degree, the vinous fermentation; and the brandy an ardent spirit obtained from koumiss by distillation. In making koumiss they sometimes employ the milk of cows, but never if mares' milk can be had, as the koumiss from the latter yields three times as much brandy as that made from cows' milk.

"The manner of preparing the koumiss is, by combining one sixth part of warm water with any given quantity of warm mares' milk. To these they add, as a leaven, a little old koumiss, and agitate the mass till fermentation ensues. To produce the vinous fermentation, artificial heat and more agitation is sometimes necessary. This affords what is called koumiss. The subsequent process of distillation afterwards obtains an ardent spirit from the koumiss. They call it vina. In their own language it bears the very remarkable appellation of rack and racky, doubtless nearly allied to the names of our East India spirit rack and arrack. We brought away a quart bottle of it, and considered it very weak bad brandy, not unlike the common spirit distilled by the Swedes and other northern nations. Some of their women were busy making it in an adjoining tent. The simplicity of the operation and their machinery was very characteristic of the antiquity of this chemical process. Their still was constructed of mud, or very coarse clay; and for the neck of the retort they employed a cane. The receiver of the still was entirely covered by a coating of wet clay. The brandy had already passed over. The woman who had the management of the distillery, wishing to give us a taste of the spirit, thrust a stick, with a small tuft of camel's hair at its end, through the external covering of clay, and thus collecting a small quantity of the brandy, she drew out the stick, dropped a portion on the retort, and, waving the instrument above her head, scattered the remaining liquor in the air. I asked the meaning of this ceremony, and was answered that it is a religious custom to give always the first drop of the brandy which they draw from the receiver to their God. The stick having been plunged into the receiver again, she squeezed it into the palm of her dirty and greasy hand, and after tasting the liquor, presented it to our lips."

Another interesting account of the preparation of koumiss is given by John M. Wilson in the Rural Encyclopædia,19 and it shows that the methods in use about the middle of last century did not differ materially from those which existed centuries before.

Wilson says: "Khoumese is vinously fermented mares' milk. Any quantity of fresh mares' milk is put into wooden vessels; a sixth part of water just off the boil is mixed with it; an eighth part of old khoumese or of the sourest possible cows' milk is added; the mixture is kept from fifteen to twenty-four hours, covered up with several folds of coarse linen cloth and with a very thick board, and without being stirred or in any degree disturbed, in a moderately warm place till it becomes thoroughly sour, and sends up a thick mass to its surface; it is then beaten and pounded and stirred till the curd is not only broken, but so thoroughly mixed with the serum as to form a thick liquid; it next remains covered and at rest during twenty-four hours more, and it is finally put into a common butter churn and beaten and blended into a state of perfect homogeneity. It is now fit for use; yet it acquires an increase of given properties if it be allowed to stand for a few days, and either then or now it would, if distilled, yield nearly one third of its own bulk of a weak spirit which will bear to be rectified. Whenever it is used it must be previously so agitated that its component parts may be well mixed together, and it may be kept either in pans for immediate use or in casks for more remote use; and if placed in a cool cellar it will remain good during three or four months."

Mares' milk owes its peculiar fitness for making koumiss to its containing a large proportion of sugar of milk, and readily undergoing the vinous fermentation, and it possesses a general medicinal reputation among the Tartars similar to that which asses' milk has partially acquired in Britain. "That mares' milk will undergo vinous fermentation and yield a certain quantity of spirit," says a writer in the Magazine of Domestic Economy, "is not generally known, and it was reserved for a nation of demi-savages to render this circumstance available as an agent of health, as well as an agreeable and nourishing beverage. Every educated person, however, has heard that the Tartars drink mares' milk, though few know that this milk is taken on account of its specific virtues alone, and not as a substitute for cows' milk, of which they have abundance, and with which they adulterate mares' milk when scarce." But the koumiss is reputed to be much more medicinal than the mares' milk itself; and on account of its being free from all tendency to curdle in the stomach, and of its possessing most of the nutritive power of the milk in combination with native fermented spirit, it has been strongly recommended by some persons as a remedy for most or all cases of general debility, of nervous languor, and even pulmonary disease.

"Khoumese is called sometimes koumiss and sometimes milk wine."

From these references it will be seen that koumiss is an alcoholic drink made by the fermentation of mares' milk, but it is also frequently prepared from the milk of the camel and cows' milk. It is stated that a similar preparation to Russian koumiss is made in Switzerland from cows' milk simply by the addition of a little sugar and yeast to skim milk; "it contains more sugar and less lactic acid than Russian koumiss, and on account of the much greater proportion of casein contained in cows' milk, differs considerably from that prepared from mares' milk." Suter-Naef gives the composition of a Swiss koumiss20 manufactured at Davos as follows:

The ferments used in the preparation of koumiss are stated by Carrick to be of two different kinds, artificial and natural.

"Of the natural ferments two have been