MANNER OF EATING. ■ 55 



better for Mongol taste.^ No part of the slaughtered 

 animal is wasted, but everything is eaten up with 

 the utmost relish. 



The gluttony of this people exceeds all descrip- 

 tion. A Mongol will eat more than ten pounds 

 of meat at one sitting, but some have been known 

 to devour an average-sized sheep in the course of 

 twenty-four hours ! On a journey, when provisions 

 are economised, a leg of mutton is the ordinary 

 daily ration for one man, and although he can live 

 for days without food, yet, when once he gets it, 

 he will eat enough for seven. 



They always boil their mutton, only roasting the 

 breast as a delicacy. On a winter's journey, when 

 the frozen meat requires extra time for cooking, they 

 eat it half raw, slicing off pieces from the surface, 

 and returning it again to the pot. When travelling 

 and pressed for time, they take a piece of mutton and 

 place it on the back of the camel, underneath the 

 saddle, to preserve it from the frost, луЬепсе it is 

 brought out during the journey and eaten, covered 

 with camel's hair and reeking with sweat ; but this is 

 no test of a Mongol's appetite. Of the liquor in 

 which he has boiled his meat he makes soup by 

 adding millet or dough, drinking it like tea. Before 

 eating, the lamas and the more religious among the 

 laity, after filling their cups, throw a little into the 

 fire or on the ground, as an offering ; before drink- 



' They have a remarkable way of killing their sheep : they slit up 

 the creature's stomach, thrust their hand in, and seize hold of the 

 heart, squeezing it till the animal dies. 



