Damascus. Respectable merchants are never seen in a coffee-house; but
those of the third class, and sea-faring people, make it their constant
resort. Every person has his particular house, where he meets those who
have business with him. An Arab, who cannot afford to ask his friend to
dine, invites him from the coffee-house, when he sees him pass, to enter
and take

[p.27] a cup, and is highly offended if the invitation be rejected. When
his friend enters, he orders the waiter to bring him a cup, and the
waiter, in presenting it, exclaims aloud, so that every one in the place
may hear him, djebba! (gratis). An Arab may cheat his creditors, or be
guilty of bad faith in his dealings, and yet escape public censure; but
he would be covered with infamy, if it were known that he had attempted
to cheat the coffee-house waiter of his due. The Turkish soldiers have
done their utmost in this respect to increase the contempt in which they
are held by the Arabs. I never saw in the coffee-houses of the Hedjaz
any of those story-tellers who are so common in Egypt, and still more in
Syria. The Mangal [See Niebuhr's Travels.] is generally played in all of
them, and the Dama, "a kind of draughts," differing somewhat from the
European game; but I never happened to see chess played in the Hedjaz,
though I heard that it is not uncommon, and that the sherifs in
particular are fond of it.

Near to almost every coffee-shop a person takes his stand, who sells
cooled water in small perfumed jars. [The Orientals often drink water
before coffee, but never immediately after. I was once recognised in
Syria as a foreigner or European, in consequence of having called for
water just after I had taken coffee. "If you were of this country ,"
said the waiter, "you would not spoil the taste of the coffee in your
mouth by washing it away with water."]