STATISTICS OF THE MILITARY KOUMISS ESTABLISHMENT NEAR SAMARA-TABLE OF TWENTY-FIVE CASES OF CONSUMPTION TREATED BY KOUMISS-TABLE OF EIGHTEEN CASES OF PHTHISIS, PERSONALLY KNOWN TO THE AUTHOR, THAT WERE CURED BY FERMENTED MARE'S MILK-IN WHAT DISEASES IS THE EMPLOY- MENT OF KOUMISS CONTRA-INDICATED? - SHOULD IT BE AVOIDED WHERE THERE IS A TENDENCY TO HÆMOPTYSIS?-THE MODE OF USING THE DIFFER- ENT KINDS OF KOUMISS-HOW, WHEN, WHERE, AND IN WHAT QUANTITIES IT SHOULD BE DRUNK- IMPORTANCE OF HORSEBACK EXERCISE AS PART KOUMISS; OR, FERMENTED MARE'S MILK. CHAPTER I. SKETCH OF THE HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF KOUMISS. THE steppes of European Russia, and of Central and South-Western Asia, are vast tracts of slightly undulating, treeless, virgin land. The soil ranges in quality from the rich, black, oily, vegetable earth, covering almost boundless plains, to the infertile, sandy, desolate waste. The climate is a purely Continental one, -i.e., besides the seasons being well marked, the sky is generally clear and the air dry. The population is sparse, and consists for the most part of wandering tribes of Khirgiz, Bashkirs, Kalmucks, Tartars, or Nogayans-the latter being an offshoot from the Tartar race. They live in tents Α from eight to nine months in the year, and roam within a certain range of their settlements, during spring, summer, and autumn. Their winter dwellings, in which they bury themselves at least three months out of the twelve, are simply deep pits dug in the ground, and covered by a rounded roof of thick felt, through which the light enters and the smoke escapes. Unwilling to till the ground, their only means of subsistence consists in the breeding of animals that are used for food and yield a staple article of diet, and which they can readily barter for grain, tea, cloth, sugar, and such other merchandise as their primitive mode of life may demand. Horned cattle-which require shelter during the winter months, are often decimated by the plague, and need considerable tending-are seldom bred by the poorer members of these roaming tribes. The rearing of sheep, which requires less care, is more common; while the camel, which manages to find sustenance in herbs that no other ruminant will touch, and procures its food from under the snow in winter, is pretty frequently met with. But their favourite quadruped is the horse. The nomad makes his winter coat, his boots, his flasks, churns, and jars of its skin, eats its flesh, and drinks its milk. It is to him what the reindeer is to the Laplander, or the camel," the ship of the desert," to the Arab. These steppe horses, whether of Khirgiz or Bashkir breed, are small, hardy, plump animals, possessing powers of endurance-whether of fatigue, cold, hunger, or thirst-unequalled in all probability by any other race of horses in the world. They are never under shelter, and have to provide food for themselves the whole year round. A number of the younger and weaker animals perish in winter, and make room for the stronger and more enduring. The men, during the cold season, suffer as much as their horses. Epidemics do their work, but fortunately these are only occasionally present; scurvy is seldom absent, hunger never. With the advent of spring, however, the nomad quits the polluted atmosphere of his tent, mounts his horse, and is in the steppe from morning till night. The fresh and sweet grasses which cover the ground supply rich pasture to the thin, half-famished cattle, sheep, and horses. They rapidly recover lost flesh. The gravid mares foal, and yield milk in plenty. Of this milk the nomads, of both sexes and all ages, consume enormous quantities. It is not drunk in its raw state, but is first fermented, and this fermented beverage is known by the name of Koumiss, or Kamiz. |