The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-05-07
RATHING IN TURKEY.

Olive Harper, writing from Constan-
tinople. thus lays bare the mysteries
of the bath in the far east:
have read, certainly not less than
fifty times, elaborate descriptions of
genuine Turkish baths, by Bayard Tay-
Tor, Ross Browne and others, and I have
ALWAYS had my imagination filed with
the combined ecstacies of being scrubbed
with hot water and perfumed soap and
iced sherbet, and made up my mind
not to leave Turkey without having that
delightful experience. You know that
belong to the softer sex, and that they
do not battle promiscuously here as in
Baden, Long Branch and many other
fashionable places. This bath where l
went is for ladies alone, not even the
common herd" being admitted, for
the charge is very high.
Four of us went, together with two
women servants, who carried our tow
els, bathing dresses and lunch. 1t is
az all-day's Job, and the ladies all take
lunch with them.
On entering we were conducted to a
large room, where we must undress and
leave our things. think there were
nearly fifty women there in all stages
of undress, who all paused to regard us
with curiosity while We disrobed. Men
can pull of their most sacred garments,
toss them in a heap, and run about as
if nothing were amiss. but somehow i
lett as eve did when she had made the
discovery that she was little too thin
" clad for the time of the year.
A servant caught up our bathing
dresses and left the room, reckoning us
to follow. Weran the gauntlet of hun
dred pair of eyes before we reached the
divan where I was laid, like a eefunct.
The room was very warm and grew
warmer perceptibly, though how, I
don't know, until 1 began to feel as if
I should suffocate, my heart beat pain
fully hard and grew very faint, when
one of the women gave me some lemon
ade, of which I drank two glasses.
Then all of sudden, I began to per-
spire, andsI looked like a pumpkin that
had laid out all night in heavy dew.
felt as if I was dissolving, and waited
patiently till the end should come,
and I should be but the transparent
essence of what was once a very sub
st initial body but that time had not
come. I was so sleepy that I felt like
calling very hard names, when the
woman came and made me get up, after
she had rubbed me down like a race
horse with a pair of very scratchy
gloves, which left my skin as red as a
lobster.
Then, we all being in the same state,
were led into another great vaulted
marble hoOred room, where the divans
are made of marble, which is not at all
soft to lie on. This room was warmer
than the last, and more vapory, and the
vapor was more strongly perfumed with
sandRl-wood. After lying a few mo-
- 4I,n ,,aa,.l,1a rr,fA -
sense of most delicious repose comes
over you. You feel a soft languor and
a dreamy content, and your eyes close
and you lay with a smile of exquisite
laziness on your lips, and your imagina-
ton flies off in every possible direo-
ton, when the sweet repose is again
rudely broken and you have again TO
"moVe on"
Now, indeed, opens the door of para
| disc. You are led, still without other
covering than nature gives you, into q
! large circular room, with marble pillar,
supporting the blue dome that is
spangled with stars. All round the
room are marble divans, and in the cen.
ter is an immense fountain, in the basin
of which are sixty or seventy girls and
women playing in the warm, perfumed
water, or lying in all attitudes on the
marble edges of the basin. The watel
rises in one grand column over fifty
feet, and falls back into an upper basin,
while the lower one is undisturbed ex,
cept by the beautiful white forms that
| it most delights to receive.
On all the divans lay women of al
ages and compilations, even to some
negresses, who only served to make the
white bodies and polished limbs appear
more lovelier than ever. Smaller foun
tains were placed at regular intervals
around the large room, and from these
| the attendants poured continuously over
the bodies of those who lay on the
divans, warm water which was carried
| off by the pipes. One attendant stood
at the head, holding my gold embroid,
cred bathing apparatus, one lathered
ms with perfumed soap till I began to
imagine myself q gigantic rose, and all
these beautiful beings laughing and
/ singing and gliding around me but 9th
er specimens of flowers.
Another attendant rubbed me with
| gloves made of sponge, and another
poured warm water over me necessarily,
not dashed it, not let il trickle, but Just
emptied the beautifully chased silver
] ever over me with the gentlest of mo-
| tions, till it seemed like a caress. Then
| soap of bitter almonds was rubbed on
/ any face, and other of another kind was
rubbed in my hair, ali done in that ten
/ der, caressing way that made it a posi-
/ tive ecstacv then more perfumed wa
| ter till felt drowning in a sea of all
delights, in which could distinguish
perfumes, flowers, sweet singing voices,
and forms of heavenly beauty.
Time and the outer world were lost
in the delightful trance, and desired
nothing else in the world to make my
| life content forever. To lie there on
the marble and dreamily watch the glo-
rious white of the living statues, with
l the long black hair, and the rich dark
| eyes T; to see the soft, undulating mo-
| tions of them swimming in the warm.
delicious water to look at the love-
/ " forms stretched at full length on
the divans and on the edges of the
fountain, and others laughing, sporting,
singing, mingling with affectionate
| chances, and wrestling in the water, or
on the marble floor, dripping from ey-
cry limb the perfumed water that glis-
! tened on their bodies, and the trjckling
of the fountain, and the rosy, subdued
light that stole in through the jealous
ly-guarded windows, were enough to
send one of an imagination like mine
Off into the realms of fancy, and make
one believe 1t the promised land, and
cause the whole soul 10 be satisfied with
the picture, which needed no imagina-
ton TO embellish.
My attendant reused me from my
dreams of perfect peace by pointing to
the fountain and signifying that was
also to get in. My four friends then
made their appearance with the SER
wants and our luncheon, and nobody
can tell of the comical look of as Eve
sitting round the baskets eating, and
without any clothes on. have seen
many sights in my life, but We women
around those baskets, with chicken
legs IN our hands and glasses of wine,
and other things, were too perfectly
ludierous for anything, and I laughed
till l couldn't eat. And my dreams of
a luxurious, sleepy, sensuous paradise,
filed with undulating figures of trans