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every day, and wear gloves when they pick the leaves, to prevent them from 
being dirtied. When the leaves have been terrified and properly prepared, 
they are shut up in vessels of great value, and conveyed with much pomp 
to the emperor’s palace. 
The Japanese ascribe to tea a miraculous origin. Darma, a very religious 
prince, and third son of an Indian king, named Kosjusvo, landed in China, 
they say, in the year 510 of the Christian era. He employed all his care and 
thought to diffuse throughout the country a knowledge of God and religion; 
and, being desirous to excite men by his example, imposed on himself 
privations and mortifications of every kind; living in the open air, and 
devoting the days and nights to prayer and contemplation. After several 
years, however, being worn out with fatigue, he fell asleep against his will; 
and that he might faithfully observe his oath, which he thought he had 
violated, he cut off his eye-lids and threw them on the ground. Next day, 
having returned to the same spot, he found them changed into a shrub 
which the earth had never before produced. Having eaten some of the 
leaves of it, he found his spirits exhilarated, and his former vigour restored. 
He recommended this aliment to his disciples and followers. The reputation 
of tea increased, and after that time it continued to be generally used. 
Kempfer, in his Amoenitates exotica, gives the life with a portrait of this 
saint, so celebrated in China and Japan. There is seen, at the feet of Darma, 
a reed, which indicates that he had traversed the seas and rivers. 
Whether the Chinese collect the tea precisely at the same seasons as in 
Japan , we are not well informed ; but most probably the tea harvest is nearly 
at the same periods, the natives having frequent intercourse, and their 
commercial concerns with each other being very extensive. 
The tea leaves should be dried as soon as possible after they are gathered. 
For this puipose public buildings are erected, containing from five to ten. 
and even twenty, small Jiivnaces, about three feet high, each having at the 
top a large iron pan. There is also a long table covered with mats, on 
which the leaves are laid, and rolled by women who sit round it. The iron 
pan being heated to a certain degree by a fire made in the furnace beneath, 
a few pounds of the leaves are put upon the pan, and frequently turned 
and shifted by the hands till they become too hot to be endured; they are 
then thrown upon the mats to be rolled between the palms of the hands; 
after which they are cooled as speedily as possible. In order that all the 
moisture of the leaves may be completely dissipated, and their twisted form 
