In England tea is drunk with sugar and milk. Some contend that this custom has been introduced owing to the fact that we drink coarse tea, so strong in tannin that it is necessary to add sugar and milk to mitigate the astringent flavour. This may be so; but the addition of sugar and milk makes the cup of tea a nourishing food, whereas alone it would only be a stimulant. In Russia, tea is drunk without sugar and milk, but with a slice of lemon added; but there, the finest and most costly teas are chiefly used. In China and Japan - the home of the tea plant - the drinking of a cup of tea is the invariable accompaniment of all ceremonies. No visit can be paid, no bargain can be struck, no contract can be made, no meal can be taken without a cup of tea. If one is engaged, as is the lot of every traveller, in paying numerous visits both of business and pleasure during the day, it is surprising the number of cups of tea one can consume; and yet tea-dyspepsia and tea-nervousness are unknown in Japan. The cause may be due to the fact that Japanese teas are only slightly roasted and fermented, and that the method of making tea adopted leads to less tannin being dissolved out than by the English method. Every Japanese household, however poor, possesses a large metal tea kettle and a small porcelain or pottery teapot. Into the tiny teapot is placed a small amount of fine green tea. On this is poured water not quite boiling. Without allowing the water to stand on the leaves more than a moment or two, the tea is poured into small porcelain cups, and drunk pure, without any admixture. Tea taken in this way is extraordinarily refreshing. When in Japan, I have sometimes, after being engaged in the fatiguing, incessant, but fascinating occupation of shopping, turned to the saleswoman serving me, and said, O cha dozo Oka san, which means, " Please give me a cup of your honourable tea, good lady," at which request the tiny teapot has been immediately produced with many smiles and bows, and has yielded an astonishing number of small cups, water being continually added from the pretty chased iron kettle. After this " restoration" shopping again became fascinating. The tea ceremony in Japan. - There is another kind of tea which is also drunk in Japan on the occasion of the unique and solemn Tea Ceremony. This ceremony, which has become a national and tenaciously-held custom, was invented by a great chieftain called Hideyoshi, in the early part of the sixteenth century, with the object of teaching his turbulent barons to be courteous, self-controlled, and silent. At the Tea Ceremony, the details of which are long, elaborate, and definitely arranged, a fine green tea, which has been ground into powder, is brewed in a regulated and ceremonious manner by an official of the household, called the cha-nou. The tea powder is stirred with a whisk in hot water in an antique bowl. This bowl of tea is handed round to the guests seated on their heels on the matting, and is drunk, tea-dust and all, in solemn silence, the bowl being returned to the cha-nou with forehead bowed to the ground. Thus in this, as in many other things, Japan takes the opposite view to England; but we may, I think, learn from Japan to our advantage, and the cup of tea, which in England is notoriously the signal for scandal, is in Japan the opportunity for a meeting of friends in silence.