THE DIVINE LEAF.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19940, 6 November 1926, Page 9

THE DIVINE LEAF.

COMPLIMENT FOR TEA. REIGNS FROM POLE TO POLE. That is what E. V. Lucas calls tea, and the herb deserves the compliment. For about 14 'centuries it has cheered large sections of the human race, but never had such a constituency as it has to-day. It was known to the Chinese before 519 A.D., and is said to have been introduced by Prince Darina, a devout Indian, who spent days and nights in meditation. If bis celcctial speculations had anything to do with his introduction of tea into China, they were very far from fruitless. The legend is that one night his ecstacy was interrupted by sleep. He was so angry that he tore off his eyelids and flung them on the ground. Visiting the dace some time after he found that his eyelids had grown into a shrub. Taking some of the leaves he poured boiling water over them, enjoyed the flavour, and from that day indulged in it. By drinking a little of it he kept sleep away, and was able to pursue his meditations. The story is quite Eastern, but has affinities with Western thought. Tea does wake one up. There are, however, modern testimonies* to the opposite. Persons who cannot sloe]) get up and make a cup of tea and testify that after doing so they are able to drop off comfortably into the arms of Morpheus. The explanation is that having eaten a biscuit or a piece of broad and butter with the tea the process of digestion demands, the help, of the blood, which has been doing overtime in the brain, and is now summoned to the culinary department. Although so long known in China, tea was not brought to Europe till well on in the sixteenth century, and England made its acquaintance early in the seventeenth century. One Garraway opened a teahouse in Exchange Alley, London, in 1G57. and the price was then £5 to £lO per lb. Pcpys, writing on September 28, IG6O. says: “I did send for a cup of tea (a China drink), of which I had never drank before.” Two years later he writes: “Home, and there find my wife making of tea. a drink which Mr Peeling, the apqthecary, tells her is good for her cold and defluxions. ’ The high price kept tea a luxury for many years after its introduction. An advertisement in a Glasgow paper for a nurse to take chai-gc of a child says: “The wages are £G per annum, hut not permitted to drink tea.” Well-to-do people about this time used to invite their friends to tea and supper.” What impresses one in tracing the history of tea is its creative energy. It has given its name to one of the day’s meals, and thus signalised its triumphs by a leap to immortality. All civilisation names it and loves it. One cannot imagine ah age which will see it dethroned. Southey tells the story of an old lady who was om. of a party that sat down to the first pound of tea that ever came to Penrith. They boiled it in a kettle, and ate the leaves with butter and salt, wondering where the attraction lay. It is most singular that many people think me make tea better than women do; and that college students are supposed to be masters of the art. r jfhe ideas are open to question. It is quite true that some housewives never think tea is good till it has stood by the lire for 20 minutes, and is as black as treacle, but the majority nowadays know the formula of the five minutes. Billy tea stands by itself, and owes its aroma to its environment of bush and stream and general company. The strong fresh air is more than equal to counteract the effect of undue strength in the contents of the What tea drinkers were Johnson, Gladstone, and Dean Stanley! Hartley Color idge was asked how many cups he was in the habit of drinking, and his answer was: “Cups! I don’t count by cups. I count by pots.” His father was more modest. Carlyle relates that one day Mrs Gilman handed Coleridge a belated cup of tea with the remark that she hoped it was all right. “Better than I deserve, madam; better than I deserve.” Of course, the pleasure of tea depends largely on its accessories, and these have now, so developed as to make even the afternoon service a very formidable affair. Cecilu, tho comedian, .used to describe the notice at Kew. “Tea, plain, 6d.” “Tea, with shrimps, 9(1.” “Tea, with children, Is.” It sounded cannibalistic. It is generally agreed that tho worst tea is served in shops, and at railway stations. The students at a London hospital drew up an examination paper at which the candidate was asked to describe “tho grief felt by the refreshment room tea at never having scon Asia.” Tea has waved its wand and changed the world, created new employments and utensils and delights. We have tea tasters, tea urns, tea merchants, and church tea meetings. Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter said it was always tea time, and truly there is not _an hour or a minute when somebody is not drinking tea. Tho divine leaf reigns from pole to pole.