THE TAKTARIAX HORSE. 35 



mode of cookery would not be very inviting- to the European epicure. 

 They cut the muscular part into slices, and place them under their saddles, 

 and after they have galloped thirty or forty miles, the meat becomes tender 

 and sodden, and fit for their table. At all their feasts, the first and last 

 and most favourite dish is a horse's head, unless they have a roasted foal, 

 which is the gTcatest deHcacy that can be procured. 



When water was not at hand, the Scythians used to draw blood from 

 their horses, and drink it ; and the Dukes of Muscovy, for nearly two 

 hundred and sixty years, presented the Tartar ambassadors with the milk 

 of mares. Most of the Tartars manufacture a liquor called Iwumlss, from 

 the milk of the mare. It has a very pleasant taste of mingled sweet and 

 sour, and is _ considerably nutritious. The Tartars say that it is an 

 excellent medicine, and almost a specific in consumption and some diseases 

 of debility. It is thus made : — To a certain quantity of fresh mare's milk, 

 a sixth part of water, and an eighth part of very sour milk, or of old 

 loumiss, is added. The vessel is covered with a tliick cloth, and set in a 

 place of moderate warmth. It is thus left at rest twenty-four hours, when 

 the whole of it will have become sour, and a thick substance will have 

 gathered on the top. The whole is then beaten with a stick in the form 

 of a churn-staff", until it becomes blended into one homogeneous mass. 

 Twenty-four hoiu's after this the beating is repeated, or the Hquor is 

 agitated in a churn, until the whole is again mingled together. The 

 process is now complete and the Icoumiss is formed, but it must be always 

 well shaken before it is used. 



The Tartars have discovered a method of obtaining an ardent spirit 

 from this houmiss, which they caU rack, or raclcij, from the name given to 

 the spirit manufactured in the East Indies. 



Some of the Tartar and Kalmuck women ride fully as well as the men. 

 When a courtship is taking place between two of the young ones, the answer 

 of the lady is thus obtained. She is momited on one of the best horses, 

 and off" she gallops at full speed. Her lover pursues, and if he overtakes 

 her, she becomes his ysnSe ; but it is seldom or never that a Kalmuck girl 

 once on horseback is caught, unless she has a partiality for her pursuer. 



The domesticated horses belong-ing to the Tartars that wander over the 

 immense plains of Central Asia are Kttle removed from a wild state. They 

 are small and badly made, but capable of supporting the longest and most 

 rapid journeys on the scantiest fare. 



One well-known circumstance will go far to account for their o-eneral 

 hardiness. The Tartars live much on the flesh of horses ; and the animals 

 that are unable to support the labour of their frequent and rapid emio-ra- 

 tions are first destroyed ; the most \-igorous are alone preserved. 



Berenger gives the following account of the Tartar horses : — ' Although 

 but of a moderate size, they are strong, nervous, proud, full of spirit, bold, 

 aud active. They have good feet, but somewhat narrow ; their heads are 

 well-shaped and lean, but too small ; the forehead long and stiff"; and the 

 legs over long : yet with aU these imperfections they are good and service- 

 able horses, being unconquerable by labour, and endowed with considerable 

 speed. The Tartars Hve with them almost in the same manner that the 

 Arabs do with their horses. "When they are six or eight months old, they 

 make their children ride them, who exercise them in small excursions, 

 dressing and forming them by degrees, and bringing them into gentle and 

 early discipline, and after a while, making them undergo hunger and 

 thirst, and many other hardships. The men, however, do not ride them 

 until they are five or six years old, when they exact from them the 

 severest service, and inure them to almost incredible fatigue, travelling 

 two or three days almost ^^-ithout resting, and passing four or five days 



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