they are therefore always incrusted with cheese and dirt, and the smell
admitted by them is sufficient to show what they contain. But it is
precisely in this that the secret for making the milk undergo the vinous
fermentation consists. If it be intended to sour milk in empty or new
bottles, all that is necessary is to put into them the least drop of the
milk-brandy to be presently described, or a little of the curdled milk
that is found in the stomach of young lambs.

All the preparations of milk are comprehended under the name of Tchigan.
The drinks prepared from pure mare's milk (the Koumys of the Tartars),
are named Gunna Tchigan, or Horse Tchigan; those into which mares' milk
and cow's milk enter are called Besrek;--sour cows' milk is named Airek;
and all kinds of fresh milk, Ussoun.

In summer, and in general whenever their flocks yield them much milk,
the Kalmucks do not fail to inebriate themselves with the strong drink
which they derive from it. Mares' milk affords most spirit, and the milk
of the cow affords much less, especially in winter, when the fodder is
dry. Sheep's milk is never employed, as it does not contain spirit.

The milk intended for distillation is only allowed to remain twenty-four
hours, in summer, in the skin-bottles to sour; but in winter, and in
cold weather, it may be left two or three days to be rendered fit for
distillation. The cream is not taken off; on the contrary, the milk is
agitated very strongly, from time to time, with the stick, and the
butter which forms of itself on the milk, or even on the common Tchigan,
is removed and employed for other uses.

Notwithstanding the numerous testimonies on the subject, and the daily
experience, not of the nomadic tribes alone, but also of all the