PAT'S TURKISH BATH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2106, 5 July 1894, Page 42

PAT'S TURKISH BATH.

How long the principle of the Turkish bath has been known to tbe peasantry of tbe west of Ireland cannot well be determined, but it is certain that they possessed their baths long before the more favoured inhabitants of the large towns in the United Kingdom were familiar with the luxury, ac it undoubtedly is, of the hot-air bath. It may be that some seamen of the illfated Spanish Armada, wrecked on the liish coast in 1588, imparted to the natives this knowledge, which they have continued ever since to make practical use of. Certain it is that to the advent of the shipwrecked

'. Spaniards on their coasts is distinctly traceI able many of tbe habits and customs peculiar

to these western peasants, not to mention the dark eyeg and olive skins which make beautiful so many of their women.

These "sweating houses," as they call their baths^-and the name is certainly appropriate, if somewhat forcible— are not very numerou?, and, in consequence, the inhabitants of several rjarishes, having but one in common, are compelled to travel a considerable distance to avail themselves of t'ae curative powers of the bath.

The " house " itself, invariably situated on the brink of a mountain stream, is roughly but solidly built, of stones and mortar, being circular in form, with a dome-shaped roof, reminding one in its appearance of tbe oldfashioned straw beehive, so long a familiar object in a country garden. The houses vary in size, but are seldom less than 12ffc or 15ft in diameter, and are high enough in the centre for a tall man to stand upright. In the Bide of the building is a small door or hole, so small, indeed, that one has almost to crawl on hands and knees to gain an entrance. The amount of fuel necessary to heat the bath is considerable, and would be a tax on one individual should he propose to bathe alone, so, as a rule, a number of neighbours appoint a day for a bath, and thus effect an economy of fuel. On the day arranged they arrive, each one bringing with him so many soda of turf, his share of the fuel, and these when collected are built in a hoap inside the " house." A burning sod of turf or "live coal," as It is called, is then procured from a neighbouring house, the fire lighted, and the door of the bath closed with "scraws," or grass sods, while the smoke finds an exit through a small hole in the roof or dome of the building. After some hours, when th 6 fire has burnt Itself out, the hole on top U closed, the ashes raked out, and the bath is ready for use. , The bathers, who have been lying about, smoking very short and very black clay pipes, or, perhaps, sitting by the fire in a neighbour's house, now take off all their clothes and enter the bath, the door being carefully closed by a man who remains outside to build up the sods. Having been inside sufficiently long to induce copious perspiration, all come out, wash themselves in the stream running by, and return to their homes cleaner if not wiser mpn. The baths are used by both sexes, each having their own day, and for rheumatic affections or such ailments they are considered by the peasantry to be highly efficacious.

To those in whose minds a Turkish bath is associated with tiled floors, marble slabs, obsequious attendants flitting silently between heavily-curtained recesses where tbe " moon and crescent " in gaudy colours stare you in the face at all points, it would seem hard to believe that the moss- covered dome arising abruptly out of the heather by a purling stream in the mountain wilds of Irelands is worked on the same principle, iE without the same expense and comfort, as are the palatial baths in our chief cities.