Bath-room of Scodra Pasha—Fondness of the Eastern Women for
the Bath—The Outer Hall—The Proprietress—Female Groupes—The
Cooling-room—The Great Hall—The Fountains—The Bathing
Women—The Dinner—Apology for the Turkish Ladies.
The first bath-room which I saw in the country was that of Scodra Pasha;
and, had I been inclined so to do, I might doubtlessly have woven a
pretty fiction on the subject, without actually visiting one of these
extraordinary establishments. But too much has already been written on
inference by Eastern tourists, and I have no wish to add to the number
of fables which have been advanced as facts, by suffering imagination to
usurp the office of vision. Such being the case, I resolved to visit a
public bath in company with a female acquaintance, and not only become a
spectator but an actor in the scene, if I found the arrangement
feasible.
The bath-room of the Pasha, or rather of his family, was a domed
cabinet, lined with marble, moderately heated, and entered from the
loveliest little boudoir imaginable, where a sofa of brocaded silk,
piled with cushions of gold tissue, offered the means of repose after
the exhaustion of bathing. But I had seen it tenanted only by a Greek
lady and myself, and half a score of slaves, who were all occupied in
attendance upon us; and I felt at once that, under such circumstances, I
could form no adequate idea of what is understood by a Turkish bath; the
terrestrial paradise of Eastern women, where politics, social and
national, scandal, marriage, and every other subject under heaven,
within the capacity of uneducated but quick-witted females, is
discussed: and where ample revenge is taken for the quiet and seclusion
of the harem, in the noise, and hurry, and excitement, of a crowd.
Having passed through a small entrance-court, we entered an extensive
hall, paved with white marble, and surrounded by a double tier of
projecting galleries, supported by pillars: the lower range being raised
about three feet from the floor. These galleries were covered with rich
carpets, or mattresses, overlaid with chintz or crimson shag, and
crowded with cushions; the spaces between the pillars were slightly
partitioned off to the height of a few inches; and, when we entered, the
whole of the boxes, if I may so call them, were occupied, save the one
which had been reserved for us.
In the centre of the hall, a large and handsome fountain of white
marble, pouring its waters into four ample scallop shells, whence they
fell again into a large basin with the prettiest and most soothing sound
imaginable, was surrounded by four sofas of the same material, on one of
which, a young and lovely woman, lay pillowed on several costly shawls,
nursing her infant.
When I had established myself comfortably among my cushions, I found
plenty of amusement for the first half hour in looking about me; and a
more singular scene I never beheld. On the left hand of the door of
entrance, sat the proprietress of the baths, a beautiful woman of about
forty, in a dark turban, and a straight dress of flowered cotton, girt
round the waist with a cachemire shawl; her chemisette of silk gauze was
richly trimmed—her gold snuff-box lay on the sofa beside her—her
amber-headed pipe rested against a cushion—and she was amusing herself
by winding silk from a small ebony distaff, and taking a prominent part
in the conversation; while immediately behind her squatted a negro
slave-girl of twelve or thirteen years of age, grinning from ear to ear,
and rolling the whites of her large eyes in extacy at all that was going
forward.
The boxes presented the oddest appearance in the world—some of the
ladies had returned from the bathing-hall, and were reclining
luxuriously upon their sofas, rolled from head to foot in fine white
linen, in many instances embroidered and fringed with gold, with their
fine hair falling about their shoulders, which their slaves, not quite
so closely covered as their mistresses, were drying, combing, perfuming,
and plaiting, with the greatest care. Others were preparing for the
bath, and laying aside their dresses, or rather suffering them to be
laid aside, for few of them extended a hand to assist themselves—while
the latest comers were removing their _yashmacs_ and cloaks, and
exchanging greetings with their acquaintance.
As I had previously resolved to visit every part of the establishment, I
followed the example of my companion, who had already undergone the
fatigue of an Oriental bath, and exchanged my morning dress for a linen
wrapper, and loosened my hair: and then, conducted by the Greek
waiting-maid who had accompanied me, I walked barefooted across the cold
marble floor to a door at the opposite extremity of the hall, and, on
crossing the threshold, found myself in the cooling-room, where groups
of ladies were sitting, or lying listlessly on their sofas, enveloped in
their white linen wrappers, or preparing for their return to the colder
region whence I had just made my escape.
This second room was filled with hot air, to me, indeed, most
oppressively so; but I soon discovered that it was, nevertheless, a
_cooling-room_; when, after having traversed it, and dipped my feet some
half dozen times in the little channels of warm water that intersected
the floor, I entered the great bathing-place of the establishment—the
extensive octagon hall in which all those who do not chuse, or who
cannot afford, to pay for a separate apartment, avail themselves, as
they find opportunities, of the eight fountains which it contains.
