MOSCOW. 
185 
Being troubled with rheumatic pain, brought ™™ p - 
on by a sudden change of weather, (the thermo- . — 
meter falling, in one day, from 84° of Fahrenheit, 
nearly to the freezing point,) the author was 
persuaded to try a Russian bath. Nothing can 
be more filthy or more revolting than one of 
these places, for they are commonly filled with 
vermin. He had been recommended, however, 
to use the Georgian Bath, situate in the Sloboda, 
or suburbs : this being described as the best in 
Moscow. It required more courage to enter this 
den than many of our countrymen would exert 
for a similar purpose. The building was a small 
wooden hut : at one end of it there was a recess, 
black and fearful as the entrance to Tartarus. 
Two naked figures, with long beards, conducted 
him to this spot; where pointing to a plank 
covered by a single sheet, with a pillow, they 
told him to deposit his clothes there, and to 
repose, if he thought proper; but, upon the 
sheet, a number of cockroaches and crickets had 
usurped the only spot where a person might 
venture to sit down. As soon as he was un- 
dressed, they led him, through a gloomy passage, 
into a chamber called the bath ; the ceremonies 
of which place will now be particularly described. 
Upon the left hand were cisterns of water ; 
and upon the edges of those cisterns appeared 
