Kumiss

From The Mission of Friar William of Rubrick

His journey to the court of the Great Khan Mongke

1253-1255

Chapter IV: HOW THEY MAKE COMOS

(1) Comos - namely, mare's milk - is made in the following way. They stretch above the ground a long rope between two stakes stuck in the sod, and around the third hour [nine o'clock] tether to the rope the foals of the mares they intend to milk. Then the mares stand beside their foals and let themselves be milked peacefully. In the event of any of them proving intractable, one man takes the foal and puts it underneath her to let it suck a little, and then withdraws it while the milker takes its place.

(2) So having collected a great quantity of milk, which when fresh is as sweet as cow's milk, they pour it into a large skin or bag, and set about churning it with a club which is made for this purpose, as thick at the lower end as a man's head and hollowed out. As they stir it rapidly, it begins to bubble like new wine and to turn sour or ferment, and they keep churning it until they extract the butter.

(3) Next they taste it, and when it is moderately pungent they drink it. While one is drinking it, it stings the tongue like rape wine, but after one has finished drinking it leaves on the tongue a taste of milk of almonds. It produces a very agreeable sensation inside and even intoxicates those with no strong head; it also markedly brings on urination.

(4) Besides this, caracomos - that is, black comos - is made for the great lords, in the following way. Mare's milk does not curdle. For it is a rule that when no rennet is found in the belly of an animal's young, that animal's milk does not curdle: and since it is not found in a foal's stomach, mare's milk does not curdle. So they churn it to the point where everything solid in it sinks straight to the bottom, like the dregs of wine, and what is clear remains on top and resembles whey or white must. The dregs are very white, and are given to the slaves: they are highly soporific. The clear part the lords consume, and it is certainly a really delightful drink and fairly potent. <Note: Caracomos comes from the Turkish qara 'black'. This was the more highly regarded qumiz made from the milk of the imperial herds of mares. It was elsewhere described as clear and sweet, in contrast with ordinary qumiz, which was white, cloudy and sour-tasting.>

(5) Baatu has thirty men stationed around his encampment at a distance of one day's journey, each of whom furnishes him every day with milk like this from a hundred mares (in other words, the milk of three thousand mares daily), not counting the other, white sort, which is brought in by others. For just as in Syria the peasants yield a third of the produce, so these men are required to bring to their lords' camps the mares' milk for every third day.

(6) From cow's milk they first of all extract the butter, and boil it until it is completely boiled dry; then they store it in sheep's paunches which they keep for this purpose. Though they do not salt the butter, it does not go rancid because it has been subjected to such boiling, and they keep it for the winter. As for the milk that is left over from the butter, they let it turn as sour as it possibly can, and boil it so that it curdles in boiling. The curd is dried in the sun, where it goes as hard as iron slag, and is then stowed in bags until winter. In the winter season, when they are short of milk, they put this sour curd, called grut,<Turkish qurut, 'cheese'; the word passed into Persian with the meaning 'curd'> into a skin, pouring hot water over it, and stir it vigorously until it dissolves in the water, which as a result turns completely sour. This water they drink as a substitute for milk. They are particularly careful not to drink plain water.

Credits:

Translation by Peter Jackson

Notes by Peter Jackson with David Morgan

Scanned from a publication by the Hakluyt Society, London

With fascination, without permission, without the hope of profit

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