Kumis

"Kumis"

While studying the history of my Scythian forefathers I came across a mildly alcoholic drink prepared by them by fermenting Mare's milk.This is called as "Kumis" !

Archaeological investigations of the Botai culture of ancient Kazakhstan have revealed traces of milk in bowls from the site of Botai, suggesting the domestication of the animal. No specific evidence for its fermentation has yet been found, but considering the location of the Botai culture and the nutritional properties of mare's milk, the possibility is high.

Kumis is an ancient beverage. Herodotus, in his 5th-century BC Histories, describes the Scythians processing of mare's milk:

Now the Scythians blind all their slaves, to use them in preparing their milk. The plan they follow is to thrust tubes made of bone, not unlike our musical pipes, up the vulva of the mare, and then to blow into the tubes with their mouths, some milking while the others blow. They say that they do this because when the veins of the animal are full of air, the udder is forced down.The milk thus obtained is poured into deep wooden casks, about which the blind slaves are placed, and then the milk is stirred round. That which rises to the top is drawn off, and considered the best part; the under portion is of less account.

This is widely believed to be the first description of ancient kumis-making.Apart from the idiosyncratic method of mare-milking,it matches up well enough with later accounts, such as this one given by 13th-century traveller William of Rubruck:

This cosmos, which is mare's milk, is made in this wise.When they have got together a great quantity of milk, which is as sweet as cow's as long as it is fresh, they pour it into a big skin or bottle, and they set to churning it with a stick and when they have beaten it sharply it begins to boil up like new wine and to sour or ferment, and they continue to churn it until they have extracted the butter. Then they taste it, and when it is mildly pungent, they drink it. It is pungent on the tongue like rapé wine when drunk, and when a man has finished drinking, it leaves a taste of milk of almonds on the tongue, and it makes the inner man most joyful and also intoxicates weak heads, and greatly provokes urine.

Rubruk also mentions that the Mongols prized a particular variety of black kumiss called caracosmos, which was made specifically from the milk of black mares.

In the 19th century, "Kumis(kumyss)" was used to treat gastrointestinal disorders.