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Koumiss

welfare seriously impaired; and the vital fact has been learnt that if healthy animal kidney substance be given under these conditions, then the disturbed balance of soundness is restored to the patient. Therefore, for meeting this object our manufacturing chemists supply animal kidney substance ready to hand as a dry powder, or in tabloid form. But still better is the fresh healthy animal kidney as furnished opportunely by the cook. A liking for sheep's kidneys is not confined to the human gourmet. For instance, we are told by Dr. John Brown, of Edinburgh (1860), in Our Dogs, that "Jock, of the Orkneys, though beloved by his master, took to evil courses, extracting the kidneys from the best young rams of the flock, and driving whole hirsels down steep places into the sea, till at last all the guns of Westray were pointed at him, and blew him into space as he stood at bay under a huge rock on the shore." Curiously enough, the term kidney was at one time a cant word for a servant in waiting. Thus The Tatler has told, "it is our custom upon the first coming of the news to order a youth who officiates as the kidney of the coffee house to get into the pulpit, and read every paper with a loud and distinct voice."

KOUMISS, (and See MILK).

THE Kumys of the Kergese, who inhabit the Asiatic steppesa fermented drink made from mare's milk, was described by the father of history, Herodotus, and remains a typical Kergese product to this day. When the milk was drawn, it was poured into deep wooden vessels, and continually agitated for long hours by slaves whom the Scythians kept blind for this purpose. The upper part of the milk then became alcoholic in its solution, whilst the lower part remained as curdled casein, being more of a nutriment than an intoxicant. Mares' milk is not suitable for making butter, first, because it contains but little fat, and next because what fat can be got from it is not butter, but a half oily, lard-like substance of disagreeable taste. Even in the present day the nomads of the Russian steppes do not manufacture any butter, but they prepare large quantities of Kumys. From the above account it may be readily gathered that the artificial Koumiss of our modern dairies differs essentially from the true Koumiss of the Asiatic Kergese.

LARK (See BIRDS, and CHEESE).

LAVER (See SEAWEEDS).

LEEK (See ONION).