572 
The  Koumis  Cure. 
f  A.M.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t     Dec.  1,  1874. 
connoisseurs  maintain  that  koumis,  to  be  efficacious,  must  not  only  be 
composed  of  the  milk  of  thorough-bred  Tartar  mares,  but  of  thorough- 
bred Tartar  mares  fed  on  the  rich  covil  of  the  steppes. 
"For  covil  (Stipa  pennata)  is  the  technical  name  of  the  grass 
which  grows  on  the  steppes,  and  which  is  the  favorite  food  of  the 
mares.  It  flowers  prettily  in  a  kind  of  white  silvery  wave  for  about 
a  month  at  the  beginning  of  June,  and  makes  a  not  ungraceful  orna- 
ment for  the  hair,  especially  of  blondes.  It  is  only  the  tender  grass, 
not  the  flower,  of  the  covil,  which  the  mares  graze  on.  In  the  midst 
of  the  covil  the  Absinthum  tartaricum  grows  abundantly,  emitting 
the  sweetest  smell.  I  could  not  help  fancying  that  the  two  must 
form  part  of  the  vaunted  pasturage  of  the  steppes.  It  smelt  so  sweet 
that  I  thought  if  I  had  been  a  Tartar  mare  I  should  certainly  have 
made  it  a  bonne  bouche.  I  was  glad  to  hear  that  my  error  had  been 
shared  by  a  learned  German  doctor,  who,  writing  tt  priori  in  his  study 
in  Livonia  on  the  medical  properties  of  absinth,  suggests  that  as  it  is 
found  in  large  quantities  on  the  steppes  where  the  Tartar  mares 
graze,  part,  at  any  rate,  of  the  virtue  of  koumis  may  be  attributable 
to  his  favorite  herb.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  learned  doctor's 
theory  does  not  depend  on  his  illustration,  for  it  is,  unfortunately, 
not  founded  on  fact.  The  mares  do  not  touch  the  absinth.  The 
grass  of  the  covil  is  their  chief  diet.  The  absinth,  with  its  perfume, 
is  there  because  the  Tartar  mare  is  an  epicure,  and  she  loves  to  regale 
one  sense  with  the  sweet  odor  of  the  absinth  while  the  young  blade 
of  the  covil  administers  to  another. 
"  The  Tartar  horse  about  whom  all  this  fuss  is  made  is  the  most 
insignificant-looking  brute  dignified  with  the  name  of  horse  I  ever 
saw.  He  exactly  corresponds  to  the  pictures  one  has  seen,  and  the 
descriptions  one  has  read,  of  the  nondescript  animals  upon  which  the 
Cossacks  were  mounted  during  the  invasion  of  France  in  1812.  Small, 
shaggy,  and  impoverished-looking,  he  hasn't  the  deviltry  in  his  eye 
which  distinguishes  the  little  Shetland  pony.  It  is  only  when  he  is 
in  action  that  he  gives  you  a  taste  of  his  quality.  He  then  bristles 
up,  buckles  to  his  work,  and  you  begin  to  perceive,  when  you  have 
already  been  half  a  day's  journey,  the  enduring  qualities  of  the  little 
animal  you  have  been  condemning.  Many  days'  continuous  travelling 
at  the  rate  of  150  versts  (100  miles)  a  day  will  give  you  some  idea  of 
his  powers.  Those  who  deny  the  indispensableness  of  covil  will  for 
the  most  part  maintain  that  there  is  no  saving  grace  in  koumis  pro- 
ceeding from  aught  but  the  milk  of  thorough-bred  Tartar  mares. 
