12 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



bag of coarse camlet, rubs you pretty roughly ; be 

 loosens and rolls over tlic skin, the little masses im- 

 pregnated with sweat. He gives you notice, by 

 slight strokes with the palra of his hand, to turn 

 on one side, on the other, on the back, on the belly. 

 He presses, he seems to knead softly all the parts 

 of the body, he gives a brisk movement to the mem- 

 bers one after the other, and makes all the joints, 

 and even the muscles of the breast, to crack. After 

 he has cleaned you well, and suppled all your limbs, 

 the same man conducts you towards a bason in 

 which warm water flows : after having covered you 

 with a thick layer of soap, he throws the water over 

 you in large quantities, which, in falling along the 

 body, carries off' the froth of the soap. Of all the 

 processes of these baths, this was the one v^'hich in- 

 commoded mc the most. The quantity of water 

 thrown over my person deprived me of breath al- 

 most even to suffocation ; I was almost always re- 

 duced to cry for mercy from my pitiless water- 

 pourer. You are afterwards re-conducted into the 

 first room where you had left your clothes, and 

 there laid down and wrapt up in dry linen, which 

 is changed as it imbibes the humidity of the body ; 

 U young boys gently press all the parts of it, in order 

 i to dry them perfectly and by degrees. They like- 

 wise draw a piece of pumice-stone over the soles of 

 the feet. During these operations, which it is im- 

 possible to perform with greater delicacy, you en- 

 joy 



