Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/119

 occasionally scrubbed with argols, i.e. dried horse or cow dung. Salt water is generally used, but, if unobtainable, salt is added. The tea is then pared off with a knife or pounded in a mortar, and a handful of it thrown into the boiling water, to which a few cups of milk are added. To soften the brick-tea, which is sometimes as hard as a rock, it is placed for a few minutes among hot argols, which impart a flavour and aroma to the whole beverage. This is the first process, and in this form it answers the same purpose as chocolate or coffee with us. For a more substantial meal the Mongol mixes dry roasted millet in his cup, and, as a final relish, adds a lump of butter or raw sheep-tail fat (kurdiuk). The reader may now imagine what a revolting compound of nastiness is produced, and yet they consume any quantity of it! Ten to fifteen large cupfuls is the daily allowance for a girl, but full-grown men take twice as much. It should be mentioned that the cups, which are sometimes highly ornamented, are the exclusive property of each individual; they are never washed, but after every meal licked out by the owner; those belonging to the more wealthy Mongols are of pure silver, of Chinese manufacture; the lamas make them of human skulls cut in half, and mounted in silver. The food of the Mongols also consists of milk prepared in various ways, either as butter, curds, whey, or kumiss. The curds are made from the unskimmed milk, which is