8S RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



Avith tlieir swords, and carpets, and rich Stambouli shawls, 

 and lamps, and turquoises (which are very cheap at Cairo), 

 and grand amber mouthpieces, and red slippers, and attar 

 of roses. The curious system of shopping is altogether the 

 most inconvenient that ever was invented, and it shows it- 

 self, for instance, in buying pipes. If you want to purchase 

 a chibook, you go to one shop for the stem, to another for 

 the bowl, and to the bazaar for a mouthpiece, and you 

 haggle over each purchase until you beat the price down 

 one half, losing your temper and wasting your valuable time. 

 If the article be a costly one, the arguing lasts proportion- 

 ately longer ; coffee is sent for ; and passers-by mix in and 

 freely give their opinion on the value of the goods. Time 

 is no object in Egypt, as many a western traveller has dis- 

 covered to his cost. There is no fixed price for anything, 

 and you waste an hour over what could be bought in five 

 minutes in London. 



There are three kinds of pipes in general use — the Chibook, 

 the Nargcckli, and the GozeJi. I have smoked them all, and 

 give the preference to the NargedcJi, though that is said to 

 be the most injurious from the effort of pulling, which causes 

 the smoker to inhale the tobacco into his lungs like air. 

 The Chibook is perhaps the one most commonly in use. It 

 is a stick, some five feet long, of cherry or jasmine, with a 

 Siout pottery bowl (brown or black), and a handsome amber 

 mouthpiece. Ccrani is the best tobacco for the Chibook ; 

 Tovibak for the Nargcclcli. 



I wish I knew how to give an idea of gay Cairo, the 

 ancient city of the Memlook Sultans, the capital of modern 

 Egypt, and its busy throng. In the cramped and crowded 

 Mosquee* all known trades would seem to flourish, and are 

 represented by all known languages, which issue forth in a 



*' The principal street in Cairo. 



