120 
BATHS OF TIFLIS. 
with the various requisites for these extraordinary modes of 
purifying the human frame. But to proceed would be as offen¬ 
sive to my reader, as it was then to myself; so I hasten to re¬ 
cross the bridge. There, however, I was urged by the gentle¬ 
man who accompanied me, to try if we could not get a glimpse 
into the baths dedicated to the fair sex. The attempt seemed 
wild; but, to please him, I turned towards the building, and, to 
our astonishment, found no difficulty in entering. An old wo¬ 
man was standing at the door ; and she, without the least scruple, 
not only showed us the way, but played our sybil the whole 
while. In one of the bathing-rooms nearest to the door we 
found a great number of naked children, of different infantine 
ages, immersed in a circular bath in the middle of the chamber, 
where their mothers were occupied in washing and rubbing 
them. The forms of children are always lovely ; and, altogether, 
there being a regularity, and its consequent cleanliness, attend¬ 
ing the adjustment of their little persons, we looked on, without 
receiving any of those disagreeable impressions which had dis¬ 
gusted us in the baths of their fathers. Passing through this 
apartment, without any remark of surprise or displeasure from 
the mothers of the children, we entered a much larger chamber, 
well lighted, and higher vaulted in the roof. No water was seen 
here ; but a stone divan, spread with carpets and mattrasses, was 
placed round the room, and on it lay, or sat, women in every 
attitude and occupation consequent on an Asiatic bath. Some 
were half-dressed, and others hardly had a covering. They were 
attended by servants, employed in rubbing the fair forms of 
these ladies with dry cloths, or dyeing their hair and eye-brows, 
or finally painting, or rather enamelling, their faces. On quit¬ 
ting this apartment, (which we did as easily as we entered it, 
