erful room; to
drop at full length on a broad divan; to eat a Christian meal; to smoke a
narghileh of the softest Persian tobacco; and finally, most exquisite of
all luxuries, to creep between cool, clean sheets, on a curtained bed, and
find it impossible to sleep on account of the delicious novelty of the
sensation!

At night, another storm came up from the Sea of Marmora. Tremendous peals
of thunder echoed in the gorges of Olympus and sharp, broad flashes of
lightning gave us blinding glimpses of the glorious plain below. The rain
fell in heavy showers, but our tent-life was just closed, and we sat
securely at our windows and enjoyed the sublime scene.

The sun, rising over the distant mountains of Isnik, shone full in my
face, awaking me to a morning view of the valley, which, freshened by the
night's thunder-storm, shone wonderfully bright and clear. After coffee,
we went to see the baths, which are on the side of the mountain, a mile
from the hotel. The finest one, called the Kalputcha Hammam, is at the
base of the hill. The entrance hall is very large, and covered by two
lofty domes. In the centre is a large marble urn-shaped fountain, pouring
out an abundant flood of cold water. Out of this, we passed into an
immense rotunda, filled with steam and traversed by long pencils of light,
falling from holes in the roof. A small but very beautiful marble fountain
cast up a jet of cold water in the centre. Beyond this was still another
hall, of the same size, but with a circular basin, twenty-five feet in
diameter, in the centre. The floor was marble mosaic, and the basin was
lined with brilliantly-colored tiles. It was kept constantly full by the
natural hot streams of the mountain. There were a number of persons in the
pool, but the atmosphere was so hot that we did not long disturb them by
our curiosity.

We then ascended to the Armenian bath, which is the neatest of all, but it
was given up to the women, and we were therefore obliged to go to a
Turkish one adjoining. The room into which we were taken was so hot that a
violent perspiration immediately broke out all over my body, and by the
time the _delleks_ were ready to rasp me, I was as limp as a wet towel,
and as plastic as a piece of putty. The man who took me was sweated away
almost to nothing; his very bones appeared to have become soft and
pliable. The water was slightly sulphureous, and the pailfuls which he
dashed over my head were so hot that they produce