Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-10-30
GENUINE TURKISH BATHS.
Bathing an AlI-Day Diversion With the
Women of ConstantinopIe.

Just outside the limits of Constanti-
nople, up in the Golden Horn. is 4 ga
Hammam, a bath frequented by many
ladies of the highest position, not be-
cause they have no baths of their own.
but because they are sure to meet their
friends there without restriction and
have a good time. 1t has always been
a great place for mothers to take their
maria geable daughters. and for other
mothers to 90 to choose a bride for
their sons aud rs wives are not chos en-
for their mental. but physical beauties
alone, certainly this is the place to
choose, where beauty is quite una
dorned and therefore, of this bath we
will speak.
The ladies arrive, each one attended
by her own personal servant and an
other who bears a very substantial
lunch-basket and a handsome gold.
bordered bathing-wrap. The eunuchs
remain outside or 90 away, and come
back at the hour the bath is ended, as
it occupies several hours.
First, the ladies are Invested of their
clothing and receive a Grape sheet,
which they dIape about them while
they sit the regulation time in the first
room. During this time they chat
with each other, though not very
Familiarity, and they keep up the pre-
tense of the drapery until they reach
and pass the next room, after which
the sheet and modestv are thrown off,
and, with their abundant hair stream
ing loose and uncontined, they walk
erect into the last room, as Eve did
about the garden of Eden. There they
stretch themselves out upon the marble
slabs while two attendants rub them
and pour hot water over them until it
seems as if they would be boiled. Each
lady is laid on marble slab which is
slightly inclined and two attendants
begln their iabOrS, one at the feet and
the other at the head. They use sort
Of clay called pilo, which raises "a
thick, white lather, which sometimes
grows several inches thick. The at
PENDANTS use nothing but this soapy
clay and their hands to cleanse their
subject with. and they rub and knead
and punch until it seems they would
reduce the flesh to a pulp, all the while
leaving this lather to accumulate until
the bather looks like a SNOWFALL. An
other kind Of soap is used for the hair,
and another again for the face, but the
lather is always left to gather thick
rs the worker rubs and tolls. the per-
SEPARATION rolling in streams down her
own gIistening body.
A little silver basin stands at hand,
and after the ladies have soaked in
soap long enough they take quite hot
water, entirely too hot for any body but
a Turkish woman who is used to it,
and pour it gently over them, not dash
ing the water, but softly emp;ying it,
leaving the flesh rosy and fresh. This
pouring of water is continued some
times half an hour, and the rubbing,
rolling and kneading of the body,
after which the lady is at liberty to
plunge into the basin if she wishes
among the other laughing and frolck-
ing women, black and white mingling
indiScriminateIy.
Words cannot depict the utter
abandonment to fun and sport that
takes possession of these women, and
children, too, for after a girl is nine
years old she is admitted to women's
society unrestrainedly. The young
girls are all plumper than our young
girls, and they have in the main fine
figures, though the knees are always
big and prominent, which is probably
caused by the habit of sitting crossed
legged as they do. Their skin is very
white and pure, in spite of their I'M
wholesome diet and indolent habits
COnStdnttnOpLe Letter.