Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/99

Rh the Moorish baths, an institution that plays a large part in the hygiene of the Moslem countries. Here the Faithful wash, rarely but well. Their baths over, they sleep and rest after their hard work upon the land or their journeys of long months from the distant oases of the Sahara to this holy town of Abu Median and of the blessed Lalla Setti. Here in the baths the Berber bone-setters, banned by the French medical profession and police, often practice secretly on cases of toothache, dislocations, skin abrasions and snake or spider bites.

Massage of an extraordinary nature is also given. When I looked into one of the bath-rooms, I saw a stout native lying on the tiled floor, surrounded by clouds of rising steam and with a tall, thin masseur dancing on his back to the accompaniment of his own groans and sighs. The attendant ran up and down and jumped upon the back and legs of his prostrate patient, occasionally stooped to pour over him another pail of boiling water and then began to tread the man's shoulders with his knees and to pummel his neck with his fists. Then he ordered him to roll over and recommenced these same dancing and boxing performances in direct frontal attack with ever-enhanced sounds of battle. With my knowledge of the East this struggle was not a new sight for me, as I had seen the same in Persia, in the Caucasus and in Constantinople and had even tried it, offering my own back as a stage for this original form of ballet. In these Moorish baths I noticed some blind masseurs, types which I have also seen in the bath-houses of Japan, where one often finds sightless attendants.

Then we passed through some suks, or commercial