History of the Bath

Baths have appeared as sanitary-hygienic and medical establishments and since time immemorial served as a means of cleansing the body and its healing. However, they did not come into permanent use at all times. For example, in the Middle Ages, care of the purity of the body was considered sinful in some places, and this was treated as a demonic obsession. It is known that the daughter of one of the French kings died from lice, that is, even aristocrats did not know what soap is. They did not know what a handkerchief was, even though it was known in ancient Greece.

Special rooms for washing the body appeared in ancient times in the countries of the East. Cleanliness and neatness by all Eastern religions were among the virtues. In India, China, Egypt, the bath was considered one of the means of maintaining health.

Historical sources indicate that the greatest "purifiers" were the ancient Greeks, who even before baths used sand to clean the body;for this purpose it was brought even from the coast of Egypt. The ancient Egyptians washed themselves using paste made of beeswax, and the laundry was washed with different plants( soap root) and clay. Many people have long used to wash the body of various herbs.

The greatest perfection reached the bath in the Roman Empire - it's Roman terms. At first, natural sources of warm and hot water were named, as well as simple cold and warm baths kept by private individuals. Romans from all the ancient peoples best appreciated the importance or, at least, sensual pleasure from immersion in water. Greeks and Romans also very early recognized the importance of swimming as a means to develop athletic build. And only at the end of the Empire Rome saw the construction of such vast baths that delight modern tourists. Anyone who has not seen the Karakal bathhouse in Rome can hardly form a correct idea of ​​the place that bathing was in the daily life of Roman citizens. The ruins of a huge building, in which, it is said, 1,600 bathers could fit in, with pendant ceilings, with hundreds of columns, with special pool rooms, richly decorated with mosaics, can not but arouse the admiration of the viewer with their magnificence and size.

In the era of the Empire there were extensive public institutions, luxuriously decorated and consisted not only of the baths proper, but also had numerous other premises. These institutions were also called "thermae".They had places for walks in the open air, sometimes under porticoes;halls for gymnastic exercises, conversations( rooms for conversations and public disputes);premises for listening to speakers and poets, a library;gallery of art works, etc. With some, especially rich terms, there were even small theaters. The variety of services and entertainments, the refined atmosphere and comfort with which the richest terms differed, made them centers of social life, a kind of clubs. The most wealthy Romans spent a considerable part of the day here.

In some of the terms there were lists, which made the therma a place not only for entertainment, but also for gambling, especially for the idle Roman youth.

Bathing was studied by the Romans as an art, and bathing methods were considered a subject worthy of serious reasoning, according to the author of encyclopaedic works on medicine and hygiene Cornelia Celsus( 1st century BC).It was precisely determined the bathing time for different kinds of baths, the time spent in them, both in hot air baths, with steam, or with hot, warm and cold water: all this was strictly regulated.

The bath attendants had at their disposal numerous objects and means for processing visitors: different ointments, pastes, used in place of soap, bath scrapers and other items for removing corns, etc. All this bath-attendant wore on his belt. The opinion of the importance of bathing prevailed in the minds of all Romans. The remains of the Roman baths were preserved everywhere where the Roman settlements were.

The accessories of almost all large thermal baths were a special washroom consisting of several functional compartments:

• undressing rooms;

• more or less large pool with water of ordinary temperature, in this pool you could dip and even swim;

• a closed room for washing with cold water;

• bath Room for washing with warm water;

• a hot bath;

• hot steam bath;

• separate numbers for unwilling to wash with others.

Under the terms there were special female halves, which consisted of the same branches as men's.

The first public baths appeared in Rome at the turn of the new era under Emperor Augustus( 63 BC-14 AD).They were built by his companion commander Agrippa on the Champ de Mars. Emperor Nero( 38 ^ -68 AD) built other baths in the same district of the city, which later were expanded by the emperor Alexander Sever( 193-211 AD).Even more extensive than in Rome, the thermae were built by Emperor Titus( 39-61 AD) on the Esk-Vilinsky hill. Later these terms were expanded under Trajan( 53-117 AD).The terms of the Roman Emperor of Caracalla( 211-217 AD), occupying a huge space to the south-east of Aventine, were characterized by colossal dimensions and luxury of architectural finishes. But they were superior to the magnificence of the baths, built in the southern part of the hill Quirinal by the Emperor Diocletian( 284-305 AD).In the time of the Emperor Constantine the Great( 306-334 AD) only in Rome there were 15 huge thermal baths. The ruins of three of them.there are still. By the way, one of the terms of Diocletian Michelangelo turned into the largest church in Rome after St. Peter's.

About how important the place in the life of the Romans occupied by the thermae and especially the procedures carried out there, are evidenced by numerous reviews of the outstanding Romans.

On the terms and love for them wrote the Roman writers and scholars Varro, Columella, Pliny the Elder, Seneca, the doctors of Asclepiades and Galen and many generals.

The fate of a great bath fan, the outstanding philosopher of Rome, Seneca, who ended his life in a bathhouse, is interesting. The essence of the story is as follows. Being once the tutor of Nero, Seneca, seeing how the emperor himself and the whole empire more and more mired in vices and satiety, began to call on the emperor and society to abstain and moderation. He exclaimed: "You have gone mad, you have lost the true path, you do not know the price of any thing!" These and other statements of Seneca, including the tyrant, led to the fact that he was accused of conspiracy and the only "mercy "bestowed on his former teacher and pet Nero: he granted Seneca the right to choose the method of execution himself and be his own executioner.

Seneca decided to commit suicide by opening the veins.(His fate decided to share and his wife.) Because of his old age and meager food( he was a vegetarian), the blood at Seneca was excruciatingly painfully slow. "With amazing courage and the presence of the spirit peculiar to the ancient wise men, Seneca, bleeding, dictated to those presentfriends to his last words. But as his sufferings lasted unbearably long, Seneca took poison, but the poison did not reach the goal. Then, at his request, they demolished the dying man into the steam room, where he suffocated.

As already mentioned, Rome had termsborrowed by othersthe ruins of which are found in France and England, on the banks of the Rhine and the Danube, in Africa and elsewhere. The most complete representation of the ancient Roman baths, the location of their premises and the interior decoration is provided by the remaining baths, discovered among the ruins of Pompeii

Moving to otherthe countries, the Roman baths have mutated, for example, in Turkey they turned into Turkish baths, in which steam, for example, was produced in an original way: the stone floor was heated with hot air, then it was poured with hot water, There was steam. Baths of the Turkish type are widely used in many countries of the Near and Middle East.

Baths, as a means of achieving cleanliness and neatness, considered to be a virtue since ancient times as a pledge of health, were prescribed by Islam. In Islam, the daily ablution of the body is elevated to the degree of religious dogma.

