_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. This sour curd, which they call
_gryut_, when wanted for use in winter when they have no milk, is put into
a bag with hot water, and by dilligent beating and agitation, is dissolved
into a sour white liquor, which they drink instead of milk; for they have a
great aversion to drink water by itself.