finished. To this succeeds the packing, and the whole is closed by sacrificing to the gods, on which ceremony much stress is laid. On one of these occasions a lad is said to have devoted himself to the flames, by which they imagine that great blessings were procured. The concourse of people at King-tĭh is very great. There are from two to three hundred furnaces, and several hundred thousand workmen, who wait as anxiously on the fire, as the husbandman does for the early and later rain.—See Morrison's Dictionary, part iii.
For some time, porcelain was a regular article of export from China to Europe, and much prized in this country. Since, however, the improvement in our own manufacture, and the discouraging duty levied on imported porcelain, the introduction has greatly diminished; though the value of real China ware still keeps up. Whatever advances we may have made in whiteness of our porcelain, and the brilliancy of our colours, we must remember that the Chinese were the first to practice the art, and still exceed us in the compactness of the material, and the fineness of the ware.
The Chinese have not only furnished us with cups, but with tea. It is not exactly certain when this beverage was first used by the Chinese; it is presumed, however, that in early antiquity the use of the plant was unknown; as the ancient classics, and the history of the middle ages make no mention of it.Ever since the intercourse commenced with western nations this leaf has formed more or less an article of export; and in England, especially, the use of it has grown with a rapidity only equalled by the advance in the opium trade to China. We find mention made of tea, in
