OCR Text |
Show TEA TREE. TEA TREE. grown. This is called Lan tsjaa; it is the coarsest, andis chiefly dy sorting these, ses consumed by the lower class of people. sons as in Japan, we are not well informed; but most probably the tea harvest is nearly at the same periods, the natives having frequent intercourse, and their commercial concerns with each other being very extensive. The tea leaves should be dried as soon as possible after they are gathered. For this purpose public buildings are erected, containing from five to ten, and even twenty, small furnaces, about three feet high, each having at the top a large iron pan. There is also a long table covered with mats, on which the leaves are laid, and rolled by women who sit round it. The iron pan being heated to a certain degree by a fire made in the furnace beneath, a few pounds of the leaves are put upon the pan, and frequently turned and shifted by the hands till they become too hot to be endured ; they are then thrown upon the mats to be rolled between the palms of the hands; after which they are cooled as speedily as possible. In order that all the moisture of the leaves may be completely dissipated, and their twisted form be better preserved, the above process is repeated several times with the same leaves, but less heat is employed than at first. ‘The tea thus manufactured is afterwards sorted according to its kind or goodness. Some of the young tender leaves are never rolled, and these are immersed in hot water before they are dried. After the tea has been kept for some months, it is taken out of the vessels in which it was stored, and dried again over a very se Q04 veral other varieties are produced. The most esteemed tea of Japan, according to Kempfer, grows in the environs of the small town of Udsi, situated in the neigh. bourhood of the sea. In that district is a celebrated mountain, whichis entirely employed for the cultivation of that used by the emperor. This mountain, which has a beautiful and picturesque appearance, is surrounded by a broadditch, to prevent men and animals from having any access to it. ‘The plantations are laid out bythe line, arranged in a manner exceedingly agreeable to the eye, and the shrubs are washed andcleaned everyday, Whilethe leaves are collecting, the men employedin that opera. tion bathe two or three times every day, and wear gloves when they pick the leaves, to prevent them frombeing dirtied. When the leaves have been torrified and properly prepared, theyare shut up in vessels of great value, and conveyed with much pomp to the emperor’s palace. The Japanese ascribe to tea a miraculous origin. Darma, a veryreligious prince, and third son of an Indian king, named Kosjusvo, landed in China, they say, in the year 510 of the Christian era. He employed all his care and thought to diffuse throughout the country a knowledge of God andreligion; and, being desirous to excite men by his example, imposed on himself privations and mortifications of every kind ; living in the open air, and devoting the days and nights to prayer and contemplation. After several years, however, being worn out with fa- tigue, he fell asleep against his will; and that he might faithfully observe his oath, which he thought he had violated, he cut off his eye-lids and threw them on the ground. Next day, having returnedto the same spot, he found them changedinto a shrub which the earth had neyer before produced. Having eaten some of the leaves of it, he foundhis spirits exhilarated, and his former vigour restored. He recommended this aliment to his disciples and followers. The reputation of tea increased, andafter that time it continued to be generally used. Kempfer, nitates exotic, gives the life with a portrait ofthis lebrated in China and Japan. Thereis seen, at the ma, a reed, which indicates that he had traversed rivers. in his Amesaint, so Cefeet of Darthe seas and Whether the Chinese collect the tea precisely at the same sta 295 gentle fire, that it may be deprived of any humidity which remained, or it might have since contracted. The commontea is kept in earthen pots with narrow mouths; but the best sort, used by the emperorandnobility, is put into porcelane or china vessels. ‘The coarsest tea is kept by the country people in straw baskets, made in the shape of barrels, which they place under the roofs of their houses, near the hole that lets out the smoke*. Thunberg declares, that the older the leaves are, and the later inthe season they are gathered, the greater is the abundance; but then the tea is so much the worse: the smater leaves, and those which have just shot forth, furnish the finest and most valuable. Young shrubs always yield better tea than old ones; * Kempf. ameen. & Jap. Thunb. Jap. @ Woody. Letts. 29—35. |