1839.] extent and produce of the Tea Plantations in Assam. 181 



become too hot for the hand. Two slips of bamboo, each about a foot 

 long, split at one end so as to form six prongs, are now used to tum- 

 ble and toss the leaves about, by running the sticks down the sides of 

 the pan, and turning the leaves up first with the right hand, then 

 with the left, and this as fast as possible ; which keeps the leaves 

 rolling about in the pan without being burnt; this lasts about three 

 minutes; the leaves will then admit of being rolled and pressed with- 

 out breaking. They are now taken from the pnn and rolled in dollahs, 

 much the same as the Black-Tea, for about three minutes, in which pro* 

 eess a great quantity of the juice is extracted, if they be fresh leaves } 

 but if they have been kept over night, very little juice can be expressed 

 from them in the morning, on account of its having evaporated. The 

 Chinamen say, this does not matter, as it mikes no difference in the 

 Tea. The leaves are then pressed hard between both hands, and turn- 

 ed round and pressed again and again, until they have taken the shape 

 of a small pyramid. They are now placed in bamboo-baskets or dol- 

 lahs with a narrow edge, and the dollahs on bamboo frame-work (see 

 fig. 2 of my former account of Black-Tea) where they are exposed to 

 the sun for two or three minutes, after which these pyramids of Tea are 

 gently opened and thinly spread on the dollahs to dry. When the Tea 

 has become a little dry, (which will be the case in from five to ten mi- 

 nutes if the sun be hot) it is again rolled, and then placed in the sun as 

 before; this is done three successive times. But should the weather 

 be rainy, and there is no hope of its clearing, all this drying is done over 

 the fire in a small drying basket, the same as with Black-Tea. The 

 Green-Tea makers have as great an aversion to drying their Tea over 

 the fire, as the Black-Tea makers. The third time it has been rolled 

 and dried, there is very little moisture left in the Tea ; it is now put into 

 a hot pan, and gently turned over and over, and opened out occasionally! 

 until all has become wel 1 heated ; it is then tossed out into a basket, 

 and while hot put into a very strong bag, previously prepared for it, 

 about four feet long, and four spans in circumference. Into this bag 

 the Tea is pressed with great force with the hands and feet j from four- 

 teen to twenty pounds being put in at one time, and forced into as small 

 a compass as possible. "With his left hand the man firmly closes the 

 mouth of the bag immediately above the leaves, while with the right 

 hand he pommels and beats the bag, every now and then giving it a turn ; 

 thus he beats and turns and works at it, tightening it by every turn with 

 one hand, and holding on with the other, until he has squeezed the 

 leaves into as small a compass as possible at the end of the bag. He 

 now makes it fast by turns of the cloth where he held on, so that it may 



