[77] See in the first Volume, p. 223, 224. [↑]
[79] Sambucus Canadensis Linn. [↑]
[80] This appears to be a new observation, as Linnæus, De Buffon, and Sarrasin pretend, they only feed on the Acorus, or Reeds, and other roots. F. [↑]
[81] This is the literal meaning of the Swedish word jætte grytor. See the memoirs of the Swed. Acad. of Sciences for the year 1743, p. 122. and Kalm’s vol. 1. p. 121. [↑]
[82] See the Memoirs of the Royal Academy for the year 1754, page 19, &c. [↑]
[83] In Sweden and in Russia it is usual for people of all ranks to bathe every week at least one time; this is done in a stove heated by an oven, to a surprising degree, and which is enough to stifle people who are not used to it: for commonly the heat is encreased by the hot steam, caused by throwing red hot stones into water. In these baths, in Russia, the lower sort of people, men and women, bathe promiscuously, as the Romans did, and from whom, as Plutarch observes, in his Life of Cato, the Greeks adopted this indelicate and indecent custom, and which spread so much, that the Emperor Adrian, and [[307]]Marcus Antoninus were obliged to make laws against it, but neither were they long observed, for we find soon the Council of Laodicea obliged to prescribe a canon against this brutal custom, and notwithstanding this we find soon after that not only persons of all ranks, but even clergymen and monks bathed promiscuously with women, in the same baths; and from thence, it is probable, this custom passed among the Russians, when christianity took place among them. Near the bath, in Russia, is commonly a pond, where the people plunge in, when quite hot, and in winter they welter in the snow; and Saturdays it is common to see before the bath naked men and women, each having a bundle of rods in their hand, with which they gently beat one another, when in the bath. F. [↑]
[84] On my travels through the desart plains, beyond the river Volga, I have had several opportunities of making the same observations on Tea; and every traveller, in the same circumstances, will readily allow them to be very just. F. [↑]