DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0067
t 51 ]
Surprising Faculty of sustaining Extreme Heat and
Cold.
Till within a very short period since, the customs and manners
of no parts of the world have been less known, than those of
the North.—The scenes of luxury which you have described
in yourTast number, in the fete given by Prince Potemkin, and
the Winter Garden at Petersburg!; would, were they not well
authenticated, appear almost incredible; butthat the Nor-
thern regions are the theatre of some other extremes not less
striking, will probably appear from the following sketch of
Vapour Bathing in Finland, as witnessed by a very ingenious
and intelligent traveller. Tour's S. S.
jAllmost all the Finnish peasants have a small house
built on purpose for a bath; it consists of only one
small chamber, in the innermost part of which are placed
a number of stones, which are heated by fire till they be-
come red. - On these stones, thus heated, water is thrown
until the company within be involved in a thick cloud of
vapour. In this innermost part the chamber’ is formed
into two stories for the accommodation of a great number
of persons within that small compass; and it being the
nature of heat and vapour to ascend, the second story is
of course the hottest. Men and women use the batlnpro-
miscuously, without any concealment of dress or being
in the least influenced by any.emotions of attachment.
Though not in total darkness, yet they are in great ob-
scurity, as there is no other window besides a small hole,
nor any light but what enters in from some chinks in the
roof of the house, or the crevices between the pieces,of
wood of which it is constructed.
The Finlanders, all the while they are in this hot-
bath, continue to rub themselves, and lash every part of
their bodies with switches, formed of the twigs of the
birch
Surprising Faculty of sustaining Extreme Heat and
Cold.
Till within a very short period since, the customs and manners
of no parts of the world have been less known, than those of
the North.—The scenes of luxury which you have described
in yourTast number, in the fete given by Prince Potemkin, and
the Winter Garden at Petersburg!; would, were they not well
authenticated, appear almost incredible; butthat the Nor-
thern regions are the theatre of some other extremes not less
striking, will probably appear from the following sketch of
Vapour Bathing in Finland, as witnessed by a very ingenious
and intelligent traveller. Tour's S. S.
jAllmost all the Finnish peasants have a small house
built on purpose for a bath; it consists of only one
small chamber, in the innermost part of which are placed
a number of stones, which are heated by fire till they be-
come red. - On these stones, thus heated, water is thrown
until the company within be involved in a thick cloud of
vapour. In this innermost part the chamber’ is formed
into two stories for the accommodation of a great number
of persons within that small compass; and it being the
nature of heat and vapour to ascend, the second story is
of course the hottest. Men and women use the batlnpro-
miscuously, without any concealment of dress or being
in the least influenced by any.emotions of attachment.
Though not in total darkness, yet they are in great ob-
scurity, as there is no other window besides a small hole,
nor any light but what enters in from some chinks in the
roof of the house, or the crevices between the pieces,of
wood of which it is constructed.
The Finlanders, all the while they are in this hot-
bath, continue to rub themselves, and lash every part of
their bodies with switches, formed of the twigs of the
birch