Year: 1861

An article in the March number of the Corn
hill Magazine describes the baths of Turkey.
We extract the following description of the SEN
sations of bather:


On entering the bath, the first apartment con-
sists ola spacious hall or rotunda, the central
summit of which is open, admitting gentle but
free circulation of air, and is in form not unlike
the cupalo of St Stephens, Walbrook. Running
round by the wall is a raised das or PLATFORM
covered with carpet and divided into compart-
ments, one OF which is appropriated to each Wis
itor. In the centre of the building is fountain,
which plays refreshngy into a marble basin,
raised on pedestal of masonry. Ona couch, on
the platform aforementioned, YOU undress; your
clothing is tied up in napkin, and you are at
tired in three scarfs of tOweling, of a peculiar
fabric, warm and rough, but yet soft and gaily
bordered with blue or red raw. silk; one of these
the subligar or orsubiigaculum of the Romans, girds
the loins; another is thrown over the shoulder,
and the last is twisted up into a turban for the
head Throughout this operation, every care is
taken to preserve decorum; and with a scrupu-
lousness and delicacy almost unknown, we regret
to add to Europeans. Two attendants hold a
cloth before you until you have undressed and
properly adjusted the bathing attire you then are
furnished with wooden pattens, and quit the un-
dressing-room (dpOdyteriuni) for the heated cham
bers; the two attendants, walking behind, still
accompany you and as you are on pattens, each
holds you by the arm.


The swinging doors give access to a narrow
passage where the heat strikes upon the face, and
announces very sensibly that the bath has begun.
This passage makes a sudden turn at a right
angle, and the heat then increases, though the
temperature is still not high, and the mist of
vapor is very slight, if at all perceptible. You
now enter the tepid chamber, the fepidarium of
ah0
alluded to, is dispensed with, and the teDiddrium
itself forms the junction between the two halls.
In the latter case it is oblong in form, and has a
marble platform on each side raised about foot
and half above the central part; this, serving as
passage is of course on the same level as the
two chambers which it connects; but whether as a
passage, a hall in itself, it is all paved with
marble The mattress and cushion which are
carried before you laid upon the dais and
against the wall; the paraphernalia of other
guests being similarly disposed all round. Coffee
and pipes now brought. In this apartment,
dimly lighted, day sometimes being quite ex-
cluded, Pickering lamp reveals uncertainty the
nature of the place and of its occupants. The
perspiration gently starts from its myriad ducts,
while the solemn murky air tranquilizes the spirit
and seems TO exclude with lull of calmness
thoughts of the fretful world. 1t is here that a
stranger in town or village first mngles with the
inhabitants, and glides imperceptbly, and divested
of the adventitiOus aids of dress and attendance
into the niche which his social status qualities him
to occupy. A gentle foretaste of shampooing is
given in this apartment; an attendant chaies the
feet, or lightly taps the neck and the limbs to
start the perspiration. When it has fully broken
out, you are ready for the hot chamber (calada
RUM i1conieuHa) which you enter


This is somewhat similar IN form to the first
hall, and is generally covered in with dome, the
light being admitted through hoopholes filed with
stained glass. Early in the morning the place is
quite clear and the atmosphere is dry but as the
washing takes place here, it becomes at later
hour of the day filled with vapor; this has led
many to imagine that the Turkish bath is like the
Russian, essentially vapor bath, which is not
the case.


The Turkish bath is, in principle and in fact; a
hot-air bath the vapOr being almost an accident
Here the towels are all removed, except that
which encircles the loins. Abluton is then per.
formed, to which the sounds of cankng bowls
and dropping water duly correspond. Through
the light gray mist the attendants and bathers fit
in a spectral manner, and ever and anon there
arises clapping of the hands, which is the bath
mans method of Signalling. The process OF
shampooing which is here undergone is most pc
culiar, and is that part Of the bath which of all