Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1850-07-06
4 NInORISII HATH.

MOORISH BATH.
A Moorish bath is one of the lortures with
which the traveller iu the East must make
acquaintance, and as had long in intended
10 undergo that martyrdom | resolved to do
so TO day along with AIademoiSelle dill,
whilst the warm sirocco prevented the dam
ger Of our taking cold. We chose an hour at
which the baths are not much froquented by
native females, for otherwise we might have
found ourselves in the midst of thirty or forty
of them, since private bath chambers are not
to be had. We took with US negress who
understood a little Italian, so that we might
not be without help in case the treatment we
received from the attendants should be more
than we could endure.
''We first entered vaultcd quadrangular
room, lighted from above all round il ran a
broad, high stone divan, covered with mats,
and with stone blocks before it here and there
so that with two enormous strides one might
ascend it. On this platform, where bathers
Just dripping from the steam-rooms had sat
to cool themselves, we undressed ourselves;
and as there was neither chair table, nor peg
TO put our clothes on, we were obliged to lay
them all upon the damp mats. In order to
enter the next warmer room we had to put
on kind of patsen, the sole Of which was
piece of wood five or six inches thiok. Un-
accustomed as we were TO such kind of
chassure, it was almost impossible for us TO
go alone, especially over the slippery marble
floor; eace of us, therefore, had to be suppor-
ted by two women and in that way we pas
sed through the various bathrooms, which
were scantly lighted from above, and were
filled with hotter and hotter steam, in regular
gradation from one end of the suite to the
other. One would suppose that such a very
elevated temperature would be very disagree.
| able, nay intolerabe, but it only appeared so
during the first few minutes. When we had
entered the last chamber--the fifth believe
it was, and the flags were so hot that was
obliged to stand now on one side, now Oh
| another, for our thick pattens had been taken
from us before this--I felt lively sympathy
for those poor brutes who are Taught 10 dance
in that cruel way. Now at last began our
real martyrdom for all the torments of Orcus
and Erebus seemed 10 have their abode in
THE last chamber. Large buckets full of
almost boiling water, bowls filed with the
most disguised chocolate-like substance, and
| harsh lite hbgous tufts, made for scraping the
skin, were the attributes OF a band of da-
| boical nymphs that only awaited the signal
10 exercise their torturiug arts ubon US. They
were negresses and mulattoes, all of them
old and most them one-eyed; and, save a
scauty garmeat, their costume was that of
| paradlsaical innocence. On our arrival they
| thought themselves bound to do the honours
OF their elysiuIil, and they set up song that
would well have become witches sabbath;
! then they danced wild Moorish dances before
Us, and finally they fell upon us without mer-
cy, laid us down on The hot flags, plastered US
from head to foot with the chocolate-lke
stuff, scraped US down with the rough fibrous
tufts, and sluiced us with boiling water. In
| this last process some of them used small
! sieves, so that for u moment we might have
| fancied ourselves transformed into fair flow
ers, were it not that others of them now and
then dashed buskets of hot water over us
from head TO foot, so that we might rather
have taken ourselves for dirty coaches.
"The mysterious half light of the rooms,
the streaming and dtopping of the water, the
melancholy mewing of some amorous cats,
the Internal choir aronnd us, whose demoni-
acal songs re-echoed through the vauted
rooms, all this made an eternity of the few
hours we here spent in pain and dread, aad
Mademoiselle Dill and | could only rel
terate, Once is all very well, but catch me
coming here a second time !! By this time
we were in such plight that we almost des-
paired of over again being fit to be seen. Our
hair, Madomoisele d'H--'s especially,
which reached nearly TO her knee was daub-
ed and slreaked with the brown unguent in
way that was really piteous TO see. We had
already been led back TO the first room,
stretched oul on the diyan and well kneaded
! by the women, we heard the voices of p
and T. in the anlo-room, for they had
grown uneasy about ou: long absence, and
concluded that we had been taken i'll during
the operation. We called out to them 10
wait for us, for we hoped soon TO be out of
the iaEgs of the furious. When that happy
deiverence at last took place, and p
asked me how liked liked Moorish bath
conld only answer, 80 little that would
not nfiet one on my worst enemy,n
AN AMERICAN CITIZEN, Mr.. Henry Wal
i thor of Roston bas met hoo, orrastaI at