274 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR 



the use of the infusion was known in Persia. According to vulgar 

 tradition, the discovery of coffee is due to the mollah Chadelly, 

 whose memory is held in reverence by all true Mussulmans, 

 This pious man, afflicted with sorrow at the thought that he 

 could not keep awake for the performance of his nocturnal devo- 

 tions, besought Mahomet to indicate some means by which sleep 

 might be chased away. Mahomet, touched with pity, as well 

 he might, seeing that his own honour was concerned, so brought 

 matters about that a herdsman came to acquaint mollah Chadelly 

 of the curious fact that his (the herdsman's) goats could not go 

 4 to sleep after they had partaken of coffee berries, but kept 

 frisking about all night long. The mollah, taking the hint, at 

 once prepared a good strong dose of coffee. He drank it, and 

 was delighted beyond measure at the result. Not a wink of 

 sleep did he get ; delicious sensations crowded on his brain ; 

 and his midnight devotions were so fervent that he at once 

 communicated the precious secret to some dervises, who, imi- 

 tating his example, beleaguered the prophet, now in the seventh 

 heaven of bliss, with unceasing prayers. 



According to another tale, the discovery was made by the 

 prior of a convent of Maronites, who, on receiving the report 

 of a camel-driver to the effect that his beasts could get no sleep 

 after having browsed on the coffee plant, at once bethought 

 himself what a good thing coffee would be for his monks, who, 

 like the mollah Chadelly, appear to have been torpid, sleepy 

 fellows, and had acquired the disreputable habit not quite 

 obsolete now of going to sleep in church. The practice, we 

 are told, was quite successful. 



But coffee, like many other good things, had its enemies, and 

 strange to say, the very Mohammedan priests who were amongst 

 the first to patronise it became its most rancorous foes. The 

 fact was this. So generally was coffee approved of by the 

 Arabian populace, that people, instead of going to the mosque, 

 spent their days in coffee-shops ; and as there does not appear 

 to have been any act of parliament to enforce the closing of 

 coffee-houses during church or rather mosque hours, the priests 

 had an audience of empty benches. Forthwith the mollahs ana- 

 thematised the seductive berry and those who used it. Coffee, 

 they said, was as bad as wine and spirituous liquors, if not worse. 

 Its employment was interdicted throughout every part of the 

 Turkish empire. Religious anathemas, however, being insuffi- 

 cient to check the growing evil, at length an appeal was made 

 to physical force. " In the year of the Hegira 945 " (A.D. 1538), 

 says an Arabian historian, " whilst large numbers were assem- 

 bled in the month of Rhamadan, employed in drinking coffee, 

 the captain of the guard surprised them, hunted them igno- 

 miniously from the shops, locked them up all night in the pasha's 

 house, and the next morning administered to each individual, by 

 way of salutary admonition, seventeen stripes." 



Persecution, as usual, accomplished a result the very opposite 

 to that intended. Coffee speedily became universally popular. 

 In the first half of the seventeenth century there numbered in 

 Cairo no less than 2,000 coffee-shops. At the present time coffee 

 is amongst Eastern Mussulmans one of the first necessaries of 

 life. When a Turk adds a new wife to his associated beauties, 

 he formally contracts with her friends that she is always to have 

 plenty of coffee. If certain modern accounts, however, are to be 

 trusted, Turkish ladies have got into the habit of drinking 

 brandy. According to Mahomet, they have no souls .to lose ; 

 hence they may drink spirituous liquors with impunity. 



Before the seventeenth century coffee was scarcely known in 

 France, even by name. At length certain travellers returning 

 from the East brought a little coffee with them for their own 

 private use. In the year 1647, Thevenot invited some friends 

 to a party, and gave them coffee to drink ; but he had been 

 preceded by a Levantine, who, three years before, established 

 at Paris a coffee-shop ; his speculation, however, did not 

 succeed. It was in the beau monde that coffee first became 

 popularised. The Turkish ambassador at the French Court, 

 Soliman Aga, was in the habit of offering coffee, after the manner 

 of his country, to those who attended his levees. The ladies of 

 the French Court no sooner heard of this custom than they ex- 

 pressed their desire of tasting the seductive liquor ; whereupon 

 the Turk, being a polite man, as all Turks are, invited the ladies 

 to his house, and gave them coffee to their hearts' content. 

