THE PLANT. 3 



West long before its commercial product was 

 familiar to the public. 



Probably Coffee as an invigorator is of much 

 older origin than our scanty records on the sub- 

 ject tell us. The Egyptians in the time of the 

 Pharoahs may well have used it, since half their 

 trade lay inland up the valley of the Nile to 

 the great Negro cities of its reputed birthplace. 

 The Galla, for instance a wandering nation of 

 Africa in their incursions into Abyssinia, being 

 obliged to traverse immense deserts and to travel 

 swiftly, have been accustomed for ages to carry 

 nothing with them to eat but Coffee roasted till 

 it could be pulverised, and then mixed into balls 

 with butter, and put into a leather bag. One of 

 these, the size of a billiard-ball, is said to keep 

 them in strength and spirits during a whole day's 

 fatigue better than either bread or meat. 



To Persia its classic home as a strength-giving 

 draught- we are told to look for the first rise of 

 the art by which the pretty, but hitherto useless, 

 berries were "pulped," roasted, ground and in- 

 fused, to make that decoction now so dear to 

 Eastern palates. Who endowed The Land of the 

 Lion and Sun with this boon is a moot point, but 

 a Mufti of Aden obtained the secret when on a 

 pilgrimage, and introduced it amongst his followers. 



Thence it spread to Turkey,* where, owing 



* Sir Francis Bacon says : " They have in Turkey a drink called 

 Coffee, made of a berry of the same name, as black as soot, and of 



