COMMERCE. 299 fashionable in Kordofan,—card-counters.* The sale of glass will increase considerably in time, the whole sum expended in this commodity at Cairo does not at jiresent amoimt to more than twentyfive pounds at the utmost. The Levantine articles are in chief request, such as narghile,t brick,t mastrapa,} syringes, and common tumblers. From Venice the natives obtain glass beads, and paper dressed in the Turkish fashion. Austrian manufactures finding so ready a market in a large portion of Africa and Asia, and Cairo being the most suitable depot, it is very astonishing that only two Austrian commercial houses should be established in that town : the one is a Bohemian house for the sale of glass beads and looking-glasses, the other a Venetian for the sale of Venetian beads. The Austrian trade thus suffers a great loss, for the Asiatic and African merchant is forced to purchase the imperial produce after it has passed through many hands, and as each agent must make at least a small profit, it is evident that the price of the articles is in this manner considerably raised.

colour does not happen to be fashionable, there is no sale for them even at the cost price.

* Card counters are in request in most of the negro states, they are worn by the women as an ornament in the head-dress.

f Narghile, the glass water-reservoirs of the Persian pipes.—Tu.

J: Brick or ebrigh ablution vases, in the form of a coffee biggin ; those in general use in the East are made of copper, but those of glass are also frequently to be met with. Tr.

§ Drinking-cups of glass, shaped like our tea-cups. Tk.