Download Ebook - Free History Ebooks

2o8 Symbolism of the East and W^est
The floors of the rooms being of wood, the arrangement is
necessarily slightly different from the Persian one, but the
principle is the same. The Spanish custom is to place in the
centre of the room a round table from forty to fifty inches in
diameter, the top is pierced with numerous round holes, each
about the size of a shilling, thus leaving a free passage for
the warm air coming up from the large copper vessel placed
beneath, which is filled with live embers. This does not rest
upon the floor, but fits into a wooden circle attached to the
legs of the table at about twelve inches from the ground. The
top of the table is covered with a large green cloth, which
extends down to the floor and covers a large portion of it.
This mode of heating would appear to be very generally
practised in Seville, many such tables may be seen exposed
for sale in the carpenters' shops in the town. Another Asiatic
custom in the same connection seems also to have localised
itself in one district only in Europe.
The natives of Kashmir are in the habit during the cold
weather of carrying" about a small pot covered with basket-
work called a kangri ; when in use it is filled with hot
embers. On preparing to go to sleep these people very
frequently put their kangri with its ignited contents inside
the breast part of their upper garment, a practice which very
often results in their being severely burnt about the chest, as
it would seem they are very heavy sleepers.
The kangri appears to have found a home in one part of
Italy only. In Florence, during the winters, which are very
severe, no Florentine woman of the lower classes walks
abroad without carrying her Scaldino, a reproduction of the
kangri of Kashmir. Dr Hultzsch has shown that the use