Stephens, John Lloyd: Incidents of travel in Egypt, Arabia Petraea, and the Holy Land: with a map and angravings (Band 1) (1837)

a. turkish bath.

77

palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, all visited
in succession. I had been shampooed at Smyrna,
Constantinople, and Cairo ; but who would have
thought of being carried to the seventh heaven at
the little town of Minyeh? The men who had
me in hand were perfect amateurs, enthusiasts,
worthy of rubbing the hide of the sultan himself;
and the pipe and coffee that followed were worthy
too of that same mighty seigneur. The large
room was dimly lighted, and turn which way I
would, there was a naked body, apparently with-
out a soul, lying torpid, and turned and tumbled at
will by a couple of workmen. I had had some
fears of the plague ; and Paul, though he felt his
fears gradually dispelled by the soothing process
which he underwent also, to the last continued to
keep particularly clear of touching any of them ;
but I left the bath a different man; all my moral
as well as physical strength was roused. I no
longer drooped or looked back ; and though the
wind was still blowing a hurricane in my teeth, I
was bent upon Thebes and the Cataracts.

g 2