Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-03-16
A TARTAR TEA PARTY.
AN EXPERIENCE WHICH TRIES 4
 TRAVELLERS STOMACH.

inNSCeCnS 0iSWbNS'" How Brick Tea" Is Made "Mogul Fash ion'-A Private Wooden Spoon-Slab. From a Plank of Bread-Eating Camel's Flesh-"Kumyss."
 ''Welcome under the shadow of my poor tent, Ak-beg" (white chief, says the khan, lifting the door curtain to let ma enter; "all that have is yours.''
 As enter the tent I unsling my revol- yer and lay it on the ground, while the khan puts down his gun beside it, thus brothers. pledged to do each other no harm. Then my hosts son, a tall active young fellow, whose jet black eyes and prominent features betray an adinixture of Persian blood, rises and greets me with 8 guttural ''Salaam aleikoumr' peace be with you), for the Mohammedan saluta. | tions are the same in all the languages of the east an additional bond of union be- tween Mussulmans.
 stWith you be peace," and then the worthy youth, by way of making me specially comfortable, spreads out for me 8 newly flayed sheepskin with the bloody side uppermost, and kindly invites me to seat myself on it in my white cotton rrousers To refuse would be mortal insult; but I contrive to drag across the raw hide a corner of one of the sheets O. felt that are scattered over the floor, on which I squat myself cross legged to await the coming of breakfast.
 l This is evidently not far off; but lest my patience should fail before its appear | ancc, the young chief offers to me las | Jael did to the worn out Sisera thirty five | centuries ago) an earthen jar brimful of | fresh milk. The cool draught is deli ously refreshing though not to be en- | joyed without some difficulty, the milk being so covered with f:es as to look like a closely printed sheet of newspaper. THE FAMOUS ''BRIcK TEA" | Meanwhile the chief himself produces an oblong block of some dark substance not unlike strong tobacco, but which recognize at a glance as the famous ''brick tea" that is brought on camel back across the whole breadth of Asia to Rus sia's great annual fair at Nijni-Novgorod. 1 Knocking off one corner of the "brick." | he crumbles it into small camp kettle | that is steaming ol the top of one of those | brass Russian tea urns which are now be- | ginning to be known to the west by the name of samovar Literally "self boiler'D.
 In trice the whole tent is filled with a fragrance of strong, rich, aromatic tea;
 
 | ing power of this national drink, reach out my hand eagerly for the wooden bowl into which it is poured. But alas! the old khan, following the traditions of his race. has made my tea in what is called "MoGui fashion," l. e., with salt instead of sugar, and mutton fat instead of milk, the result being something so amazingly nasty that, however invaluable as an emetic, it really does seem rather out of place as an article of breakfast. However, succeed thanks to a digestion that has confronted every outlandish native dish from Siam to ] Panama) in getting it down without any l display of uncalled for emotion, although the floating fat leaves so many long icicles of half liquid grease hanging to my mus tache as to make me look like fancy sketch of "Father Christmas.
 My bowl is promptly refilled, and the khan, noticing that the tea is too hot for me to drink at draught, pulls out of his pouch Q huge wooden spoon literally caked with dirt, which he carefully cleans with his tongue, and then offers it to me as a special honor. Luckily have the presence of mind to evade this alarming courtesy by saying that do not hold my self worthy to use the private spoon of so great chief, a compliment that evidently pleaseS the worthy barbarian not a little.
 HUGE SLABS OF BREAD.
 
 and in default of any plates to eat it withal, the young Tartar serves out to us by way of platters huge slabs of bread from a plank of wheaten cake nearly as tall as himself in the farther corner of the tent. For in Genital Asia bread is sold not by the pound but by the sheet, and an ordinary lepeshka (cake), which may be bought for 8 few cents, is quite big enough for a ten-year-old boy to lie upon. 1.-l- -s{,, %l~1.,. culiar shape to these giant biscuits (as l have heard waggish Russian officer as- serD by lying down and rolling upon them, cannot say; but l can testify that whether eaten fresh or crisped in the sun they are extremely nourishing and good. And now the contents of the caldron are turned out, and one glance at the mass of bluish stringy flesh tells me that the meat is camel. This is an ominous discovery, for I do not need to be told that in these days of Russian desert transport and field hospitals, camel is far too valuable to be killed for food, and that when you find him figuring in a Tartar bill of fare you may be pretty sure that he has either died of old age or of dis ease But it is aN the breakfast that we are likely to get within twenty-five or thirty miles; so take lump of the flesh upon my tablet of bread. and set to work tooth and nail.
 In truth, the dainty requires the full exercise of both, being as tender as the Atlantic cable; and it is quite an open question of whether the meat or my teeth shall give way first But the old khan kindly comes to the rescue by tearing off one of the softer portions of his hump and crammiDg it into my mouth with fingers as black and greasy as stolser's. The meal concludes with q brimming bowl of some gray sub-acd liquor. which guess at once to be the famous Tartar "kumyss" (fermented mare's milk, and inwardly wonder what those who see it advertised in the streets of New York and London would say if they could see in what places and by what people it is manufactured.- David Ker in The Cosmopolitan.
 Watch Dial Illuminator.