orientalcairocit00sladuoft

Arab Hammam—A Classical Turkish Bath 277
into if they chose. The funny part was, that whenever one
of these yellow people streaming with perspiration was going
to get into the tank the attendant always dried him very
carefully first with a sort of flannel bag. Perhaps he didn't
want to spoil the water of the maghtas, which was several feet
long, about a yard wide, and about a yard deep, extremely
like, in shape and size, the small hot-water tank in the baths
of Caracalla, in which one of the Emperors is said to have
died.
Adjoining the maghtas is the hanafiya. Whether the
bather has a dip in the tank or not, he has an important
process to go through at the hanafiya, where the bathman
lathers him with a sort of loofah and soap. Here you sometimes
see the bathers having their armpits shaved. When
the attendant has washed off the soap, he leaves the bather,
who may stay on playing with the hot and cold taps of the
hanafiya, which pour into a small trough with a seat in front
of it. When he goes back to the beyt-oiuival he is given four
more towels, with which he wraps himself up and reclines on
a couple of cushions, sipping coffee or smoking, while the
lawingi rubs the soles of his feet and kneads his body and
limbs. This operation generally takes about half an hour,
and the bather then dresses and goes out, after the chief
attendant has brought him a looking-glass and a comb, and
restored him his money and valuables.
Judging from what I saw, I should say that the bath came
rather expensive in the matter of tips, because the well-off
bathers tipped each attendant.
I was told that men generally go twice a week to the bath,
but that some of them are merely washed with soap and
water and have a plunge into one of the tanks, which costs
much less.
According to Lane, the women of his day were much more
economical. They did not go to the baths so often, and
when they went only had a soaping and a dip. They even
took their own soap and praying-carpet and fresh water
with them if the water in the hanafiya was too brackish to
make a proper lather.