In England, Ireland, the Roman bath also changed. It became "pure air", the temperature in it does not rise above 60-65 °.Under the floor and in the walls of the bath pass special pipes, through which hot air flows, and thus the desired temperature is created in the bath.

The closest to the Russian bath is the Finnish sauna( sauna).As in the Russian and Finnish baths, steam is formed in kilns by pouring water or fragrant solutions of red-hot stones, and the humidity in the Russian and Finnish saunas depends on how often and how much water pours out onto the glowing stones.

Bathhouses and warm baths from the Jews appeared only after acquaintance with the Greek civilization. But long before that, since the time of Moses, the Jews had a custom of daily ablutions, although in Palestine and the surrounding areas, precipitation is very rare and scarce, and water was always used sparingly. Special purity was required from priests, as from individuals entering into a closer relationship with God;before the entrance to the tabernacle hung a brass washbasin from which priests washed their hands and feet upon entering the sanctuary.

According to the Talmud, even "the Nazarene, who had to carefully watch that no hair fell from his head, it was allowed to rub the face, hands and feet with soda and sand, despite the fact that thus he risked losing a few hairs."In addition to soda and sand, a powder of crushed brick, pepper powder and soap from sesame waste mixed with jasmine flowers were used to rub the face. But these drugs were used in exceptional cases, usually they were content with washing with cold water - in the mornings and warm - in the evenings. The Talmud says: "A little cold water in the morning and the washing of hands and feet in hot water in the evenings is better for health than all possible medicines."

It was considered dangerous to touch the eye with an unwashed hand after a night's sleep and it required a three-fold douche in the morning, which is considered to be a must for Jews.

The place of the bathing of the Jews was the pits and cisterns that were located in the courtyards and filled with rainwater. Bathed also in caves, filled with water from rain streams or streams. Thermal baths were also arranged, but on Saturdays they were not allowed to swim in them, as on Saturdays it was not allowed to stove the stoves or burn fires.

After acquaintance with the Greek civilization, the Jews had baths and warm baths. A normal Jewish bathhouse consisted of three rooms: 1) a waiting room, where everyone was dressed, resting before bathing;2) dressing room, dressing room;3) rooms for sweating. In the inner room, in which there were swimming pools, visitors were nude.

For noble people, incense was added to the fuel. The furnace for the furnace of the bathhouse was underground, it heated the cauldrons at the top.

At the entrance and exit from the bathhouse prayed not to slip on the marble floor. By the way, one such case is described in the Talmud.

In the bathhouse there were conversations, which were called "bath rooms".Benches in the baths were marble, and in the room for sweating - plank, as it was impossible to sit on marble - they were hot. Wipes or sheets were used for wiping. After the bath, they drank a glass of wine. In the bathhouse there was a staff of servicemen: the scavengers, barbers, cleaners, body spongers, puffers( poured after a bath with warm or cold water).

Since on Saturday the Jews have no hot bathing, after Saturday, on Sunday, everyone went to the bathhouse. It was considered indecent to have a joint wash in a bath with people who, according to their rank or personal relationship, should have felt a special relationship. It was impossible to bathe in a bath with the king or the high priest, a disciple with a teacher.

Jewish baths were not allowed to pronounce the word "Torah"( the holy book of the Jews) and were forbidden to greet each other. There were also so-called ritual baths, in which the water had to be flowing, and the capacity of the pool was at least 120 gallons. Particularly common were Jewish ritual baths in the Middle Ages. Jews strictly abided by the prescriptions for a bath of cleaning. Menstruating women washed themselves only in ritual baths, with running water.

The ancient Greeks knew warm baths even before the time of Homer. Baths in Greece appeared in the middle of the VIII century BC.The bath was arranged as follows: in the middle of the room there was a stove, which heated and two neighboring rooms in which they were soared. Greek women usually spent the whole morning in luxurious bathing: the servants rubbed them with fragrant ointments and sprays spirits. Hair on the head rubbed with fragrant substances, combed, intertwined and cleaned. Then the pampered beauties were dressed in expensive fabrics.

The Macedonians used to bathe in the bathhouse together with men and women in ancient times. Homer, describing the lovely Polikastia, says that Nestor's young daughter herself accompanied Telemak to the bathhouse, and the innocent Evriksis was in the bath with Ulysses.

For 70 years BC.officials watched the order and decency in the bath. Even my father could not be in the bath with his children. But later, when "debauchery cast out shame," then the women began to wash with the men. The keepers of the baths lured young people into the baths, surrounding them with beauties, and the old people went here "solely for the satiety of their impartial views."

Speaking about Greece, we can not fail to mention the high appreciation given to bath procedures by such great Greeks as Hippocrates, Homer, Solon, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and many others. All of them noted the important health-hygienic role of the bath. Socrates, for example, said that "the bath cleans not only the body, but the whole of my being."

By all accounts, bathhouses in Greece appeared first of all among the Spartans, differing from their fellow countrymen with the beauty of the body, athleticism and a modest way of life.

No less admiration for the Greeks and evoked the appearance of the Egyptians, who were noted for their beauty, excellent health. Herodotus, the father of history, considered the Egyptians to be fanatical purges. He wrote: "Twice in the night and twice in the night the Egyptian priests make omopony. Everywhere baths are well arranged and accessible to everyone. "

Of course, simple Egyptians apparently did not visit the baths as often as the priests, but they used them quite often. It is through strict adherence to hygienic rules that the Egyptians looked so that Herodotus called them "the most healthy people in the world."

Along with bathing procedures, the Egyptians also actively used such components of a healthy lifestyle as moderate nutrition, gymnastics, water procedures, massage, baths, and of course, a bath. Baths are mentioned in many ancient Egyptian papyri.

Herodotus also attracted the dress of the Egyptians, who wore light linen clothes, always freshly washed. Flax for the Egyptians was a symbol of "purity, light and faithfulness."

With the fall of the Roman Empire and the spread of Christianity, which prohibited the use of public baths and baths( they were considered immoral institutions), the construction of baths almost universally ceased, the bathing business fell into decay. As a result, the personal hygiene of both urban and rural residents turned out to be so low that various diseases associated with the body's antihygienic state, especially parasitic diseases, that covered huge masses of people became possible. Lice, scabies, various fungal skin diseases were widespread. The whole of Europe has become cloudy for many decades. The decline, which began in the Middle Ages, continued until the beginning of the XIX century.

And this despite the fact that in Europe at that time the views on the purity and health of such outstanding philosophers as Hippocrates, Avicenna and Galen had already settled and widely entered into everyday life, which unequivocally considered the bath as the most powerful means of maintaining the health and treatment of many diseases.

For example, Avicenna in his great scientific work "The Canon of Medical Science" has developed advanced hygiene standards even for our time. This work is an encyclopedia of the correct way of life of a person: how to eat, rest, heal, work, move, use the healing powers of nature, enjoy how and with what means to monitor your body, what natural means to use as cosmetic.

