EARLY HISTORY. II 



water near their temple, steeped in it the leaves of a 

 shrub, growing in the vicinity, with the intention of 

 correcting its unpleasant properties. The experiment 

 was so successful that they informed the inhabitants 

 of their discovery, subsequently cultivating the plant 

 extensively for that express purpose. While another 

 record attributes its first discovery about 2737 B. c. to 

 the aforementioned Chin-Nung, to whom all agricultural 

 and medicinal knowledge is traced in China. In replen- 

 ishing a fire made of the branches of the Tea plant, some 

 of the leaves fell into the vessel in which he was boiling 

 water for his evening meal. Upon using it he found it 

 to be so exciting and exhilarating in its effects that he 

 continued to use it; imparting the knowledge thus gained 

 to others, its use soon spread throughout the country. 



These accounts connected with the first discovery of 

 the Tea plant in China are purely fabulous, and it is not 

 until we come down to the fourth century of the Chris- 

 tian era that we can trace any positive allusion to it by a 

 Chinese writer. But, as the early history of nearly every 

 other ancient discovery is more or less vitiated by fable, 

 we ought not to be any more fastidious or less indul- 

 gent towards the marvelous in the discovery of Tea 

 than we are towards that of fire, iron, glass or coffee. 

 The main facts may be true, though the details be in- 

 correct; and, though the accidental discovery of fire 

 may not have been made by Suy-Jin in the manner 

 claimed, yet it probably was communicated originally by 

 the friction of two sticks. Nor may it be strictly correct 

 to state that Fuh-he made the accidental discovery of 

 iron by the burning of wood on brown earth any more 

 than the Phoenicians discovered the making of glass by 

 burning green wood on sand, yet it is not improbable 

 that some such accidental processes first led to these 



