BOUZA, OR MILLET BEER. 251 The Arabians, Abyssinians, and many African tribes, give the same name to a fermented drink which they usually prepare from teff, the seeds of the Poa Abyssinica. They occasionally employ millet-seed, however, and even barley, for the purpose. Their bouza is described as a sour, thick drink. In Sikkim, on the southern slopes of the lower Himalaya, millet beer, under the name of murwa, is in very general use. It is prepared by moistening the millet-seed. (Eleusine coracana), and allowing it to ferment for some days. On a portion of this, considered sufficient for the occasion, or for the day's consumption, hot water is then poured. It is usually drunk while still warm-is served in bamboo jugs, and sucked through a reed. When quite fresh, it tastes "like negus of Cape sherry, rather sour." It is very weak, but in a hot day's march is described as a very grateful beverage-(HOOKER).* With the chemical peculiarities of these different forms of millet beer we are at present unacquainted. The speciality in their preparation seems to be, that they are fermented in the grain, and not in the wort, as is the case with European beers; and that the fermentation is spontaneous, and not produced by yeast. Under these circumstances, three chemical changes will be proceeding in the moist grain at the same time : First, The starch of the grain will be transformed into sugar by the agency of the diastase, which is formed during the sprouting that ensues after the grain is mois tened. Second, This sugar is partly changed into alcohol by the fermentation which spontaneously commences. Third, A part of the sugar is changed also into lactic * Himalayan Journals, vol, i, pp. 285, 291. acid, or the acid of milk, through the action of the gluten of the millet, which, during the spontaneous fermentation, possesses the peculiar property of producing this change. The drink obtained by infusing this altered grain in water agrees with our European malt-liquors, therefore, in containing nutritive matters derived from the starch and gluten of the grain. But it differs from them in containing lactic instead of acetic acid. The Indian murwa differs from them also in being drunk like tea soon after it is infused, and in containing no bitter addition resembling our hop. The astringency of the bouza of the Crim Tartars seems to indicate that they use something in preparing it besides the fermented millet-seed. It is a singular coincidence that the mode of infusing in hot water and sucking through a tube, practised on the Himalayas, is exactly the same as is practised in South America in preparing maté or Paraguay tea. In each of these remote districts the beverage prepared is taken hot, and is in universal use; and yet, so far as I am aware, this mode of drinking is adopted only in North-Eastern Asia and in Southern America. Is there anything more than a mere coincidence in this? 4°. QUASS, or RYE BEER, a favourite Russian drink, is a sharp, acid, often muddy liquor, which, in taste and appearance, resembles some of the varieties of bouza. It is made by mixing rye-flour, and occasionally barley-flour, with water, and fermenting. It may possibly contain lactic acid, but I am not aware that its composition has yet been made the subject of special chemical inquiry. This is one of the cases in which un-malted grain is employed in the manufacture of beer on the continent of Europe. 5o. Koumiss, or MILK BEER.-Milk, as I have explained in the preceding chapter, contains a peculiar kind of sugar, KOUMISS, OR MILK BEER. 253 less sweet than cane sugar, to which the name of milk sugar is given. This sugar, when dissolved in water, does not ferment upon the addition of yeast; but when dissolved in the milk, along with the curd and butter, it readily ferments, is transformed into alcohol and carbonic acid, and gives to the liquor an intoxicating quality. This fermentation will take place spontaneously, but it is hastened by the addition of yeast or of a little already fermented milk. The fermented liquid is the koumiss of the Tartars. Mare's milk is richer in sugar than that of the cow, and is usually employed for the manufacture of milk beer. It is prepared in the following manner :— To the new milk, diluted with "a sixth of its bulk of water, a quantity of rennet, or, what is better, a sour koumiss, is added, and the whole is covered up in a warm place for twenty-four hours. It is then stirred or churned together till the curd and whey are intimately mixed, and is again left at rest for twenty-four hours. At the end of this time it is put into a tall vessel and agitated till it becomes perfectly homogeneous. It has now an agreeable sourish *This transformation is effected, through the agency of the curd, in a way not yet clearly understood. The mere change of substance—that is, of the sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid, supposing it to be produced directly-appears very simple. Thus, C representing carbon, H hydrogen, and O oxygen: One of milk sugar is Four of alcohol are Eight of carbonic acid, →Sum, с но = 24 24 24 = 16 24 8 24 24 24 So that, in one of milk sugar there are exactly the materials to form four of alcohol and eight of carbonic acid. But the transfo mation is probably much more indirect and circuitous-the curd changing one portion of the sugar into lactic acid, this acid changing the rest of the milk sugar into grape sugar, and then the altered curd again in some unknown way, causing this grape sugar to ferment and split up into alcohol and carbonic acid. The non-chemical reader will understand in some degree, from this example, how difficult it is to follow, and distinctly make out, the rapid and successive changes which often take place in consequence of the mutual re-actions of different chemical substances. taste, and, in a cool place, may be preserved for several months in close vessels. It is always shaken up before it is drunk. This liquor, from the cheese and butter it contains, is a nourishing as well as an exhilarating drink, and is not followed by the usual bad effects of intoxicating liquors. It is even recommended as a wholesome article of diet in cases of dyspepsia or of general debility." By distillation, ardent spirits are obtained from this koumiss, and, when carefully made, a pint of the liquor will yield half an ounce of spirit. To this milk-brandy, when only once distilled, the Kalmucks give the name of arraca, and from the residue in the still they make a kind of hasty-pudding. The Arabians and Turks prepare a fermented liquor, or milk beer, similar to the koumiss, which the former call leban and the latter yaourt. In the Orkney Islands, and in some parts of Ireland and of the north of Scotland, buttermilk is sometimes kept till it undergoes the vinous fermentation and acquires intoxicating qualities. matter. This milk beer has never, I believe, been chemically investigated; but we know, first, That it agrees with the malt. beers in containing a considerable proportion of nutritive The butter and cheese of the milk remain as nutritious ingredients of the beer. Second, That it differs from the malt beers in containing more acid, and in owing its sourness not to acetic acid but to the peculiar acid of milk, the lactic acid. In both these respects it agrees remarkably with millet beer. We shall see in the next chapter that, in the kind of acid it contains, milk beer agrees also with cider. 6o. AVA, CAVA, or ARVA.-Similar to chica in the mode of preparation is the ava or cava of the South Sea Islands. This liquor is in use over a very wide area of the Pacific Ocean, and among the inhabitants of very remote islands. In Tahiti, the use of it is said to have swept off many of the inhabitants. In the Sandwich Islands it was some years ago forbidden-(SIMPSON). In the Samoan group it is the only intoxicating liquor known, and old and young, male and female, are very fond of it-(WILKES). In the Tonga Islands it is prepared and drunk on every festive occasion -(MARINER). And in the Feejee Islands, the preparation of the morning drink of this liquor for the king is one of the most solemn and important duties of his courtly attendants -(WILKES). The name of ava is given to the root of the intoxicating long-pepper (Macropiper methysticum), fig. 49, which is |