190 
MOSCOW. 
CHAP. 
VIII. 
Foundling 
Hospital. 
lute necessity, and unavoidably due to decency 
and to cleanliness. Rome, under her Emperors, 
numbered nearly a thousand such buildings; and 
these, besides their utility, were regarded as 
master-pieces of architectural skill and of sump- 
tuous decoration. In Russia, they have only 
vapour baths ; and these are, for the most part, 
in wretched wooden hovels. If wood be de- 
ficient, they are formed of mud, or scooped in the 
banks of rivers and lakes : but in the palaces of 
the nobles, however they may vary in the 
splendour of their materials, the plan of their 
construction is always the same. 
This universal custom of the bath may be 
mentioned as an example of the resemblance be- 
tween the Muscovites and more Oriental people : 
but there are many other ; such, for instance, as 
the ceremony of holding and tearing the hair at 
the death of relatives ; the practice among the 
nobles of employing slaves to rub the soles of their 
feet, in order to induce sleep ; and the custom 
of maintaining buffoons, whose occupation it is 
to relate strange and extravagant tales for a 
similar purpose. 
As a conclusion to this chapter, a few words 
may be added concerning the state of the Found- 
ling Hospital ; as the Institution of that name in 
