JAPANESE CUSTOMS AND HABITS. 197 



small cup of tea and some millet cakes are at once 

 placed before you, with apologies for the poor fare. 

 This tea is most invigorating. I have over and over again 

 been no less surprised than gratified at its refreshing 

 properties. The tea this very poor class uses is rough 

 and sun-dried, picked from their small gardens, or a 

 few yards of clearing in some sheltered nook on the 

 mountain side. Firing tea — drying it by artificial 

 means — was introduced by the foreigner. Women and 

 girls are employed for this work, and how they stand 

 it I cannot tell. It has to be done in the summer, 

 when the thermometer ranges between 75° and 85°; 

 though this gives no idea of what the heat is within 

 the firing-houses, which, having a himdred fires or 

 more, are incomparably hotter. Those employed have 

 to stoop over the hot iron pans, and keep stirring 

 the tea with their hands. A very short time at this 

 work is sufficient to make them fling their garments off 

 their shoulders, and to appear bare to the waist. What 

 with the steam from the tea, perspiration, and the dust 

 that rises as the tea dries, they soon present an unplea- 

 sant spectacle. They work at this for nine hours a day, 

 receiving ten cents (fivepence) as pay for that time. 

 The operation may certainly have no bad effect on the 

 fat ones, but, as a rule, I believe it is very injurious. 



