The Kanzas news., 1857-09-19

vanishes sight, hearing, smell, taste, (un-
less we open our mouth, and breathing are
cut off; we have become nebulous Al
though our eyes are shut, we seem to see a
blank whiteness and, feeling nothing but
a soft feeciness. we doubt If we be not the
Olympian cloud which visited To- But the
cloud clears away before strangulation be-
gins, and the velyety mass descends upon
the body. Twice are We thus s'slushed"
from head to foot, and made more slippery
than the annointed wrestlers of the Greek
games. Then the basin comes again into
play, and we glide more musically through
the scale of temperature.
The brown sculp ptor has now nearly com
pleted his task. The figure of clay which
entered the bath is transformed into polished
marble. He turns the body from side to
side, and lifts the limbs to see whether the
workmanship is adequate to his conception.
His satisfied gaze proclaims his success. A
skiilful bath attendant has certain aesthetic
pleasure in his occupation. The bodies he
polishes become to some extent his own
workmanship, and he feels responsible for
their symmetry or deformity. He expert
ences degree of triumph in contemplating
a beautiful form, which has grown more
airy, light and beautiful under his hands.
He is a great connoisseur of bodies, and
could pick out the finest specimens with as
ready an eye as an artist.
But, while we have been thinking these
thoughts, the attendant has been waiting to
give US final plunge in the seething tank.
Again We slide down to the eyes in the fluid
heat, which wraps us closely about until we
tingle with exquisite hot shiverings. Now
comes the graceful boy, with cool, clean,
lavender napkins, which he folds around our
waist and wraps softly about our head. The
pattens are put upon our feet, and the brown
arm steadies us gently through the sweating
room and ante-chamber into the outer hall,
where we mount to our couch. We sink
gently upon the cool linen, and the boy COW
ers US with perfumed sheet. Then, kneel-
ing beside the couch, he presses the folds of
the sheet around US, that it may absorb the
lingering moisture and the limpid perspira-
ton shed by the departing heat. As fast as
the linen becomes damp, he replaces it with
fresh, pressing the folds about US as tender
ly as mother arranges the drapery of her
sleeping babe for we, though of the stature
of man, are now infantile in our helpless
happiness. Then he takes our passive hand
and warns its palm by the soft friction of
his own; /; after which, moving to the end of
the couch, he takes our feet upon his lap,
and repeats the friction upon their soles,
until the blood comes back to the surface of
the body with a moisty glow, like that which
sleeps the clouds of a summer afternoon.
We have but one more process to under
60, and the attendant stands already at the
head of our couch. This is the course of
passive gymnastics, which excites so much
alarm and resistance in the ignorant Franks.
1t is only resistance that is dangerous, COM
pletely neutralizing the enjoyment of the
process. Give yourself with blind sub
mission into the arms of the brown Fate,
and he viii lead you TO new chambers of de-
light. He lifts us to a sitting posture, pla-
ces himself behind us, and folds his arms
around our body, alternately tightening and
relaxing his clasp, as if to test the elasticity
of the ribs. Then seizing one arm he draws
it across the opposite shoulder until the joint
cracks like a percussion cap. The shoulder
blades, the elbows, the wrists and the finger
/ joints are all made to fire off their muff1ed
voIeys; and then, placing one knee between
our shoulders, and clasping both hands upon
our forehead, he draws our head back until
we feel great snap of the vertebral column.
Now he descends to the hip joints, knees,
ankles and feet, forcing each and all to dis
charge a salyo de joie. The slight languor
left from the bath is gone, and airy, delicate
exhileration, beftting the winged Mercury,
takes its place.
The boy, kneeling, presents us with a
1 e - E.
of sherbet cooled with the SHOWS of Lebanon.
He presently returns with narghileh, which
We smoke by the effortless inhalation of the
lungs. Thus we lie in perfect repose,
sOothed by the fragrant weed, and idly
watching the silent Orientals who are un-
dressing for the bath, or reposing like our
selves. Through the arched entrance we
see picture of the Bazaars shadowy
painting of merchants seated amid their
silks and spices, dotted here and there with
golden drops and splashes of sunshine,
which have trickled through the roof. The
scene paints itself upon our eyes, yet wakes
no slightest stir of thought. The brain is
becalmed sea, without a ripple on its
shores. Mind and body are drowned in
delicious rest; and we no longer remember
what we are. We only know that there is
an existence somewhere in the air, and that
wherever it is, or whatever it may be, it is
happy.
More and more dim grows the picture
The eolors fade and blend into each other,
and finally merge into bed of rosy clouds,
! flooded with the radiance of some unseen
sun. Gentlier than ''tired eyehds upon tired
eyes" sleep lies upon our senses half
conscious sleep, wherein we know that We
behold light and inhale fragrance. AS gen
| tly the clouds dissipate into the air. and We
are born again into the world. The bath is
at an end. We arise and put on our gar
ments, and walk forth into the sunny streets
of Damascus. But as we go homewards,
we inyoluntarily look down TO see Hhethei