breast-plate, and consisted of gold coins, some of them very ancient and
valuable, medals, red beads, and a variety of brilliant objects
harmoniously combined. Her heavy gold bracelets had been made to order
in Kazan after a pure Tatar model, and her soft-soled boots of rose-pink
leather, with conventional designs in many-colored moroccos, sewed
together with rainbow-hued silks, reached nearly to her knees. Her
complexion was fresh and not very sallow, her nose rather less like a
button than is usual; her high cheek-bones were well covered, and her
small dark eyes made up by their brilliancy for the slight upward slant
of their outer corners.

Tatar girls, who made no pretensions to beauty in dress or features, did
the milking, and were aided in that and the other real work connected
with kumys-making by Tatar men. According to the official programme, the
mares might be milked six or eight times a day, and the yield was from a
half to a whole bottle apiece each time. Milk is always reckoned by the
bottle in Russia. I presume the custom arose from the habit of sending
the _muzhik_ ("Boots") to the dairy-shop with an empty wine-bottle to
fetch the milk and cream for "tea," which sometimes means coffee in the
morning. The mare's milk has a sweetish, almond-like flavor, and is very
thin and bluish in hue.

At three o'clock in the morning, the mares are taken from the colts and
shut up in a long shed which is not especially weather-proof. In fact,
there is not much "weather" except wind to be guarded against on the
steppe. In about two hours, when the milk has collected, the colts
follow them voluntarily, and are admitted and allowed to suck for a few
seconds. Halters are then thrown about their necks, and they are led
forward where the mothers can nose them over and lick them. The
milkmaid's second assistant then puts a halter on the neck of a mare and