430 NATURAL HISTORY OP ARABIA. 



Cafe was the most fashionable comedy in Paris. A na- 

 tional song under the same name was written by Fuze- 

 lier, and set to music by Bernier. The following stanza 

 will suffice as a specimen : 



" Favorable liqueur, dont mon arae est ravie, 



Par tes enchantemens augmente nos beaux jours ; 



Nous domptons le sommeil par ton heureux secours : 



Tu nous rend les momens qu'il derobe a la vie. 



Favorable liqueur, dont mon ame est ravie, 



Par tes enchanteraens augmente nos beaux jours." 



The method of roasting and sweetening it, and the praises 

 of the cups and saucers into which it was poured, were 

 sung in a heroic poem by a Jesuit of the name of Father 

 Vaniere, who thus speaks in the eighth book of his Free- 

 dium Rusticum : 



" Tritaque roox validis intra mortaria pilis, 

 Diluitur lympha ; facilique parabilis arte 

 Vulcano coquitur, donee vas pulvis ad imum, 

 Venerit, et posito mansueverit ollula motu. 

 Fictilibus rufis pateris defunde liquores, 

 Adde peregrina dulces ab arundine succos, 

 Ora sapore calix ne tristia lasdat amaro." 



This shrub has long maintained a vast importance as an 

 article of commerce ; and though it has been transplanted 

 to various countries in Asia, Africa, and America, its 

 chief celebrity is derived from Arabia, where its cultiva- 

 tion seems to be best understood. It appears originally 

 to have grown wild in Abyssinia, where the natives were 

 in the habit of eating the bean as food. They roasted 

 and pounded it, and then mixed the powder with grease 

 or butter to give it consistency. A small quantity of 

 this preparation was sufficient to support them during a 

 march of several days. In Upper Egypt this practice is 

 still common. Reynier often saw the soldiers prefer this 

 mixture to their rations when they had long fatigues to 

 support ; facts which leave no doubt as to the nutritive 

 qualities of coffee. 



In Arabia the fruit of the tree, when allowed to grow 

 wild, is so bad as to be unfit for use. It is only in 

 certain parts of that country that the soil is adapted for 

 its production. Burckhardt was informed, that it does 

 not grow farther north than Mishnye, in the district of 

 Zohran, and that it improves in quality towards the south. 

 The plantations are found to thrive best on the western 