Avicenna could not have ignored such a powerful health-improving remedy as a bath. In his medical practice, he recommended it not only as a general health remedy, but also as a curative in certain diseases, in particular, with migraine, insomnia, with other nervous disorders, with paralysis, bodily spasms.

According to Avicenna, the bath especially helps with respiratory diseases: with hoarseness, deafness of the voice, "with fatigue of the larynx", pleurisy.

Avicenna recommended bath and with some diseases of the digestive system: weak digestion and indigestion, loss of appetite, hiccups, even with diarrhea. He believed that the bath is useful in dropsy, aches in joints, pain in the bladder, difficulty urinating, when the stones come out, with a general decline in strength. A frequent visit to the bath as the basis of the entire treatment, "Avicenna recommended with jaundice.

.Known in his time in the whole of Europe hygienist M. Platen, who paid much attention, as he put it, "a new method of treatment," wrote about this voluminous book, calling it "The Desktop Book for the Healthy and Sick."The book preaches methods of treating patients and promoting health by the so-called curative powers of nature, to which he refers: air, light, sun, water, movement, peace, massage, medical gymnastics, magnetism, electricity and diet.

M. Platen wrote: "There is a system of treatment, fundamentally diametrically opposed to the one that reigns in our medical science, and, unfortunately, still often abused and neglected."Many provisions of the book are relevant in our day. He stressed the role of hardening in the preservation and strengthening of health. He had his own view of colds."What we call colds is not due to the fact that we lost a lot of heat, but, on the contrary, very often because too much heat was delayed."The most effective method of hardening, he considered one that would be an integral part of the complex impact on the body."If you want to temper your body, then first of all you must attend to the acceleration of metabolism. .. Try to sweat, doing gymnastic exercises in the open air. .. Use easily permeable clothes and bed. .. Having removed from the body an excessive amount of fat and water, youtemper it. .. Remember that hardening is the same as health, and effeminacy is the same as illness. "

A great place in the healing system of Platen is occupied by hydrotherapy and bath procedures, moreover it is the procedures of the Russian bath.

Platen believed that one of the reasons for the raging for many centuries in Europe, including Germany, was that the Germans did not observe the simplest hygiene rules, in particular, they ignored the Russian bath. At the same time in neighboring Russia "even in the smallest village there were always steam baths - an excellent hygienic and wellness remedy."

Platen noted that since the beginning of the XIX century the Russian bath began to spread in many European countries, especially in Germany. Further, Platen admits the arrogance of the Germans: "But we Germans, using the Russian bath, very rarely remember that this step forward in cultural development is due to our eastern neighbor."

In the beginning of the XIX century in Europe again, after a long "besbannogo" period, began the extensive construction of bathhouses, mostly Irish type, which had the features of Russian and Roman baths. Later, in the construction of various types of baths, the influence of the sauna began to prevail, the greatest merit in the revival of which belonged to Finland, where it is now a symbol of hygiene.

By the way, despite strict prohibitive measures, the sauna in Finland has never disappeared completely. The sauna appeared in the Finns in time immemorial, at least two thousand years ago. This is evidenced by Finnish folklore, in particular, in the Finnish folk epic "Kalevala" heroes-heroes are described as "husbands of sauna".The two thousand-year history of the Finnish sauna knows its ups and downs. There were times when the sauna was not only a sanitary and hygienic place, but also a place where others were performed, including ritual procedures: in a sauna, take

;Before going to the altar, the bride pruned herself in the sauna. The elderly people before death were also in the sauna, that is, a person was born and went to another world in the sauna. The Finns' sauna was influenced by the customs and morals of the peoples neighboring with the Finns. So, the East-Siberian sauna was influenced by Russian baths, differed in small sizes and was used mainly for washing. West-Finns' sauna was used by the population of the western regions of Finland and for economic purposes, and quite widely: it dried fish, stored meat, vegetables, hemp, flax, etc.

There have been periods of persecution in the history of the Finnish sauna, mainly from the Swedish authorities( from 1150 to 1809 the Finns were under the rule of the Swedes).By decree of the Swedish government, saunas were banned under the pretext that they contributed to the spread of eye, skin and epidemic diseases, and also because of the consumption of a large amount of wood for the construction and furnace of saunas and because of the danger of fires. But at the beginning of the XIX century, Finnish saunas began to revive and the last century can be considered a genuine renaissance of Finnish saunas and their wide distribution far beyond Finland. Especially widespread in the world of Finnish sauna began in the 50's, after the Second World War.

Finnish saunas have also appeared in Russia, but they have not received wide distribution, especially among the rural population of the country. Russians are faithful to the traditions of their ancestors and retain great love for a simple Russian bath.

The type of bath is largely dependent on the geographical conditions of residence of a particular people.

Depending on the climate, other natural features, certain types of baths have arisen and rooted in different regions. In Europe, basically, there were two different ways of hygienic care for the body: Roman dry hot-air baths and Russian type with steam heating saturated steam. Gradually, penetrating into other regions and regions of Europe, these baths were modified and adapted to local conditions and received local specific names. At the present time, it is possible to distinguish several more or less different in their structure, procedure, customs of baths. In the Russian bath the air is filled with saturated water vapor, the temperature of the "misty" air rises to + 40-50 ° С.The steam room is equipped with benches located at different heights from the floor: at each altitude the temperature is different - at the bottom is low, and the higher, the temperature is higher, and at the ceiling it is maximum, reaching + 60 ° C and more. Humidity in the Russian bath is very high, up to 95%.The Roman bath is heated by dry hot air, the temperature of which in a warm room( for washing) is approximately + 40-45 ° С, and in hot( for sweating) from + 60-70 ° С.Hot air in these baths in the rooms is brought to the floor or through the holes in the walls. Both rooms are equipped with wooden benches, located at different heights. For cooling, pools with different water temperatures are used - from warm( up to + 35 ° C) to cold + 12 ° C.

Turkish baths have rooms with air temperature of +50 and + 40 ° C, and humidity is regulated by heating water in boilers. Cooling is carried out in special rooms, where they are poured with water with constantly decreasing temperature, or while staying in a room with room temperature.

At one time in Northern Europe baths of the so-called Irish type, with low saturation of water vapor without fog formation with a temperature in the steam room of about + 50-55 ° C were spread. Cooling was done with a shower or dousing. By now, such baths in the Nordic countries have practically disappeared and are replaced mainly by Finnish saunas.

The Finnish sauna( sauna) is heated by hot air, with a temperature of up to + 100 ° C and low relative humidity. Sauna( like almost all other types of baths) is equipped with wooden step stalls at different heights from the floor, thus achieving a temperature difference from + 60-65 ° C on the bottom bench to + 90 ° C at the highest. The shop is usually three. Cooling in Finnish saunas is done in air or in water.

