'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎107] (138/582)

ONE OF THE FRONTIER TOWNS OF PERSIA. 197
into two square divisions. The first, or outer one, was a plain
paved hall, exactly like the undressing-room, except that it had no
side recesses, but its floor was level, close to the walls. There were
here also four pillars ; but, as well as I remember, plain ones;
and in the square space which they enclosed in the centre of the
room, was a cistern of water as in the outer one. It was on the
floor of this that the visitors lay, to be washed by the attendants;
for there were no raised seats for this purpose as in Turkish baths,
and the great octagonal one, with its cold fountain, the sides and
tops of which are ornamented with mosaic work of marble in
Turkey, was here replaced by the cistern described. The whole
of this room was destitute of ornament, excepting the walls, which
were similar to those without. The second division, to which this
led, consisted of three parts ; the central one was a large and deep
bath, filled with warm water, its bottom being level with the lower
floor of the building, and the ascent to it being by three or four
steep steps. On each side of this was a small private room, with
a cistern in the centre of each, for the use of those who wished to
be served with peculiar attention.
The whole was as neat and well arranged as could be desired,
and as clean as any bath can be which is open to public use.
But as few pleasures are entirely perfect, so here, with all its
general apparent superiority to the baths of Turkey, this was in
ferior to them in the most essential points. The attendants seemed
quite ignorant of the art of twisting the limbs, moulding the
muscles, cracking the joints, opening the chest, and all that deli
cious train of operations in which the Turks are so skilful. The
visitors were merely well though roughly scrubbed, and their im
purities then rinsed off in the large cistern above, from which
there was neither a running stream to carry off the foul water,
nor cocks of hot and cold to renew and temper it at pleasure, as in
Turkey.
In place of the luxurious moulding of the muscles, the use of
the hair-bag, or glove, for removing the dirt, and the profusion of
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