When in Finland — Giuseppi actually tries a sauna

Giuseppi was impressed with the idea of sauna. Elsewhere in his lengthy account, he describes partaking.  After all “When in Rome, ...” which he translates to Finland. 

“The heat of the vapour rose to 50 degrees of Celsius; at first I felt a violent oppression, and had it augmented I believe, naked as I was, I should have made my escape from the bath, but forcing myself to persevere, I gradually became accustomed to it, and after some time was able to support a heat of 65 degrees.”

Three cheers for Giuseppi! He made it past the first heat wave, all the way up to 65 degrees (though sauna fans aiming for the 90s and 100s might not be impressed). He never reveals, however, whether he liked it, or he noticed its health benefit. 
 

Nikki

Read more fun sauna lore: 
To buy a personally signed copy of Some Like It Hot: The Sauna, Its Lore and Stories from me, send $20 (which includes tax and shipping costs) to: 
Nikki Rajala, 
P.O. Box 372,
 Rockville, Minnesota 56369.  

You can also purchase one from the publisher, North Star Press of St. Cloud, Minnesota,by clicking on the link, or from local booksellers.

 

Giuseppi Acerbi, part 2

(Giuseppi liked to throw open the door and surprise the sauna bathers, but could hardly manage to

stick around.)

“My astonishment was so great that I could scarcely believe my senses, when I found that those people remain together, and amuse themselves for the space of half an hour, and sometimes a whole hour, in the same chamber, heated to the 70th or 75th degree of Celsius. The thermometer, in contact with those vapours, became sometimes so hot, that I could scarcely hold it in my hands.”

(Note to self: bring gloves to hold onto the thermometer!)

“The Finlanders, all the while they are in this hot bath, continue to rub themselves, and lash every part of their bodies with switches formed of twigs of the birch-tree. In ten minutes they become as red as raw flesh, and have altogether a very frightful appearance.”

(Check the birch switches in his etching — they look wicked! And notice that one woman tends the fire and water buckets, fully dressed.) 

“In the winter season they frequently go out of the bath, naked as they are, to roll themselves in the snow, when the cold is at twenty and even thirty degrees below zero. They will sometimes come out, still naked, and converse together, or with anyone near them, in the open air.

“If travelers happen to pass by while the peasants of any hamlet, or little village, are in the bath, and their assistance is needed, they will leave the bath, and assist in yoking, or unyoking, and fetching provender for the houses, or in any thing else without any sort of covering whatever, while the passenger sits shivering with cold, though wrapped up in a good sound wolf’s skin. There is nothing more wonderful than the extremities which man is capable of enduring through the power of habit.

“The Finnish peasants pass thus instantaneously from an atmosphere of 70 degrees of heat to one of 30 degrees of cold, a transition of a hundred degrees, which is the same thing as going out of boiling into freezing water! and what is more astonishing, without the least inconvenience; while other people are very sensibly affected by a variation of but five degrees, and in danger of being afflicted with rheumatism by the most trifling wind that blows.

“Those peasants assure you, that without the hot vapour baths they could not sustain as they do, during the whole day, their various labours. By the bath, they tell you, their strength is recruited as much as by rest and sleep. The heat of the vapour mollifies to such a degree their skin, that men easily shave themselves with wretched razors, and without soap.

“Had Shakespeare known of a people who could thus have pleasure in such quick transition from excessive heat to the severest cold, his knowledge might have been increased, but his creative fancy could not have been assisted.”

“Oh! who can hold a fire in his hand,
By thinking of the frosty Caucasus?
Or wallow naked in December snow,
By thinking on fantastic summer’s heat?”

 

Nikki

An early Italian traveler discovers the sauna

In the late 1790s, a 25-year-old Italian man, Giuseppi Acerbi, was at a loss as to what to do. Interested in natural history and exploration (and composing music), he decided to see the world — and traveled to northern climates. (Perhaps it’s like having a gap year following high school
graduation before entering college.) 

When he returned home, he published a two-volume account of his adventures, Traveler through Sweden, Finland and Lapland to the North Cape in the years 1798 and 1799.Travelogues were as popular then as now.

In Chapter XXII, he gets to the topic I’m most interested in — sauna.

“… The use of Vapour-Baths among the People at large, and especially among the Peasantry — Some Particulars of this Manner of bathing — The extraordinary Transitions from Heat to Cold which the Finlanders can endure.”

“Another particular that appeared very singular among the customs of the Finns, was their baths, and manner of bathing. Almost all the Finnish peasants have a small house built on purpose for a bath: it consists of only one small chamber, in the innermost part of which are placed a number of stones, which are heated by fire till they become red.

“On these stones, thus heated, water is thrown, until the company within be involved in a thick cloud of vapour. In this innermost part, the chamber is formed into two stories for the accommodation of a greater number of persons within that small compass; and it being the nature of heat and vapour to ascend, the second story is, of course the hottest.

“Men and women use the bath promiscuously, without any concealment of dress, or being in the least influenced by any emotions of attachment. If, however, a stranger open the door, and come on the bathers by surprise, (He’s speaking of himself here.) the women are not a little startled at his appearance; for, besides his person, he introduces along with him, by opening the door, a great quantity of light, which discovers at once to view their situation, as well as forms.

“Without such an accident they remain, if not in total darkness, yet in great obscurity, as there is no other window besides a small hole, nor any light but what enters in from some chink in the roof of the house, or the crevices between the pieces of wood of which it is constructed.”

(Examine Giuseppi’s etching for the size of the sauna, the fire chamber, the benches, the switches...  Even if he couldn’t handle the heat, he found ways to enjoy the process.)

“I often amused myself with surprising the bathers in this manner, and I once or twice tried to go in and join the assembly; but the heat was so excessive that I could not breathe, and in the space of a minute at most, I verily believe, must have been suffocated. I sometimes stepped in for a moment, just to leave my thermometer in some proper place, and immediately went out again, where I would remain for a quarter of an hour, or ten minutes, and then enter again, and fetch the instrument to ascertain the degree of heat.” 

 There’s more, lots more — Volume I, with this story, has 396 pages, plus a dedication and preface. My next post completes his discussion.

Nikki