irit, 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 Encyclopaedia_,[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,