DISCOVERY OP ROASTING THE BEANS 





< .:... an Leone, who visited Egypt in 1513 and wrote a careful account of Cairo, 

 > m> nt i<>ii of tho consumption of coffee, nor is the plant enumerated in 

 i of the most useful and novel African plants. On tho other hand, seventy 

 ears later, Prosper Alpinus (De PL sEyypti, 1592, 20) speaks of the bon tree seen 

 him at Cairo in tho conservatory of an Egyptian gentleman, and further he 

 full particulars of tho decoction, called caoua, which he HU\ -pared 



ni the seeds imported from Arabia Felix and sold in public taverns, in place of 

 In in, lith.-r work (De Medecina Method.) Alpinus remarks that some 

 ni' ill.- KL'\ pi urns used the husks of the coffee-berries instead of the berries thom- 

 \ Vsling (in his edition of Alpinus' work published in 1735, 179) adds 

 thtit coffee-cherries, brought from Yemen, were sold in Egypt as crystallised 

 and regarded as groat luxuries. Verzascha (Krduter-Buch., 1078, 788), while 

 xprinting the account given by Alpinus, speaks of the beverage being served in 

 pots entirely closed up, and adds that the husk makes a stronger infusion 

 the berries (seeds). The seeds, he observes, are called bon and the drink 

 : he furnishes a picture of a roaster, so that by then, at all events, there 

 1 seem no doubt the seeds were regularly roasted and a beverage prepared 

 them, as well as from the husk. Sandys (Travels, 1010 (ed. 1070), 61) 

 ,es to " Coffa-houses " of Constantinople. Pietro della Valle (Voy. East. 

 1005) says of coffee, it is " made by a block seed boyled in water which 

 it almost into the same colour but doth very little alter the taste of the 

 notwithstanding it is very good to help digestion, to quicken the spirits, 

 to cleanse the blood." Herbert (Travels, 1077, 113, 311) speaks of " Coffe or 

 iO " as a Persian beverage prepared from " the flower of the Bunny or Choava- 

 y "and sold in shops. Fryer (New. Ace. E. 2nd. and Pers., 1075 (ed. 1098), 

 speaks of " Coho or Tea " as being served at a State ceremonial at which ho 

 present at Bunder Abbas. An apology for mistakes explains that the text was 

 ted in the absence of the author. Hence it may be inferred the " Explanatory 

 " was not drawn up by Fryer. In that index " coffee " is given as the 

 dvalent of coho. It is thus probable that Fryer himself accepted coho as a name 

 y understood in England. It is of course a variant of the Arabic kahwah, which 

 y denoted the wine prepared from the husk of the coffee-cherry, not the 

 erage of the roasted seeds. Niebuhr (Voy. Arabia, 1770) says that in Yemen 

 ;ee made from the seeds is supposed to heat the blood ; accordingly the inhabi- 

 ts of that province compose a drink of the hulls of coffee which in taste and 

 much resembles tea. This they esteem wholesome and refreshing. It is 

 >parod nearly in the same manner as that, from the seod or bean and is the 

 a la Sultane of the French. Deflers observes, "It is well known that 

 pericarp of the fruit dried in the sun and powdered constitutes the product 

 under the name of qiachr for the preparation of a stimulating drink rather 

 on infusion of tea." " Aromatised with ginger or other spices it is with gat 

 favourite stimulant of the Arabs of Yemen who abstain from the use of coffee 

 pared from the seed, ground in the Turkish and European fashion." 

 Turning now to a few of the records regarding Abyssinia : Richard, as 

 "y observed, affirms that coffee was not in his time much used by the 

 yssinians. Nearly all was taken to Messoah by caravans and from thence 

 patched to Moka, where it was sold as Arabian coffee. Henri Lecomte gives 

 y different account : " From time immemorial the G alias have used coffee 

 as food and drink. Originally they made a decoction of the beans and 

 p cooked together. Tho system of roasting was only discovered later." 

 Such then are the observations of early travellers in Arabia, Abyssinia and 

 t, and these may now be linked up with the prevalent opinions and tradi- 

 Coffoe made of the roasted seeds would appear to have been first brought 

 minently to notice at Aden. It was known for centuries previously as a drug, 

 many of the Arab writers speak of having been made acquainted with its 

 iperties through the Persians. Abu AbdaJlah Muhammad Dhabbani Ibn 

 id had occasion to visit Persia (according to Guland, Roque and Ellis : Africa, 

 according to Yule and Burnell : lastly Abyssinia according to the authors of the 

 Pharmacographia Indica) during the 15th century. On that occasion he found 

 the faithful partaking of coffee. Returning to Aden he took to drinking coffee 

 himself, and recommended his followers to substitute that beverage for the kat 

 (tiitim '<IIIHH) which they were in the habit of using. Vaughan (Pharm. Journ., 

 1852, xii.) gives further particulars regarding Muhammad Dhabbani, but throws 

 no light on the country whence he obtained his knowledge, nor does de Sacy deal 

 with this issue. From Aden, however, the knowledge seems to have spread 



365 



COFFEA 



ARABICA 



History 

 Egypt. 



MM, 



Husks used. 



Crystallised 



' 



India. 



Arabia. 



Stimulating 

 Drink. 



Abyssinia. 



Coffee of Boasted 

 Seed. 



Aden. 



Kat. 



