Chap. X. 



*'LIE TEAS." 



213 



a certain number of particles adhere, and in the 

 course of time are made into little round balls 

 resembling the caper of commerce. But no one 

 is, or ought to be, deceived by this. Small quan- 

 tities of such teas are, no doubt, exported, but it 

 must be with the knowledge and connivance of 

 the foreigner himself, whom I shall not honour 

 with the title of foreign merchant. And I shall 

 be greatly surprised to find that such a clumsy 

 fraud affects the respectable broker or dealer in 

 Europe or America. 



During a late tour in India I was told on more 

 than one occasion, on the authoritv of " Old In- 

 dians" who had been home, that it was next to 

 impossible to get genuine tea in England, now 

 that the East India Company had no control over 

 the China trade ; and that since the demand had 

 so much increased, the Chinese were in the habit 

 of supplying it by substituting the leaves of other 

 trees and shrubs for that which is genuine. 



This idea is simply absurd : as a general rule 

 the Chinese are doing no such thing ; they have 

 plenty of true tea in the country to supply all 

 demands, were they twice as great as they are. 

 And while it may be perfectly true that some 

 unprincipled adventurers encourage the produc- 

 tion of " lie teas " by buying them up, the great 

 bulk of the teas exported are unadulterated with 

 other articles. If sloe-leaves and beech-leaves, and 

 other articles of that kind, are found in the tea- 

 pot by the consumer, they are much more likely 



Q 2 



