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Show Symbolic Uses of Tea Throughout the World When a Burmese bride wants to tell the bridegroom he's her man forever, she offers him a mixture of tea leaves steeped In oil on their wedding day. And If he's any kind of a gentleman, gentle-man, he'll return the compliment, for such an exchange to the Burmese way of thinking Is sure to bring years and years of matrimonial bliss, according to a recent bulletin on the world's queer ways of drinking tea. Tea has more symbolic uses and ceremonies than any other drink known to man, the bulletin states. In Burma tea figures prominently in the marriage ceremonial. In Siam a suitor suit-or must say it with tea leaves, rather than bon lions, if he expects to succeed suc-ceed in his love quest. Tea In China and Japan is the symbol of hospitality and a rite of utmost Importance in domestic life. With the Englishman, tea, usually served with cream and sugar, is an Institution. He sips a cup of the fragrant fra-grant beverage before he gets out of bed in the morning, has it with his luncheon at noon, drops in for a tea pick-me-up at four o'clock and may have a cup of the invigorating drink again for dinner. In Japan, workers carry around with them their rice boxes of lacquered wood, a kettle, a tea caddy, a teapot, a cup, and their chopsticks. Tea time with them Is any time. It is the same in Bokhara, where the natives pack their own tea around with them, simply hunting up the nearest tea booth, of which there are thousands, to have the proprietor brew it for them. America, the melting pot of the races, drinks'its tea many ways. Some take it In the Russian fashion, with lemon, others a la English, while many drink it down neat. Use of tea as a beverage In the United States has shown a notable Increase in recent years, the bulletin states, as a result of Americans taking tak-ing more pains in the making of tea and In its selection. |