]
[Footnote 17: page 56.--_I am a Hakim;_ i.e. Physician, an almost sacred
character in the East. As all Englishmen travel with medicine-chests,
the Turks are not be wondered at for considering us physicians.]
[Footnote 18: page 57.--_Threw their wanton jerreeds in the air_. The
Persians are more famous for throwing the jerreed than any other nation.
A Persian gentleman, while riding quietly by your side, will suddenly
dash off at full gallop, then suddenly check his horse, and take a long
aim with his lance with admirable precision. I should doubt, however,
whether he could hurl a lance a greater distance or with greater force
and effect than a Nubian, who will fix a mark at sixty yards with his
javelin.]
[Footnote 19: page 58.--_Some pounded coffee._ The origin of the use of
coffee is obscure; but there is great reason to believe that it had not
been introduced in the time of Alroy. When we consider that the life of
an Oriental at the present day mainly consists in drinking coffee and
smoking tobacco, we cannot refrain from asking ourselves, 'What did
he do before either of these comparatively modern inventions was
discovered?' For a long time, I was inclined to suspect that tobacco
might have been in use in Asia before it was introduced into Europe; but
a passage in old Sandys, in which he mentions the wretched tobacco smoke
in Turkey, and accounts for it by that country being supplied with 'the
dregs of our markets,' demonstrates that, in his time, there was no
native growth in Asia.
Pages:
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372