Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1890-08-28
GENAINE TURKISH BATHS.
Rather an All-Day Diversion With the
Woman of Constantinople.
C0asfqgfinODie Leiter.

just outside the limits of CONSTANT
nople, up in the Golden Horn. is Aga
Hannah, 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
manageable daughters, and for other
mothers TO 90 to choose bride for their
sons, and, as wives are not chosen for
mental. but physical beauties alone,
certainly this is the place to choose,
where beauty is quite unadOrned, and
therefore of this bath We will speak.
The ladies arrive, each one attended
by her own personal servant, and an
other, who bears very substantial
lunch-baSket and handsome, gold-bor-
dered bathing wrap. The eunuchs re-
main outside or 90 away, and come back
at the hour the bath is ended. as it oc-
cupies several hours.
First, the ladies are Invested of their
clothing and receive Grape sheet,
which they drape about them while
they sit the regulation time in the first
ANNAAs fhA us AANN lAAAAt INV Au0A MlAn
each other, though not very Familiarity.
and they keep up the pretenSe Of the
drapery until they reach and pass the
next room, after which the sheet and
modeSty are thrown off, and, with their
abundant hair streaming loose and un-
confined, they walk erect into the last
room as Eve did in the Gaden of Eden.
There they stretch themselves out upon
the marble slabs while two attendants
rub them and lather them and pour hot
water over them until il seems as If they
would be boiled.
Each lady is laid on a marble slab,
which is slightly inclined, and two at
PENDANTS begin their laborS, one at the
feet and the othera the head. They use
a sort of clay called pilo, which raises
thick, white lather, which sometimes
grows several inches thick. The at
PENDANTS use nothing but this Soapy
clay and their hand To cleanse their
subject with, and they rub and knead
and punch until it seems they would
reduce the flesh to pulp, all the while
leaving the lather TO accumulate, until
the bather looks like 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. as
the worker rubs and tolls. the perSpira
tions rolling in streams down her own
gliStening body.
\ little silver basin stands at hand,
and after the ladies have soaked i'm the
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 il gently over them, not daShing
the water but slowly emptyng IT, So
that 10 soon washes of all the lather,
leaving the flesh rosy and fresh. This
pouring of water is continued some
times half AN hour, and the rubbing,
rolling and kncading Of the body, after
which the lady is at liberty To plunge
into the basin if She wishes among the
other laughing and frolicking women,
black and white mingling indiscrimin-
atcly.
Words can not depict the utter aban-
donment % sport and fun that takes
possession Of these women, and chill
dren. too, for after girl is nine years
old she is admitted to woman'S society
unrestrainedly. The young girls are
all pumpcr 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 habitof sitting croSsed-lcgged rs they
do. Their skin is very white and pure,
i'm spite of their unwholSomc diet and
indolent habits.