24-8 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



houses, of which we should form a very erroneous 

 idea, in judging of them by our own. It is a 

 mere tobacco-smoking rendezvous, totally destitute 

 of decoration, and in which nothing absolutely is 

 to be found, except coffee and a live coal to light 

 the pipes. Mats are spread for the company, and 

 these places of resort arc frequented by the men of 

 all nations who reside in Egypt. There is nothing 

 that deserves the name of conversation : a few 

 words only drop occasionally. The Turk is cold 

 and taciturn ; he looks down on every other na- 

 tion with disdain. The African is less disposed to 

 silence, but likes to follow the example of the 

 Turk, and those who are not Mussulmans take no 

 pains to shun the appearance o( a servile subjection 

 to the taste of their tyrants. With the pipe in one 

 hand, a cup of coffee in the other, they slowly wash 

 down every four or five whiffs of tobacco, with a 

 gulp of coffee. Dancing girls, buffoons, extem- 

 pore dcclaimers, come to tender their services, and 

 to earn a bit of money. There is scarcely one of 

 those haunts but what attracts to it some story-tel- 

 ler by profession, who is never tired with talking, 

 nor his auditors of listening to him. The narra- 

 tions of those indefatigable orators are, for the most 

 part, very insipid and tiresome. The Arabian wri- 

 ters, however, from whom their stories are bor- 

 rowed, sometimes furnish them with some that are 



excellent. 



