AND LOWER EGYPT. 243 



cicnt times that of feasant did with us, to 

 which it corresponds, when the intention is to ex- 

 press rude vulgarity and gross ignorance. The 

 chief command was intrusted to an officer of the 

 Mamelucs, to whom they gave the title of Aga. 



The most ordinary pastime here, as well as all 

 over Turkey, is to smoke and drink coffee. The 

 pipe is never from the mouth from morning to 

 night: at home, in the houses of others, in the 

 streets, on horseback, the lighted pipe is still in 

 hand, and the tobacco-pouch hangs always at the 

 girdle. These constitute two great objects of lux- 

 ury ; the purses which serve to contain the provi- 

 sion, are of silken stuffs richly embroidered, and the 

 tubes of the pipes, of an excessive length, are of. the 

 rarest, and, for the most part, of the sweetest scent- 

 ed wood. I brought home one made of the jas- 

 mine-tree, which is more than six feet lon<r : it 

 may convey an idea of the beauty of the jasmines 

 of those countries, seeing they push out branches 

 of that length, straight, and sufficiently large to 

 admit of being bored. The pipes of more com- 

 mon wood are covered with a robe of silk tied with 

 threads ot gold. The poor, with whom the smoke 

 of tobacco is a necessary of first-rate importance, 

 make use of simple tubes of reed. The top of the 

 pipe is garnished with a species of mock alabaster, 

 and white as milk : it is frequently enriched with 



r 2 precious 



