Martinsburg Gazette

MISCELLANY.

An Arabian Bridal Bath.—My wife and Julia have been invited, to-day, by the wife and daughter of an Arab chief of the vicinity, to pass the day at their baths; this is the diversion in which oriental women chiefly indulge. A bath is announced a fortnight beforehand, as a ball would be in Europe. I subjoin the description of this fete, such as my wife gave it to us this night on her return.

The bathing apartments are a public place, the approach of which is interdicted to men on every day until a certain hour, in order that women alone may have the free range of them—but when it is intended to be a bride's bath, such as the one in question, men are excluded throughout the day. A faint light is admitted into the apartments by means of small domes with painted windows. They are paved with marble, shaped into compartments of varied colours, and inlaid with considerable skill. The walls are also lined with marble in the form of mosaics, or sculptured with Moorish mouldings, or small columns. A graduated heat pervades these apartments; the first one has the temperature of the external air; the second is tepid, the others are warmer in succession, until the last—when the vapor of the almost boiling water rises from the basin, and oppresses the air with its overpowering heat. In general there are no basins scooped in the centre of the apartments, but merely spouts, through which water to the depth of half an inch, is constantly flowing upon the marble floor, running off through stone gutters, and incessantly renewed.— What is called a bath in the east, is not a complete immersion, but successive aspersions of a greater or less warmth, and the impressions of vapor upon the skin.

Two hundred females of the town of Baireut, and of the neighborhood, were on that day invited to the bath, and amongst them many young Europeans; each one arrived wrapt up in an immense sheet of white linen, which completely conceals the superb costume of the women when they issue forth. They were all accompanied by their black slaves or free servants; accordingly as they arrived, they formed into groups, or sat down upon mats and cushions prepared in the outer hall; their suite removed the sheets which enveloped them, and they then appeared in all the rich and picturesque brilliancy of their dress and jewels. These costumes are highly varied in the colour of the stuffs and the splendor of the jewels; but they are altogether shapeless.

The dress consists in broad folded pantaloons of striped satin, secured at the waist by a tissue of red silk, and drawn in above the ancle by a gold or silver bracelet: a robe worked in gold open in front, and fastened under the bosom, which is left bare; the sleeves are drawn close under the armpit, and afterwards hang loose from the elbow to the wrist; a silk gauze tunic runs underneath, and covers the chest.-- Over the robe they wear a velvet vest of scarlet colour, lined with sable or ermine, with gold embroidery over the seams; the sleeves are also open. The hair is parted across the head, a portion falling over the neck, the rest twisted in plaits falling to the ancles, and made longer by black silk tresses, imitating natural hair. Small wreaths of gold or silver hang at the extremity of these tresses, which by their weight they cause to float along the shape : the head is moreover strewed with small pearl chains, strung gold sequins, and natural flowers, all mixed up together, and scattered with incredible profusion —just as if the contents of a casket had been thrown pellmell over those gaudy heads of hair covered with the perfume of jewels and flowers. This barbarian gorgeousness has the most picturesque effect on young females of from fifteen to twenty; some women, moreover wear a cap of cut gold, of the shape of an inverted cup; on the centre of which cap is seen a gold tassel bearing a tuft of pearls and dangling on the shoulders. Their legs are bare and the only covering of the feet are yellow morocco slippers, which they drag along at every step. Their arms are covered with bracelets of gold, silver, or pearls; their necks with several necklaces forming a twist of gold or pearl on the uncovered bosom.

As soon as all the women had assembled, a wild music was heard ; some females, whose breasts were only covered with a slight red gauze, uttered sharp and plaintive cries, and played on the fife and tambourine ; this music continued throughout the day, and imparted to a scene of pleasure and festivity, a character of savage tumult and frenzy,

When the bride appeared, accompanied by her mother and her young friends, and dressed in so splendid a costume that her hair, her neck, her arms, and her breast, were completely concealed under a veil strewed with garlands of gold and pearls, the bathing women seized upon her, and stripped her, by degrees, of all her ornaments; in the meanwhile, the rest of the company were undressed by their slaves, and the various ceremonies of the bath now commenced. They moved to the unceasing sound of the same music, coupled with more and more extravagant forms and words, from one apartment to another ; they began with vapor baths; afterwards came ablution baths; perfumed and soapy water was next poured over them; then commenced the several amusements; and all the women indulged, with various cries and gesticulations, in the sports familiar to school-boys who are taken out to bathe—splashing one another, dipping their heads under water, throwing water in each other's faces; the music withal growing louder and more yelling, as often as any of those childish amusements excited the boisterous laughter of the young Arab girls. At last they left the bath ; the slaves and other attendants again plaited the damp hair of their mistresses, fastened the necklaces and bracelets, dressed them in their silk gowns and velvet vests, spread cushions upon the mats in the apartments, the flooring of which had been wiped dry, and brought forth from baskets and silk wrappers the provisions prepared for the repast; these consisted of pastry and all kinds of confectionary, for which the Turks and Arabs are unrivalled ; sherberts, orange flower water, and all the icy beverages in which eastern people indulge at every moment. Pipes and narguils were also brought in for the elder part of the company ; a cloud of odoriferous smoke filled and obscured the atmosphere ; coffee of excellent flavor, was freely served up in small cups enclosed in little transparent vases of gold and silver wire; the conversation now became animated; dancing women came next, who executed, to the sound of the same music, Egyptian dances and the monotonous Arabian evolutions. Such were the occupations of this day, and it was not until nightfall that the whole train of women led the young bride back to her mother's house. This ceremony of the bath usually takes place a few days before the wedding.—La Martine's Pilgrimage.