CUSTOMS AND MANNERS. 393 



culinary utensils. The mats used in Egypt are made of straw, or the 

 flags of the branches of the date tree, and are very neatly worked in 

 figures, such as squares, ovals, and other forms, with fanciful borders. 

 They are very durable, but harbour numbers of fleas, with which all 

 the houses swarm, particularly in hot weather. 



The poorer sort of these Arabs seldom can afford to eat animal 

 food, but subsist chiefly on rice made into a pilau, and moistened 

 with the rancid butter of the country. Their bread is made of the 

 holcus durra. * I have seen them sit down to a hearty meal of 

 boiled horse beans steeped in oil. When the date is in season they 

 subsist on the fruit, and in summer the vast quantities of gourds of 

 all kinds, and melons, among which we may number the cucurbita 

 citrullus and sativus, and the agour, and haoun of Sonnini, supply 

 them with food. The better sort eat mutton and fowls, though 

 sparingly. At a dinner given to me by an Arab in the Delta, I 

 observed one dish was formed of a quarter of mutton stuffed with 

 almonds and raisins. Their drink is the milk of buffaloes f, and the 

 water of the Nile preserved and purified in cisterns. None but the 

 higher orders, or those of dissolute lives ever taste wine ; grapes grow 

 in abundance at Rosetta ; but little wine is made in Egypt. The 

 Greek vessels from the Archipelago supply at a cheap rate the Franks 

 with the quantity they want. 



All sorts of coin are current in Egypt ; but the principal are Vene- 

 tian sequins of gold and Spanish dollars; Armenians, Greeks, and 

 Jews are employed in the mint at Cairo. The mode of keeping 

 accounts is extremely easy in piastres and paras. There is a set of 

 brokers or money changers rather, who for a very trifling brokerage 



* Cereale Arabum vulgatissimum, ex quo panis conficitur. Forskal. 



f The flesh of the buffalo is seldom eaten in the Levant ; the milk is highly esteemed in 

 Asia Minor and Syria. In the time of Prosper Alpinus the tongues of this animal were 

 salted and sent to Venice. A few buffaloes are killed in the winter at Aleppo ; but the 

 meat is dried, or made into hams, and not eaten fresh. Russell, 364. 



3 E 



