afford more room to the invited guests. The furniture within the kibitkas is almost alike in them all. Against the wall is placed the bedstead, with a bed not over luxurious, but covered with a cotton counterpane. Around the sides are arranged the tubs, chests, benches, the tea-urn with its appurtenances, the pails, the toorzooks (or skins to contain koumuyce), kettles, and other domestic utensils. The gaudiest adornment of the kibitkas consists of the vivid-coloured habiliments, both for male and female use, which are displayed upon slender rods; to these may be added their arms, their horse-trappings, and various implements for the chase; and, lastly, the carpets laid over the benches and chests, and even also on the ground over a protecting layer of felt.
The stationary Bashkirs pay a tribute in money to the imperial treasury, but the half-nomadic tribes discharge their dues by personal service, constituting the Bashkir force.
The favourite beverage of the Bashkirs is koumuyce, a liquor readily prepared from mare’s milk by bringing it into a state of fermentation, which is allowed to continue till it reaches the acetous stage, when it becomes fit for use. It is made by adding an indefinite quantity of fresh, unskimmed mare’s milk to some old koumuyce, and the compound, being well stirred, is placed in some warm situation in the dwelling-place, where the fermentation is soon propagated by the older portion of the mixture through the new milk till the whole is converted into normal koumuyce. In default of old koumuyce common cow’s milk made sour may be used instead for a commencement; but, in all cases, the process is accelerated by warmth and agitation. Koumuyce is white like milk, and has a subacid taste; but this depends upon its age, which increases its acidity. It is sometimes, for economy, diluted with water, a moderate admixture of which assists the fermentation, improves the flavour, and renders it more intoxicating. Pure koumuyce effervesces like champagne, and, if shaken before it is poured out, it hisses, froths, and even expels the cork. The liquor sometimes has the flavour of bitter almonds, which proceeds from the nature of the grass pastured on by the animal, and this kind of koumuyce is highly prized by the connoisseurs. The koumuyce is kept in leathern bottles, called toorzooks, made from the skin of a horse’s hind quarter, taken off entire. The hair is singed off and the skin smoked. To the broader part is sewed a bottom, while the narrower, cut off at the knee, forms the neck of the vessel, which is stopped up with sedge or rushes. This forms a toorzook, which, standing on its bottom, has the appearance of a ham—being, in fact, the ham of a horse. Koumuyce, though inebriating, yet, even when taken in large quantities, occasions no inconvenience to the stomach. The Bashkirs drink enormous quantities with impunity. On holidays, when visiting each other, they sit for whole days drinking koumuyce, till they become so paralysed as to be unable to close their fingers into a fist, and yet recover, feeling no bad effects to remain. Copious draughts of it have even a strengthening effect, and are employed in certain diseases.
SOME NOTES ON THE TOBACCO COLLEGE OF KING
FREDERICK WILLIAM THE FIRST OF PRUSSIA.
Republican equality, though questionable in practice, seems to be an innate feeling of the mind, and inseparable from at least social amusement and rational intercourse. Not even despots can find pleasure in society without divesting themselves at such moments of their usual arbitrary will and authority, which necessarily exclude free conversation and exchange of thoughts. The necessity for such a free intercourse was so intensely felt by the above-mentioned stern and despotic prince, that he thought fit to establish a sort of Liberal club, under the name of “Tobacco College,” where he could indulge in all the free discussions on the political events of the day.
That prince used to hold a sort of a smoking conversazione every afternoon at five o’clock in his private study. The company consisted of six or eight of the generals and staff officers of his suite, as also of captains famous for their general information and conversational powers. To this party were also invited literary and scientific travellers who happened to pass through Berlin. All the guests assembled were served with pipes and tobacco. The old Prince of Dessau, who did not smoke, was obliged to hold in his mouth a cold pipe, while the Austrian ambassador, Count Seckendorf, even managed to give himself the appearance of an inveterate smoker by puffing with his lips, between which he held a cold pipe. The pipes—of which there is still a complete collection in the Museum of Arts at Berlin—were short and of common Dutch clay, and kept in simple cases of wood. Those (the cases) of the king’s pipes were mounted with silver, and were besides adorned with some neat carvings. All the pipes in that collection are so oil-coloured as to indicate a long use of smoking. The tobacco, small Dutch leaves, stood in little baskets upon the table, and at the side of them small pans with ignited turf. The king showed anger if any of the guests happened to bring with him his own better tobacco. Before every guest was placed a tumbler and a white jug with beer. As no servants were in the room, the guests helped themselves to the contents. At seven, bread, butter, and cheese were served up, while ham and roast veal were sometimes placed at a side-table for those who wished to cut a slice for themselves. At other times, the king regaled his guests with a dish of fish and salad, the latter being dressed with his own hands.
Also subaltern officers, distinguished for knowledge or humorous wit, were admitted to the party. Two lieutenants especially, Gröben and Leben, were always cheerfully received, for the merry tricks they played upon the erudite Court Fool, Baron Gundling, and his witty retorts upon them. On one occasion when Leben was speaking of his estates in the sandy parts of Pomerania, Gundling asked him if he was aware that allusion is made to them in Porsten’s Hymns. “No,” was the reply. Gundling then recited the following verse: “What are the goods of Life (Leben in German) but a handful of sand,” &c.
Frederick William was particularly anxious to
