“In the first place, the youngest and most tender leaves are gathered; but when there are many hands and a great quantity of loaves to be collected, the people employed nip off with the forefinger and thumb the fine end of the branch, with about four leaves on, and sometimes even more if they look tender.  These are all brought to the place where they are to be converted into tea:  they are then put into a large, circular, open worked bamboo basket, having a rim all round, two fingers broad.  The leaves are thinly scattered in these baskets, and then placed in a framework of bamboo, in all appearance like the sides of an Indian 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 on its back, to prevent these baskets from