216 MR. C. SCHORLEMMER ON THE 



" Jem al Adin Abu Abdallah, Mohammed Bensaid, sur- 

 named Al Dhabhani (because he was a native of Dhabhan, 

 a small town of Arabia Fcelix), being Mufti* of Aden, a 

 famous town, and part of the same country, about the. 

 middle of the 9th age of the Hegirah, and of the 15th 

 of our Lord, had occasion to make a voyage to Persia. 

 During his stay there, he found some of his countrymen 

 who took coffee t 5 which, at first, he took no great notice 

 of; but at his return to Aden, his health being impaired, 

 and calling to mind the coffee which he had seen taken in 

 Persia, he took some in hopes it might do him good. Not 

 only the Mufti's health was restored by the use of it, but 

 he soon became sensible of the other properties of coffee ; 

 particularly that it dissipates heaviness in the head, exhi- 

 larates the spirits, and hinders sleep without indisposing 

 one." 



The Arabian author adds, that they found coffee so 

 good that they entirely left off the use of another liquor 

 which was in vogue at Aden^ made of the leaves of a 

 plant called Cat, which cannot be supposed to be the Tlie, 

 because this writer says nothing which might favour that 

 opinion. 



Since this was written Mr. W. Elborne, of the Owens 

 College, called my attention to a paper by Mr. James 

 Vaughan, Civil and Port Surgeon at Aden, who states that 

 some estimate may be formed of the strong predilection 

 which the Arabs have still for kat, from the quantity used 

 in Aden alone, which averages about 280 camel- loads 

 annually. He adds that he is not aware that kat is used 

 in Aden in any other way than for mastication ; from 

 what he has heard, however, he believes a decoction 



* An order of Priests amongst the Mahometans, which may be called 

 their Bishops. 



t Coffee first in use at Aden, the capital city of Arabia Fcelix. 



