notwithstanding its great abundance. Bouza, an inferior sort of beer, is the only liquor made from it, of which the Arabs throughout Upper Egypt are very fond. They often expose it for sale in a common wicker basket, made so close as to be impervious to this and other fluids. Sometimes a sherbet is made from oatmeal, boiled with sugar mixed with rose water, which is esteemed a cool refreshing beverage; but Bouza is the common article of consumption among the lower orders. The grain used in the manufacture of this drink is never malted; it is mixed with ingredients to render it more intoxicating and palatable; yet from its thick and glutinous nature, it grows sour in a few days. Palm, or date wine, is also in use, and from the inspissated juice of the palm tree, dipse, or a kind of honey, little inferior to that of bees, is extracted, which, after being diluted and fermented, makes an agreeable wine. When dipse is intended to be distilled, the fermentation is checked before it becomes entirely acetous, and from this, as well as dates, arrack is manufactured much in the same way as brandy in Europe. It is remarkable, that the spirit made from dates, in most parts of Egypt, has a smoky taste or flavour like Scotch and Innishowen whiskey, yet mellow as if tinctured with honey.-The native Egyptians are now so debased, that they have no taste for improvement or elegant refinement, either in the arts or comforts of life, which so eminently distinguished their ancestors. Still, however, they contrive to gratify their appetites with whatever intoxicating beverage they can procure, and even though under the strictness of the Mahometan discipline, defend the practice of drinking, in various ways, some of which are very ingeniously and artfully contrived. Bruce, when travelling up the Nile, had with him a Mussulman, named Hassan, addicted to drink, who, on one occasion, was desired to procure some aqua vitæ, if his conscience would permit him. Το which Hassan replied, "the Prophet never forbade aqua vitæ, but the drinking of wine only; and even the prohibition of wine could not have been intended for Egypt, for there was no wine in it, except bouza, and bouza, said he, I shall drink as long as I can walk from the stem to the stern of a vessel.”—Belzoni found that the scruples of the Egyptians were easily overcome, even for drinking wine, which he exemplifies by an anecdote of a Cacheff, who, on observing that traveller drink a cup of red liquor, which he had poured out of a bottle, enquired what kind of beverage it was. On being informed it was Nebet, (wine,) he said, that having heard the English wine was so superior to the date-wine of his own country, he was anxious to have some to drink in secret. When presented with a cup full, (and his interpreter having first drunk some of it to convince him of its

purity,) he swallowed the contents with avidity, and became so attached to this beverage, that, in three days, he nearly exhausted the scanty stock of poor Belzoni.* Under the intelligence of modern rulers, this country, it is to be hoped, will emerge from its darkness. At present, the sugar cane is cultivated in Upper Egypt, the produce and quality of which are good, and, according to Fitzclarence, in the years 1817 and 1818, the Pacha Mahomet Ali was making rapid advances towards bringing the manufacture of this article and of rum to great perfection. A Mr. Brine, who had been a trader to the West Indies, conducted the operations, which were on a very extensive scale. Hopes were entertained that the quality of the rum distilled here would soon compete with the West Indian article in the Mediterranean markets, where it has been sent in considerable quantities. Thus it appears that the Pacha, though a Mahometan, felt no scruple to compound liquors for the infidel Christians, provided he profited by the transaction. His intelligence and enterprise have enabled him to see beyond the boundaries of superstition and folly, and to shew in this, as he has done in many other instances, that the real interests of a nation are best studied in the pursuit of legitimate gain, and are not incompatible with the duties of true and genuine religion.

Captain Henry Light,† tells us that he found many sugar plantations along the Nile, and that the mode of planting was that of putting the joints of the cane into furrows five or six inches deep, which, after covering with earth, were watered copiously by channels filled with water from the river raised by means of wheels or buckets. An acre and a half thus cultivated, yield about one cwt. of sugar. The juice is pressed from the cane by a mill composed of two rollers wrought by a horizontal wheel turned by buffaloes.

Mead is seldom to be met with in Egypt, although honey is plen tiful, and this is somewhat remarkable, as there are few countries where bees are more attended to. The honey, instead of being employed in the manufacture of mead, is used for various other domestic purposes; and transported to different places in the Levant. Maillet says, that in Egypt the bees are fed chiefly on Sainfoin, and gives a curious account of the manner in which this is practised. The hives are made of clay in the same way as in Syria. As soon as the Sainfoin ripens in the fields, on the banks of the Nile, in Upper Egypt, the inhabitants, from all quarters of the country, collect their hives, and place them on board of boats prepared, or hired for the purpose.

† Light's Travels in Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia, and the Holy Land, &c. p. 41,

In these they are conveyed along the Nile, resting occasionally to allow the insects to collect the honey in the adjoining districts, and move along the river, stopping at intervals until the whole of the wax and honey is collected. Having finally arrived at the sea, the respective owners take away the hives which they know by the number of the register in which they were set down previous to going out. It is an astonishing fact, that notwithstanding the moving habits of those insects, they have never been known to mistake their respective hives, each instinctively flying to its little cell with undeviating certainty.

