Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/221

209 FAVOURITE BEVERAGE OF THE TARTARS. 209 some drops of kumys ; or if he happens to be on horseback, he throws them on his horse's mane. " The ordinary drink of the Tartars is kumys, a spirit made of mare's milk. They pour the milk into a large leathern vessel, and when they have got a considerable quantity, beat it till it begins to ferment like new wine. When it becomes quite sour, they beat it again violently, and then draw off the buttery part. The fermented whey makes a brisk sort of liquor, with an agreeable almond flavour, very intoxicating to those not much accustomed to it. The Tartars also make from goat's milk a kind of butter, which they boil and keep for winter use in goats' skins, and though they put no salt in it, it never spoils. After they have taken off the butter, they boil the curd again to make cheese, which they dry in the sun, and which is as hard as iron ; these cheeses they put into sacks for the winter store, and when the supply of milk becomes scanty, they put this hard sour curd into a leathern vessel, pour hot water upon it, and beat it till it liquefies ; and with this acid drink they have to content themselves during the time of year so severely felt by pastoral nations.* " The Tartars live chiefly on their flocks, and the produce of the chase. When they intend to go hunting, they assemble in great numbers in the neighbourhood of the country where they know there is game, and forming an immense circle, which they gradually draw closer, they enclose the game as in a net, and then kill it with arrows. " The beginning of winter is the season for the grand imperial hunts, which are conducted like great military expeditions. VOL. I. P
 * All these customs still exist amongst the Tartars.