himself was more than any large of this
gentlemen-like imposture: he was full of swaggering complacence and
compliments to an humbler person. With what suavity could he
encourage, and gently too compel a man, and rising himself yield
him parcel of another man's room! In such fashions Zeyd showed
himself a bountiful great man, who indeed was the greatest niggard.
The cups are drunk twice about, each one sipping after other's lips
without misliking; to the great coffee _sheykhs_ the cup may be
filled more times, but this is an adulation of the coffee-server.
There are some of the Fukara _sheukh_ so delicate Sybarites that of
those three bitter sips, to draw out all their joyance, twisting,
turning, and tossing again the cup, they could make ten. The
coffee-service ended, the grounds are poured out from the small
into the great store-pot that is reserved full of warm water; with
the bitter lye the nomads will make their next bever, and think
they spare coffee.

Here is an Arabian recipe[368] for making coffee as given by Kadhi
Hodhat, the best informed man of his time:

Tadj-Eddin-Aid-Almaknab-ben-Yacoub-Mekki Molki, chief of all the
cantons of Hedjaz, (May God have mercy on him!) I learned it when
once in his company at the time of the Holy Feasts.... He informed
me that nothing is more beneficial than to drink cold water before
coffee, because it lessens the dryness of the coffee and thus taken
it does not cause insomnia to the same degree. The poet did not
forget to explain this manner of taking coffee:

As with art 'tis prepared, one should drink it with art.
The mere commonplace drinks one absorbs with free heart;
But this--once with care from the bright flame removed,
And the lime set aside that its value has proved--
Take it first in deep draughts, meditative and slow,
Quit it now, now resume, thus imbibe with gusto;
While charming the palate it burns yet enchants,
In the hour of its triumph the virtue it grants
Penetrates every tissue; its powers condense.
Circulate cheering warmths, bring new life to each sense.
From the cauldron profound spiced aromas unseen
Mount to tease and delight your olfactories keen,
The while you inhale with felicity fraught,
The enchanting perfume that a zephyr has brought.

[Illustration: PERSIAN COFFEE SERVICE, 1737]

Gone are the "luxurious and magnificent" coffee