milk-skin on the inside of which are still sticking sour clots from the previous milking, and there shaken for a brief period; but this slightly soured milk (the Oxygala of Pliny) is known widely in the East simply as leben (milk). The name is also applied to what we term buttermilk.4

Kabyles Souring Milk

In the north of Africa the use of soured milk is common, and the illustration shows Kabyles shaking a skin full of milk so as to sour it. The skin has previously been used for the same operation, and, as a consequence, clots of milk are left from the previous day's use, and thus fermentation is set up.

The use of milk-skins for the carrying of milk is not confined to one country, as, while it is common all over the north of Africa, it is also known in the Pyrenees and in some parts of the Balkan Peninsula, the object being identical in each case; and when it is intended to make butter from the milk, the skin is simply rocked between the knees until the butter separates, a process of butter-making which was also used after the introduction of earthenware churns.5 Dried soured milk is also used by the Arabs, and it is reconstituted when required by rubbing it up with a little water, and it is known as Meeresy.6 The ordinary soured milk is the common article of diet, and is looked upon as being necessary at every meal, and travellers frequently refer to the use of this product, as a few references will show.

Amongst the peasants at the present day, soured milk is known as _yoghourt_, a word which is spelt differently according to the locality in which it is used. The method of preparation is practically the same everywhere, and a short description of the process as now carried out in one place would, with slight modifications, apply to the general method adopted all over the East.

Charles G. Addison states: "A supper was brought in on a round tray. In the centre was a huge pilaff of rice, and around it several small dishes of stewed meats, grilled bones, sour clotted milk called yaoort,7 bits of meat roasted, etc....

"We retired into a tent to breakfast, where we found an immense bowl of delicious fresh camels' milk, with thin hot cakes of unleavened bread, baked upon the ashes, ready prepared for us. The principal food of the Bedouins consists of flour and some camels' milk made into a paste, boiled, and eaten swimming in melted grease and butter; boiled wheat and beans dried in the sun and prepared with butter are a favourite dish. They are all remarkably fond of butter and grease; the butter is made in a goat-skin, suspended to the tent pole, and constantly shaken about by the women."8

Burckhardt9 says: "The provisions of my companion consisted only of flour; besides flour, I carried some butter and dried leben (sour milk), which would dissolve in water. It forms not only a refreshing beverage, but is much to be recommended as a preservative of health when travelling in summer. These are our only provisions." With regard to the inhabitants of the Houran, Burckhardt relates that the most common dishes of these people are bourgoul and keshk. "In summer they supply the place of the latter by milk, leben, and fresh butter. Of the bourgoul I have spoken on other occasions; there are two kinds of keshk—keshk-hammer and keshk-leben. The first is prepared by putting leaven into the bourgoul and pouring water over it. It is then left until almost putrid, and afterwards spread out in the sun and dried, after which it is pounded, and, when called for, served up mixed with oil or butter. The keshk-leben is prepared by putting leben into the bourgoul instead of leaven; in other respects the process is the same. Keshk and bread are the common breakfasts. Towards sunset a plate of bourgoul, or some Arab dish, forms the dinner."

Again, Taylor10 says: "I received a small jug of thick buttermilk, not remarkably clean, but very refreshing."

These references particularly refer to the East, from which it would appear that soured milk was universally known in ancient times as it is at the present day, and this remark applies not only to Egypt, Palestine, and Arabia, but throughout Turkey and the Balkan States, where the consumption of soured milk is equally common. It seems curious that the use of this commodity should have been confined for centuries to the East, as we shall see later on that its dietetic value is so great that it is really a wonderful thing that no one has taken the trouble to introduce its use to the Western nations until quite recently.

The Handling OF Milk in the Pyrenees

The handling of milk in the Pyrenees is, more especially in the villages, conducted in goat or sheep skins, in a similar way to the methods which prevail in Eastern Europe, and the picture shows a skin of milk on a small farm in the Pyrenees. The churning is very often performed by simply rocking the skin between the knees, acidity being induced by remnants of the previous day's milk; souring of milk is induced by the same method.

A curious example of how the virtues of such an article may be independently discovered by another nation is to be found in Lapland, where reindeer's milk is the article used. "The reindeer's milk," says Acerbi,11 "constitutes a principal part of the Laplander's food, and he has two methods of preparing it, according to the season. In summer he boils the milk with sorrel till it arrives to a consistence; in this manner he preserves it for use during that short season. In winter the following is his method of preparation: The milk, which he collects in autumn till the beginning of November, from the reindeer, is put into casks, or whatever vessels he has, in which it soon turns sour, and, as the cold weather comes on, freezes, and in this state it is kept. The milk collected after this time is mixed with cranberries and put