HISTOHICAL 19 



and that butter making developed independently in regions con- 

 siderably removed from each other. 



The object of the churn is the separation of the fat in milk 

 from the other constituents. This is accomphshed in one of two 

 ways — either the churn itself is agitated and with it the contents, 

 or the contents are agitated in a stationary vessel (Fig. 1). 

 Which type of churning is the more ancient it is impossible to say. 

 When the churn itself is movable, the agitation is caused by 

 swinging back and forth or by complete rotation. Primitive 

 people collected the milk in skin or leather bags and swung these 

 bags to and fro. Later churns were built on rockers and rocked 

 back and forth. Still later the churn was hung on central pivots 

 and by means of a handle turned completely over. Churning in 

 stationary vessels is now accomplished by some internal stirring 

 device. There are also churns in which agitation is caused by in- 

 troduction of air. 



Records from East India show that butter was used at least as 

 early as 2000 B. C. The people estimated the value of their 

 cows by the quantity of butter derived from them. Butter was 

 held in high esteem and was used for their holiest sacrifices. The 

 ancient Hebrews preserved milk in hose made of leather. Whether 

 they used butter or not is uncertain. The word "chemah," which 

 occurs often in the Scriptures, means "thick milk," and may 

 stand for butter or cheese, or a mixture of both. In Arabia it was 

 customary to take milk curd on journeys. The curd was pre- 

 pared by pouring loppered milk into a bag, and as the whey passed 

 out more loppered milk was poured in (Fig. 2). The curd was 

 mixed with water, when wanted, and furnished an agreeable, 

 cooling beverage. 



Among the Scythians, the nomadic tribes in European and 

 Asiatic Russia, mare's milk was gathered in wooden vessels and 

 agitated, according to descriptions of Herodotus and Hippocrates. 

 These authors seemed to beheve that the Scythians used butter, 

 but these tribes also prepared a fermented milk from mare's milk, 

 known by the name kumiss, and probably the original descrip- 

 tions confounded this with butter, since mare's milk is too poor in 

 fat to permit of successful butter making. 



The ancient Greeks did not use butter to any great extent at 

 the time of the Christian era. However, butter was known to 

 them, and investigators believe that the word "butter" is de- 

 rived from the Greek "jiovrvpov," although this word really means 

 "jiova" = ox, and "Tvp6a" = cheese or curd. They made cheese 

 from goat's and sheep's milk, and much later butter from 

 cow's milk. Their butter contained a large proportion of curd, 

 and the Greek "jSovrvpov" therefore meant in reality "coagulated 



