MY FIRST ORIENTAL BATH. 11

figures lying motionless along the edge of a steaming vat, in the outer room.

Presently our statue returned with a pair of coarse hair- gloves on his hands. He snatched off our turbans, and then,

seizing one of my friends by the shoulder as if he had been a

sheep, began a sort of rasping operation upon his back. This

process, varied occasionally by a dash of scalding water, was

extended to each of our three bodies, and we were then suf-

fered to rest awhile. A course of soap-suds followed, which was softer and more pleasant in its effect, except when he took

us by the hair, and holding back our heads, scrubbed our faces

most lustily, as if there were no such things as eyes, noses and mouths. By this time we had reached such a salamandrine

temperature that the final operation of a dozen pailfuls of hot

water poured over the head, was really delightful After a

plunge in a seething tank, we were led back to our chamber

and enveloped in loose muslin robes. Turbans were bound on

our heads and we lay on the divans to recover from the lan-

guor of the bath. The change produced by our new costume

was astonishing. The stout German became a Turkish mol-

lah, the young Smyrniote a picturesque Persian, and I — I scarcely know what, but, as my friends assured me, a much

better Moslem than Frank. Cups of black coffee, and pipes

of inferior tobacco completed the process, and in spite of the

lack of cleanliness and superabundance of fleas, we went forth

lighter in body, and filled with a calm content which nothing seemed able to disturb.

After a late breakfast at the hotel, we sallied out for a sur-

vey of the city. The door was beleaguered by the donkeys

and their attendant drivers, who hailed us in all languages at