a moment, juft to leave my thermometer in fome proper place,
and immediately went out again, where I would remain for a
quarter o f an hour, or ten minutes, and then enter again, and
fetch the inftrument to afeertain the degree o f heat. My afto-
nilhment was fo great that I could fcarcely believe my fenfes*
when I found that thofe people remain together, and amufe themfelves
for the ipace o f half an hour, and fometimea a whole hour,
in the fame chamber, heated to the 70th or 75 th degree o f Cel-
fius. The thermometer, in contadt with thofe vapours, became
fometimes fo hot, that I could fcarcely hold it in my hands.
T h e Finlanders, all the while they are in this hot bath, continue
to rub themfelves, and lalh every part o f their bodies with
fwitches formed o f twigs o f the birch-tree. In ten minutes they
become as red as raw flefh, and have altogether a very frightful
appearance. In the winter feafon they frequently go out o f the
bath, naked as they are, to roll themfelves in the fnow, when
the cold is at 20 and even 30 degrees below zero.* T he y will
fometimes come out, ftill naked, and converfe together, or with
any one near them, in the open air. I f travellers happen to pais
by while the peaiants o f any hamlet, or little village, are in the
bath, and their afliftance is needed, they will leave the bath, and
affift in yoking or unyoking, and fetching provender for the
horfes, or in any thing elfe, without any fort o f covering whatever,
while the pallenger fits ihivering with cold, though wrapped
up in a good found w o lf s Ikin. There is nothing more wonder-
* I fpeak always of the thermometer of a hundred degrees, by Celfius.
ful
ful than the extremities which man is capable o f enduring through
the power o f habit.
The Finniih peafants pafs thus inftantaneoufly from an atmo-
fphere o f 70 degrees o f heat, to one o f 30 degrees o f cold, a tran-
fition o f a hundred degrees, which is the fame thing as going out
o f boiling into freezing water! and what is more aftonilhing, without
the leaft inconvenience ; while other people are very fenfibly
affedted by a variation o f but five degrees, and in danger o f being
afflicted with rheumatifm by the moft trifling wind that blows.
Thofe peafants allure you, that without the hot vapour baths they
could not fuftain as they do, during the whole day, their various
labours. B y the bath, they tell you, their ftrength is recruited as
much as by reft and fleep. The heat o f the vapour mollifies to
fuch a degree their ikin, that the men eafily lhave themfelves with
wretched razors, and without foap. Had Shakfpeare known o f a
people who could thus have pleafure in fuch quick tranfition from
exceilive heat to the fevereft cold, his knowledge might have been
encreafed, but his creative fancy could not have been affifted: >
O h ! who can hold a fire in his hand.
By thinking o f the frofly Caucafus ?
Or wallow naked in December fnow,
By thinking on fantaftic fummer’s heat ?
CH A P T E R