( 3G0 ) 



On the various Preparatioiifi of Milk, particularly of' Mared' 

 Milk, used by the Kalmuck Tartais. 



Xhe ordinary drink of the Kalmucks, and which forms an es- 

 sential part of their food, consists of various preparations of the 

 milk supplied by their cattle. The mares yield milk as well as 

 the cows; and, for several reasons, they prefer the former. 

 When fresh, this milk has a taste of onions, which is very repul- 

 sive ; but, in proportion as it sours, if the operation is performed 

 with cleanliness, it becomes more liquid than the other, acquires 

 an agreeable vinous taste, and neither forms cream nor coagu- 

 lates. In this state, it furnishes a wholesome and refreshing 

 drink, and which, when in sufficient quantity, froths in a re- 

 markable degree. The cow's milk, on the contrary, both on 

 account of the cheesy matter w hich it contains, and its disagree- 

 able taste, becomes unpleasant to drink when it sours ; and, in 

 persons not accustomed to it, induces colics and diarrhoeas, al- 

 though the Kalmucks themselves experience no inconvenience 

 from it, unless they have neglected to boil it. This they do, in 

 the first place, and never use it until it has undergone this ope- 

 ration, without which they would be exposed to the inconve- 

 niences with which sour milk affects Europeans. In like man- 

 ner, the Kalmucks do not relish water that has not been boiled. 

 Poor persons, to prevent their being reduced to the necessity of 

 drinking it pure, mix it with their milk, in the proportion of a 

 third part or half, in order to make the most of the latter as a 

 drink. 



The milk is therefore heated as soon as it is withdrawn from 

 the animal ; and, when warm, it is poured into a large skin bot- 

 tle, with which the poorest hut is furnished, and in which there 

 is always a remnant of sour milk sufficient to sour the new milk 

 after it has been stirred with a stick kept for the purpose. 

 Those bottles are never washed or cleaned. They are therefore 

 always incrusted with cheese and dirt, and the smell emitted by 

 them is sufficient to shew what they contain. But it is precisely 

 in this that the secret for making the milk undergo the vinous 

 fermentation consists. If it be intended to sour milk in empty 

 or new bottles, all that is necessary is to put into them the least 



