an hut, without
grass, resting on posts, 2 feet from the ground, with an angle of
about 25 deg. The baskets with leaves are put in this frame to dry
in the sun, and are pushed up and brought down by a long bamboo with
a circular piece of wood at the end. The leaves are permitted to dry
about two hours, being occasionally turned; but the time required
for this process depends on the heat of the sun. When they begin to
have a slightly withered appearance, they are taken down and brought
into the house, when they are placed on a frame to cool for half an
hour; they are then put into smaller baskets of the same kind as the
former, and placed on a stand. People are now employed to soften the
leaves still more, by gently clapping them between their hands, with
their fingers and thumbs extended, and tossing them up and letting
them fall, for about five or ten minutes. They are then again put on
the frame during half an hour, and brought down and clapped with the
hands as before. This is done three successive times, until the
leaves become to the touch like soft leather; the beating and
putting away being said to give the tea the black color and bitter
flavor. After this the tea is put into hot cast-iron pans, which are
fixed in a circular mud fireplace, so that the flame cannot ascend
round the pan to incommode the operator. This pan is well heated by
a straw or bamboo fire to a certain degree. About two pounds of the
leaves are then put into each hot pan, and spread in such a manner
that all the leaves may get the same degree of heat. They are every
now and then briskly turned with the naked hand, to prevent a leaf
from being burnt. When the leaves become inconveniently hot to the
hand, they are quickly taken out and delivered to another man with a
close-worked bamboo basket, ready to receive them. A few leaves that
may have been left behind are smartly brushed out with a bamboo
broom: all this time a brisk fire is kept up under the pan. After
the pan has been used in this manner three or four times, a bucket
of cold water is thrown in, and a soft brick-bat and bamboo broom
used, to give it a good scouring out; the water is thrown out of the
pan by the brush on one side, the pan itself being never taken off.
The leaves, all hot in the bamboo basket, are laid on a table that
has a narrow rim