OF HYSON TEAS. 229 



different times, as well as what I witnessed on the 

 occasions here alluded to. 



The factors say, that when they have concluded 

 their purchases, and brought home their Mao Cha, 

 they roast it three che hiang (two and a half 

 hours), and then pack it in canisters. In the course 

 of a month it is sifted. The number of sieves used 

 are four ; the three first retain the Hyson, and the 

 fourth the young Hyson ; the round gunpowder is 

 picked out from the third sieve ; and the che -ma 

 (hemp seed), or imperial gunpowder, is winnowed 

 from the fourth by means of a machine. Though 

 it is usual to speak of four sieves, yet the number 

 used must evidently depend upon the size and 

 quality of the leaves, as in all other parts of the 

 process. I understand that seven sieves are com- 

 monly used in the Hyson districts ; five and six I 

 have seen used mvself: and the reader will re- 

 member that the Honan leaves, from the thinness 

 and poorness of the leaf, required only two. Nor 

 must the writer's words be taken literally ; for all 

 that the Chinese mean by four sieves being used is, 

 that the tea is first divided by means of four sieves 

 into five principal divisions ; and not that only 

 four sieves are used. The order, too, in which 

 the sieves are used, differs from that about to be 

 described ; the coarsest sieves being used first in 

 the Hyson country, agreeably to the foregoing ac- 

 count, whilst the finest were employed at Canton 

 to exhibit this process to me. 



Q 3 



