25O TRAVELS IN UPPER 



If a person be ever so little known, he can 

 scarcely pass through a street without being invited 

 in, and requested to drink corTee. This expres- 

 sion of politeness is to such a degree a matter of 

 habit, that those who do not possess a single 

 grain of coffee, such as the gardeners of Rossetta, 

 never fail to make an offer of it, though you 

 would embarrass them exceedingly by accepting 

 it. Th«v do not make use of utensils of iron for 



J 



roasting the beans of 4he coffee plant : it is in an 

 earthen vessel that this operation is performed. 

 They afterwards pound them in a mortar of 

 earthen-ware or wood, which preserves their per- 

 fume much better, than by reducing them to 

 powder in a mill. The vicinity of Arabia renders 

 it perfectly easy to provide themselves with the 

 excellent coffee which it produces. In the opinion 

 of delicate palates, forly beans are little enough 

 to make one cup fit for drinking; and no where 

 do you meet with it so highly flavoured. They do 

 not suffer it to stand still a moment. When it 

 has boiled three times over the fire, and drawing 

 off successively, and at each boiling, a coffee-pot 

 full with a long handle, they pour it into cups, 

 and though it be not quite clear, there is no 

 reason to regret the want of sugar, which it is not 

 the custom at this place to mix with it. 



I shall 