 Madame de Sevigne was opposed to this fashion ; she did not 

 approve of coffee ; said it was only a short-lived taste ; that it 

 would pass away and be forgotten, like Racine. Well, the lady 



was right, after all, though not after the fashion she intended ; 

 coffee has passed away and been forgotten, " like Racine ! " 

 About the same time it was that coffee first came into favour at 

 Vienna. The Turks, driven from before the walls of that city by 

 Sobieski, left their camp in the hands of the conqueror. In that 

 camp there was abundance of coffee, and a retinue of slaves 

 whose office was to prepare it. Coffee had already been intro- 

 duced amongst the Londoners in the following manner. An 

 English merchant named Edwards, returning from Smyrna, 

 brought with him a Greek servant, Pasquet by name, who opened 

 a coffee-shop in Newman's Court, Cornhill, in 1652. Other 

 coffee-shops speedily arose, but Cromwell, then in power, set 

 himself against them and closed them, fearing lest they might 

 injure the taverns. Another account says that the first coffee- 

 shop in England was opened by a Jew named Jacobs, at Oxford, 

 in 1650. 



All the supplies of coffee imported for a long time into' 

 Europe were obtained from Arabia. It was brought by way of 

 Alexandria and the Levant ; but the pashas of Egypt and 

 Syria imposed enormous taxes upon it. Europeans then began 

 to obtain it by the channel of the Red Sea. Holland took 

 the lead in this commerce ; next followed France, and, lastly, 

 England. In 1699, the Dutch, under the direction of Van 

 Home, first president of the Dutch East Indian colonies, having 

 procured certain coffee plants, sent them to Batavia, where they 

 flourished well. The French next introduced coffee into Mar- 

 tinique ; and we, following their example, planted the coffee- 

 shrub in many of our tropical colonies. 



LESSONS IN LATIN. XXII. 



THE LATIN VEBB (continued). 



WE have previously seen that a long (a) characterises the first 

 conjugation, to which amo belongs ; also that e long (e) cha- 

 racterises the second conjugation ; and i long (i) the fourth. 

 Hence only one class of verbs is characterised by a siiort vowel, 

 and that is the class which bears the name of the third conju- 

 gation. This e short (e), however, does not strictly belong to 

 the verb, but is only a connecting vowel between two consonants 

 in this conjugation, the essence of which is that its stem is 

 consonantal, or ends in a consonant. Thus, in the infinitive 

 mood e is introduced, for the sake of sound, between the stem 

 and the ending of the infinitive ; e.g., leg(e)re, for legre; in the 

 same way leg(e)bam instead of Icgbam. But the other conjuga- 

 tions have vowel stems, as ama, doce, audi. The verbs of the 

 third conjugation are called strong, and appear to be the most 

 ancient. The verbs with vowel stems bear the name of weak, 

 and are of later origin. 



Frequently, in order to understand a formation, you will re- 

 quire to know how letters are related one to another. For 

 instance, the supine of lego is lectum. Here the g seems to have 

 disappeared. It is, however, represented by the c. Thus, in- 

 stead of the hard legtum, we have lectum. In rexi, the perfect 

 of rego, the g seems to have disappeared. But it has its repre- 

 sentative in the c or k in xi; thus rexi, if written according to 

 the sound (phonetically), would be regsi or recsi (reksi). The 

 sibilant (s) is also introduced for the sake of euphony. To 

 pursue this subject in detail would require more space than we 

 have to give. It must suffice to have put you in the right 

 direction. When your ear, by constant practice, is accustomed 

 to the combinations of letters which the Latins were fond of, 

 you will have received a great assistance towards correctly 

 forming the several parts for yourself. 



Let us now take up the chief parts separately, and the present 

 stems, am(a), doce, leg, and audi. From these are formed 



1. Present subjunctive active with the pres. ind. and subj. passive. 



2. Imperf. ind. act. and pass. 



3. Future ind. act. and pass. 



4. Participle pres. act. ; f ut. pass, and the gerund. 



Accordingly we have 



1. Am-em. Am-or. Am-er. 



2. Am-abom. Am-abor. 



3. Am-abo. Am-abor. 



4. Am-ans. Am-andiw. Am-audwm. 



The future of the third conjugation has the termination am, 

 and that of the fourth ar, instead of bo. The subjunctive passive 

 of the third and fourth conjugations ends in ar instead of er. 



Am- 



