10 EARLY HISTORY. 



Chin-Nung, a celebrated scholar and philosopher, who 

 existed long before Confucius, is claimed to have said 

 of it: "Tea is better than wine, for it leadeth not to 

 intoxication, neither does it cause a man to say foolish 

 things and repent thereof in his sober moments. It is 

 better than water, for it doth not carry disease ; neither 

 doth it act as a poison, as doth water when the wells 

 contain foul and rotten matter," and Confucius admon- 

 ishes his followers to : " Be good and courteous to all, even 

 to the stranger from other lands. If he say unto thee that 

 he thirsteth give unto him a cup of warm Tea without 

 money and without price." 



A Chinese legend ascribes its first discovery to one 

 Darma, a missionary, famed throughout the East for his 

 religious zeal, who, in order to set an example of piety 

 to his followers, imposed on himself various privations, 

 among which was that of forswearing sleep. After 

 some days and nights passed in this austere manner, 

 he was overcome and involuntarily fell into a deep 

 slumber, on awakening from which he was so distressed 

 at having violated his vow, and in order to prevent a 

 repetition of allowing " tired eyelids to rest on tired eyes," 

 he cut off the offending portions and flung them to the 

 ground. On returning the next day, he discovered that 

 they had undergone a strange metamorphosis, becoming 

 changed into a shrub, the like of which had never been 

 seen before. Plucking some of the leaves and chewing 

 them he found his spirits singularly exhilarated, and his 

 former vigor so much restored that he immediately rec- 

 ommended the newly discovered boon to his disciples. 



Tradition, on the other hand, never at a loss for some 

 marvelous story, but with more plausibility, claims that 

 the use of Tea was first discovered accidentally in China 

 by some Buddhist priests, who, unable to use the brackish 



