KOUMISS. 419 
welfare seriously impaired ; and the vital fact has been learnt 
that if healthy animal kidney substance be given under these 
conditions, then the disturbed balance of soundness is restored to 
the patient. Therefore, for meeting this object our manufactur- 
ing chemists supply animal kidney substance ready to hand as 
a dry powder, or in tabloid form. But still better is the fresh 
healthy animal kidney as furnished opportunely by the cook. 
A liking for sheep’s kidneys is not confined to the human 
gourmet. For instance, we are told by Dr. John Brown, of 
Edinburgh (1860), in Our Dogs, that “ Jock, of the Orkneys, 
though beloved by his master, took to evil courses, extracting 
the kidneys from the best young rams of the flock, and driving 
whole hirsels down steep places into the sea, till at last all the 
guns of Westray were pointed at him, and blew him into space 
as he stood at bay under a huge rock on the shore.” Curiously 
enough, the term kidney was at one time a cant word for a 
servant in waiting. Thus The Tatler has told, “it is our custom 
upon the first coming of the news to order a youth who officiates 
as the kidney of the coffee house to get into the pulpit, and read 
every paper with a loud and distinct voice.” 
KOUMISS, (and See Mixx). 
THE Kumys of the Kergese, who inhabit the Asiatic steppes— 
a fermented drink made from mare’s milk,—was described by 
the father of history, Herodotus, and remains a typical Kergese 
product to this day. When the milk was drawn, it was poured 
into deep wooden vessels, and continually agitated for long hours 
by slaves whom the Scythians kept blind for this purpose. The 
upper part of the milk then became alcoholic in its solution, 
whilst the lower part remained as curdled casein, being more of. 
4 nutriment than an intoxicant. Mares’ milk is not suitable 
for making butter, first, because it contains but little fat, and 
next because what fat can be got from it is not butter, but a half 
oily, lard-like substance of disagreeable taste. Even in the 
present day the nomads of the Russian steppes do not manu- 
facture any butter, but they prepare large quantities of Kumys. 
From the above account it may be readily gathered that the 
artificial Koumiss of our modern dairies differs essentially irom 
the true Koumiss of the Asiatic Kergese. 
LARK (See Birps, and CHEESE). 
