At this point, coffee and cigarettes were brought in by the servants of the palace. The coffee was _à la Turque_. It was served in little china cups shaped like egg cups, in holders of gold filigree, each holding about three tablespoonfuls of rich black coffee as thick as chocolate and as sweet as molasses. There were neither saucers nor spoons. Trying to follow the Khedive’s example I gulped down half the contents of the cup at a swallow. It was as hot as liquid fire. I could feel the top of my mouth rising in a blister, the tears came into my eyes, and my stomach felt as though it had taken an internal Turkish bath. Tewfik Pasha took the boiling mixture without winking and went on talking as though his throat were used to scalding fluids. Surprised to see him refuse a cigarette, I asked him if he did not smoke. He replied: “No! I neither smoke nor drink. I do not drink for two reasons. I believe a man is better off without it, and, what is of more moment to me, it is against the laws of life as laid down in the Koran. We do not believe it right to drink anything intoxicating and good Moslems drink neither wine nor liquor. I believe that every man should be faithful to the religion which he professes. My faith is that of Islam and I try to follow it as well as I can. I am not illiberal in it, however, for I tolerate all religions and all sects in my kingdom. We have Copts, Jews, and Christians, and your missionaries are at work in the land. They make very few converts, if any, among the people of my faith, but they have schools in Upper Egypt that are doing much in the way of education.” The consul general here spoke of the Khedive’s knowledge of the Koran, mentioning the fact that His Majesty knows the whole book by heart. There is no doubt that Tewfik has as much faith in his religion as we have in ours. He spoke with some pride of the Mohammedan conversions in Africa and the fact that there are more than one hundred millions of people in the world who believe the same as he does. We talked of the band of one hundred American Catholics, who are stopping in Egypt on their way to the Holy Land, and the Khedive said he was interested in these pilgrims who are following the footsteps of Joseph and Mary. He spoke of the immense sums brought into Egypt by tourists and said that it bettered the business of his country.