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is much superior to our filtering stones, or other methods by descent, in which, in time, particles of the stone, or the finer sand, make a passage along with the water.

"They make two wells, from five to ten feet, or any depth, at a small distance, which have a communication at bottom. The separation must be of clay well beaten, or of other substances impervious to water. The two wells are then filled with sand and gravel. The opening of that into which the water to be filtered is to run, must be somewhat higher than that into which the water is to ascend, and this must not have sand quite up to its brim, that there may be room for the filtered water, or it may, by a spout, run into a vessel placed for that purpose. The greater the difference is between the height of the two wells, the faster the water will filter; but the less it is the better, provided a sufficient quantity of water be supplied by it.

"This may be practised in a cask, tub, jar, or other vessel. The water may be conveyed to the bottom by a pipe, the lower end having a spunge in it, or the pipe may be filled with coarse sand.

"It is evident that all such particles, which by their gravity are carried down in filtration by descent, will not rise with the water in filtration by ascension. This might be practised on board ships at little expence.

"The Arabians and the Turks have a preparation of milk, which has similar qualities to the kumiss * of the Kalmuks: by, the first is is called leban, by the Turks yaourt.

"To make it, they put to new milk made hot over the fire some old leban (or yaourt). In a few hours, more or less, according to the temperature of the air, it becomes curdled of an uniform con sistence, and a most pleasant acid; the cream is in great part separated, leaving the curd light and semitransparent.. The whey is much less subject to separate than in curds made with rennet with us, for the purpose of making cheese.

"Yaourt has this singular quality, that, left to stand, it becomes daily sourer, and at last dries, without having entered into the putrid fermentation. In this state it is preserved in bags, and in appear'ance resembles pressed curds after they have been broken by the hand. This dry yaourt, mixed with water, becomes a five cooling food or drink, of excellent service in fevers of the inflammatory or putrid kind. It seems to have none of those qualities which make milk improper in fevers. Fresh yaourt is a great article of food among the natives, and Europeans soon become fond of it.

"No other acid will make the same kind of curd: all that have been tried, after the acid fermentation is over, become putrid. In Russia they put their milk in pots in an oven, and let it stand till it becomes sour, and this they use as an article of food in that state, or make cheese of it; but it has none of the qualities of yaourt, though, when it is new, it has much of the teste. Perhaps new milk curdled with sour milk, and that again used as a ferment, and the same process continued, might, in time, acquire the qualities of yaourt,

For the method of preparing kumiss, or koumiss, with its use in medicine, see the New Annual Register for the year 1788, p. [133].

which never can be made in Turkey without some old yaourt.

66

They give no rational account how it was first made; some of them told me an angel taught Abraham how to make it, and others, that an angel brought a pot of it to Hagar, which was the first yaourt (or leban).

"It merits attention as a delicious article of food, and as a medicine."

"The butter, which is mostly used in Constantinople, comes from the Crim and the Kuban. They do not salt it, but melt it in large copper pans over a very slow fire, and scum off what rises; it will then preserve sweet a long time if the butter was fresh when it was melted. We preserve butter mostly by salting. I have had butter, which when fresh was melted and scummed in the Tartar manner, and then salted in our manner, which kept two years good and fine tasted. Washing does not so effectually free butter from the curd and buttermilk, which it is necessary to do, in order to preserve it, as boiling or melting; when then salt is added to prevent the pure butyrous part from growing rancid, we certainly have the best process for preserving butter. The melting or boiling, if done with care, does not discolour or injure the taste.

"To the lovers of coffee, a few remarks on the Turkish manner of making it, in the best way, may not be unacceptable.

"Coffee, to be good, must either be ground to an almost impalpable powder, or it must be pounded as the Turks do, in an iron mortar, with a heavy pestle. The Turks first put the coffee dry into the coffee-pot, and set it over a very slow fire, or embers, till it is warm, and ends forth a fragrant

smell, shaking it often; then from another pot they pour on it boiling water (or rather water in which the grounds of the last made coffee had been boiled, and set to become clear); they they hold it a little longer over the fire, till there is on its top a white froth-like cream, but it must not boil, but only rise gently; it is then poured backwards and forwards two or three times, from one pot into another, and it soon becomes clear; they, however, often drink it quite thick. Some put in a spoonful of cold water to make it clear sooner, or lay a cloth dipt in cold water on the top of the pot.

"The reason why our West-India coffee is not so good as the Yemen coffee is, that on account of the climate it is never suffered to hang on the trees till it is perfectly ripe; and in the voyage it acquires a taste from the bad air in the hold of the ship. This may be remedied in Italy, by exposing it to the sun two or three months: with us, boiling water should be poured on it, and let to stand till it is cold, then it must be washed with other cold water, and, lastly, dried in an oven. Thus prepared, it will be nearly as good as the best Turkey coffee. It should be roasted in an open earthen or iron pan, and the slower it is roasted the better. As often as it crackles it must be taken off the fire. The Turks often roast it in a baker's oven while it is heating.

"The preservation of yeast having been a subject of much research in this country, the following particulars may perhaps deserve attention. On the coast of Persia my bread was made, in the English manner, of good wheat flower, and with the yeast generally used there. It is thus prepared; take a small

tea-cup or wine-glass full of split or bruised pease, pour on it a pint of boiling water, and set the whole in a vessel all night on the hearth, or any other warm place; the water will have a froth on its top next morning, and will be good yeast.

In this cold climate, especially at a cold season, it should stand longer to ferment, perhaps twenty-four or forty-eight hours. The above quan tity made me as much bread as two sixpenny loaves, the quality of which was very good and light."

POETRY.

POETRY.

ODE for the NEW YEAR.

By HENRY JAMES PYE, ESQ. POET-LAUREAT.

I.

THEN genial Zephyr's balmy wing

W1

Fans with loft plume the flowery vale,
Each tender scion of the spring
Expanding owns the fostering gale,
And smiles each sunny glade around,
With vegetable beauty crown'd;

But when the whirlwinds of the north
Burst in tempestuous vengeance forth,
Before the thunder of the storm
Each spreading tree of weaker form
Or bends to earth, or lies réclin❜d,
Torn by the fury of the wind;

Then proudly 'mid the quivering shade

Stands the firm oak in native strength array'd,
Waves high his giant branches, and defies
The elemental war that rends the skies.

II.

Deep-rooted in this kindred soil,

So Freedom here through many an age
Has mock'd Ambition's fruitless toil,
And Treason's wiles, and Faction's rage;

And as the stormy ruin pass'd

Which Anarchy's rude breath had blown,

While Europe, bending to the blast,

1798.

Beholds her fairest realms o'erthrown;

Alone Britannia's happy isle,

Bless'd by a patriot Monarch's smile,

Amid surrounding storms uninjur'd stands,

Nor dreads the tempest's force that wastes her neighbour lands.

M

III. But

III.

But see! along the darkling main
The gathering clouds malignant four,
And, spreading o'er our blue domain,

Against our shores their thunders pour ;
While treach'rous friends and daring foes
Around in horrid compact close;
Their swarming barks portentous shade
With crowded sails the watery glade :
When lo! imperial GEORGE commands
Rush to the waves, Britannia's veteran bands—
Unnumber'd hosts usurp in vain

Dominion o'er his briny reign';

His fleets their monarchs's right proclaim

With brazen throat, with breath of flame:

And captive in his ports their squadrons ride,

Or mourn their shatter'd wrecks deep whelm'd beneath the tide.

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