VARIOUS METHODS OF CULTIVATION, ETC. 27 



in the manufacture of green teas. Great care is taken 

 in the final drying or " firing " of the black teas, an 

 experienced and generally old man being invariably 

 employed to regulate the furnace while the other 

 members of the family keep the leaves constantly 

 agitated in the pans. The finished tea is then sorted 

 and packed as in the case of the green varieties. 



The teas, whether green or black, have next to be 

 sold, and at the end of the season, the great tea merchants 

 or their agents visit the tea districts, taking with them 

 large supplies of copper coin with which to pay for the 

 commodity. The merchants generally put up at the 

 local inn, and as soon as they have arrived, the growers 

 bring in their baskets of tea, slung on bamboo poles, 

 to submit them to the inspection of the prospective 

 buyer. If the quality is satisfactory, the bargain is 

 struck, and the tea and money change hands. Should 

 the tea not meet with the approval of the merchant, 

 it is promptly taken away and offered in other quarters 

 until a sale is effected. The teas bought up in a district 

 are then conveyed to the most convenient town, where 

 they are again graded and packed into chests for the 

 foreign markets. 



The purest of all teas, which is least touched by the 

 human hand in its manufacture, is the Virgin tea 

 of China. It is prepared exclusively from the very 

 youngest leaves of the shrub and is used principally at 

 Chinese marriages, and so delicate are the leaves that 

 even after prolonged boiling but little tannin is evident. 

 The leaves are tied together with silk thread in tiny 

 bundles, and when the tea is to be brewed a bundle 

 of the leaves is held in a large clear crystal cup of very 

 thin glass by means of a small ivory or silver skewer, 

 and the boiling water poured in. The leaves slowly 

 unfold, and change colour from the dingy greyish-black 



