When the pores of the skin are opened, and perspiration excited, the visitor proceeds to the inner room to go through the process of bathing.
The Hamam, or bath itself, whose temperature is raised to any requisite degree by means of flues constructed within, and all along the walls, so as to allow the flames to circulate freely in every direction, is in many of these establishments, exceedingly beautiful; the dome being supported on magnificent columns, and the walls and doors inlaid with large slabs of marble, and adorned with finely chiselled fonts on all sides, which are furnished with double ornamented brass cocks, for the supply of warm and cold water.
There is an elevated marble platform in the middle, where the bathers lie at full length, for the purpose of having their sinews relaxed, and joints examined. Both the apartment, and this process in particular, have been most ridiculously described, and, either through malice or ignorance, most egregiously exaggerated by travellers; for example, the public are informed that, “A dense vapor sometimes so fills the saloon, that he (the bather), sees nothing distinctly, but figures flit before him like visions in a mist. Having walked, or sat in this heated mist, till a profuse perspiration bursts out, the tellak again approaches, and commences his operations. He lays the bather on his back or face, and pins him to the ground by kneeling heavily on him, and having thus secured him, he handles him in the rudest and most painful manner. He twists and turns the limbs, so as to seem to dislocate every joint. The sufferer feels as if the very spine was separated, and the vertebræ of the back torn asunder. It is in vain he complains of this treatment, screams out in anguish and apprehension, and struggles to extricate himself. The incubus sits grinning upon him, and torturing him, till he becomes passive from very exhaustion.”
In the first place, there is no dense vapor in a Turkish bath, but the heat is produced by the flues in the walls; true, there is sometimes the appearance of mist, which is only created momentarily by the quantity of hot water poured over the bathers, and is soon dispersed by ventilation, for such an atmosphere is never tolerated by the natives.
Now, as to the bather being pinned to the ground in the rudest and most painful manner, etc., there is more of a spirit of ridicule than simple truth in this description; it being only resorted to in cases of rheumatism, and the like maladies, when the patient is extended on the marble platform, and all his joints examined and rubbed by the tellak, or assistant, who, owing to the relaxed condition of the nervous system, easily discovers the seat of any local pain, and proceeds to dispel it by friction.
Many having experienced decided relief from this mode of treatment, it is very frequently resorted to in Turkey. No such treatment, therefore, ever occurs on ordinary occasions, unless the farce is got up by special request, and for the benefit of strangers or travellers, who, not content with the usual modus operandi, insist upon the realization of their own extravagant ideas.
A native of Constantinople had to stop at Smyrna on his way to America. Being anxious to enjoy the luxury of a bath once more, he repaired to one of the establishments. As he wore a hat, the attendants mistook him for a regular Frank or European, and he resolved to maintain the joke by pretending utter ignorance of all the languages of the country. After having experienced many absurdities, all novel to a native, he was at last stretched full length upon his stomach on the marble platform of the bath. The tellak kneeling by his side commenced a regular process of pommelling him, and, at the same time, of cracking his joints. The incubus, as though not satisfied with his own exertions, now called for assistance from another tellak, who came and placed himself on the opposite side, when both commenced in the rudest manner to push their victim from one to the other. The sufferer, astonished at this extraordinary treatment, was ready to split his sides with laughter, which one of the tellaks taking as an indication of uneasiness, observed to the other not to be so rude in his manipulations. He was, in return, assured “this is the way the Franks like, the harder the better; also, they must not be allowed to think they haven’t had their money’s worth!”
Doubtless an Osmanli would not only be much amused, but astonished, could he behold the victim of a European vapor bath, as he sits boxed up, and enveloped in blankets to his throat, parboiled with steam, and suffocated by the fumes of brimstone; surely he would believe he had by mistake got into the regions of Eblis.
When the person is in a state of free perspiration, he is seated by the side of one of the fountains, beneath which are marble basins to receive the water, both hot and cold, as it flows from the ornamented cocks, for no Osmanli ever uses the tub, water which has once been in contact with the body, having imbibed its impurities, is deemed unfit for further use; therefore, on all occasions, their ablutions are performed with flowing water, for they do not delight to wallow and splash in a solution of their own dirt.
The tellak having upon his right hand a kesse, or bag made of raw silk, commences a gentle rubbing (for they cannot bear any rude or rough treatment, for which reason the delicate hands of boys are employed), over the surface of the body, by which the deposits of insensible perspiration are disengaged from the pores of the skin, and combining together fall from the person like fibres of paste, which, to the uninitiated, might seem like the peeling off of the outer pellicle itself.