362 Preparations of Milk used by the Kalmuck Tartars. 



brandy. I shall even confess that I had a trial made under my 

 own eyes, at Selenginsk, by Kalmucks, and was so unsuccessful, 

 that I only obtained a watery fluid which had the smell of sour 

 milk ; but the reason of this was, that two clean vessels had 

 been used. On the contrary, whenever I allowed these people 

 to use their own vessels, abundant alcoholic vapours were pro- 

 cured. It is, therefore, an important point to determine, by 

 means of vessels impregnated by long use, with a strong smell, 

 and the remains of sour milk, that sudden souring which deve- 

 lopes a spiritous principle. This fermentation of a rare species, 

 and entirely sui generis, can only be brought to the desired 

 perfection by frequent repetition of the process, just as, accord- 

 ino- to Russel *, the thick milk (lebnn), which the Arabs ha- 

 bituallv use for making cheese, can only be obtained by pro- 

 ducing the coagulation of the fresh milk by means of a milk 

 previously curdled, or, in other words, by the cohobation many 

 times repeated of curdled milk. 



After describing the process of distillation, Fallas remarks, 

 if the brandy is made from cow's milk, what is obtained is equal 

 to the thirtieth, or at most to the twenty-fifth part of the mass; 

 but when from mare's milk, it equals the fifteenth part. The 

 new fluid is pale and watery, and does not inflame ; but it keeps 

 without spoiling, in glass bottles, like weak corn-brandy. The 

 rich Kalmucks render it stronger by several distillations, and 

 they have names for the products of each rectification. The 

 arki is named dang- after its first rectification ; arza, after the 

 second ; khortsa, after the third. They seldom go farther, al- 

 though the rectifications are sometimes pushed to six. The 

 names o-iven to the two last are chingsta and dingsta. The 

 Kalmucks are generally, however, content with the products of 

 the first distillation. 



The receiver has scarcely been filled when they pour the 

 brandy warm from it into a large wooden vessel with a spout, 

 from which they fill leather bottles or gourds. 



It is customary for the host, with whom the company is then 

 to pour brandy into a vessel, and afterwards to throw part of it 

 into the fire, and part towards the hole by which the smoke is- 



• Russel's Aleppo, p. 54. 