The main difference between the Roman and Russian baths is that in the first air is hot and dry, and in a Russian bath mixed with steam. Common to the Roman and Turkish baths is that both are dry. Sauna as it combines features of Roman and Russian baths.

Thus, there are several types of baths:

• Russian steam bath with high humidity.

• Dry Roman or Turkish bath with hot air.spirit and low humidity.

• Sauna( Finnish sauna) with dry hot air and low humidity, with obligatory water or air cooling.

The Japanese bathhouse stands apart, which developed independently, without the influence of European bath types. The main element of the Japanese bath is not hot air, but hot water, heated to a temperature of + 45 ° C.According to the centuries-old tradition, the Japanese usually take a bath every evening before dinner and enjoy with such hot water, which seems unbearable to the Europeans. At home, the Japanese take a bath, squatting on a wooden lattice. Shower in Japanese baths, as a rule, is absent. The procedure of the Japanese bath is as follows: first the Japanese warm up: before they sit down in a bath with hot water, they are carefully soaped and rubbed, periodically pouring out warm water to prepare the body for immersion in very hot water. The system of tap water from the bathroom is such that when using a lot of water it leaves through special devices in the bathtub floor.

Most Japanese people visit public baths;wash in a room separated from a hot pool in which water is regularly changed.

Another kind of Japanese bath is a bath without water. The Japanese use cedar sawdust in which to add medicinal herbs, mix them, mix the mixture up to + 55-60 ° C, lay down( dig in) into it: sawdust absorbs sweat and secrete aromatic and curative substances that act on the body.

In Russia, the baths were known from the deepest antiquity. The chronicler Nestor attributes their occurrence to the 1st century AD, when the Apostle Andrew, preaching the gospel word in Kiev, went then to Novgorod, where he saw a miracle - steamed in a bath. In it, according to Nestor's description, everything turned in color into cooked crawfish. After pouring a stove in wooden baths, "they entered there naked and there they poured water. Then they took rods( a broom) and started to beat themselves, and before that they could not live. But then, having turned out to be cold water, they revived. So they did it daily. "Nestor concludes: "By no one, without being tormented, tortured themselves and performed not ablution, but torture."

The Chronicler tells that the Grand Duchess Olga, wishing to punish the Drevlyane who killed her husband Igor( 945), ordered to heat up the bath for the Drevlyanian ambassadors, who would have washed themselves and introduced herself to her. During their bathing at the order of Olga, the bath was set on fire, and the ambassadors burned in it.

Since ancient times, the Slavs knew the bath and skillfully used it, this is confirmed by numerous sources, in particular, the ancient Greek historians pointed out that "the bathhouse accompanied the ancient Slavs all their life: here they were washed on their birthday, before the wedding and after death"( A. Galitsky).

However, there are also very unflattering reviews about the hygiene of the Slavs of the 6th-century chroniclers Prokopia and Mauritius: "The Slavs did not bake so much about their appearance, in the dirt, in the dust, without any neatness in their clothes, they were in numerous gatherings of people. Greeks, condemning this uncleanness, praise their harmony, high growth and courageous beauty. "According to these authors, the Slavs washed only 3 times in their entire life: on their birthday, wedding and death. Something is hard to believe that the "zanyuhannye" dirty, as depicted by the Slavs, at the same time were slender and courageously beautiful. In addition, all the Slavic tribes in the pre-Christian period settled, as a rule, along the banks of rivers and lakes, were engaged in fishing, and that in such conditions they did not bathe, it is simply absurd. Most likely, Procopius and Mauritius confused the Slavs with some nomadic tribes from the arid steppes.

On the most perfect ancient Slavic baths wrote the Arab traveler Abu Bekri. The Slavs "... arrange a house of wood for themselves and patch up the slots with its green moss. .. In one corner of that house they set up a hearth of stones and at the very top open a window for the exit of smoke. When the hearth is heated, they close this window and the door of the house. In the house there is always a reservoir for water, which is poured over the heated hearth, and then steam rises. In the hands of each a bunch of dry branches, which they set in motion the air and draw it to him. And then their pores are opened, and the excess comes from their bodies, and the rivers flow from them. "

Here is a portrait of a Russian bath "in black".By the time of Prince Vladimir of Kiev, baths in Rus had acquired a strong reputation as a clinic, which was reflected in the statute of the Grand Duke. In it, baths are called "institutions for the non-able."With the advent of monasteries monastery baths turned into unique hospitals.

This is what Adam Olearius( the first half of the 17th century) wrote about the Russian bath in his book "Description of the journey to Muscovy": "Russians attach great importance to ablution, considering it, especially during

weddings, after the first night, for the necessarya business. Therefore, they both in cities and in villages have many open and secret baths in which they are very often to be found. In Astrakhan, I, in order to see in person how they wash, went to their bathhouse unnoticed. The sauna was partitioned by logs so that men and women could sit separately. However, they entered and went out through the same door, without the aprons;only some kept the birch broom in front until they were sitting down. ..

They are able to carry a strong heat, lie on a shelf and brooms are catching heat on their body or rubbing them( this was unbearable for me).When they completely blush and weaken from the heat to the fact that they can no longer bear in the bath, then both women and men naked run out, turn out to be cold water, and in winter they lie in the snow and rub their skin like soap, and then again runin a hot bath. Since the baths are usually arranged near water and rivers, they go from the hot bath to the cold bath. And if sometimes a German guy jumped into the water to bathe with women, they did not at all seem so offended that, in anger, like Diana and her friends, turn it into a deer with water spray - even if it werein their power. ..

We saw this kind of washing not only in Russia, but also in Livonia and Ingria;and here the common people, especially the Finns, ran out of the bathhouse into the street in the hardest winter time, rubbed themselves with snow, and then again ran away to bask. Such a quick change of heat and cold was not to their detriment, since they already from their youth accustomed to it their nature. Therefore, the Finns and Latvians, just like the Russians, are strong and enduring people, well tolerated by the cold and heat.

In Narva, I was surprised to see Russian and Finnish boys of 8, 9 and 10, in thin simple canvas caftans, barefoot, like geese, walked and stood for half an hour and stood in the snow, as if not noticing the unbearable frost.

In Russia, in general, the people are healthy and durable. It rarely fails, and if one has to go to bed, among the common people, the best medicines, even in case of fever with heat, are vodka and garlic. However, noble gentlemen now sometimes turn to the advice of German doctors and to real medicines.

We also met in Moscow from Germans, as well as from Livlandians, good baths arranged in houses. In these bathhouses are built vaulted stone stoves in which many stones are placed on a high lattice. From such a furnace there is an opening in the bath, which they cover with a lid and cow dung or clay. Outside there is another hole - smaller than the first - for the exit of smoke. When the stones are heated enough, an internal opening opens, and the outer one closes, and, according to how much heat is required, they are poured onto stones of water, sometimes infused with good herbs.

