OF MANIPULATION. 9 



its individual state, also obtained at a remote period, 

 there seems no reason to doubt. The commonly 

 received opinion among the Chinese is, that it has 

 prevailed from the time of Lo-yu ; though we have 

 no authority for this opinion, as far as I have been 

 able to discover, beyond that of current belief and oral 

 tradition. This learned personage does not speak 

 of steaming the leaves, as other early authors 

 do; nor of forming tea into cakes, which modes 

 constitute an important difference. Nor does he 

 speak of rolling the leaves, which is doubtless an 

 omission, or an error which has crept into the cha- 

 racter or symbol used. Nor does he notice the 

 process of chao (the roasting of the leaves in an 

 iron vessel); but simply that of poey (the drying of 

 the leaves over a charcoal fire). Neither do any of 

 the early writers make use of the term chao. So 

 that the method as described by Lo-yu in the 

 Cha-kin, is simply that of beating and patting the 

 leaves, and drying them over a charcoal fire ; unless 

 indeed, which is not improbable, the leaves were 

 rolled either before or during the process of drying. 

 Either of these modes would be sufficient to give 

 the leaf its twisted form, as at present used : 

 which form it is believed also prevailed at this 

 remote period. 



There can be no doubt that the Pekoe tea was 

 early known to the Chinese, and was much es- 

 teemed by them. Indeed, they appear soon to 

 have made the discovery that the young and sue- 



