The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1874-05-02
BATHING IN TURKEY.

American " Oman'S experience OF
the Turkish Bath.
Olive Harper, writing from Constan-
tinople thus lays bare the mysteries
of the bath IN the far east:
I haye lead, certainly. .not-less than
fifty times, elaborate descriptions OF
genuine Turkish baths, by Bayard Tay-
Tor. Ross Browne and others, and have
always had my imagination illed with
the combined ecstacies of being scrubbed
with hot v@ter 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 rs IN
Baden, Long Branch and many other
fashionable places. This bath where /
went is for ladies alone, not even the
" common herd being admitted, Tor
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
al all-day's job, and the ladies all take
lunch with them.
On entering we were conducted to q
large room, where we must unf fess and
leave our things. I think thsre were
nearly fiftv women there IN all stages
OF unOIGSSs WIZ All pause ~ -lt~-NA t-''
with curiosity while We disrobed. Men
can pull of their most sacred garments,
toss them in a heap. and run alb BIT as
if nothing were amiss, but somehow /
lett as eve did when she had made the
discovery that she was a little too thin
ly 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 a hun
dred pair of eyes before we reached the
1ivan where I was laid, like 6efunct.
The room was very warm and grew
warmer perceptibly, though how, /
don't know, until / began TO feel as If
I should suffocate, nv heart beat pain
fully hard and I grew very faint, when
one of the women gave me some lemon
ade, of which [ drank two glasses.
Then all of sudden, bdAan TO per-
splre, and / looked like pun kin that
had laid out all night in a heavy dew.
[ felt as if 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 ntial body but that time had not
come. 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 foored 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
sandal-wood. After lying a few mo-
ments, the marble grows soft, and a
sense of most delicious repose comes
over you. You feel q soft laDgUOr and
a dreamy content, and your eyes close
and you lay with a smile of exquisite
laziness on your lips, and yoZIr imagina-
tion flies off in every possible direc-
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 6
| 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 basiI
of which are sixty or seventy girls ant
women playing IN the warm, perfumeC
| water, or lying in all attitudes on the
marble edges of the basin. The watel
rises in one grand column oveC fifty
feet, and falls back into an upper lsin
while the lower one is undisturbed ex
eept by the beautiful white forms tina
it most delights to receive.
On all the divans lay women of al
ages and compilations, even 10 somt
/ l. 1 -, - u.
white bodies and polished limbs appea
more lovelier than ever. Smaller foun
tains were placed at regular intervals
around the large room, and from thes,
the attendants poured continuously owe
the bodies of those who lay on th,
| divans. warm water which was carried
off by the pipes One attendant stooC
at the head, holding my gold embroid
cred bathing apparatus, one lahhereC
me With perfumed soap till began t
imagine myself gigantic rose, and al
these beautiful teings laughing anC
singing and gliding around me but 9th
er specimens of flowers.
Another attendant rubbed me viii
gloves mac of sponge, and another
poured warm water over me incessantIy
not dashed it, not let it tricHle, but Just
emptied the beautifully chased silver
! ever over me with the gentlest of mo
| tons, till it seemed like a caress. Their
\ soap of bitter almonds was rubbed OF
| any face, and other of another kind wa
rubbed in nay hair, all done in that ten
der, caressinG way that made it posi-
tive ecstacy.; then more perfumed wa
ter till I 1T drowning in sea of al
delights, in which I could distinguish
perfumes, flowers, sweet singing voices
| aud forms of heavenly hpar7tv
Time and the outer world were los
In the delightful trance, and 1 desiret
nothing else in the world to make m.
life content forever. To lie there o.
the marble and dreamily watch the glo
rious white of the living statues, wit
the long black hair, and the rich darl
eyes to see the soft, undulating mo
tions of them swimming in the warm
/ delicious water to look at the love
ly forms stretched at full length o.
the divans and on the edges of tn
fountain, and others laughing, sporting
singing, mingling with affAtionat
chances, and wrestling in the Water, o
on the marble floor, dripping from ev
ery limb the perfumed water that glis
tened on their bodies, and the trjcklinl
of the fountain, and the rosy, subduet
light that stole in through the je; Gus
ly-guarded windows, were enough f
send one of an imagination like min,
off into the realms of fancy, and l. ak,
one believe it the promised land, anC
cause the whole soul to be satisfied witt
the picture. which needed no imagins
| ton to embellish.
NY attendant reused me from m,
dreams of perfect peace by pointing tC
the fountain and signifying that / wa
also to get In. My four friends ther
made their appearance with the ser
wants and our luncheon, and nobody
can tell of the comical look of us five
sitting round the baskets eating, an6
without any clothes on. I have seer
many sights in my life, but we women
around those baskets, win chicken
legs in our hands and glasses of wine,
and other things, were too perfectly
ludicrous for anything, and / laughed
till l couldn't eat. And my dreams OF
Q luxurious, sleepy, sensuous paradise,
filled with undulating figures of trans.