OF BRICK TEA. 201 



" The Raja held out upon the points of the 

 fingers of his right hand a shallow lacquered cup 

 of small circumference, which was filled with tea. 

 Three cups had been sent, and were set clown before 

 us ; the Raja directed his servant to fill them also : 

 still holding the cup in his right hand, he repeated, 

 in a low and hollow tone of voice, a long invoca- 

 tion ; and afterwards dipping the point of his 

 finger three times into the cup, he threw as many 

 drops upon the floor, by way of oblation, and then 

 began to sip his tea. Taking this as a signal, we 

 followed the example, and partook of the dishes of 

 parched rice that were served up with it. We 

 found this liquor extremely unlike what we had 

 been used to drink under the same name ; it was 

 a compound of water, flour, butter, salt, and Bohea 

 tea, with some other astringent ingredients, all 

 boiled, beat up, and intimately blended together. 

 I confess the mixture was by no means to my 

 taste, and we had hitherto shunned, as much as 

 possible, these unpalatable libations, yet we now 

 deemed it necessary to submit to some constraint ; 

 and having at last with a tolerable grace swallowed 

 the tea, we yet found ourselves very deficient in 

 the conclusion of the ceremony. The Raja, with 

 surprising dexterity, turned the cup as he held it 

 fast betwixt his fingers, and in an instant passed 

 his tongue over every part of it : so that it was 

 sufficiently cleansed to be wrapped in a piece of 

 scarlet silk, which bore evident marks of having 



