down again; they
are placed three or four inches deep on the sieve, leaving a passage
in the centre for the hot air to pass. Before it is put over the
fire, the drying basket receives a smart slap with both hands in the
act of lifting it up, which is done to shake down any leaves that
might otherwise drop through the sieve, or to prevent them from
falling into the fire and occasioning a smoke, which would affect
and spoil the tea. This slap on the basket is invariably applied
throughout the stages of tea manufacture. There is always a large
basket underneath to receive the small leaves that fall, which are
afterwards collected, dried, and added to the other tea; in no case
are the baskets or sieves allowed to touch or remain on the ground,
but always laid on a receiver, with three legs. After the leaves
have bean half-dried in the drying-basket, and while they are still
soft, they are taken off the fire and put into large open-worked
baskets, and then put on the shelf, in order that the tea may
improve in color.

Next day the leaves are all sorted into large, middling, and small;
sometimes there are four sorts. All these, the Chinese informed me,
become so many different kinds of teas; the smallest leaves they
call Pha-ho, the second Pow-chong, the third Souchong, and the
fourth, or the largest leaves, Zoy-chong. After this assortment they
are again put on the sieve in the drying-basket (taking care not to
mix the sorts), and on the fire, as on the preceding day; but now
very little more than will cover the bottom of the sieve is put in
at one time; the same care of the fire is taken as before, and the
same precaution of tapping the drying basket every now and then. The
tea is taken off the fire with the nicest care, for fear of any
particles of the tea falling into it. Whenever the drying-basket is
taken off, it is put on the receiver, the sieve in the drying-basket
taken out, the tea turned over, the sieve replaced, the tap given,
and the basket placed again over the fire. As the tea becomes crisp,
it is taken out and thrown into a large receiving-basket, until all
the quantity on hand has become alike dried and crisp, from which
basket it is again removed into the drying-basket, but now in much
larger quantities. It is then piled up eight and ten inches high on
the sieve in