In the baths, around the walls around, there are benches for sweating and washing - one above the other - covered with pieces of canvas or mattresses stuffed with hay, sprinkled with flowers and various fragrant herbs, with which the windows are also stuck. On the floor lie the finely chopped branches of the trees, giving a very pleasant smell and pleasurable.

For washing, a woman and a girl are dressed. If someone is being visited at a friend's house by a close friend and amiable friend, then they treat him very carefully, take care of him, and protect him. The mistress or her daughter brings and sends usually to the bath a few pieces of radish with salt, as well as a well-prepared soft drink. .. A big mistake or a sign of bad reception is considered if it is not done. After the bath they also deliver to their guest, in accordance with how he deserves it, any decent pleasure with food. .. "

When choosing a place to build a bath, the proximity to a river or other pond was taken into account. This was noted by many foreigners who visited Moscow. The Frenchman de la Neuville wrote: "Baths are usually built on the banks of the river so that those who can not tolerate the heat, could go and rush straight into the cold water, which they do equally in winter and summer."

Here and there, especially in the south of Russia, built earth baths: in the dugout laid out stoves, on the red-hot stones periodically poured water to get steam. People were sitting on benches, "sweating".The Arab traveler Ibn Rust, who traveled in the south of Russia, describes washing in such a bath: "After the bath, the Rus loved to swim in the ice hole or lie in the snow."By the way, this type of bath met in the XI - XIII centuries.on the territory of present-day Bulgaria, modern Czechia, Slovakia, Poland. However, already in the XIV century in the territory of the Slavic countries began to build stone baths. And here and there stone baths appeared in the XI century. So, for example, one of the first stone baths in Russia was built in 1090 in Pereyaslavl. Later stone baths began to be built at the monasteries, in the palaces of the grand dukes, there were baths in the Kremlin.

By the way, since ancient times, our ancestors appreciated in the baths primarily their healing power.

Wooden baths very often caused fires, sometimes grandiose. To avoid this, various measures were taken by the authorities, including those regulating the construction of baths, hygiene rules were prescribed that concerned both construction and use of baths. Such regulations were issued, in particular, at the end of the XVII century.father of Peter I - Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

As many travelers from Western Europe got acquainted with Russia, Russian baths began to appear in some of its cities: in Vienna, Paris, Berlin, but they just looked like our baths. Contemporaries claimed that neither the Germans nor the French could withstand our heat. Foreigners believed that baths, as a means of diaphoresis, are very useful. But so to steam, as in Russia, is harmful."The body relaxes and the brain organs are dull. The skin loses elasticity, fades and soon becomes covered with wrinkles. Women wither ahead of time prematurely turn pale. "So some European doctors thought.

All foreigners celebrated the love of Russians for a strong couple. One of them wrote: "Many in Russia are soaring in the strongest spirit, and others are not even in the bath, but in the burning stoves. But they are already true lovers who, tumbling on the spread straw in the stove, ordered to close the stove of the stove behind them, and so they soar that the soul flies out! "One foreigner noted:" If the Russian does not get stuck on Saturday, he becomes somehowashamed and ashamed and something is missing him. "

It is difficult for an uninitiated person to imagine how to be soared in an oven. And they did, and even today in some villages they do it this way. From the preheated kiln, the coals are removed, under the Russian stove, they are well swept and covered with straw. They put cast iron with rather hot water, get into the oven and lay down on the straw so that the head peeps out of the mouth. Spray the water with the roof of the furnace, which causes the temperature to rise sharply in it and the humidity rises. Well, further, a well-known case, take a birch broom and whip them so that, as they say, "devils became sick".

The Russians had a custom to go to the bath after a joint night. This was done in the morning, and only after the bath approached the images. Even the king, if "he wanted to sleep with the queen", then the next day they both went to the bathhouse. And devout people considered themselves unworthy, even after having washed themselves together after a night together and on the second day to join the church and stood in front of the church door, although in this connection they were subjected to very ambiguous views and jokes, especially from young people. To the standing at the door of the church so echidous comments poured in.

In the old days, the rule was strictly observed: the groom before the wedding day had to wash in the bath, and after the first wedding night the young went to the bath together. This custom was followed by kings and princes until the beginning of the XVIII century.

The sauna, with a steam heater, was a vital need for the Russian people and was not only a means for keeping the body clean, hygienic, but also a universal medicine for all diseases. And not only. The bath for the Russian person was a source of true pleasure, a rest for the soul and body, bodily and even moral purification and perfection.

Stay in the bath and rest after it in many places in Russia were accompanied by a whole ritual. Beginning from the poor and ending with the nobles - all when entering the bath, when preparing for hovering, received several slices of radish. When they had eaten them, the man was going to the steam room. For quenching thirst, always was ready, both in the bathhouse and in the dressing room, cool kvass, flavored with mint or other fragrant spices.

For steaming the brooms and giving, the couple cooked liquors and boiled kvass with mint( in general, mint played an outstanding role).In the bathhouse itself, the shops were covered with mint, fragrant sweet clover and other fragrant herbs. On the benches next to fresh brooms( mostly birch) "there were gangs for washing and a birch bark chest, filled with kvass with the smell of peppermint and served to impose the body before rising to the shelves, which was made of linden wood, and doused with boiling water, shroudedferry, made a honey smell of lime. "Everyone who at least once was in a bath and soared in such an atmosphere, can not resist the temptation to repeat for themselves this true pleasure.

Our ancestors believed that the most simple, but the most significant measure to achieve health is the bath. People spoke in the people;"The bath hovers, the bath rules, the bath will fix everything."

As we already noted, in Russia the bath appeared long before the baptism of the people. In ancient times, Slavs had soaps and withers. There is an opinion that the bath was allegedly brought to Russia by Arabs or Greeks. But it is more likely that the Russian bath is the own invention of the Slavs. In favor of this assumption, says a lot: a very special one, unlike any other ritual of washing the Slavs, and the statements of foreigners about the Russian bath, which show that they did not know anything like this before they arrived in Russia. In this regard, it is especially interesting to testify about the Russian bath of the Spanish doctor Ribero Sanchez( for a long time he was Elizabeth Petrovna's doctor): "Everyone clearly sees how happy society was if it had an easy harmless and so valid way that it could not only preserve health, but also to heal or tame the diseases that so often happen. For my part, I, only one Russian bath, cooked properly, I consider able to bring to man such a great good. When I think about a lot of medicines from pharmacies and from chemical laboratories coming out, cooked by so many dependents, and brought from all over the world, I often wanted to see that half or three quarters of these, by the great expenditure of the buildings built, turned into Russian baths for the benefit of society".

