Another interesting account of the preparation of koumiss is given by John M. Wilson in the _Rural Encyclopædia_,[19] and it shows that the methods in use about the middle of last century did not differ materially from those which existed centuries before.
Wilson says: "Khoumese is vinously fermented mares' milk. Any quantity of fresh mares' milk is put into wooden vessels; a sixth part of water just off the boil is mixed with it; an eighth part of old khoumese or of the sourest possible cows' milk is added; the mixture is kept from fifteen to twenty-four hours, covered up with several folds of coarse linen cloth and with a very thick board, and without being stirred or in any degree disturbed, in a moderately warm place till it becomes thoroughly sour, and sends up a thick mass to its surface; it is then beaten and pounded and stirred till the curd is not only broken, but so thoroughly mixed with the serum as to form a thick liquid; it next remains covered and at rest during twenty-four hours more, and it is finally put into a common butter churn and beaten and blended into a state of perfect homogeneity. It is now fit for use; yet it acquires an increase of given properties if it be allowed to stand for a few days, and either then or now it would, if distilled, yield nearly one third of its own bulk of a weak spirit which will bear to be rectified. Whenever it is used it must be previously so agitated that its component parts may be well mixed together, and it may be kept either in pans for immediate use or in casks for more remote use; and if placed in a cool cellar it will remain good during three or four months."
Mares' milk owes its peculiar fitness for making koumiss to its containing a large proportion of sugar of milk, and readily undergoing the vinous fermentation, and it possesses a general medicinal reputation among the Tartars similar to that which asses' milk has partially acquired in Britain. "That mares' milk will undergo vinous fermentation and yield a certain quantity of spirit," says a writer in the _Magazine of Domestic Economy_, "is not generally known, and it was reserved for a nation of demi-savages to render this circumstance available as an agent of health, as well as an agreeable and nourishing beverage. Every educated person, however, has heard that the Tartars drink mares' milk, though few know that this milk is taken on account of its specific virtues alone, and not as a substitute for cows' milk, of which they have abundance, and with which they adulterate mares' milk when scarce." But the koumiss is reputed to be much more medicinal than the mares' milk itself; and on account of its being free from all tendency to curdle in the stomach, and of its possessing most of the nutritive power of the milk in combination with native fermented spirit, it has been strongly recommended by some persons as a remedy for most or all cases of general debility, of nervous languor, and even pulmonary disease.