(Cf. Rubruck, 58-59, and Mr. Rockhill’s note, 59-60.)—­H.  C.]

NOTE 2.—­KIMIZ or KUMIZ, the habitual drink of the Mongols, as it still is of most of the nomads of Asia.  It is thus made.  Fresh mare’s milk is put in a well-seasoned bottle-necked vessel of horse-skin; a little kurut (see note 5, ch. liv.) or some sour cow’s milk is added; and when acetous fermentation is commencing it is violently churned with a peculiar staff which constantly stands in the vessel.  This interrupts fermentation and introduces a quantity of air into the liquid.  It is customary for visitors who may drop in to give a turn or two at the churn-stick.  After three or four days the drink is ready.

Kumiz keeps long; it is wonderfully tonic and nutritious, and it is said that it has cured many persons threatened with consumption.  The tribes using it are said to be remarkably free from pulmonary disease; and indeed I understand there is a regular Galactopathic establishment somewhere in the province of Orenburg for treating pulmonary patients with Kumiz diet.

It has a peculiar fore- and after-taste which, it is said, everybody does not like.  Yet I have found no confession of a dislike to Kumiz.  Rubruquis tells us it is pungent on the tongue, like vinum raspei (vin rape of the French), whilst you are drinking it, but leaves behind a pleasant flavour like milk of almonds.  It makes a man’s inside feel very cosy, he adds, even turning a weak head, and is strongly diuretic.  To this last statement, however, modern report is in direct contradiction.  The Greeks and other Oriental Christians considered it a sort of denial of the faith to drink Kumiz.  On the other hand, the Mahomedan converts from the nomad tribes seem to have adhered to the use of Kumiz even when strict in abstinence from wine; and it was indulged in by the early Mamelukes as a public solemnity.  Excess on such an occasion killed Bibars Bundukdari, who was passionately fond of this liquor.

The intoxicating power of Kumiz varies according to the brew.  The more advanced is the vinous fermentation the less acid is the taste and the more it sparkles.  The effect, however, is always slight and transitory, and leaves no unpleasant sensation, whilst it produces a strong tendency to refreshing sleep.  If its good qualities amount to half what are ascribed to it by Dr. W. F. Dahl, from whom we derive some of these particulars, it must be the pearl of all beverages.  “With the nomads it is the drink of all from the suckling upwards, it is the solace of age and illness, and the greatest of treats to all!”

There was a special kind called Kara Kumiz, which is mentioned both by Rubruquis and in the history of Wassaf.  It seems to have been strained and clarified.  The modern Tartars distil a spirit from Kumiz of which Pallas gives a detailed account. (Dahl, Ueber den Kumyss in Baer’s Beitraege, VII.; Lettres sur le Caucase et la Crimee, Paris, 1859, p. 81; Makrizi, II. 147; J.  As. XI. 160; Levchine, 322-323; Rubr. 227-228, 335; Gold.  Horde, p. 46; Erman, I. 296; Pallas, Samml. I. 132 seqq.)