Comparing Russian baths with others, Sanchez emphasized the advantages of the first: "In Roman and Turkish baths, hot floors are poured under which pipes pass, and therefore steam rises. But since they do not change the fresh air, it is easy to conclude that these baths have flaws, which are completely disgusted in Russian baths. .. In Russian baths, the renewal of vapors is repaired through

every five minutes. In this way, the steam produced does not relax the solid parts of the body, for this steam is composed of elemental particles of fire and air. .. It softens the skin, and does not relax it. .. It expands the instruments of breathing. "Sanchez admits that in Russian baths "... there is no luxury of Roman baths, but Russians produce in one room what the Romans did, and the Turks and the Easterners now produce in four or five."He noted that in Russian baths steam is injected with the help of a heater and it is always possible to "steal a pair".Sanchez believed that "in medical science there is no such medicine that would be equal to power, reality and healing to strengthen and revitalize the body of mankind. .. This is only a real, so astute and hot war, touching the body of a naked man breathing in the same warmair, which both the body itself feeds, dissolves the skin, multiplies the circulation of vital juices unhindered, promotes breathing and makes the flow of blood free in the stanovyh and other veins. .. The patient then begins to sweat and in alluvstvah their pleasant experiences calm that surely and imperceptibly homage to sweet sleep, which lasts half an hour, and sometimes more. "

The camera-cadet Berholtz, living in the times of Peter the Great in Petersburg, writes in his notes on Russia: "There is almost a bathhouse in every house, because most of the Russians resort to it at least once, if not twice a week. ..Russian and Chekhon women serving there( in the bathhouse) know their business perfectly. .. They, first, are able to give the water poured on the heated oven bricks, the degree of warmth or cold that you yourself desire, and,secondly, masterfully caring for you. First, when you lie down a bit on the straw, which is put on the shelves and covered with a clean sheet, they are and soar you on this bed with birch twigs, how much they want, which is extremely pleasant, because the pores open and strengthen the sweat, then the fingers are separated from the body by uncleanness,and then take soap and rub and, finally, at the end of everything, they are showered with water and wiped with a towel. At the end of all these operations you feel like you are born again. "

There is no general "recipe" for washing in the bath. In every corner of Russia, almost every family has its own family "technology" of this procedure. And this is understandable. Known popular a thousand years ago, the saying: "The best bath is the one where the stove is lit by the kind of person who wants to enter it."

In many provinces of Russia it was decided to eat several slices of fresh radish before entering the steam room. Nothing else before the steam room is not recommended. Only with a cold they advised: you put onions, go to the bath, sodden with horseradish and take kvass.

The oldest Russian bathhouse was a bath "in black", which, by analogy with a kurda hut, was called a kurna. It meant that in the bathhouse there was installed a stove without a pipe and smoke went directly to the bath and through the door and the window to the street. Smoke over time, smoke the walls of the bath to blackness. It is not easy to sink such a bath, it is necessary to close and ventilate it on time, so that there is no "fumes".The walls of such a bath, after heating, poured water, and sometimes washed. More complex is the widely spread sauna in Russia, a stove, in which a furnace with a pipe is built and a bath inside is clean.

Depending on its taste, the host makes 2-4 FIBERS, low or high. Anyone who loves a hot bath, places the highest shelves almost under the ceiling( the higher the rise, the higher the temperature).Cushions or mattresses stuffed with hay or straw, covered with white sheets, were sometimes laid on these shelves( benches) on different levels.

In Russia, baths are almost always heated with birch firewood, as they are the most caloric and give a good "spirit".

Now in the baths are widely used "bath cocktails" of odorous substances. And earlier these cocktails successfully replaced infusions from different aromatic herbs: mint, sage, thyme, black currant leaves and raspberries, oregano, sometimes even wormwood. Actually, the current cocktails are prepared on the same basis, only recently the infusion of eucalyptus has been added to them. Healing aromas in combination with a high temperature kill almost all microbes, bacteria in the air, on the skin, clean the upper respiratory tract. As V. Ivanchenko writes, "further with subsequent cooling, microbes can not enter the body. Therefore, the smell also contributes to hardening. .. "

Our ancestors, however, flavored the bath with a simpler but no less effective method. They scattered fresh or dried fragrant plants on the shelves. Especially widely used were mint, sage, black currant leaves, oregano, lapnik( spruce), etc. In general, the Slavs used the Russians for aromatization dozens of different herbs, foliage of bushes and trees. As for the herbs, almost all the herbage came into play.

A few words about public baths. It is known that in the XI century. Pereyaslavsky Bishop Ephraim, a Greek, began to introduce public baths in monasteries, that is, the folk baths in Russia existed from the first centuries of Christianity. The founders of public baths were, apparently, Pechora monks who visited Afon, where they met with Greek public baths.

In addition to the usual, in the XVIII century.in Russia there were so-called "baderskih", medical baths, the keepers of which were usually foreigners. Such a bathhouse I wanted to build at the court doctor Peter I, Paulson, but did not build. A special success in St. Petersburg until 1760 was the Baderman Bath of Lehmann. But in 1761 he had a competitor, the Frenchman Vandred, who opened the "Bader" bath in Malaya Morskaya Street in Kvasov's house. In the announcement it was said: the bath is open "for sweating and diluting fluxes and other bodily seizures, for doctor's recommendation."It is clear that the baths were washed mainly by the rich. In general, such baths in Russia did not take root, as though they were therapeutic, but they hardly achieved such a therapeutic effect as a Russian bath.

The oldest Moscow baths were at the Stone Bridge and were therefore called "stone" or "Kamenno".They were built of bricks, while all the other public baths were wooden. It is no accident that they often burned, and in the fire of 1812 almost all the Moscow baths burned out.

In public, bazaar days, as well as on large church holidays, public baths were not heated.

From time immemorial, Moscow was famous for its baths. As VA Gilyarovsky points out, at the end of the 19th century,in Moscow there were "sixty most different types of baths",

"bandwidth" capacity was great. On "bath days", on Saturdays and on the eve of big holidays, each bath used about 3 thousand brooms, which were brought to Moscow by wagons from the surrounding villages, especially from Gzhel. Served in the baths boys were preparing these brooms "for the park."They also poured bottles of kvass, which was sold in baths. The boys were brought to Moscow from neighboring provinces. Yaroslavl province gave Moscow sex in taverns, Vladimirskaya - carpenters, Kaluga bakers. The banshchikov were given three provinces: but from each - one or two counties. Moscow was saturated with bayschikami counties: Zaraisky-Ryazan, Tula-Kashirsky and Venevsky.

