Surrounding the fire-place are shelves, upon which stand the graceful narghillés, with their brazen and polished mountings, attractive and pleasing to the eye. But the most active and busy personage in this establishment is the Berber, or barber, who is not only the shaver, hair-dresser, and trimmer in general, but extends the province of his sharp profession to bleeding, cupping, leeching, and tooth-drawing; the results of which avocations are displayed at the door, fantastically strung and diversified with colored beads.
Barbers always follow in the train of doctors, and even precede them, for bleeding is a universal remedy in Turkey, whether the patient is sick of fever or fright. Indeed, it is the custom for every body to be bled once a year, generally in the spring, in order to purify the system. Add to this the frequent application of leeches, scarifications, and cupping, and it may be easily conceived that this branch of industry is very profitable; still more so when it was the custom to shave the whole head, for the convenience of frequent ablutions. Many, in conformity with European civilization, now allow the hair to grow, but those who oppose other reforms are equally unyielding in this respect, and "calculating even to a hair."
In the East there is one source of comfort and enjoyment which is more essential than all else, and that is the use of the bath, which follows all other pleasures, when excess has wearied the system, and precedes and prepares for anticipated luxuries physical or mental. This process of purifying and refreshing the body, is eagerly sought for as soon as the traveller arrives at Constantinople; indeed seems to be second only in his mind to the impressions of an entrance to the magnificent harbor.
The baths of classic memory, where the heroes of ancient Rome were wont to prepare their sinews for the athletic games, and where the patrician dames of Pompeii resorted, to add fresher and more glowing tints to their fair charms, were all conducted on the same principle as those of Stamboul at the present day.
It is wonderful that modern civilization should not yet have adopted the refinements of olden times, when they are so essential to real health and comfort.