, 1888-10-25
A TARTAR TEA PARTY.
AN EXPERIENCE WHICH TRIES A
TRAVELLERS STOMACH.

IONA Private Wooden Spoon-SIabs
From a Plank of Bread-Eating Cancels
Flesh-"Kumyss."
"Welcome under the shadow of my
poor tent, Ak-beg'' white chief, says the
khan, lifting the door curtain to let me
enter; call that l hav is yours"
As / enter the tent L uusiiug my reveI-
yer and lay it on the ground, while the
khan puts down his gun beside it, thus
signifying that we are friends and
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 admixture
of Persian blood, rises and greets me with
a cultural "Salaam aleikouml' 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.
l reply with the customary formula,
',,With you be peace" and then the
worthy youth, by way of making me
specially comfortable, spreads out for me
a newt. flayed sheepskin with the bloody
side uppermost, and kindly invites me to
seat myself OIL it in my white cotton
trousersl To refuse would be a mortal
insult; but | contrive to drag across the
raw hide a corner of one of the sheets OF
felt that are scattered over the floor, on
which l squat myself cross legged to
await the coming of breakfast.
This is evidently not far off; but lest
my patience should fail before its appear
ance, the young chief offers to me las
Jael did to the worn out Sisera thirty-ive
centuries ago an earthen jar brimful of
fresh milk. The cool draught is deli
ciously refreshing, though not to be en-
joyed without some difficulty, the milk
being so covered with flies as to look like
a closely printed sheet of newspaper.
II FAMOUS 'BRIcK TEA"
Meanwhile the chief himself produces
an oblong block of some lark substance
not unlike strong tobacco, but which I
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-N ovgorod.
Knocking off one corner of the "brick,"
he crumble it into a small camp kettle
that is steaming on the top of one of those
brass Russian tea urns which are now be-
ginning to be kno ~ to the west by the
name of samovar rally "self boiler'').
In a trice the ". Is tent is filled with a
fragrance of stro-g, rich, aromatic tea;
and l, knowing by experience the reviy-
ing power of this national drink, reach out
my hand eagerly for the wooden bow
into which it is poured. But alas the old
khan, following the traditions of his race,
has made my tea in what's called "Mogul
fashion" i. 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, l succeed thanks
to a digestion hat has confronted every
o~utlandish native dish from Siam to
Panama) in getting it down without any
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 a 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 a draught, pulls out of his
pouch n huge wooden spoon literally
caked with dirt, which he carefully cleans
with his tongue, and then offers it to me
as n special honor. Luckily l have the
presence of mind to evade this alarming
courtesy by saying that l do not hold my
self worthy TO use the private spoon of SO
great n chief, a compliment hat evidently
pleases the worthy barbarian not a little.
HUGE SLABS OF
By this time our breakfast is cooked,
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 wheaton cake nearly as
tall as himself in the farther corne of the
tent. For in Central Asia bread is sold
not by the pound, out by the sheet, and
an ordinary lepeshka Cake, which may
be bought for n few cents, is quite big
enough for n ten-year-old boy to lie upon.
Whether the native bakers give their pc
culiar shape to these giant biscuits las l
have heard a waggish Russian officer as
serD by lying down and rolling upon them,
1 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 blush stringy flesh tells me that
the meat is camel. This is an ominous
discovery, for 1 do not need to be told
that in these days of Russian desert
transport and field hospitals, a camel is
far too valuable to be killed for food, and
that when you find him figuring in q
Tartar bill of fare you may be pretty sure
hat 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 l take a 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 m to the rescue by tearing off
one of the softer portions of his hump and
examining it into my mouth with fingers
as black and greasy as a stoker's. The
meal concludes with a trimming bowl Of
some gray sub-acid liquor, which 1 guess at
once to be the famous Tartar 'kumyss"
Qermented mares 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 illumination.
A Swiss matchmaker has made q new
onp1tcatfon NJ a1antrio;+r ~ tho ;.ua.%iz-