For the first few moments, I was bewildered; the heavy, dense,
sulphureous vapour that filled the place, and almost suffocated me—the
wild, shrill cries of the slaves pealing through the reverberating domes
of the bathing-halls, enough to awaken the very marble with which they
were lined—the subdued laughter, and whispered conversation of their
mistresses murmuring along in an under-current of sound—the sight of
nearly three hundred women only partially dressed, and that in fine
linen so perfectly saturated with vapour, that it revealed the whole
outline of the figure—the busy slaves, passing and repassing, naked
from the waist upwards, and with their arms folded upon their bosoms,
balancing on their heads piles of fringed or embroidered napkins—groups
of lovely girls, laughing, chatting, and refreshing themselves with
sweetmeats, sherbet, and lemonade—parties of playful children,
apparently quite indifferent to the dense atmosphere which made me
struggle for breath—and, to crown all, the sudden bursting forth of a
chorus of voices into one of the wildest and shrillest of Turkish
melodies, that was caught up and flung back by the echoes of the vast
hall, making a din worthy of a saturnalia of demons—all combined to
form a picture, like the illusory semblance of a phantasmagoria, almost
leaving me in doubt whether that on which I looked were indeed reality,
or the mere creation of a distempered brain.
Beside every fountain knelt, or sat, several ladies, attended by their
slaves, in all the various stages of the operation; each intent upon her
own arrangements, and regardless of the passers-by; nor did half a dozen
of them turn their heads even to look at the English stranger, as we
passed on to the small inner cabinet that had been retained for us.
The process of Turkish bathing is tedious, exhausting, and troublesome;
I believe that the pretty Greek who attended me spent an hour and a half
over my hair alone. The supply of water is immense, and can be heated at
the pleasure of the bather, as it falls into the marble basin from two
pipes, the one pouring forth a hot, and the other a cold, stream. The
marble on which you stand and sit is heated to a degree that you could
not support, were the atmosphere less dense and oppressive; and, as the
water is poured over you from an embossed silver basin, the feeling of
exhaustion becomes almost agreeable. Every lady carries with her all the
appliances of the bath, as well as providing her own servant; the
inferior ranks alone availing themselves of the services of the bathing
women, who, in such cases, supply their employers with every thing
requisite.
These bathing-women, of whom I saw several as I traversed the great
hall, are the most unsightly objects that can be imagined; from
constantly living in a sulphureous atmosphere, their skins have become
of the colour of tobacco, and of the consistency of parchment; many
among them were elderly women, but not one of them was wrinkled; they
had, apparently, become aged like frosted apples; the skin had tightened
over the muscles, and produced what to me at least was a hideous feature
of old age.
Having remained in the bath about two hours and a half, I began to
sicken for pure air and rest; and, accordingly, winding a napkin with
fringed ends about my head, and folding myself in my wrapper, I hastily
and imprudently traversed the cooling-room, now crowded with company,
looking like a congregation of resuscitated corpses clad in their
grave-clothes, and fevered into life; and gained the outer hall, where
the napkin was removed from my head, my hair carefully plaited without
drying, and enveloped in a painted muslin handkerchief; and myself
buried among the soft cushions of the divan.
A new feature had been added to the scene since my departure; most of
the ladies were at dinner. The crimson glow of the bath, which throws
all the blood into the head, had passed from most of their faces, and
was replaced by the pure, pale, peach-like softness of complexion that
its constant use never fails to produce. Numbers of negresses were
entering with covered dishes, or departing with the reliques of those
which had been served up; and, as the Turkish mode of eating lends
itself to these _pic-nic_ species of repasts, the fair ladies appeared
to be as much at home squatted round their plated or china bowls, spoon
in hand, in the hall of the bath, as though they were partaking of its
contents in the seclusion of their own harems.
Sherbet, lemonade, _mohalibè_, a species of inferior blanc-manger, and
fruit, were constantly handed about for sale; and the scene was
altogether so amusing, that it was almost with regret that I folded
myself closely in my cloak and veil, and bowed my farewell to the
several groups which I passed on my way to the door.
I should be unjust did I not declare that I witnessed none of that
unnecessary and wanton exposure described by Lady M. W. Montague. Either
the fair Ambassadress was present at a peculiar ceremony, or the Turkish
ladies have become more delicate and fastidious in their ideas of
propriety.
The excessive exhaustion which it induces, and the great quantity of
time which it consumes, are the only objections that can reasonably be
advanced against the use of the Turkish bath.