Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-05-19
BATHING IN TURKEY.
An American W0mau's Experience
of the Turkish BAH.

of the Turkish BAH.
Olive Harper, writing from CONSTANT
nople, thus lays bare the mysteries of
the bath in the far East a
l have read, certainly not less than
fifty times, elaborate descriptions of
genuine Turkish baths, by Bayard TaY-
lor, Ross Browne and others, aud have
always had my imagination filled with
the combined ecstacies OF being scrub
bed with hot water and perfumed soap
and ice sherbe., 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 bathe promiscuously here as in
Baden, Long Branch aud many other
fashionable places. This bath where |
went is for ladies alone, not even the
common herd being admitted, for the
charge is very high. VIZ
Four Of as went, together with two
women servants, who carried our towels,
bathing dresses and lunch. lis an all
day 8 job. and the ladies all take lunch
with them. Co
On entering we were conducted to q
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 off their most sacred garments,
toss them 10 a heap and run about as if
nothing we're arniss, but somehow | felt
as Eve did when she had made the dis.
covery that she was a little too thinly
clad for the time of the year. 10y
A servant caught up our bathing
dresses and left the room, beckoning US
to follow. We ran the gauntlet of a
hundred pair of eyes before we reached
the divan where | was laid, ike a de-
funct. The room was very warm and
grew warmer perceptibly, though how, |
don't know, until began to feel as it 1
should suffocate, my heart beat painfully
hard and grew very faint, when one of
the women gave me some lemonade, OF
which drank two glasses. Then all OF
a sudden, began to perspire, and /
looked like pumpkin that had laid out
all night in a heavy dew. / felt as if l
was dissolving, and waited patiently till
the end should come, and | should be
but the transparent essence of what was
once very substantial body; but that
time had not come. / was so sleepy that
felt like calling very hard names, when
the woman care 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,
we're led into another great vaulted mar
BILE 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 vapery, and the vapor
was more strongly perfumed with sandal.
wood. After lying few moments the
marble grows soft, and sense of most
delicious repose comes over you. You
feel soft languor and dreamy con-
tent, and your eyes close and you lay
with a smile OF exquisite laziness on
your lips, and your imagination flies of
in every possible direction, 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 pillars,
supporting the blue dome that is span
gled with stars. Allround the room are
marble diyans, and in the centre 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 water rises in
one grand column over fifty feet, and
falls back into an upper basin, while the
lower one is undistnrbed except by the
beautiful white forms that it most de
lights to receive.
On all the divans lay women Of all ages
and compilations. even to some negresses
who only served to make the white bod
les and polished limbs appear more
lovely than ever. Smaller fountains
we're placed at regular intervals around
the large room, and from these the at
tendants poured continuously over the
bodies of those who lay on the divans
warm water which was carried off by the
pipes. Ore attendant stood at the head
holding my gold embroidered bathing
apparatus; one lathered me with per