Many of the Turkish baths are built double, one part being assigned for the use of ladies. In some places ladies go to the bath only on certain days of the week which are given up to them. Certain baths again are used by them every day up till seven o'clock in the evening, after which hour they are made over for the use of men. The charges are very reasonable. A man can have a complete bath, and may stay on the premises of the establishment as long as he pleases, by paying a sum of about is. 8d., and when going out, after paying this, he will be respectfully greeted by the bath-keeper and the attendants. Ladies pay much less than this sum; their expenses can hardly be much over sixpence, as they take all their own soaps, towels and clogs with them. What they pay is really the 'water fee' and a penny or two for the attendants.
Women go to the bath oftener than men, and they go in groups of three or four or more, always taking their children with them. Boys over eight or nine years of age are not allowed to go to the women's bath, and even tall boys under that age are sometimes pushed back from the door by the manageress, who is always a stern and unbending personage. She usually says to such tall boys, "Good heavens! Is your father coming too?" and she will listen to no expostulations from the boy's mother as to his real age. The women's bath is always crowded, and free fights for the fixed basins are of not unfrequent occurrence. Shrill voices, mingled with the howlings and cryings of children anxious to be taken out of the almost suffocating hot room, may sometimes be heard from outside. This has given rise to a well-known saying in Turkey which is used to describe a noisy gathering where many persons try to speak at the same time: "the place was turned into a women's bath." When women go to the bath they stay there all day long, and on such occasions the poor husbands do not get much to eat in the evening.
Men go to these establishments in order to have a complete bath at least once a fortnight; but they visit them oftener, especially in winter, for the purpose of performing the ablutionary washing ordained by the Mohammedan religion. It is said that once an Armenian was annoyed at seeing his Mussulman neighbours, besides washing their arms, faces and feet five times a day before the five canonical prayers, go to the bath so often. He thought this a fanatical religious fidgetiness. But when he went to Egypt and saw the dirty fellaheen and Arabs, he was obliged to confess that the Prophet was quite right to establish his strict ablution system.
The public baths in Turkey are mostly very old buildings, for, as in most towns, the Turkish population has not increased for many generations, only very few new baths have been erected. But in all the new houses of the well-to-do families there are miniature Turkish baths of two or three rooms. Still, notwithstanding their stuffy atmosphere, and the horrid-looking little vermin called 'bath locusts' that infest them, even rich people prefer to go to the large public baths. The baths in private houses are only occasionally heated, and so the temperature cannot be kept steady. They usually either get very hot throughout, or else some parts become so extremely hot that it is almost impossible to touch the wall or the floor, while in other places the marble is quite cold. Persons who wash themselves in these private baths in winter not unfrequently run the risk of taking a chill. A new feature which has been introduced into the old Turkish bath is the cold water douche, which it is becoming customary for the people to take after their hot bath. Whether the Turkish bath was originally modelled on the system used by Romans, or whether some of the bath-houses in Turkey were founded by the Byzantines, it is quite certain that all the good baths in large Turkish towns were constructed and organised by the Ottomans centuries ago; and although most of them are now owned by private persons, a certain portion of their revenue was originally assigned to mosques, schools, and other religious or charitable institutions. In Constantinople there are about seventy-five public baths.
I remarked that the first intimation of danger from the Palace espionage came to me in a bath. One night I happened to be in a public bath in Pera with a few friends. I must explain that some of the Turkish baths are opened at night, and so young men who work during the daytime make up parties to go to them then. There they eat, drink, and amuse themselves, and after the bath rest on the couches which are always ready in the cooler section of the bath-house. I was feeling particularly cheerful that evening; there were a few other men in the baths besides our party, and a short and feeble-looking man, who was sitting close to me on the raised marble in the centre of the hot chamber, entered into conversation with me. As it is usual in Turkish baths to take a lemon squash, he offered me one. He was very amusing, and talked of trivial matters at first; but presently his conversation turned upon other subjects, which were decidedly out of place. Not being able to draw from me easily any remarks on internal politics, he himself began to comment on the state of affairs in our country in a way which was unusually frank for a Turkish subject in the present reign. Of course, like most of my young countrymen, I was on the lookout for possible peril from spies, so I professed ignorance, and feigned to have little interest in the political situation which he wanted me to discuss. In spite of my reticence the man became annoyingly persistent, and said that I must be well-informed, because I was acquainted with several Europeans. This last remark disturbed me not a little. The man knew something about me. Although the aggressive attitude of the fellow was provoking, and although I was physically more than a match for him, I refrained from ejecting him from the baths, or thrashing him with a wooden bath patten. To chastise the Palace spies, as they deserve, is a very risky proceeding, for they are the most trusted servants of his Imperial Majesty. If I had given way to my then still excitable temper, and had thrashed my aggressor, I should certainly have been sent into exile on the usual 'political charges,' and the man himself would have been rewarded by his imperial master. I pretended to be very sleepy, and yawned constantly, thus eventually persuading him to give it up and leave me alone. As a matter of fact I was not sleepy, and I did not sleep that night at all. I did not tell my companions in the baths anything about my experience. Next morning, when I left the baths, my first business was to see my English friend. Seeing that I was in rather a nervous state of mind, he asked me what was the matter.
I requested him to help me to get out of 'this cursed country.' The old gentleman said, in a calm and compassionate manner, that I was a traitor to call my own country 'cursed.' He knew well that I was not a traitor, and that I belonged to a family whose sons had shed much blood in the defence of Turkey in the past. I was not the only man who would be happy to get away from his country. Not only the thousands of Young-Turks who are in exile and in prisons, but also many thousands who are actually in the service of the Government, would only be too glad to escape abroad if they could get a chance. There is not one of them who is for a moment safe from the spies, and their flimsy but deadly accusations. These people are not traitors, or even revolutionists, but law-abiding, educated, and patriotic men, who do not even wish for radical changes in the established laws of their country, which work satisfactorily if they are administered justly and honestly. But they suffer from the most capricious and cruel despotism of a single man, who has made their country an absolute hell for them.
CHAPTER XV.
FLIGHT TO ENGLAND.
I obtain a passage on a merchant vessel—A fortune of forty pounds—The people on board the ship—The difficulty of conversation—English cooking—Coffee and pig! Gibraltar, a first impression of British soldiers—From Hull to London—An instance of feminine courtesy—Lost in the Underground—Olympia—An interview with the Turkish Ambassador—A promise of justice conditional on my return to Turkey.