CHAPTER XVI.
THE BATH.
Bathing is one of the greatest luxuries enjoyed by the people of Egypt. The inhabitants of the villages of this country, and those persons who cannot afford the trifling expense incurred in the public bath, often bathe in the Nile. Girls and young women are not unfrequently seen thus indulging themselves in the warm weather, and generally without any covering; but mostly in unfrequented places. The rich, I have before mentioned, have baths in their own houses; but men who have this convenience often go to the public bath; and so also do the ladies, who, on many occasions, are invited to accompany thither their female friends.
There are, in Cairo, between sixty and seventy “Hammáms,” or baths, to which the public have access for a small expense. Some of these are for men only; others, only for women and young children; and some for both sexes; for men during the forenoon, and in the afternoon for females. When the bath is appropriated to women, a napkin, or any piece of linen or drapery is hung over the entrance, to warn the men from entering: all the male servants having gone out a short time before; and females having taken their places. The front of the bath is generally ornamented in a manner similar to that in which most of the mosques are decorated, but usually more fanciful, in red and white, and sometimes other colours, particularly over and about the entrance. The building consists of several apartments, all of which are paved with marble, chiefly white, with an intermixture, in some parts, of black marble, and small pieces of fine red tile, in the same manner as the durká′ah of a room in a private house, of which a sketch has been inserted in the Introduction to this work. The inner apartments are covered with domes, which have a number of small, round, glazed apertures, for the admission of light. The materials chiefly employed in the construction of the walls and domes are bricks and plaster, which, after having been exposed to the steam that is produced in the bath when it is in use, are liable to crack and fall if the heat be intermitted even for a few days. A sákiyeh (or water-wheel), turned by a cow or bull, is constructed upon a level with the higher parts of the building, to raise water from a well or tank for the supply of the boiler, etc.
The bath is believed to be a favourite resort of ginn (or genii), and therefore when a person is about to enter it, he should offer up an ejaculatory prayer for protection against evil spirits, and should put his left foot first over the threshold. For the same reason, he should not pray nor recite the Kur-án in it. On entering, if he have a watch, and a purse containing more than a trifling sum of money, he gives these in charge to the “m’allim” (or keeper of the bath), who locks them in a chest: his pipe, and sword (if he have one), he commits to a servant of the bath, who takes off his shoes, and supplies him with a pair of wooden clogs; the pavement being wet. The first apartment is called the “meslakh.” It generally has two, three, or four “leewáns,” similar to mastab′ahs, or considerably wider, cased with marble, and a fountain (called “faskeeyeh”) of cold water, which rises from an octagonal basement constructed of stone cased with marble, etc. (similar to that in the inner apartment represented in a section accompanying this description), in the centre. One of the leewáns, being designed for the accommodation of persons of the higher and middle orders, is furnished with mattresses and cushions: upon the other, or others, which are for the lower orders, there is usually no furniture excepting mats. In many baths there is also, in the meslakh, a small kind of stall, for coffee.[coffee.]
Scale of feet.
PLAN OF A BATH.
In warm weather, the bathers mostly prefer to undress in the meslakh: in winter, they undress in an inner, closed apartment, called the “beytowwal;” between which and the first apartment is a short passage, with two or three latrinæ on one side. “Beytowwal” signifies “first chamber;” and this name is given to the chamber here mentioned because it is the first of the warm apartments; but it is less warm than the principal apartment, of which it is the ante-chamber. In general, it has two mastab′ahs, one higher than the other, cased with marble like the pavement. The higher accommodates but one person; and is for the higher classes: the other is sufficiently large for two. When the former is occupied, and another high seat is wanted, two or three mattresses are placed one upon another on the lower mastab′ah, or on the leewán (or raised part of the floor). A seggádeh (or small prayer-carpet) is spread on the mastab′ah for a person of the higher orders. The bather receives a napkin in which to put his clothes; and another to put round his waist: this reaches to the knees, or a little lower; and is termed “mahzam”: a third, if he require it, is brought to him to wind round his head, in the manner of a turban, leaving the top of the head bare; a fourth to put over his chest, and a fifth to cover his back. It is generally a boy, or beardless young man, who attends the bather while he undresses, and while he puts on his mahzam, etc., etc.: he is called a “láwingee” (as the word is vulgarly pronounced), which is a corruption of “leewángee,” or attendant of the “leewán.”[[444]]
SECTION OF THE HARÁRAH.