runs around the hall, and on this are ranged a number of narrow couches,
with their heads to the wall, like the pallets in a hospital ward. The
platform is covered with straw matting, and from the wooden gallery which
rises above it are suspended towels, with blue and crimson borders. The
master of the bath receives us courteously, and conducts us to one of the
vacant couches. We kick off our red slippers below, and mount the steps to
the platform. Yonder traveller, in Frank dress, who has just entered, goes
up with his boots on, and we know, from that fact, what sort of a bath he
will get.

As the work of disrobing proceeds, a dark-eyed boy appears with a napkin,
which he holds before us, ready to bind it about the waist, as soon as we
regain our primitive form. Another attendant throws a napkin over our
shoulders and wraps a third around our head, turban-wise. He then thrusts
a pair of wooden clogs upon our feet, and, taking us by the arm, steadies
our tottering and clattering steps, as we pass through a low door and a
warm ante-chamber into the first hall of the bath. The light, falling
dimly through a cluster of bull's-eyes in the domed ceiling, shows, first,
a silver thread of water, playing in a steamy atmosphere; next, some dark
motionless objects, stretched out on a low central platform of marble. The
attendant spreads a linen sheet in one of the vacant places, places a
pillow at one end, takes off our clogs, deposits us gently on our back,
and leaves us. The pavement is warm beneath us, and the first breath we
draw gives us a sense of suffocation. But a bit of burning aloe-wood has
just been carried through the hall, and the steam is permeated with
fragrance. The dark-eyed boy appears with a narghileh, which he places
beside us, offering the amber mouth-piece to our submissive lips. The
smoke we inhale has an odor of roses; and as the pipe bubbles with our
breathing, we feel that the dews of sweat gather heavily upon us. The
attendant now reappears, kneels beside us, and gently kneads us with