'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME I' [‎276r] (568/820)

MES—MBS
529
surface the place is walled round, and the stream at this point has its
sides lined with large slabs of stone : a large earthenware pipe conducts
the water into the open space, and another similar pipe leads it out at the
exit end, where it again disappears for a short distance underground,
A scheme is on foot to raise the height of the walls of this place and to
close the entrance with a padlocked gate, so as to render this source of
supply perfectly safe for Europeans.
There are no places especially set apart for the washing of soiled linen.
™ T . , 7 The native sets himself down to wash his clothes
Dhooies ghats. . i • < . i • i
in any spot convenient to him, this may be at the
source of a drinking water-supply. If the spot is open and easily acces
sible, so much the better ; and many such open places in the vicinity of
the city on the course of the qandts are used for this purpose. On several
occasions, natives have been found washing clothes at the place mentioned
above, where the Europeans’ drinking water is obtained, hence the scheme
for closing the approach.
Public baths, or hammdms, are many, and to be found in all parts of
^ ^ the town. The weekly bath is a fixed institution
with all Persians, who are not too poor to pay
the small sum required for admission. Each hammdm has a hot water
tank, in which the bathers wash themselves after being shaved and rub
bed. This tank has no waste pipe below: it is always replenished from
above, and the superfluous water overflows its stone edges. The tank is
seldom, If ever, completely emptied. The result is that it is often ankle-
deep in epithelial debris and other filth from the bodies of the
many bathers. As the baths are public and are visited by people of all
classes, regardless of the fact that many of them are suffering from
diseases of various kinds, these tanks become fruitful sources of*the dissem
ination of disease, especially those of the skin and eyes, and perhaps
also syphilis. The inhabitants of those villages which do not possess
public baths, with few exceptions, rarely wash their bodies, and seldom
take off their clothes. They therefore suffer less from these diseases.
A Persian family generally lives in the uppe" storey of its house, which
is approached by a flight of steps from outside
Ha ita ions.. leading on to the verandah. These upper rooms
face the central courtyard and open to the verandah by several doors or
large windows, which often occupy neaily the whole front of the room.
The doors and windows are ill-constructed and usually of unseasoned wood
which readily warp^ : the crevices and chinks thus formed admit large
currents of air. The only remedy for this is to hermetically seal the windows.
Such rooms can never be kept properly warm in winter, for even if the
windows be sealed up, the doors cannot be treated in the same way, and
the inmates are generally too indolent to take any real trouble in the
matter. They are unable therefore to keep out the extreme cold of winter,
and lung complaints in the cold season are very common.
The common custom in Persian houses is to place a square, low table,
not more than a foot high, in the centre of the room, and underneath this
a brazier of live charcoal: over the table are spread large, wadded quilt:
(razais or lihdfs), which extend to some distance from the edges of the tabl*
48 I. B - 3 X