In the baths of the XIX century.many services were provided."In the" noble "branches was kefe, rest, haircut, shaving, cutting corns, the rate of cans and even jerking of teeth, and" common folk "baths were, you can unerringly say," polyclinic ", where all sorts of diseases were treated. The doctors were medical assistants, barbers, bursers, and steamers, and here and there they replaced masseurs back in those days when they did not even hear the words. "Barbers held in the baths of bloodletting, not observing any sanitation."The discovery of blood" was the favorite operation of the keyers, lomovikov, mordastye lihachey, who started to fatten shopkeepers and gray merchants. In the women's baths for whiteness, faces were brewed in a gang of grass-string, and in the "noble" baths, women washed their faces with almond cuttings. Then there were various wipes, up to washing the head with kerosene to strengthen the hair.

Historical and literary sources show that among the outstanding Russian people, many loved the "hot" bath. AV Suvorov, for example, where it was possible, arranged for the soldiers baths. The generalissimo himself stood in the bathhouse "a terrible heat on the shelf, after which ten buckets of cold water were poured on him, and always two buckets suddenly."

According to ancient customs, a Russian person always went to the bathhouse from the road, and according to the customs of Russian hospitality, the guests who arrived arrived first to the bath.

VA Gilyarovsky notes that even the poets were inspired by the Moscow baths and among them AS Pushkin, singing the charm of the Sandunov Baths, which he visited with his friends in each of his visits to Moscow. Contemporaries testify that the poet loved to bathe hot. VA Gilyarovsky describes the procedure for Pushkin's stay in the bath: "A poet, young, strong, strong," evaporated on a shelf with branches of young birches, "rushed to the ice bath, and then again to the shelves, where again" transparent steam above him"and there" in the clothes of negi "rests in the rich" locker room ", finished by the builder of Catherine's palaces, where" the cool fountains sprinkle "and" a luxurious carpet is spread. .. ".

AS Pushkin was literally in love with a Russian bath, as evidenced by the numerous references to it in his creations.

Sanduny often visited the hero of the war of 1812 Denis Vasilyevich Davydov.

By the way, Sandunovsky baths, built in 1806 by the merchant Sandunov, were famous not only for their sizes and conveniences, but also for a buffet with all sorts of drinks, from kvass to champagne.

There were still famous banya in Moscow - Lamakinsky. In these bathhouses, "Griboedov's and Pushkin's Moscow, which gathered in the salon of Zinaida Volkonskaya and in the English Club," was overtaken. "

Some changes in these Moscow baths occurred after A. Pushkin published his Journey to Arzrum, where the poet enthusiastically described the Tiflis baths: Gasan( bathhouse attendant) "began by spreading me on a warm stone floor;after which he began to break my limbs, pull out the joints, beat me hard with his fist;I did not feel the slightest pain, but an amazing relief.(Asian banschiki sometimes come in delight, jump on your shoulders, slide your feet on your hips and dance on your back vprasyadku).After this, he rubbed me with a woolen mitten for a long time, and, with a strong splash of warm water, began to wash with a soapy linen bladder. Sensation is inexplicable: a hot soap pours you like air! A woolen mitten and a linen bubble must be accepted in a Russian bath: the experts will be grateful for such an innovation. "

The Moscow bath attendants took the advice of Alexander Pushkin and brought in a fan for a soap bubble for soap and a woolen gauntlets.

Many baths were in St. Petersburg. In 1874 there were 312 baths in the city. Most of the baths were supplied with Neva water: 46 of them were commercial and 266 "numbered or family".The best bath of "numbered" luxury furnishings and amenities was Voronin's bathhouse, in Farnar Lane, in Voronin's own house. The rooms in this bathhouse were quite expensive - from 50 kopecks to 10 rubles per visit.

The most expensive rooms, which were luxuriously decorated and visited by the selected public, were in the so-called "Pushkin springs" - baths on Blagoveshchenskaya street near the Nikolayev Bridge.

In general bathhouses, prices were low, quite affordable even for the poorest.

In the rooms and common baths worked steamwomen and steamers - "grandmothers", who, on demand, washed their desire "for what they put".

Under Voronin's bath there was a so-called "full buffet", in the rest of the baths you could get only beer, kvass, seltzer water and other cheap drinks.

By the way, although the prices in the common baths were quite low, but the bath was so much and almost the entire population was bathing in them, they brought a big profit to the tsarist treasury.

Wanis are usually heated one or two times a week. In summer hot days here and there, the baths were forbidden to prevent fires, which in Russia most often arose precisely because of the baths. Exceptions were allowed only for patients and women in childbirth, and then depending on the decision of local authorities. By the way, prohibitions to heat baths did not concern notable people.

Not indifferent to the Russian bath were many Russian writers, artists and artists. Leo Tolstoy in the bath sometimes came "enlightenment", came to mind "artistic details."The great Russian artist Vasily Surikov claimed that he could not live without a Russian bath. And how Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin loved the bath!"It's from my childhood," he said.- I loved going to the bath with my father. .. There we bathed and bathed for hours, until we were tired, exhausted. And then, when I left home, I remember: in whatever city I came, the first duty, if at least one penny was in my pocket, I went to the bathhouse and there I washed, showered, bathed, steamed, steamed - andagain all over again. "

Being in a foreign land, Chaliapin missed Russia, Moscow, Sandunam. In a letter to Moscow to a friend of Alexander Mendelevich, Shalyapin wrote: "Our dear Moscow! Incomparable!. . Our good can not be compared with anything. .. It is exhausting, hard, and I feel like I'm on hard labor. .. I do not have to think about happy days, the only entertainment turkishbad, that in translation into Russian means: Turkish bath -of course, not our own. I remember very clearly how I washed in Sandunas and how I ate the earwax, remember? "

A more or less serious work on the bath, its powerful, healing and health effect was written at the end of the XIX century by the Russian medical professor SG Zabelin -"About bathing, baths and baths".He very accurately expressed the attitude of Russians to the bath: "Who among us does not know from his own experience what kind of renewal and revival of forces you feel when you leave the bath! The very process of washing in a well-arranged bath is a pleasure. I'm not talking about a pleasant sensation at the end of washing, when your puffed body rests in a warm, dry, bright and well-furnished waiting room. And then the next feeling of vivacity, freshness and gay mood is worth every pleasure! »

However, as early as 1826, at the Moscow University, Dr. AA Boino-Kurinsky defended his thesis on" Baths in general and Russian baths in particular ".

Then during the XIX century, several brochures on Russian baths were published: S. Melnikov "Zyryansky Baths"( 1853), Verevkin "On Russian Baths"( 1865),

S. D. Kostyurin "Materials for the Study of the Russian Bath"( 1837).), V. Strakhov "On the Russian common folk baths"( 1856).In 1905 the book "Bath, Its Benefits and Influence on the Human Body" was published.

