linen dress, such as the men wear here when they are invited to a ladies' bath. I saw all from the gallery, their manners and customs, their good eating, and their free and easy intercourse. It is wonderful to see in what innocence they live, and with what frank confidence they regard the men; the liberties which foreigners presume to take with their ladies does not strike their attention; they interpret everything well. In Plato's Republic, according to whose rules everything was to be in common, they would have behaved themselves excellently, as they already, without knowing his teaching, are so inclined to belong to his sect. "Many visit daily three or four of these baths, and pass there the greatest part of the day, in singing, drinking, nay in waltzing, and they play the lute if they are not seated deep in the water. But there can be nothing more charming than to see budding maidens, or those in full bloom, with pretty kindly faces, in figure and deportment like goddesses, strike the lute, then they throw their flowing dress a little back in the water, and each appears like a Venus. It is the custom of the women to beg for alms jestingly from the men who view them from above; one throws to them, especially to the pretty ones, small coins, which they catch with their hands or with the outspread linen dress, whilst one pushes away the other, and in this game all their charms were frequently unveiled. In like manner one threw them down twined wreaths of divers flowers, with which they adorned their heads while they sat in the bath. "I bathed only twice a day, but attracted by the rich opportunity of such a spectacle and such fun, I spent the remaining time in visits to other baths, and threw coin and wreaths like the others. "Then the playing of flutes, the tinkling on the guitar and singing resounded everywhere; there was no time either for reading or thinking; to have been here the only wise one would have been the greatest folly, especially for one who will be no self-tormentor, and to whom nothing human is strange. I was deprived of the highest enjoyment, the main point, the interchange of speech. So there remained nothing for me but to feast my eyes on the fair ones, to follow them, to conduct them to the games, and to escort them back again. There was also such opportunity for near intercourse, and so great freedom therein, that one needed not to trouble oneself about regulating it.