THE food of the Tatars consists chiefly of sour milk, or paste. From childhood they are so accustomed to the use of sour food, that they eat every sort of acid with extreme avidity. They devour unripe fruit with greats greediness, and suck lemons in preference to oranges. They seldom eat fresh milk, but immediately it comes from the cow, it is first boiled, and afterwards churned. The butter is then melted, and poured into a skin. The buttermilk is put into a cask, which stands ready to receive the overplus of every day's consumption, and which, thus becoming sour, is saved until the time when their s2 cows are dry. A very small jug of it will at that time sell for a petack. They also make cheese, which is not dried, but salted and pressed in small thin pieces. These are afterwards put down into an earthen pot, or small tub, with a sufficient quantity of salt to keep them. They prepare paste for eating in a great variety of ways, making it in different shapes, and frying or boiling it with butter. Sometimes it is served up in the form ofpancakes, sometimes of patties, containing a small portion of meat and onion. One of their favourite dishes consists of small balls of paste sent up in sour cream. Another, which is by far the most conformable to a stranger's taste, is made of minced meat, seasoned and rolled in vine leaves, which they put into a saucepan with butter, and stew over a slow fire. They eat rice, as the Turks do in Pillau, with boiled raisins, and make a cold soup of these latter, as well as of figs, which is in fact no more than the water in which they have been boiled. When melons and cucumbers are ripe, they live almost entirely upon them, devouring them unpeeled, and requiring only the addition of bread to complete their meal.
The Russians, Greeks, and Bulgarians eat frogs, land tortoises, and snails, which last they boil, and having taken from them the shell, dish them up with flour, salt, and oil. Snails are, however, only considered good and eatable at two seasons of the year, viz. in the autumn, and very early in the spring, just before the frost goes, at which time they are found about the roots of trees. As soon as they begin to crawl they become slimy, and are no longer palatable.
At their dinners they sit in a circle around a small table about a foot from the ground, over which is thrown a large table-cloth, or more commonly avery long napkin, covering the knees of all the party. The first dish, which generally consists of soup, is then brought in, with slices of bread, and a spoon for each person. All eat out of the same dish, and the use of forks is unknown. When roast or boiled meat is sent to table, the master of the house cuts it into slices, and helps his guests with his fingers, placing every one's portion upon his bread, or upon the tray. At their parties they serve up ten or fifteen dishes, one at a time ; and at a friendly dinner I have never seen less than six. Water iscommonly drank at table, and when that is removed, excellent coffee, often without sugar or cream, is handed round. An ewer and basin are brought to each person, before and after the meal. It is not their custom to say grace aloud, but I have remarked the elder women of the family repeating some sort of prayer before they begin to eat.
The musical instruments of the Tatars are the most unmusical of their kind. They consist of the pipe, bagpipe, anddrum ; theformer ofwhich is the companion of the shepherd boy, and the two latter the constant accompaniments of their wedding feasts. I have often enquired for national songs, but could never hear of any that were worth, or indeed would bear translating : those which my boys learnt among the Tatar lads, were generally founded on some village anecdote. I cannot find that they have the usual oriental taste for tales of necromancy and encjiantment ; but they are fond of ghost stories, and the fact of the devil walking in the garden at Karagoss, is not doubted by any one ofthem.
The boys have many very active games, some of which resemble those of our English children. Among those peculiar to themselves, are several played with bones, which they throw from the back of the hand, and catch again very expertly.