9 2 
SWEET GRASS. 
tered into the composition of all their dishes. They 
eat the leaves as a sweet and agreeable food. Since 
the Russians have come amongst them, however, 
this vegetable, which was once so wholesome and 
nourishing, is converted into a medium for in- 
ebriants, and the manner in which they proceed 
to extract a spirit from it is as follows : — The be- 
ginning of July the more succulent stalks and leaves 
are gathered, and this province falls principally to 
the share of the women, who gather the crop in 
gloves to defend their hands from the sap, which 
is so acrid as to blister the skin. After the down 
is scraped from the leaves and stalks, with a shell, 
they are laid to ferment ; when they grow dry, 
they are placed in bags, and in a few days are 
covered with a saccharine powder : only a quarter 
of a pound of powder is obtained from a pood, or 
thirty-six pounds of the plant, which tastes like 
liquorice. They draw the spirit from it by steeping 
bundles of it in hot water ; then promote the fer- 
mentation in a small vessel, by adding the berries 
of the Lonicera Xylosteum and Vaccinium uligino- 
sum Linn. They continue the process by pour- 
ing on more w ater, after drawing off the first ; they 
then place the plants and liquor in a copper still, 
and draw off, in the common manner, a spirit as 
strong as brandy. This liquor was discovered ac- 
cidentally. One year the natives, happening to col- 
lect a greater quantity of berries of several kinds, 
for winter provisions, than usual, found in the 
spring that the principal part of them had fer- 
