"Is it true that the Russians finish a bath by having iced water poured over them, or by taking a plunge into it?"
"It is the custom to close the pores of the skin by means of cold, but not ice-cold water. The attendant begins the work of the bath by throwing water over you, first warm, then hot, then hotter, and then hottest. This drenching is followed by the steaming process and a gentle flogging with birchen rods or switches to stimulate perspiration. Then you are soaped and scrubbed, the scrubbing being performed usually with birchen shavings, which are thoroughly and vigorously applied.
"After this you are again drenched with buckets of water, beginning with warm and going on a descending scale to cold, so that there shall be no shock to the system. Men have rushed from the bath into a snow-bank, but this is not the custom; the peasants frequently leave the bath to take a swim in the river, but only in mild weather. No doubt there have been cases of bathing voluntarily through the ice or in iced water, but you must search far and wide to find them."
Frank remarked that he thought one should exercise great care in going into the open air in winter after taking a bath. Doctor Bronson explained that this was the reason of the drenching with cold water, so that the pores of the skin would be closed and the chances of taking cold greatly reduced.
"It is quite a shock to the system," said the Doctor, "to pass from in doors to out, or from out doors to in, during the Russian winter. The houses are generally heated to about 70° Fahrenheit; with the thermometer at zero, or possibly ten, twenty, or more degrees below, it is like stepping from a furnace to a refrigerator, or vice versa. But the natives do not seem to mind it. I have often seen a mujik rise from his couch on the top of the stove, and after tightening his belt and putting on his boots and cap, mount the box of a sleigh and drive for two or three hours in a temperature far below zero."
"I have read somewhere," said Fred, "about the danger of losing one's ears and nose by frost, and that it is the custom in St. Petersburg and Moscow to warn any one that he is being frozen. Did you ever see a case of the kind?"
RUSSIAN STREET SCENE IN WINTER.