EGYPTIAN SMOKERS. 209 



handsome. Cherry-stick pipes, which are never 

 covered, are also used hy many persons, particularly 

 in the winter. In summer, the smoke is not so cool 

 from the cherry-stick pipe as from the kind "before 

 mentioned. The bowl (called hhag'ar) is of baked 

 earth, coloured red or brown.* The mouth-piece (Joom , 

 or turkee'beh) is composed of two pieces or more of 

 opaque, light -coloured amber, interjoined by orna- 

 ments of enamelled gold, agate, jasper, carnelian or 

 some other precious substance. It is the most costly 

 part of the pipe : the price of one of the kind most 

 generally used by persons of the middle order is about 

 from one to three pounds sterling. A wooden tube 

 passes through it. This is often changed, as it soon 

 becomes foul from the oil of the tobacco. The pipe 

 also requires to be cleaned very often, which is done 

 with tow, by means of a long wire. Many poor men 

 in Cairo gain their livelihood by going about to clean 

 pipes. 



" The tobacco smoked by persons of the higher 

 orders, and some others, in Egypt, is of a very mild and 

 delicious flavour. It is mostly from the neighbour- 

 hood of El-La'dickee'yeh, in Syria. The best kind 

 is the ' mountain tobacco ' (dookh'kha'n geb'elee). A 

 stronger kind, which takes its name from the town 

 of Soo'r (dookh'kha'n Soo'ree), sometimes mixed with 

 geb'elee, is used by most persons of the middle orders. 



* To preserve the matting or carpet from injury, a small brass tray is 

 often placed beneath the bowl ; and a small tray of wood is made use of to 

 receive the ashes of the tobacco. 



