IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
CHAI'. LIII.
THE DRINK OF THE MONGOLS 259
members of the family, puppets made of straw, on which eyes, eyebrows, and mouth are drawn ; these puppets are dressed up to the waist. When some one of the family` dies, his puppet is taken out of the house, and a new puppet is made for every newly-born member of the family. On New Year's Day offerings are made to the puppets, and care is taken not to disturb them (by moving them, etc.), in order to avoid bringing sickness upon the family." (He lun' kian, wai ki.)
(Cf. Rubruck, 58-59, and Mr. Rockhill's note, 59-60.)-1 1. C.]
NOTE 2.—KIMIZ or Kumiz, the habitual drink of the Mongols, as it still is of most of the nomads of Asia. It is thus made. Fresh mare's milk is put in a well-seasoned bottle-necked vessel of horse-skin ; a little kurút (see note 5, ch. liv.) or some sour cow's milk is added ; and when acetous fermentation is commencing it is violently churned with a peculiar staff which constantly stands in the vessel. This
interrupts fermentation and introduces a quantity of air into the liquid. It is
customary for visitors who may drop in to give a turn or two at the churn stick. After three or four days the drink is ready.
Kumiz keeps long ; it is wonderfully tonic and nutritious, and it is said that it has cured many persons threatened with consumption. The tribes using it are said to be remarkably free from pulmonary disease ; and indeed I understand there is a regular Galactopathic establishment somewhere in the province of Orenburg for treating pulmonary patients with Kumiz diet.
It has a peculiar fore- and after-taste which, it is said, everybody does not like.
Yet I have found no confession of a dislike to Kumiz. Rubruquis tells us it is
pungent on the tongue, like vinunz raspei (vin rapé of the French); whilst you are drinking it, but leaves behind a pleasant flavour like milk of almonds. It makes a man's inside feel very cosy, he adds, even turning a weak head, and is strongly diuretic. To this last statement, however, modern report is in direct contradiction. The Greeks and other Oriental Christians considered it a sort of denial of the faith to drink Kumiz. On the other hand, the Mahomedan converts from the nomad tribes seem to have adhered to the use of Kumiz even when strict in abstinence from wine ; and it was indulged in by the early Mamelukes as a public solemnity. Excess on such an occasion killed Bibars Bundukdari, who was passionately fond of this liquor.
The intoxicating power of Kumiz varies according to the brew. The more
advanced is the vinous fermentation the less acid is the taste and the more it sparkles. The effect, however, is always slight and transitory, and leaves no unpleasant sensation, whilst it produces a strong tendency to refreshing sleep. If its good qualities amount to half what are ascribed to it by Dr. W. F. Dahl, from whom we derive some of these particulars, it must be the pearl of all beverages. " With the nomads it is the drink of all from the suckling upwards, it is the solace of age and illness, and the
greatest of treats to all ! " .
There was a special kind called h-ard h'unzz ~, which is mentioned both by Rubruquis and in the history of Wassáf. It seems to have been strained and clarified. The modern Tartars distil a spirit from Kumiz of which Pallas gives a detailed account. (Dahl, Ueber den Ii unzyss in Baer's Beitriz e, VII. ; Lettres sur It Caucase et la Criziiée, Paris, 1859, p. 81 ; Makrizi, II.. 147 ; J. As. XI. i6o ; Levchine, 322-323 ; Rubr. 227-228, 335 ; Gold. Horde, p. 46 ; Erman, I. 296 ; Pallas, Samnzl. I. 132 seqq.)
[In the Si yu ki, Travels to the West of Ch'ang ch'un, we find a drink called áilzig lo. " The Chinese characters, tung lo," says Bretschneider (111eá. Res. I. 94), " denote according to the dictionaries preparations from mare's or cow's milk, as Kumis, sour milk, etc. In the Yuan shi (ch. cxxviii.) biography of the Kipchak prince Tzí-tú-ha, it is stated that ` black mare's milk ' (evidently the cara cosmos of Rubruck), very pleasant to the taste, used to be sent from Kipchak to the Mongol court in China." (On the drinks of the Mongols, see Mr. Rockhill's note, Rubruck, p. 62. )The Mongols indulge in sour milk (tarak) and distilled mare's milk (aricÁ'i), but
VOL I. R
* .;
46.
.w..-- ..
f
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.