Chapter TEA of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

potioni caleficiendae.”—Letter from Japan, of L. Almeida, in Maffei, Litt. Select. ex India, Lib. iv.

1588.—“Caeterum (apud Chinenses) ex herba quadam expressus liquor admodum salutaris, nomine Chia, calidus hauritur, ut apud Iaponios.”—Maffei, Hist. Ind. vi.

„ “Usum vitis ignorant (Japonii): oryzâ exprimunt vinum: Sed ipsi quoque ante omnia delectantur haustibus aquae poene ferventis, insperso quem supra diximus pulvere Chia. Circa eam potionem diligentissimi sunt, ac principes interdum viri suis ipsi manibus eidem temperandae ac miscendae, amicorum honoris causae, dant operam.”—Ibid. Lib. xii.

1598.—“…the aforesaid warme water is made with the powder of a certaine hearbe called chaa.”—Linschoten, 46; [Hak. Soc. i. 157].

1611.—“Of the same fashion is the cha of China, and taken in the same manner; except that the Cha is the small leaf of a herb, from a certain plant brought from Tartary, which was shown me when I was at Malaca.”—Teixeira, i. 19.

1616.—“I bought 3 chaw cups covered with silver plates.…”—Cocks, Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 202, [and see ii. 11].

1626.—“They vse much the powder of a certaine Herbe called Chia, of which they put as much as a Walnut-shell may containe, into a dish of Porcelane, and drinke it with hot water.”—Purchas, Pilgrimage, 587.

1631.—“Dur. You have mentioned the drink of the Chinese called Thee; what is your opinion thereof?…Bont.…The Chinese regard this beverage almost as something sacred…and they are not thought to have fulfilled the rites of hospitality to you until they have served you with it, just like the Mahometans with their Caveah (see COFFEE). It is of a drying quality, and banishes sleep…it is beneficial to asthmatic and wheezing patients.”—Jac. Bontius, Hist. Nat. et Med. Ind. Or. Lib. i. Dial. vi. p. 11.

1638.—“Dans les assemblées ordinaires (à Sourat) que nous faisions tous les iours, nous ne prenions que du Thè, dont l’vsage est fort cummun par toutes les Indes.”—Mandelslo, ed. Paris, 1659, p. 113.

1658.—“Non mirum est, multos etiam nunc in illo errore versari, quasi diversae speciei plantae essent The et Tsia, cum è contra eadem sit, cujus decoctum Chinensibus The, Iaponensibus Tsia nomen audiat; licet horum Tsia, ob magnam contributionem et coctionem, nigrum The appellatur.”—Bontii Hist. Nat. Pisonis Annot. p. 87.

1660.—(September) “28th.…I did send for a cup of tea (a China drink) of which I never had drank before.”—Pepys’s Diary. [Both Ld. Braybrooke (4th ed. i. 110) and Wheatley (i. 249) read tee, and give the date as Sept. 25.]

1667.—(June) “28th.…Home and there find my wife making of tea; a drink which Mr. Pelling, the Potticary, tells her is good for her cold and defluxions.”—Ibid. [Wheatley, vi. 398].

1672.—“There is among our people, and particularly among the womankind a great abuse of Thee, not only that too much is drunk…but this is also an evil custom to drink it with a full stomach; it is better and more wholesome to make use of it when the process of digestion is pretty well finished.…It is also a great folly to use sugar candy with Thee.”—Baldaeus, Germ. ed. 179. (This author devotes five columns to tea, and its use and abuse in India).

1677.—“Planta dicitur Chà, vel…Cià,…cujus usus in Chinae claustris nescius in Europae quoque paulatim sese insinuare attentat.…Et quamvis Turcarum Cave (see COFFEE) et Mexicanorum Ciocolata eundem praestent effectum, Cià tamen, quam nonulli quoque Te vocant, ea multum superat,” etc.—Kircher, China Illust. 180.

„ “Maer de Cià (of Thee) sonder achting op eenije tijt te hebben, is novit schadelijk.”—Vermeulen, 30.

1683.—“Lord Russell…went into his chamber six or seven times in the morning, and prayed by himself, and then came out to Tillotson and me; he drunk a little tea and some sherry.”—Burnet, Hist. of Own Time, Oxford ed. 1823, ii. 375.

1683.—

“Venus her Myrtle, Phœbus has his Bays; Tea both excels which She² vouchsafes to praise, The best of Queens, and best of Herbs we owe
To that bold Nation which the Way did show
To the fair Region where the Sun does rise,
Whose rich Productions we so justly prize.”—Waller.

1690.—“…Of all the followers of Mahomet…none are so rigidly Abstemious as the Arabians of Muscatt.…For Tea and Coffee, which are judg’d the privileg’d Liquors of all the Mahometans, as well as Turks, as those of Persia, India, and other parts of Arabia, are condemned by them as unlawful.…”—Ovington, 427.

1726.—“I remember well how in 1681 I for the first time in my life drank thee at the house of an Indian Chaplain, and how I could not understand how sensible men could think it a treat to drink what tasted no better than hay-water.”—Valentijn, v. 190.

1789.—

“And now her vase a modest Naiad fills
With liquid crystal from her pebbly rills;
Piles the dry cedar round her silver urn, (Bright climbs the blaze, the crackling faggots burn).
Culls the green herb of China’s envy’d bowers,
In gaudy cups the steaming treasure pours,
And sweetly smiling, on her bended knee,
Presents the fragrant quintessence of Tea.”