Wilmington daily gazette., 1874-05-13
The Mysteries of the Turkish Bath

How a YANKEE WoMAN WHO mas HAD ~
PERIEHcE DESCRIBES IHF AFFAIR.
FROM the Alta California.
CONsIANTIHoPLE, Feb. 10.
l have read certainly not less than nifty |
tiules elaborate descriptions ot genuine
TurKIsh baths 10y Bsyaid Taylor. Ross
Browne, aud otheIs, aud | had always nay |
Imagination filled with combined o'starieS
of being scrubbed wlth hot water and per |
lumed soap and iced SheTbctt, aud made
up INV mind not Ia leave Turkey Without
having that delightful experience. You
know that belong to the softer seX and
thev do not battle proniscuously ~ III Ba1- |
on Baden, Long Branch AMI many other |
fashionable places.
THIS bath where l Went ,s for families
alone, and not even tho common herd being |
admitted, ior The rhaIga ls very high.
have made a few friends among the natives |
since | came here, and can speak lew
words OF Greek Uhe predominant tongueD
and owing To my acquaintance with them,
| got q glimpse or rather " hole day Sig lit
Of a paradise where man ~ excluded. Tho
exterior Of those baths Is of .he usual style,
or no style OF Turkish architecture-butI
the interior fully recompenses tor the lack
Uf beauty W thout. Ii is IN the upper part
of Galata, and you go i'll sedan chars,i which
walt for you, aS you must take the ex-
tremest caro- of yourself i'll coming ont of
the bath, particularly at this season ot the
year. A cold taken after 1urkl,h balh Is
always fatal
-Four OF us wont, together with two ser
wants who carried our towels, bathing dress
es and lunch. Ii iS an all day job, and the
| ladies all take lunch with them. / had
number OF very handsome and curious
| things given me at tho exposition by the
| Egyptian and Turkish commissions, and
| among them were bathing towels with nor-
ders OF gold woven in; also bathing dress
| similarly decorated. My friends insisted
| on my taking them. and they made OF me
| while in tho bath person of no ordinary
| Importance, tor as 1t happens, no one but
| royal ladies are permitted 10 wear such in
public baths; however, nobody luteriered
with my right to wear them. only admired
me, not always from distance.
THE FIRST CHAMBER.
On entering we were conducted To "A large
room, where we must undress aud leave
our things. l think there were fifty women
there in all stages OF undress, mo all paused
| to regard us with curiosity while No dis
| robed. Men can pun oil their most sacred
garments, toss them IN heap. and run
about AS II nothing were amisS, hut some
how felt as Eve dId when she made tho
| discovery that she was lliile t-tu ihInlY
clad Tor that time OF year.
4 servant caught up our bathing drrs-rs aud
lett the room beckoning uS To follow. We ran
the gauntlet OF hundred pairs of eyes before w.
| reached tue dvan where was laid like ii deiuIct,
still with no clothes on. / raised my head to
| if could not lind II hlendiy towel or anything,
| but the attendant ducked my head back on the
pillow agliu, as much as to say, "le there did,
bot rolled nv eyes around 4 iittle and saw thai
there were at least twenty more women lylur
around IN spots like myself but they all seemed
10 take it Very easily.
The room Was very warm and grew warmer
perceptibly, though how don't hdow, until
began to ieel is il should suhocatr, until my
heart beat very painfully and grew Very faint
when one CT the women gave me some lemonade.
OF which drank two glasses. Then, all oi i sud
den Ibegsn 10 persp,re, and looked like pump
kin that had lam out all night in the heavy dew.
felt as il was dlssulvng. and waited patiently
TIL the end should come, and should be but the
transparent essence OF wnat once a very sub
| stantsl body but that time had not come.
was sleepy thai lei. bso calling very batd
names, when the woman came in aud nlde me
get mp alter she had rubbed me downlIke a race
horse with pair OF very scratchy gloves, which
left my skin red as lobster. Then We, alt be
ing in the same state. were l'u into another great
vaulted, marble hoored room, where the dlaHs
are made of marble, lich Is not ut all so soft 10
lie This room was warmer than The last, the
more vapory, and the vspUr was more strongly
pei tumed with sandal Wood. Aller lying lew
moments the marble grows soit, aud n sense OF
the nDst delicious repOse comes over you. You
feel soft anguor ana a dreamy content and your
eyes close, aud you lay with smile OF exquisite
| laziness On your lips and Your Imagination dies
off in every possible direction, when the sw Get
pose is again rudcly broken, and You lave again
to "moye on
LED INTO PARADISE.
| Now, indeed, opens the door OF paradise yuu
are led, still without other covering than hlture
gives YOU into large circular room with tmaTble
plllais supporting the blue dome that spans led
| with stars. All around tho room marble di-
vans, aud ia the centre is Immense fountain,
in tho basin OF which sixty or seventy grls
and women playing III the warm periumed water,
or lying la all attitudes oil the marble edges OF
| the basin. The water Uses IN one grand euiumn
| over htty iesi and falls back into large upper
basin. while the lower one Is undIstuIbrd. except
by the beautiful white forms that it most deli sLls
tn receive.
| On all the dyans lay Women ot all ages and
compile xious, even 10 some nesresses, " ho only
| serve 10 make The white bodies ami polished
limbs TO appear more lovely than ever. Small
fountains Wrrs placed at regular Intervals around
| the large room, and from these the attendants
poured continuously over the bodies OF those who
lay on the diyans warm water, which Was carried
od by pipes.
| One attendant stood at my head, holding my
godembroidered bathing apparatus one iathered
me with perfamed soap thl | began Ia imagine
myself gigantic rose, and all these beautiful be
ings laughing and singing aud gliding around me
but other specimens OF flowers. Another attend
ant rubbed me with gloves made OF sponge, and
another poured warm water over me necessarily, |
not dashng 1t, letting 1t trickle but just emp
tying the beautiful chaste silver ever over me