When The Lord Begins To Drink, One Of His
Servants Exclaims Aloud Ha!
And the minstrel begins to play.
When they make
a great feast, all the guests clap their hands and dance to the music, the
men before the lord, and the women before the lady of the house. When the
lord hath drank, the servant calls out as before, and the minstrel ceases;
then all drink round in their turns, both men and women, and they sometimes
carouse on hearing the news of a victory, to a shameful and beastly degree.
When they desire to provoke one to drink, they seize him by the ears,
dragging them strongly, as if to widen his throat, clapping their hands,
and dancing before him. When they mean to do great honour to any person,
one takes a full cup, having one on his right hand, and another on his
left, and these three advance towards him who is to receive the cup,
singing and dancing before him; but when he reaches out his hand to receive
the cup, they suddenly draw back, and come forwards again in the same
manner, and they thus delude him three or four times, till he seems very
eager, when they give him the cup, and keep dancing, singing, and stamping
with their feet, till he has finished his draught.
SECTION V.
Of their Food.
They eat indifferently of all dead animals, even such as have died of
disease; and among such numbers of cattle and flocks, many animals must die
almost continually. Bat in summer, when they have plenty of cosmos, or
mares milk, they care little for any other food. When an ox or horse
happens to die, they cut its flesh into thin slices, which they dry in the
sun and air, which preserves it from corruption, and free from all bad
smell. From the intestines of their horses they make sausages, better than
those which are made of pork, and which they eat when newly made, but the
rest of the flesh is reserved for winter use. Of the hides of oxen they
form large bags, which they dry in a wonderful manner in the smoke. Of the
hinder part of their horse skins they fabricate excellent sandals. They
will make a meal for fifty, or even an hundred men, of the carcase of one
ram. This they mince in a bowl, mixed with salt and water, which is their
only seasoning, and then, with the point of a knife, or a little fork made
on purpose, like those with which we eat pears and apples stewed in wine,
they reach to every one of the company a morsel or two, according to the
number; the master of the house having first served himself to his mind,
before any of the rest, and if he gives a particular portion to any one,
that person must eat it up, without giving any of it to another, or if he
is unable to eat the whole, he takes it home with him, or gives it to his
servant to take care of, if he has one, otherwise he puts it into his own
saptargat, or square leather bag, which they carry always with them for
such purposes, or for preserving any bones which they have not time to pick
thoroughly, that they may clean them well afterwards, and that nothing may
be lost.
SECTION VI.
How they make the Drink called Cosmos.
Cosmos is made from mares milk, in the following manner: They fasten a long
line between two posts fixed in the ground, and to it they tie the young
foals of the mares which are to be milked, by which means the mares are
induced to stand quietly beside their foals, and allow themselves to be
milked. If any mare happens to be unruly, her foal is brought, and allowed
to suck a little, after which the milker again succeeds. Having thus
procured a quantity of new drawn milk, it is poured into a large skin bag,
which is immediately agitated by blows with a wooden club, having its lower
end hollow, and as large as a man's head. After some time the milk begins
to ferment like new wine, and to acquire a degree of sourness. The
agitation is continued in the same manner until the butter comes; after
which it is fit for drinking, and has a pungent yet pleasant taste, like
raspberry wine, leaving a flavour on the palate like almond milk. This
liquor is exceedingly pleasant, and of a diuretic quality; is exhilarating
to the spirits, and even intoxicating to weak heads.
Cara-cosmos, which means black cosmos, is made for the great lords, in the
following manner: The agitation, as before described, is continued until
all the lees or coagulated portion of the milk subsides to the bottom, like
the lees of wine, and the thin parts remain above like whey, or clear must
of wine. The white lees are given to the servants, and have a strong
soporific quality. The clear supernatent liquor is called cara-cosmos, and
is an exceedingly pleasant and wholesome beverage[1]. Baatu has thirty
farms around his dwelling-place, at about a day's journey distant, each of
which supplies him daily with the caracosmos from the milk of an hundred
mares, so that he receives the daily produce of three thousand mares,
besides white cosmos which the rest of his subjects contribute: For, as the
inhabitants of Syria pay the third part of their productions to their
lords, so the Tartars pay their mares milk every third day.
From the milk of their cows they make butter, which they do not salt for
preservation, but boil and clarify it, after which it is poured into bags
made of sheep-skin, and preserved for winter use. The residue of the milk
is kept till it becomes quite sour, after which it is boiled, and the
coagula or curds, which form, are dried in the sun till quite hard, and are
preserved in bags for winter provision.
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