88 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
with their swords, and carpets, and rich Stambouli shawls, 
and lamps, and turquoises (which are very cheap at Cairo), 
and grand amber mouthpieces, and red slippers, and attar 
of roses. The curious system of shopping is altogether the 
most inconvenient that ever was invented, and it shows it- 
self, for instance, in buying pipes. If you want to purchase 
a chibook, you go to one shop for the stem, to another for 
the bowl, and to the bazaar for a mouthpiece, and you 
haggle over each purchase until you beat the price down 
one half, losing your temper and wasting your valuable time. 
If the article be a costly one, the arguing lasts proportion- 
ately longer; coffee is sent for; and passers-by mix in and 
freely give their opinion on the value of the goods. Time 
is no object in Egypt, as many a western traveller has -dis- 
covered to his cost. There is no fixed price for anything, 
and you waste an hour over what could be bought in five 
minutes in London. 
There are three kinds of pipes in general use—the Chzbook, 
the Nargeeleh, and the Gogeh. I have smoked them all, and 
give the preference to the Margeeleh, though that is said to 
be the most injurious from the effort of pulling, which causes 
the smoker to inhale the tobacco into his lungs like air. 
The Chzbook is perhaps the one most commonly in use. It 
is a stick, some five feet long, of cherry or jasmine, with a 
Siout pottery bowl (brown or black), and a handsome amber 
mouthpiece. Ceranz is the best tobacco for the Chibook ; 
Tombak for the Nargeeleh. 
I wish I knew how to give an idea of gay Cairo, the 
ancient city of the Memlook Sultans, the capital of modern 
Egypt, and its busy throng. In the cramped and crowded 
Mosquee* all known trades would seem to flourish, and are 
represented by all known languages, which issue forth ina 
* The principal street in Cairo. 
