A Cup of Tea [pp. 371-375]

THE LADIES' REPOSITOR r.
kindly providence that raised the tea-cup to our
tired lips just as our city life grew more busy
and more sedentary? Happy the brave brainworkers who were born after the coming in of
the sweet herb of China!
It was for a long time supposed that the use
of tea began in Tartary, and was not introduced
into China till the empire was conquered by the
Tartars, ten years before the restoration of
Charles the Second; but this is entirely an
error, as Bontius, a Leyden professor, who
flourished in the reign of James the Frst, mentions the general use of tea by the Chinese
twenty years before the Tartars clambered over
the Great Wall, or marched past the great bluetiled Pagodas.
The Chinese have two curious old legends,
which are worth repeating, as first contributions
to the mythology of the tea-pot.
The first relates to the Origin of the TeaPlant.
Darma, a very religious prince, son of Kasinwo, an Indian king, and the twenty-eighth
descendant of Tiaka, a negro monarch, (O1023
B. C.,) landed in China in the year A. D. 5Io.
Probably a Brahmin or a Buddhist of great
austerity, he employed all his care to diffuse a
sense of religion, and for this purpose denied
himself rest, sleep, and relaxation. He lived
in the open air, and devoted himself day and
night to prayer and contemplation of the nature
and beneficence of God, aiming at eventual absorption into the Divine Essenc6 when purified
by long prayer, fast, and vigil. Flesh is flesh,
however. After several years, worn out by
want of food and sleep, Darma the great and
good involuntarily closed his eyes, and after
that slept soundly, reckless of any thing but
rest. Before dawn he awoke, full of sorrow and
despair at having thus broken his vow, snatched
up a knife, and cut off both his offending eyelids.
Whlen it grew light he discovered that two
beautiful shrubs had grown from them, and
eating some of the leaves, he was presently
filled with new joy, courage, and strength to
pursue his holy meditations. The new plant
was the tea-plant, and Darma recommended
the use of it to his disciples and followers.
Kaempfer gives a portrait of this Chinese and
Japanese saint, at whose feet there is always a
reed to indicate that he had traversed seas and
rivers, and had come from afar.
The legend seems to prove that from the
earliest times tea was known among students
and austere people as a dispeller of drowsiness.
Its first use was, no doubt, accidental, as was
that of coffee, the virtues of which, the Arab
legend says, were discovered by some goats
who had browsed on leaves of the coffee-plant,
and became unusually lively after their meal.
It is a singular fact, too, that Jesuit writers who
visited China in the reign of James the First,
expressly state that they used the herb tea
common among the Chinese, and found that it
kept their eyes open, and lessened the fatigue
of writing sermons and hearing absolutions that
lasted late into the night. No doubt the figure
of Darma and his reed could be found on old
China.
Our second Boheatic Myth is a legend about
Old China.
The Island of Mauvi, now sunk deep in the
sea near the island of Formosa, was once wealthy
and flourishing, and its silken-clad pigtailed
people made the richest and finest porcelain in
the world. The King of Mauvi, being a pious
man, was warned in a dream by the gods, that
when the faces of two of the people's most
famous idols grew red, the island would suddenly be destroyed, for the great wickedness of
its inhabitants -who were probably tea-merchants; that is, tea-adulterators. Two very sharp
villains, hearing of this dream, went in the
night, and at once incontinently painted both
the images a bright red, with a dash or two of
pea-gr-een, upon which the king, without due
inquiry though he proved right in the endinstantly took ship, and started for the south of
China. As soon as he was gone the island
settled down, with the two rascals, the teamerchants, and all the porcelain. There can
be no doubt about the story, for the tops of the
highest rocks of Mauvi are still visible at low
water; and, moreover, if any further proof was
needed, divers often venture down into the blue
depths, when the sharks are asleep above in the
sun, and recover old tea-pots, shaped like small
barrels, with short, narrow necks, and of a
greenish-white color. They used to be worth
about seven thousand pounds apiece when
cracked, and fissured, and having shells sticking
to them. An old Dutch writer computes the
price of the large and sound at five thousand
thails. Now, a thail is ten silver maas, and
ten maas are equal to seventy Dutch stivers,
and twelve stivers are worth thirteenpence of
our currency, and all that makes a heap of
money.
Many antiquarians lbut not Dreikopf; O, no,
no!-are of opinion that the Arabian Malobathron-mentioned by the writer of the Periplusor first survey-of the Black Sea, supposed to
be Arrian, the learned preceptor of Marcus Antoninus-is tea, as the golden fleece is thought
to be silk, and the Spartans' black broth coffee;
but we do not hold to this belief, for, as Drei
i
I
I
372