O
stream, from an adjoining spring, is, also,
by a similar contrivance, conveyed to the
basin, as often as is desirable. By drawing
a plug from a small diagonal opening in the
bottom of the bath, next the lowest side of
the hill, the water, after being used, is suffered
to run off, and the place is again fit for
the reception of other visitors. In the time
of Snorro Sturleson, no doubt, this bath was
frequented by the healthy for the sake of
cleanliness and luxury, as well as by the
sick, for the cure of various complaints; but
now it is scarcely ever used, except for
the purpose of washing clothes or of bending
wood and hoops for casks, and we consequently
found it in a most filthy condition.
The Sweating-house *, as it is called, situated
about a mile from this bath, is another place
* The following mode of heating rooms in use
among the Icelanders, as related by Arngrim Jonas, may
well be considered as a vapor-bath, and deserves to be
noticed here. Speaking of the turf for burning, Arngrim
Jonas says, “ Quanquam igitur judicarit Plinius
miseras gentes, quae terram suatn urerent: nos contra
eo nos feliciores ducimus; Deique beneficium hie et
alibi agnoscimus, quibus fomes igniarius et cremandi
materia non magno constet; qua re ad frigoris intemthat
was erected in former times for persons
afflicted with different diseases, but now
serves merely for drying the clothes of a
neighboring peasant. It is a small turf
building erected over a O subterraneous boiling
stream, which is covered with so thin a stratum
of stone that the dry heat arising from
it is very considerable, and soon throws into
a most profuse perspiration any person who
will be at the trouble of creeping into this
confined room, as 1 did, upon their hands
and knees, through a narrow and low passage,
about five or six yards long. The
periem arcendam, prater alien usus satis notos, incolse
summe indigebant; prasertim hyemalibus temporibus,
quibus hypocausta et fornaces in usu, saxo et petris
congestse, per quas flamma facile erumperet; quse quam-
primum ignis vi penitus essent excalfactae, cumque jam
defumasset hypocaustum, frigida camini saxis candent-
ibus aspergebatur; quo pacto calor sese per universam
domum efficaciter diffundere solet; qui sic etiam pariete
et tecto cacspititio optime conservatur. Memini au-
tem, me balnea publica excalfaciendi sitnilem rationem
apud extraneos alicubi observare.'’—A curious account
of this manner of bathing may be seen in Acerbi's Travels,
where it is said that the natives of Finland have small
houses built on purpose for the bath, and that they
remain in the vapors for half an hour or an hour in
the same chamber, heated to the 70th or 75th degree
of Celsius.