ALT 



LIQUORS 



Tibetan Chang. 



Kim. 



Baza. 



Naga Dzu. 



Ferments. 



the course of three or four days fermentation takes place and the liquor is ready 

 for drinking." In another passage, Moorcroft remarks, " The Tibetans never 

 drink plain water if they can avoid it. The wealthier drink grape-juice and 

 water, or sherbets ; the poorer, a beverage called buza by the Kashmiris, and 

 chang'by the Tibetans, which is made from barley. The grain is boiled until it 

 is soft, and then dried ; to about 10 Ib. of this softened grain, three ounces of 

 the dough used for wheaten cakes, but dried and pounded, are added, and the 

 mixture is put into a bag and kept in a warm place until it ferments, which it 

 does usually in two or three days. Equal measures of the prepared barley and 

 cold water are put together in an earthen vessel. After standing for two days 

 the fluid is strained off ; a similar quantity of water is again added, and treated 

 in the same manner, and the beverage is the liquor called^c7&ang>." " The grains 

 remaining after infusion are dried, and ground into flour." The above passages 

 bring to mind the account of buzeh as given by the Emperor Baber in his Memoirs 

 (1525, 283, 294), speaking of Sewad and Bajour (practically the same country), 

 and thus three hundred years before Moorcroft's time. The passage has already 

 been quoted under Eleusine (p. 520), and there would seem little doubt that the 

 substance called kim, which was " round like a loaf," was the softened grain 

 (whether barley or marua), with its ferment and bitter flavouring ingredient, 

 taken from the cloth in which squeezed to deprive it of its moisture, 

 and thus compressed into what might easily be described as a sort of loaf. 

 Aitchison (Fl. Lahul, Journ. Linn. Soc., 1869, x., 76) says that " from barley, 

 as well as from rice (' drai, ' ' dai ') a kind of beer is made, called chung." In 

 making chang, a ferment is used, called pab, imported from Ladakh in the form 

 of dry yeast. " The Lahulees admit their ignorance as to its nature and their 

 non-ability to make chung without it." In the Hemp Drugs Commission's 

 Report (1894, i., 157) mention is made of a liquid preparation used in Sholapur, 

 Bombay, under the name boj'a, which consists of a gruel made of juar (Sorghum, 

 p. 1040) flavoured with hemp and a little Nux vomica. 



The practice of making buza or beer from barley is thus quite as ancient 

 in India, very possibly, as in Europe. In passing it may be added that the 

 great conquering Emperor Baber tells us he did not like " buzeh" because of its 

 bitter flavour the Indian objection to-day to European beer. (See Cannabis 

 sativa, p. 257.) 



Under Coix (p. 396) particulars will be found of the Naga hills beer, known 

 as dzu. This is, undoubtedly, a fermented beverage made either from coix 

 or rice or both mixed, the one fermented and the other not. Grain is placed 

 in a large wooden trough and hot water poured over it. It is then left to malt, 

 and, when this stage is complete, a further quantity of boiling water is added. 

 In three days' time the liquor is in prime condition, and by the fourth or fifth 

 day it becomes intoxicating. It has already been pointed out that the dispersion 

 of coix grain over India and Burma accompanied the Mongolian invaders, and 

 further that the name kasi or kasai or some obvious derivative from that word was 

 conveyed to remote countries and into diverse tongues. 



Ferments. Bergtheil (The Study of Fermentation as Applied to 

 Agriculture, in Agri. Journ. Ind., i., pt. i., 68-75 ; pt. iii., 230-6) reviews 

 some of the more interesting modern opinions regarding FERMENTATION. 

 Among all races and in every age, he says, we find a knowledge of some 

 means for the production of alcohol, all fundamentally depending on 

 the fermentation of sugar. In many instances the initial action is the 

 conversion of starch into sugar by an enzyme action, the " malting " 

 of barley. The grains are placed under conditions favourable for ger- 

 mination, and when the production of a soluble, easily assimilable food 

 for the infant plant has been accomplished, the grains are killed. The 

 further stage, namely, the fermentation of the sugary fluid into alcohol, 

 is ordinarily accomplished by a fungus, known as yeast. " In Western 

 countries," writes Bergtheil, " yeasts and their actions have been care- 

 fully studied, and pure cultures of special yeasts, which have been found 

 most suitable for the production of the particular type of fermentation 

 desired, are deliberately introduced and their growth most carefully 

 regulated and guarded ; in other cases, such as those we are familiar with 



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