2 9 8 
TRAVELS 
a moment, juft to leave my thermometer in fome proper place, 
and immediately went out again, where I would remain for a 
quarter of an hour, or ten minutes, and then enter again, and 
fetch the inftrument to afcertain the degree of heat. My afto- 
nifhment was fo great that I could fcarcely believe my fenfes, 
when I found that thofe people remain together, and amufe them- 
felves for the fpace of half an hour, and fometimes a whole hour, 
in the fame chamber, heated to the 70 th or 75 th degree of Cel- 
fius, The thermometer, in contact with thofe vapours, became 
fometimes fo hot, that I could fcarcely hold it irv my hands. 
The Finlanders, all the while they are in this- hot bath, con¬ 
tinue to rub themfelves, and lafh every part of their bodies with 
Twitches formed of twigs of the birch-tree. In ten minutes they 
become as red as raw flefh, and have altogether a very frightful 
appearance. In the winter feafon they frequently go out of the 
bath, naked as they are, to roll themfelves in the fnow, when 
the cold is at 20 and even 30 degrees below zero.* They will 
fometimes come out, ftill naked, and converfe together, or with 
any one near them, in the open air. If travellers happen to pafe 
by while the peafants of any hamlet, or little village, are in the 
bath, and their affiftance is needed, they will leave the bath, and 
affift in yoking or unyoking, and fetching provender for the 
horfes, or in any thing elfe, without any fort of covering what¬ 
ever, while the palfenger fits fhivering with cold, though wrapped 
up in a good found wolfs fkin. There is nothing more wonder- 
A 
* l fpeak always of the thermometer of a hundred degrees, by Celfius. 
ful 
