ESTHOSTI AN BATKS. 



reafons I will here briefly defcribe the bathing- houfes* 

 according to their internal conftruction, the utenfila 

 belonging to them, and the manner in which they arc 

 made ufe of, and thence extract fome probable confe- 

 quences in relation to the beauty of the other fex. 



By the expreffion, " to bathe," in Efthonia nothing 

 elfe is meant than to go and fweat in the national baths. 

 Bathing in a river is what they would not underfrand ; 

 as they have no other term for this practice than 

 * c fidimming.'' None but foreigners, unacquainted 

 with their language, ever confound thefe words. 



Swimming is there but very little in ufe, and that 

 moftly among foreign flmermen and failors. Whereas 

 the bath is frequented if poffible once a week by every 

 Efthonian, with his wife and children, commonly on 

 Saturday. It is not fo general among the noble fami- 

 lies of the country, and rareft of all among the Ger- 

 man merchants and hand icraftf men in the cities of 

 Reval, Vefenburg, Pernau, and Narva. 



The bath is a room, not lofty, fnrnifhed with a large 

 oven, feveral rows of benches at different ftages of 

 elevation, and a large tub of water. 



The oven is conftrucled of itone or brickwork, 

 within which are crofs-bars of iron, whereon great 

 flints, or, for want of thefe, large ltones of any kind, 

 are placed in fuch manner that the flames may entwine 

 between them. Infiead of flones, which fometimes 

 emit an arfenical effluvia, they make ufe of folid iron- 

 balls. The ovens of the common baths of the boors 

 Iiave no chimnies* fo that the fmoke remains in the, 

 loom* 



The, 



