36 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

tried for the first time'tlie narghileh, or Persian water-pipe, The soft, velvety leaves of the tobacco of Shiraz are burned in

a small cup, the tube of which enters a glass vase, half filled

with rose-seented water. From the top of this vase issues a

flexible tube, several feet in length, with a mouth-piece of wood

or amber. At each inspiration, the smoke is drawn downward

and rises through the water with a pleasant bubbling sound. It

is deprived of all the essential oil of the weed, and is exceed

ingly mild, cool and fragrant. But instead of being puffed out

of the mouth in whiffs, it is breathed full into the lungs and

out again, like the common air. This is not so difficult a mat-

ter as might be supposed ; the sensation is pleasant and slight-

ly exhilarating, and is not injurious to the lungs when moder-

ately indulged in.

The Turkish quarter of Cairo still retains the picturesque

Saracenic architecture of the times of the Caliphs. The

houses are mostly three stories in height, each story projecting

over the other, and the plain stone walls are either whitewash-

ed or striped with horizontal red bars, in a manner which would

be absurd under a northern sky, but which is here singularly

harmonious and agreeable. The only signs of sculpture are

occasional door-ways with richly carved arches, or the light marble gallery surrounding a fountained court. I saw a few

of these in retired parts of the city. The traveller, however,

has an exhaustless source of delight in the wooden balconies

inclosing the upper windows. The extraordinary lightness,

grace and delicate fragility of their workmanship, rendered still

more striking by contrast with the naked solidity of the walls

to which they cling, gave me a new idea of the skill and fancy

of the Saracenic architects. The wood seems rather woven in