Page:Thirty-five years in the East.djvu/115

Rh boundaries. I could give a great many proofs that the kumiss is a very wholesome and nutritious beverage. It may suffice to mention here, that the governor of Orenburg returned at that time from the Ural Mountains, where he had used the kumiss as a cure with great benefit. I may observe also, that it is introduced at the tables of the nobility at Orenburg and several other places. It was especially drunk by weak persons and children, as a whole-some potion. Kumiss is a palatable and intoxicating drink, it being produced by fermentation, and consequently spirituous. They prepare it by pouring the mare's-milk into seasoned goat-skins, which are continually tossed about until it begins to ferment, According to the opinion of the Kirgises the kumiss is better when the milk is procured from mares of different colours. The fresher it is, the better for the health. To give the reader a slight synopsis of my journey from Bokhara to Russia, a little map, on which the thirty-five stations are traced, is annexed.

On my arrival at Orenburg, I was greatly delighted to meet with several German generals, who were in the Russian service, and also German physicians. The deep impression which this meeting made upon me, can only be conceived by those who, like me, had for several years been deprived of all intercourse with their countrymen. But that enthusiasm was increased still more, when I was told that a new mode of curing diseases had been discovered, diametrically opposite to that which had hitherto been followed.

Who will blame me for having this irresistible and ardent desire to see Europe once more? Providence had appeared to yield me an opportunity of extending the horizon of my knowledge, for the benefit of mankind ; and the same internal voice which twenty years before had induced me to abandon my friends, my relatives and my dear native country, admonished me also to renounce the favor of a powerful ruler, the prospects of becoming powerful myself, and the influence by means of which I could enjoy the most splendid ease, in order to be instrumental in introducing a hitherto unknown healing system.