About baths and bath procedures written by such well-known doctors in Russia as NM Maksimov-Ambodik, M. Ya. Mudrov;historians Klyuchevsky, Kostomarov, Zabelin, Soloviev, many writers:.N. Tolstoy, A. V. Chekhov, N. S. Leskov, A. M. Gorky and others. VA Gilyarovsky devoted particularly bright pages to the bathhouse.

The bath firmly entered the Russian sayings;proverbs, a lot of comic advice is connected with the bathhouse, etc.: "Fools and after the bath it itch", "You can eat onions, go to the bath, sink into hell, drink kvass", "Bath is the second mother", "Remember the Sabbath day - goin bathhouse "," Sauna will wash away all sins "...

The" decent "bathhouse necessarily has three compartments: a steam room, a soap room and a dressing room. Each of them is important. The steam room is where they are soaring. The proverb warns: "Go to the bath, do not be afraid of a couple."About the hot bath they said: "steam bath", "steam loves to heat the bath".Those who are afraid to sweat, usually say: "A pair of bones do not break."Next to the steam room is a mildew. With a "decent" bath there must be a dressing room, where they undress, relax and drink a kvass bath.

There are a lot of beliefs associated with a bathhouse. Each bath is inhabited by an evil spirit. When the sauna is heated, the heat of it temporarily survives from there, and after the washing in the bath ends, this spirit again returns there: in the heated bath the spirit lives always. He does not like puerperas, which, however, in the tightness of our ancestors always lodged in the bath.

Bannik is an invisible creature. But his presence gives out all sorts of noise( whispering of brooms, noise falling of some object, indistinct human voice or other sounds produced by animals: dog barking, growling of the beast, howling of a wolf, mooing, etc.).Especially common is the idea of ​​a banner as a little old man, with a big head and a colored, usually green beard. Such an old man can peek out from behind the stove, from under the bench, to shelter in the dark corner of the bath. ..

Sometimes a bannik takes on the appearance of a relative, friend, a friend of that person before whom he appears. This happens usually in a bath and the error is only covered when the person returns from the bath.

Sometimes a banner appears in the bathhouse not just one, but with a whole bathhouse family, with children who sometimes cry, laugh, shout. The favorite place of stay is a sauna heater: in the stove itself, under the stove, behind the stove. It is from there that the banya most often frightens especially women, it is from there that his terrible snoring, whistling, howl, laughter, crying are heard. .. It is from here that the banner sometimes throws stones, here drags those who are angry. Another favorite place is a banya - under the regiment, on which they usually soar. It is from there in the silence of the night that his movements are heard. It is from there that he appears sometimes on the shelf to punish the violator of banning ban. Often a bannik uses bathing equipment in its pranks and evil tricks: tubs, buckets, gangs, basins, buckets and the like. The next favorite place of stay is the bathhouse threshold. There was a ban: you can not just stand or sit on the threshold of the bath, but even touch it, because, according to beliefs, the spirits of ancestors live under the threshold of the bath.

Belief in a banya, in his evil tricks was so great that some refused to visit the baths. It was especially dangerous to go to the bath late at night or at night. In many places there were beliefs that the bathhouse belongs to the bath space completely, in the bathhouse it dominates without limit. It was considered that it is most dangerous to go to the bath before the holidays.

There was a belief that when visiting a bath, one should adhere, unconditionally, to the rules of courtesy, attention to the needs and requirements of the "master" of the bath, even to his whims and whims.

One of the main is the ban on visiting the bath "for the third, fourth or fifth pairs."According to some beliefs, having chopped down the bath, it was necessary to immediately agree with the banya, how many people's shifts will come to steam. The owner of the bath asked the "master" baths, a bath-house: "Give me three, four, five shifts to go to the bath."The "master" of a bath usually after three shifts began to frighten people of the fourth and subsequent shifts, and sometimes even did not let them into the bath. Himself a bannik, sometimes with his "podelnikami", is washed no less passionately and passionately than the most notorious lovers of the bath: grunting and laughing with pleasure. Day visitors to the bath there was a ban on noise in the bath: here you could not knock, nor speak loudly, nor scold. It is dangerous and utter a curse in the bath. According to the belief, the curse pronounced in the bath, immediately comes true. Recklessly, those who boast before the banner with their fearlessness come. One of the beliefs is that if you go into a bath with a boast, and even in an unhealthy third, fourth forbidden pair, you will not get out alive at night, and at best get off with a great fright. And in the bath you can not drink the water that is intended for washing.

It was believed that the banya must be given all due respect, to show humility, obedience, courtesy. At the entrance to the bath at the bannery asked to steam, and on leaving the bath gently thank him for the bath. Earlier, and now especially in the villages, the bath time begins quite early, at about 5-7 pm, so that the bath procedures will end up to the time that belongs to the banya. His last visitor leaves warm water, steam and a slice of soap. Arrangements of a banner get and presentation of a treat. The best meal was considered to be a piece of rye bread, abundantly sprinkled with salt, or even better with black cinnamon. The one who brought the treat should leave the bathhouse in the back, constantly weighing low bows to the banya. It should be noted that not always, not all and not all visitors to the baths treated the bath with respect and with fear. Many peasants wanted to protect themselves from the antics of the bannik of various kinds of opposition, in particular, they tried to protect themselves from the disaster in the bath with the help of a baptismal banner or prayer.

Many are still afraid of a bath. The raging bannik can be killed with a stone, scalded with boiling water, strangled with carbon monoxide. The peasants had never used to go to the bathhouse one day, even in the afternoon, not to mention the late evening. Preparing to prepare a bath, the peasants entered into it fearfully, with a sinking heart. Bannik, as a rule, appeared unexpectedly, catching all those who bathed and soared unawares.

There is a popular belief that sometimes "his bath-house is light" to the bath-house his friends, all kinds of devils, swindlers, etc., peer into the bath. A centuries-old belief in the existence of a banana, acquaintance with his good tricks and evil deeds gave rise to a double attitude towards some people. So, in the Russian North, the peasants assert: "There is no evil bannik, yes there is no kinder".He often defends the persecuted, the persecuted, the miserable. ..

There is a popular belief in the people that a banner can predict fortune telling fortunes. He is especially eager to do it at Christmas time( January 7 to 19).Girls these days wondered about the narrowed. But the most correct way of guessing about a widow is to divulge in a bath on the night of the New Year with a mirror.

Guessing in a bath was considered unsafe: a bath can, if it is annoyed, send "all sorts of rashes and chierries to the body, and an evil malady in the mouth."If the banner is in a good mood and if not violate its prohibitions, then it can not only predict the future, but also affect the fate in the desirable direction for the guessing.

There is also a "bathhouse" connected to the bathhouse - the bread that the mother of the bride blesses to the crown of the young: bread, salt, fried bird( most often chicken) and two complete canteens