How painful the task
The sad tidings to tell you!--
An orphan you were,
Ere this misery befell you;
And far in yon wild,
Where the dead-tapers hover,
So cold, cold and wan,
Lies the corpse of your lover.
_The Ettrick Shepherd._
* * * * *
MANNERS & CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS.
* * * * *
PREPARATIONS OF MILK, PARTICULARLY OF MARES' MILK, USED BY THE KALMUCK
TARTARS.
The ordinary drink of the Kalmucks, and which forms an essential part
of their food, consists of various preparations of the milk supplied by
their cattle. The mares yield milk as well as the cows; and, for several
reasons, they prefer the former. When fresh, this milk has a taste of
onions, which is very repulsive; but, in proportion as it sours, if the
operation is performed with cleanliness, it becomes more liquid than the
other, acquires an agreeable vinous taste, and neither forms cream nor
coagulates. In this state, it furnishes a wholesome and refreshing
drink, and which, when in sufficient quantity, froths in a remarkable
degree. The cow's milk, on the contrary, both on account of the cheesy
matter which it contains and its disagreeable taste, becomes unpleasant
to drink when it sours; and, in persons not accustomed to it, induces
colics and diarrhoeas, although the Kalmucks themselves experience no
inconvenience from it, unless they have neglected to boil it.
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