| Darma,
third son of Koyuwo,
King of India, a religions high priest from Siaka (the author of that
Eastern
paganism about a thousand years before the Christian era), coming to
China,
to teach the way of happiness, lived a most austere life, passing his
days
in continual mortification, and retiring by night to solitudes, in
which
he fed only upon the leaves of trees and other vegetable
productions.
After several years passed
in this manner, in fasting and watching, it happened that, contrary to
his vows, the pious Darma fell asleep! When he awoke, he was so much
enraged
at himself, that, to prevent the offence to his vows for the future, he
got rid of his eyelids and placed them on the ground.
On the following day, returning
to his accustomed devotions, he beheld, with amazement, springing up
from
his eyelids, two small shrubs of an unusual appearance, such as he had
never before seen, and of whose qualities he was, of course, entirely
ignorant.
The saint, however, not being
wholly devoid of curiosity--or, perhaps, being unusually hungry--was
prompted
to eat of the leaves, and immediately felt within him a wonderful
elevation
of mind, and a vehement desire of divine contemplation, with which he
acquainted
his disciples, who were eager to follow the example of their
instructor,
and they readily received into common use the fragrant plant which has
been the theme of so many poetical and literary pens in succeeding ages.
|
Since
India didn't have
any record of date, or facts, on stone or tablet, or ever handed down a
single incident of song or story, apart from the legend, as to the
origin
of tea, until a quite recent period botanists believed that the tea
plant
was a native of China, and that its growth was confined to China and
Japan.
But it is now definitely known that the tea plant is a native of India,
where the wild plant attains a size and perfection which concealed its
true character from botanical experts, as well as from ordinary
observers,
for many years after it had become familiar to them as a native of
Indian
forests.
While everyone knows now
where tea originated, no one knows for sure when the now worldwide
custom
of tea infusion began.
Although the legend credits
the pious East Indian with the discovery of tea, there is no evidence
extant
that India is really the country where the custom of tea infusion
began.
Most likely that plant was slumbering on the slopes of India, unpicked,
unsteeped, undrunk, unhonored, and unsung.
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