The Nubians make bouza in abundance, in drinking which they indulge to excess. It is extracted from dhourra, or barley; is of a pale, muddy colour, and very intoxicating.* Although the Nubians profess the Mahometan faith, they are characterised as great drunkards. Burckhardt, who visited Nubia in 1816, remarked, that during the fortnight he remained at Berber, he heard of half-a-dozen quarrels occasioned by drinking, all of which ended in knife or sword-wounds. In the larger villages of Nubia, palm wine is common; it is not unpleasant to the taste, though too sweet to be taken in any considerable quantity: it is usually carried in large goat-skins and drunk out of small cups made from calabashes. Palm wine is generally obtained, by the following process :-As soon as the dates have come to maturity, they are thrown into large earthen boilers with water, and the whole is boiled for two days without intermission; the liquor is then strained, and the clear juice is poured into earthen jars, which, after being welk closed, are buried under ground. Here they are allowed to remain for ten or twelve days, during which the liquor ferments; the jars are then taken up, and their contents are fit to be drunk; but this wine will not keep longer than a year, or beyond the next date harvest, if kept longer it turns sour... The Nubians are industrious, and in some parts of Upper Egypt keep the shops for the sale of bouza. Great quantities of the wine and the spirits distilled from dates are consumed at Derr, and sold in houses kept for the purpose, to which many of the upper classes resort in the evening to get themselves intoxicated. Here Maddox found that the Arabs were the chief distillers of Arrack, and which the Mussulmans drunk with satisfaction, and generally andiluted: it is inferior to the Arrack of Cairo, which is flavoured with aniseed.†

* Burckhardt's Travels in Nubia, 4to. p. 143, 144.

Excursions in Nubia, vol. i. p. 68.

Burckhardt observed that from Siout southward, through the whole of Upper Egypt, date spirits were made and publicly sold, and that the Pasha levied a tax upon the venders. A revenue is also raised by taking from every date tree two clusters of fruit, whatever may be the quantity produced, and laying a duty on all vessels that load dates at Derr. The quantities of dates sent from Nubia to Upper Egypt vary according to the harvest from 1500 to 2000 erdebs annually, each erdeb weighing about two cwt. The date trade, which is extremely profitable, is now for the most part in the hands of the government. In Nubia, as well as in Egypt, a kind of jelly or honey is extracted from the date, which serves the rich as a sweetmeat. Except date trees and a few vines, there are no fruit trees in Nubia.* Bouza is made by the Nubians in the following manner :-Strongly leavened bread made from dhourra is broken into crumbs and mixed with water, and the mixture is kept for several hours over a slow fire. Being then removed, water is poured over it, and it is kept for two nights to ferment. This liquor, according to its greater or smaller degree of fermentation, takes the name of merin, bouza, or ombelbel, the mother of nightingales, so called because it makes the drunkards sing. Unlike the other two, which being fermented together with the crumbs of bread, are never free from them, the ombelbel is drained through a cloth and is consequently pure and limpid. The ombelbel has a pleasant prickly taste, something like champagne turned sour; it is served up in large gourds open at the top, upon which are engraved with a knife a great variety of ornaments. A gourd (bourma) contains about four pints, and whenever a party meet over the gourd, it is reckoned that each person will drink at least one bourma. The gourd being placed in the ground, a small gourd, cut in two and of the size of a tea cup is placed near it, and in this the liquor is served round to each in turn, an interval of six or eight minutes being left between each revolution of the little gourd. At the commencement of the sitting, some roasted meat, strongly peppered, is generally circulated; but the bouza itself is esteemed sufficiently nourishing, and indeed the common bouza looks more like soup or porridge than a liquor to be taken at a draught. The Fakirs, or religious men, are the only persons who do not indulge, publicly at least, in this luxury. The women are as fond of it, and as much in the habit of drinking it, as the men. A bourma of bouza is given for one measure of dhourra, threefourths of the measure of dhourra being required to make the bourma, and the remainder paying for the labour. Crumbs of the dhourra

bread are often soaked in water, and after giving it a sourish taste, it is drunk off and called by the traders the caravan beverage, sherbet el jellabe. Parties are formed to drink bouza in the same manner as tea and coffee parties are in England. At Berber, females prepare the bouza, and, when the drinkers of it wish not to be interrupted, they generally retire to the apartments of the ladies, where there is no intrusion. Nobody goes to a bouza hut without his sword, and the girls are often the first sufferers in an affray arising from drunkenness. At Shendy, bouza is drunk to great excess, and as tobacco is smoked to a degree of extravagance, it is a maxim that he who does not smoke largely will never be a hardy bouza drinker. Here also a sort of sherbet, made from tamarind cakes dissolved in water, is taken as a refreshing, cooling, and wholesome potation. To this place honey is brought in great quantities from Sennaar, which is collected by the Arabs from wild bees, and it is often converted into hydromel. This drink is usually made by diluting honey with water, boiling it, and then fermenting it under the influence of the sun, as is the common practice in Abyssinia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia. The most simple beverage used by the Nubians is bour, a mixture of water and the juice of liquorice.

At Sennaar, a liquor, similar to date wine, is manufactured from dhourra; it is however much less palatable to Europeans from its thick and glutinous quality, and from the burned flavour contracted in the dhourra, which is roasted previous to the short fermentation it undergoes. Bouza is artfully used in this country to ensnare monkeys, as those creatures, like man, seem inclined to partake of the pleasures of intoxication. For this purpose, a pan full of the liquor is placed at the foot of a tree; and after remaining there for some time, the wary monkey-catcher having retired to a distance and feigning himself asleep, the unsuspicious animals come down from the tops of the trees and regale themselves so largely with the liquor, that they soon become an easy prey to their captors.

We need not be surprised at those irrational animals being captured în this manner, when we find man, even civilized man! taken captive by a like expedient. Captain Boteler relates that, while on the coast of Zanzibar, two sailors deserted, and the Arabs, who were employed to arrest them, fearful of resistance, placed spirits in the way: the men drank it, were therefore easily apprehended, and brought to prison in a state of intoxication.*

The love of strong drink, it is well known, becomes habitual with

Owen's Voyage of Discovery in Africa, &c. vol. ii. p. 37.