guage. I have been informed that he is one of the best Arabic scholars among the Franks here.

Now I had thought the Arabic, as spoken, a very barbarous tongue; for I had only heard the Egyptian Fellahs rolling out their streams of gutturals, with rarely a labial or dental to break the disagreeable monotony. It was worse than the consonant-sounding, vowel-murdering jargon of the Muscovite boors.

But when the consul opens his mouth, especially in giving some of his authoritative orders, then it is that the Arabic seems to me to mean something, and is as full and round. toned as the Turkish, and far more euphonious.

In place of the delightful bananas with which we were so plentifully supplied in quarantine at Alexandria, we have the most delightful oranges I ever tasted, and in the greatest profusion. Every morning our landlord brings in large branches loaded with delicious fruit, with which I adorn our parlour by sticking them up in every chink in the wall, thus gratifying two senses at the same time.

I am warned by my watch that the day is fast approach. ing; therefore, before the morning light breaks upon me, I will bid you once more

Good-night.

VISIT TO THE PYRAMIDS.

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LETTER XI.

Visit to the Pyramids.-System of Irrigation.-Joseph's Canal.-Bedouins of the Desert.-Pyramid of Cheops.-Its Exterior.-Dilapidation of the Pyramids.-Ascent of the Pyramids.-The Descent.

Grand Cairo,

THE present will reach you simultaneously with my last; and I will now endeavour to fulfil my promise to you respecting our jaunt to the Pyramids and the site of Memphis.

Mr. Gliddon very politely offered to be our cicerone, for which we feel much indebted; and, besides the pleasure of his agreeable company, there were other benefits accruing to us, from his store of valuable information touching the localities we visited. As we expect to have considerable caravan travelling before we get out of the East, Mr. G.'s experience came quite apropos; and he cheerfully endeavoured to impart to us all the knowledge he possesses in these matters, for our future benefit.

As no caravan can ever get under way from a large city much before noon (there being so many last things to be done), our movement did not commence until near eleven o'clock, when we took up our line of march directly for the river, which we crossed at the usual ferry.

With the Pyramids always in sight, it would require ob. jects of more than ordinary interest, and of more consequence than anything I saw upon the road, to divert one's attention from them.

A trifling incident, however, occurred, which brought to my notice an interesting monument, that otherwise might have escaped me.

Some time previous to our leaving the line of cultivated ground, we came to a long, narrow body of stagnant water, which had remained there since the last inundation of the