233 
BATHS OF THE PALACE. 
perfectly pure element; and then emerging, has a large, dry, 
warm sheet thrown over him, in which he makes his escape 
back to the dressing-room. During the process of the bath, 
many of the Persians dye, not only their hair black, but their 
nails, feet, and hands, a bright red. They often smoke half a 
dozen kaliouns; and, in short, take the whole business more 
easily, than an European would his sitting down under the hands 
of a barber, to shave his beard. 
The Persian ladies regard the bath, as the place of their great¬ 
est amusement. They make appointments to meet there ; and 
often pass seven or eight hours together in the carpeted saloon, 
telling stories, relating anecdotes, eating sweetmeats, sharing 
their kaliouns, and completing their beautiful forms into all the 
fancied perfections of the East; dyeing their hair and eye-brows, 
and curiously staining their fair bodies with a variety of fantastic 
devices, not unfrequently with the figures of trees, birds, and 
beasts, sun, moon, and stars. This sort of pencil-work spreads 
over the bosom, and continues down as low as the navel, round 
which some radiated figure is generally painted. All this is dis¬ 
played by the style of their dress, every garment of which, even 
to the light gauze chemise, being open from the neck to that 
point: a singular taste, and certainly more barbarous than be¬ 
coming ; as may be seen by the sketch I have subjoined of the 
costume of a Persian lady. In making it, I omitted the increased 
savage appearance of the tattoo. 
On quitting the court of the bath, which is also that of the 
women, we passed through a quadrangle of less dimensions, 
round which were disposed the apartments of the eunuchs. A 
door led from it into a passage, long, dark, and winding, which 
brought us forth into an extensive, and finely planted garden, 
VOL. i. 
H H 
