1892 Drinks of the world

DRINKS.

240

third son of King Kosjusvo, went, very many cen- turies ago, from India to China, where he abode, and became celebrated for his piety. Like the fakirs of India, he showed his reHgious tendencies in a morbid manner — Hving only under heaven's canopy, fasting for weeks together, and eliminating sleep altogether from his daily wants. Tradition says that this state of things continued for years, until, one day, weary nature asserted her pre-eminence, and Darma slept. Imagine his holy horror on his awakening! Some- thing of the same kind must have possessed Cranmer when he stretched forth his right hand in the flames of his funereal pyre, with the heart-wrung exclamation, " This hand hath offended." So with Darma ; filled with pious horror, his first thought was, how to expiate his offence, and his peccant eyelids were, consequently, cut off and thrown upon the ground. Next day, re- turning to the spot where he had involuntarily sinned, he saw two shrubs, of a kind never before beheld in China. He tasted them, found them aromatic, and, moreover, possessing the quality of imparting wake- fulness to their consumer. The discovery and miracle became noised abroad, and hence the popularity of tea in China. But, apart from this legend, the Chinese themselves have no certain record of the introduction of tea into their country. They believe that it was in use in 'the third century, and in the latter end of the fourth cen- tury, Wangmung, a minister of the Tsin dynasty, made it fashionable and much increased its consump-

was chewed at that time,

In all probability it

tion.