ls are of tin or of oak wood, and, like the oaken kumys
churn, have been boiled in strong lye to extract the acid, and well
dried and aired. In addition to the daily washing they are well smoked
with rotten birch trunks, in order to destroy all particles of kumys
which may cling to them.

The next step after the milk is obtained is to ferment it. The ferment,
or yeast, is obtained by collecting the sediment of the kumys which has
already germinated, and washing it off thoroughly with milk or water. It
is then pressed and dried in the sun, the result being a reddish-brown
mass composed of the micro-organisms contained in kumys ferment, casein,
and a small quantity of fat. Twenty grains of this yeast are ground up
in a small quantity of freshly drawn milk in a clean porcelain mortar,
and shaken in a quart bottle with one pound of fresh milk,--all mare's
milk, naturally,--after which it is lightly corked with a bit of
wadding and set away in a temperature of +22 degrees to +26 degrees
Reaumur. In about twenty-four hours small bubbles begin to make their
appearance, accompanied by the sour odor of kumys. The bottle is then
shaken from time to time, and the air admitted, until it is in a
condition to be used as a ferment with fresh milk. Sometimes this
ferment fails, in which case an artificial ferment is prepared.

One pint of ferment is allowed to every five pints of fresh milk in the
cask or churn, and the whole is beaten with the dasher for about an
hour, when it is set aside in a temperature of +18 degrees to +26
degrees Reaumur. When, at the expiration of a few hours, the milk turns
sour and begins to ferment vigorously, it is beaten again several times
for about fifteen minutes, with intervals, with a dasher which
terminates in a perforated disk, after which it is left undisturbed for
several hours at the same temperature as before, until the liquid begins
to exhale an odor of spirits of wine. The delicate offices of our Tatar
beauty, the taster, come in at this point to determine how much freshly
drawn and cooled milk is to be added in order rightly to temper the sour
taste. After standing over night it is ready for use, and is put up in
seltzer or champagne bottles, and kept at a temperature of +8 degrees to
+12 degrees Reaumur. At a lower temperature vinegar fermentation sets in
and spoils the kumys, while too high a temperature brings about equally
disastrous results of another sort. Kumys has a different chemical