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Show FEE TREE. 902 JOFFEE TREE: reachers, the lawyers, and even the mufti ers, th religious himself, drank coffee; and their example was followed univer. sally by the court and city. The grand viziers, having possessed th amselyes of a special be drank authority over the houses in which it was pe nitted to ni opportu this of ge advanta took publi ly, siderable tax on the licenses they granted for that purpose, a sequin per day, obliging each master of a coffee-house to a limiting, however, the price at an asper ph eoiees : : : rabian manuscript in the king o1 irance § li. critical which nvenience, which is supposed by this author an extraordi- Candia, ippression of public coffee-houses when the Ottoman affairs were ina nary advantage: and another great use of coffce, according to him, is its uniting men in society in stricter ties of amity than any other lig gla e observes, that such protestations of friendship as made at such times, are far more to be depended upon than when the mind is intoxicated with inebriating liquors. Ife compntes that as much is spent in private families in the article of coffee at Constantinople as in wine at Paris; andrelates that it is customary there to ask for money to drink coffee, as in Kurepe for moneyto drink your health in wineorbeer. Another curious particular we find mentioned hereis, that the neglecting to supply a wife with coffee is reckoned among the politicians who fre ( ese houses i to that took, in sp length, C brothers of the same name, who afterwards succeeded him, suppressed them all, during the minority of Mahomet the Fourth, with a resolution hereditary in his family, without regarding revenue, of which he reaped the the loss of so considerable came to that determination, he he advantage himself. Before where he observed coffee-houses, several the visited, incognito, sensible grave persons discoursing seriously of the affairs of the on empire, blaming administration, and deciding with confidence taverns, the in been the most important concerns. He had before where he only met with gay young fellows, mostly soldiers, who were diverting themselves with singing, or talking of nothing but gallantry and feats of war. These he took no further no- tice of. After the shutting up of the coffee-houses no less collec was lire drunk, for it was carried about t in large copper vessels, with was This markets. and streets great the under them, through only done at Constantinople ; forin all other cish} se ; (according towns of the em about n of abou . of the value x is to Chambers) of the value nine shillings sterlmg ; and the asper is a very small silver coin, neatly isis neat} e u l a anche value present The halfpenny. English an than of something more rs for a two shillings and threepence three -farthir that is, seven shillings; ; consequently three aspers are worth sometiits dollar, or eighty a more than a penny each. nued open as before. Notwithstanding this precaution of suppressing the public igs at coffee-houses, the consumption of coffee increased ; for there was no houseorfamily, rich or poor, Turk or Jew, Greek or Armenian, who are very numerous in that city, where it was not drunk at least twice a day, and manypeople drank it oftener, for it became a custom in every houseto offer it to all visitors, and it was reckoned an incivility to refuse it; so that many people drank twenty. dishes a day, and that without any Mr. Galand; who proceeds to inform siti The liberty pire, and even in the smallest villages, the coffee-houses conti- by ted us of the occ during the war in 203 sterling, but they are generally reckoned at a halfpen™) Two hundred and forty-three aspers go to a sequin. the legal causes of a divorce. Turks drink their coffee very hot and strong, and without Now and then they put in, when it is boiling, a clove or two bruised, according to the quantity; ora little of the semen ladian, called starry aniseed, or some of the lesser cardamums, or a drop of essence of amber. It is not easy to determine at what time, or upon what occasion, the use of coffee passed from Constantinople to the western parts of Europe. Tt is however likely that the Venetians, upon account of the proximity of their dominions, and their great trade he Levant, were thefirst acquainted with it; which appears art of a letter written by Peter della Valle, a Venctian, in 015, from Constantinople, in which hetells his friend, that pon his return he should bring with him somecoffee, which he ieved was a thing unknown in his country. Mr. Galand tells us he was informed by Mr. dela Croix, the ig’s interpreter, that Mr. Thevenot, who had travelled through ‘he East, at his return in 1657, brought with him to Paris some lee for his own use, and often treated his friends with it, |