Sometimes, when the bath is occupied by women, this is signified by suspending a napkin, or some other piece of drapery, over the door. The building is occasionally engrossed for the entire day by the fair sex; as, for instance, when it is visited by a betrothed bride just before her nuptials. An event of this kind is a very important affair with the ladies of Syria. The bath is the only place where they meet and amuse themselves in crowds: it stands them in lieu of a ballroom, concert, theatre, and opera. A bridal bath is announced a fortnight beforehand — as a ball is in Europe. Luckily for us, Madame de Lamartine was invited to one of these entertainments at Beyroot; and has given us a description of a scene never to be looked on by a bearded face.
Two hundred ladies of the town and its environs had been invited on this occasion, and among them several Europeans. Each lady arrived at the rendezvous muffled, as usual, in a huge wrapper of white cloth. As they came in, they arranged themselves in groups on mats and cushions in the vestibule; their dark slaves and hired servants took off their wrappers, and they appeared in all the gorgeous splendour of bright colours and sparkling jewellery.
When the whole party was assembled, a wild music struck up. Women, with the upper part of their persons clad merely with a single fold of red gauze, uttered shrill and wailing cries, and played the fife and tambourin. This music never ceased throughout the day, and gave this scene of pleasure and festivity a character of tumult and delirium that was perfectly barbarian.
The betrothed lady made her appearance, accompanied by her mother and her young friends; and decked with such magnificence, that her neck, arms, and bosom were completely concealed by strings of gold coins and pearls, that hung upon her like chain mail. The fair bathers immediately fastened on her, and stripped her one by one of all her ornaments and her garments. The rest of the ladies had meanwhile been undressed by their slaves, and the different ceremonies of the bath commenced. The music continued as before, and the fair crowd passed from hall to hall with the oddest ceremonies and harangues. After the ladies had been steamed and washed, and heated in the manner already described as practised with men, perfumed waters were poured over them, and then began the grand fun of the day. In an instant all the two-hundred ladies were gamboling, romping, dabbling, splashing, throwing water in each other's faces, laughing, chattering, and squealing, like a parcel of boys let loose from school to frolic in the water; and whenever some childish trick excited a more than ordinary burst of laughter among the younger girls, the wild and unearthly music swelled tbe din with a louder flourish. At last the watery diversions of the day were closed: the slaves and servants arranged the moist tresses of their mistresses, put on their necklaces and bracelets and their silken and velvet robes and sharwals, spread cushions on the well-swept mats of the halls, and produced their baskets and silken wrappers containing materials for a pic-nic collation. This consisted of all sorts of pastry and confections, in which the Turks and the Arabs excel, with sherbet, orange-flower water, and all those iced beverages profusely consumed by the people of the East. Pipes and sheeshehs were forthcoming for the married ladies, and a cloud of perfumed smoke filled the air. Coffee was abundantly handed round in small cups, inclosed in filigree vases of gold and silver; and the ladies' tongues were not idle. The dancing women were now admitted, and performed Egyptian dances, and the monotonous evolutions of Arabia, to the sound of the same music as before. Thus passed the whole day; and it was not till nightfall that the revellers escorted the betrothed bride home to her mother's dwelling. This ceremony of the bath usually takes place the day before the wedding, and is ushered in by a more or less pompous procession, according to the rank and fortune of the fair one.
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