There is much theatre in the Turkish bath. Bathers entering
Nevil’s London establishments are encouraged to exchange reality for the
world of the imagination.
This is a TEMPLE OF HEALTH and therefore there is an atmosphere of
Peace and Silence, broken only by the soothing sounds of splashing
fountains.
You
leave the World and its Noise and Bustle behind you. You enter an
Atmosphere of Repose. Let the spirit of the place enter your mind.
And
the protagonist in Guy Thorne’s novel When it was dark sees the London
Hammam as providing a necessary scene-change.
The
physical warmth, the silence, the dim lights and Oriental
decorations induced a supreme sense of comfort and bien être.
It brought Constantinople back to him in vague reverie.
Perhaps, he thought, the Hammam in London is the only easy way to
obtain a sudden and absolute change of environment. Nothing else
brings detachment so readily, is so instinct with change and the
unusual.
There is also much of
performance in the taking of a Turkish bath.
Gordon Stables, pseudonymous author of the Medicus column on health
matters in the Girls own paper, knowingly states in his little book on
the Turkish bath that,
Taken simply for enjoyment, a man never fails to cherish the memory
of his first bath, as does a maiden that of her first ball.
One
of the bath’s proselytisers, Stables self-evidently proved his own
contention that,
Next to the pleasure of enjoying the Anglo-Turkish bath oneself,
in propriâ personâ, is that of hearing someone dilate on its
merits. And few who have ever tried it, will be found unwilling to
expatiate freely on the topic of Turkish bathing.
Those
who so dilated and expatiated, were not averse to making of the bath a
prize for one who had been initiated into its mysteries.
then to the frigidarium, or cool chamber, where, still clothed in
warm towels, he sips coffee, smokes a narghilet, and indulges in
beatific sensations which only those can know who have passed
through the three purgatories of the bath.
It follows that the
uninitiated require guidance.
the
companionship of a habitué is almost a sine qua non if you
want to get the best results. He knows the ropes. You cannot
and do not. Be advised by this very practical hint if you are a
novice to the Ritual, for such it is.
Explanation—embellishment—ritual.
4. The ritual of the towels
