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COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 707
The Ruffian baths have been defcribed by every traveller who has given to the public
any relation of this country. Inftead of tranfcribing from the accounts of others, I
fhall relate what fell under my own immediate notice.
In one of the Ruffian villages we entered a bathing-houfe, and examined it with as
much attention as the extreme heat would permit. It was a wooden building of one
room, with {mall windows like thofe of the common cottages.. Within an old woman
was employed in preparing the bath; and as the violent fmoke and heat rendered it
fcarcely poffible for us to {tay in the room for the {pace of a minute, we took our ftation
at the door, and obferved the procefs. She firft madea fire under an arch of large gra-
nite ftones four feet in height; and when they were fufficiently heated, fhe {prinkled
them at different intervals with water, which flew off in vapour. She then took from
the fire, by means of two fticks, feveral {mall red-hot pebbles, and put them into pails
and troughs of water, which acquired different degrees of warmth. In half an hour
three men entered the bath ; and, taking off their clothes, remained within, while the
old woman continued to throw water upon the arch of ftones, which heated the room
to a prodigious degree. They then lay down upona fort of table, and having lathered
their bodies with foap, fhe rubbed them lightly with a bundle of twigs in full foliage.
On account of the exceflive heat, we were driven from the door; and foon afterwards
the men, their bodies fuffufed with a deep crimfon from the effects of the vapour, rufhed
out, plunged themfelves into the river, and re-entered the bath.
Another bath which we entered near the convent of Yurief at Novogorod, being
larger and more commodious, we were able to remain fome time fpectators of the whole
procefs. It was a large wooden building, containing, like that juft defcribed, only one
room, and was provided with ranges of broad benches, placed like fteps one above the
other, almoft to the height of the ceiling. Within were about twenty perfons undreffed ;
fome were lying upon the benches; fome were fitting ; others ftanding ; fome were
wafhing their bodies with foap ; others rubbing themfelves with {mall branches of oak-
leaves tied together like a rod; fome were pouring hot water upon their heads, others
cold water; a few, almoft exhaufted by the heat, were ftanding in the open air, or re-
peatedly plunging into the Volkof *.
I fhall add on this fubje&t the following account communicated to me by an Englifh
gentleman at Peterfburgh, who was ordered to bathe for his health. ‘ ‘The bathing-
room was fmall and low, and contained a heap of large ftones piled over a fire, and two
broad benches, one near the ground, and the other near the ceiling. Small buckets of
water being occafionally thrown upon the heated ftones, filled the room with a hot and
fuffocating vapour; which, from its tendency to afcend, rendered the upper part much
* Travellers are too apt not to diftinguifh between the cuftoms of the common people and thofe of the
nobles ; often imputing to the latter what is true only of the former. The Abbé de Chappe, in his account
of his Journey through Siberia, has in many inftances been guilty of this abfurdity ; and the reader is led
to conclude from his narrative, that the nobles bathe promifcuoufly in public like the common people; that
they are equally addiéted to fpirituous liquors; and that they are as rude and inelegant in their entertain-
ments and behaviour; the very reverfe of which is the fact. The author of the Antidote to his Tra-
vels has not failed, with a glow of national patriotifm, to cenfure fuch indifcriminate accounts. In no one
inftance has the Abbé been more erroncous than in his defeription of the baths. After a ludicrous relation
of them, he adds, “ Thefe baths are in ufe all over Ruffia; every inhabitant of this vaft tract of land,
from the Sovereign to the meaneft fubje&, bathes twice a week, and in thefame manner, Every individual,
even of the {malleft fortune, has a private bath in his own houfe, in which the father, mother, and chil-
dren fometimes bathe all together.”? Andagain, * Che baths of the rich differ only from thofe of the poor
people in being more clean.” But fuch fhameful mifreprefentations fearcely deferve to be mentioned, were
it not to expolfe their falfity.
4X 2 hotter
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