o large as to be dragged along with difficulty. When opened,
pieces were cut out and placed on dishes of gold, silver, or porcelain.
One of the most esteemed, says the ambassador, was the hind quarter of a
horse; I must add what I find related, in spite of its offending our
ears:--our informant tells us that horse-tripe also was one of the
delicacies at table. No dish was removed, but the servants of the guests
were expected to carry off the remains, so that our ambassador doubtless
had his larder provided with the sort of viands I have mentioned for
some time to come. The drink was the famous Tartar beverage which we
hear of so often, mares' milk, sweetened with sugar, or perhaps rather
the _koumiss_ or spirit which is distilled from it. It was handed round
in gold and silver cups.

Nothing is more strange about the Tartars than the attachment they have
shown to such coarse fare, from the earliest times till now. Timour, at
whose royal table this most odious banquet was served, was lord of all
Asia, and had the command of every refinement not only of luxury, but of
gluttony. Yet he is faithful to the food which regaled the old Scythians
in the heroic age of Greece, and which is prized by the Usbek of the
present day. As Homer, in the beginning of the historic era, calls the
Scythians "mares'-milk drinkers," so geographers of the present day
describe their mode of distilling it in Russia. Tavernier speaks of it
two centuries ago; the European visitors partook of it in the middle
ages; and the Roman ambassadors, in the later times of the Empire. These
tribes have had the command of the vine, yet they seem to have scorned
or even abhorred its use; and we have a curious account in Herodotus, of
a Scythian king who lost his life for presuming to take part secretly in
the orgies of Bacchus. Yet it was not that they did not intoxicate
themselves freely with the distillation which they had chosen; and even
when they tolerated wine, they still adhered to their _koumiss_. That
beverage is described by the Franciscan, who was sent by St. Louis, as
what he calls biting, and leaving a taste like almond milk on the
palate; though Elphinstone, on the contrary writing in this century,
says "it is of a whitish colour and a sourish taste." And so of
horse-flesh; I believe it is still put out for sale in the Chinese
markets; Lieutenant Wood, in his journey to the source of the Oxus,
speaks of it among the Usbeks as an expensive food. So d