The Placer herald., 1863-10-03
The Country of the Nile.

Inc new 1Ork journal OF commerce, IN
speaking of the recent discovery of the
sources of the Nile, says:
There is one point of interest in connec.
ton with the discovery Of the sources of
the Nile, which may become of commercial
Importance. AT least portion of the new
ly discovered river runs through country
that has long been designated on some maps
Katla, a general designation for an unex
plored tract, bordering upon the Abyssinian
possessions and claimed sometimes as part
of Abyssinia, but manifestedlv not so.
Whence came this name Katfa does not ap-
pear; but from it, without much doubt, came
the word which in so many languages is
nearly the same-cotfee. For the use of
coffee as a beverage originated in this same
country, Abyssinia, and civilization adopted
it from barbarsm. In the sixteenth century
some European residents at Alden, on the
Red Sea, learned of the Abyssinians on the
opposite coast to make decocton of the
burned seeds of an African shrub or tree,
and used it especially ASIA drink when they
desired to keep awake at night. The Turks
at this time had not become coffee drinkers
at ALL Doubtless the Abyssinians assigned
the origin of the custom to Kalla, the remotl
est portion Of Ethiopia known to them; and
hence the name which the berry received.
1t is somewha. remarkable, too, that while
coffee grows freely in all tropical parts of
the world, the best coffee is grown in this
same neighborhood, whence the custom of
of using it came. The encouragement of
direct trade with the interior provinces
opened. by Speke's Journey, will not be un
likely to have an effect on the produce of
coffee, and on the qualities with which our
market is furnished. Mocha, the port whose
name is attached to the highest grade of
coffee, is not far from Alden. The probabili-
ty seems to be that the superiority of Mocha
coffee is due not SO much to soil or quality of
trees as to the dry climate which permits
perfect ripening of the berry, without re-
quring the process of fermentation that is
used elsewhere for separating the seed from
the pulp. Mocha, however, furnishes but
very small quantity of coffee for our market,
and the whole amount exported to all coun.
tries is exceedingly small in proportion. to
Brazil, Java, Ceylon and the West India
Islands. Most of the Mocha coffee is used
in oriental countries The trade might
we'll be encouraged, by inducing the inhabi
tants in Kaifa and around Lake Nyanza to
grow and trade it for cotton cloth, or the
other articles which now tempt them to pur-
sue the elephant for ivory.
A prevalent error is made in attributing
the use of coffee, as of tobacco, originally
to the Turks. They probably learned the
use of both from the Christian nations Of
L,r al, Ill, r.
Alden had, seen the use by the Abyssnians
of this drink for centuries without adopting
1t until Europeans led them to it. If this
be So much OF the traditional veneraion Of
the Turkish coffee falls to tbas ground.
There is no reason why they should know
how to make coffee any better than we.
Nor do they. The Turks and Arabs love
coffee for the sake Of the burned berry itself,
and not for the liquid infusion. Hence
they use it more as we use chocolate. They
burn the berry with great care, pound it in
mortar to an impal pable powder, and make
the liquid mixture thick and sweet. They
mix large quantity of the powder with
cold water in a little tin or copper pot, warm
it over the Goals till it boils, put in sugar,
and sip the compound with loud noise of
the lips and liquid. 1t is unqueslionably
good for those who like the taste of the
coffee berry, but it is not at all to the taste
of the lover of cate'au-fait. A common
notion is that the Turks do not use sugar in
coffee. Where it is scarce they do not; but
where it can be procured at moderate prices
they use large quantities, making their coffee
very sweet. 1t has been remarked as curl
GUS, that the distinctive principles known rs
cofeine in coffee is identical with teeine in tea,
and also with the principal Meobromine in
cocoa, which articles are used for ordinary
food or drink by natives of ditferens parts
of the world; and this same principle fur
nshes the human system with bile, all of
which goes to indicate the possibility of
sort of instructive use Of these articles by
men, as naturally as they use corn for eat
ing. On the other hand it must be remem-
bered that the human race lived some time
without lack Of bile before they learned to
dring tea, coffee or cocoa