1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 225 



In the breeds of cattle there is room for great improve- 

 ment. There are none of superior breed ; and beef of good 

 quality is not to be found in Turkey. The best quality, which 

 is imported, is from south Russia. Until the time of the 

 Crimean war such a thing as a Ijeefsteak was hardly known. 

 It was mutton, mutton everywhere. Well do Ave remem- 

 ber the first morsel of steak we ever tasted. It was fried in 

 a frying-pan, done till there wasn't a drop of juice in it, and 

 came up garnished with garlics and onions, and covered over 

 with parsley. But what a flavor it possessed ! "Something 

 original and authentic," as Howell puts it, " mingled with 

 vague reminiscences of canal-boat travel and woodland 

 camp." Like the Englishman " who had no prejudices," 

 from that moment I hated mutton. 



The ox is small and hardy, but for heavy draft the buffalo 

 is in constant use. This ugly-looking animal, whose para- 

 dise is a mud-hole, into which he can sink with the excep- 

 tion of his mouth and eyes, is very powerful. The female 

 gives a milk that is rich, though somewhat strong and odor- 

 ous. The manufacture of butter is infamously bad. The 

 churns used are of various kinds. Earthen jars, shaped like 

 a barrel, swelling in the center, are filled with cream and 

 then tilted up and down. The trunk of a tree, hollowed out 

 and boarded at both ends, is hung to a beam and swung to 

 and fro. The skins of animals, particularly thegoat, with the 

 hair inside, are sewed in the form of a bag, and, being filled 

 with cream, are rapidly rolled over and over on the ground 

 until the butter comes. The gypsies, it is said, when starting 

 on their journeys, will fill the skins with cream, and, sitting 

 upon them, will find butter when they have reached their jour- 

 ney's end. It is said that in early times the missionaries 

 used to punish their children by putting them under the table 

 and making them shake a ])ottle of milk. Sawing the butter 

 is a very necessary operation, and all well-provided families 

 have a fine-tooth saw with which to extract the hairs from the 

 butter. The natives melt the butter for cooking, and easily 

 strain out the hair. But no attempt is ever made to eat it on 

 bread. A missionary on the rich plains of the Sangarius tried 

 to introduce a reform in the process of churning. He showed 

 the farmers that in the markets of Constantinople their butter 



