METHODS OF MAKING COFFEE. 67 



That this preparation contains a considerable amount of the 

 nutritious element of coffee is evident from the analysis ; but 

 as the leaves can only be collected in a good state at the expense 

 of the coffee-plant, it is doubtful whether the coffee produced 

 by the berries be not, after all, the cheapest, as it certainly is 

 the best. 



In Arabia we find the method of preparing and using coffee 

 very interesting. Palgrave, in his recent work, gives full and 

 entertaining descriptions of the manners and customs of the 

 people and their great fondness for coffee. He thus describes 

 an Arabian dwelling and their method of making coffee : 



" The walls are colored in a rudely decorative way and sunk 

 here and there into small triangular recesses, destined to the 

 reception of books, lamps, and other such like objects. The 

 roof of timber, and flat ; the floor strewed with fine clean sand, 

 and garnished all around alongside of the walls with long strips 

 of carpet, upon which cushions, covered with silk, are disposed 

 at suitable intervals. In poorer dwellings felt rugs usually 

 take the place of carpets. 



"In one corner, that farthest removed from the door, stands a 

 small fireplace or furnace, formed of a large square block of 

 granite or some other hard stone ; this is hollowed inwardly into 

 a deep funnel, open above, and communicating below with a 

 small pipe-hole, through which the air passes, bellows-driven, to 

 the lighted charcoal ; the water in the coffee-pot placed upon the 

 funnel's mouth is thus readily brought to boil. This system of 

 coffee furnaces is universal, and this corner of the dwelling or 

 K^Jiawah, as it is called, is considered the place of distinction, 

 whence honor and coffee radiate by progressive degrees round 

 the apartment ; and hereabouts accordingly sits the master of 

 the house himself, or the guests whom he especially delights to 

 honor. 



