272
NOTES AND QUERIES.
[9 th S. II. OCT. 1, '93.
alais or sweat-house in Ireland. I know of
two in this neighbourhood, situated within a
.short distance of each other on the Sleive
Beagh range of mountains : one partially
tumbled down, and apparently of great age,
the other in a perfect state of preservation,
and evidently modelled after the older hut.
It is built of large, rough blocks of sandstone,
joined together with mortar, and is circular,
with a somewhat conical or dome-shaped roof
formed of the same kind of stone. The fol-
lowing are some of its dimensions jotted in
my note-book from measurements taken in
1895. Internally : height, 6 ft. ; diameter at
level of floor, 4 ft. Externally : circumfer-
ence half-way up wall, 26 ft. ; doorway,
square-headed and measuring about 2 ft.
both ways. Floor flagged. No opening in
roof or in any part of hut except door. The
man who acted as my guide, and who had
seen the house when a "going concern,"
described the procedure to me thus. A large
fire of peat was kindled inside, and the door
was then closed up with sods. After some
time these were removed and the embers
were raked out of the bath, the floor of
which, after it had cooled down to the correct
temperature, was then covered with rushes.
Everything being then in order, the patient
stripped, crept into the bath, and the door
was again closed in the same way as before.
Profuse diaphoresis having been effected, the
bather emerged, and washed himself in a
running stream, near which these huts are
always situated. This man attributed the
gradual disuse of the bath in this neigh-
bourhood to the fact that about seventy years
ago a person had died suddenly during the
treatment, which was undergone chiefly for
the cure of rheumatism, one of the most pre-
valent diseases in this moist climate. He also
informed me that the bath was occasionally
used up to about ten years ago, a statement
which surprised me considerably, at least a
regards this neighbourhood. However,
I cannot tell how the truth may be ;
I tell the tale as 'twas told to me.
In the Journal of the Royal Historical anc Archaeological Association of Ireland, vol. vii Fourth Series, No. 64, at p. 212, Mr. W. F. Wakeman gives an excellent illustration of i sweat-house situated on the island of Inis murray, off the coast of Sligo. The following is his description of the building :
" Teach-an-alais, or the sweat-house. For vari ous reasons it seems desirable that a notice of the very curious, and perhaps unique, building whicl lies close to the cashel wall, to the northward, shouk here be given. I allude to a stone-roofed structure in plan somewhat of a horseshoe form, which wouL seem to the architectural eye to be as ancient as an
vork remaining upon the island. It is styled by the
latives, who evidently know how to call a spade a
>ade, simply Teach-an-alais, or, in English, the oweat-house ' : and the tradition is that the place ivas used in olden time in the way that Far-Eastern oaths were tens of centuries ago, as formerly in Jritain were Roman baths, and as the so-called Turkish baths are even now with us.
" The above remarks had been penned and the manuscript was already in the printers' hands when Prof. Hennessy, of the Science and Art Depart- nent, was good enough to furnish me with the fol- owiiig interesting memorandum :
" ' It is remarkable that what are called Turkish saths in Ireland and Great Britain have been desig- nated Roman-Irish baths in Germany and Bohemia. [ saw baths designated " Romische-trische Bader" at Prague and Nuremberg in 1879. H. Hennessy, F.R.S7
"The structure, which is composed of large stones set without mortar or cement, measures nternally about five feet and a half by four feet two inches. The floor being covered with stones and rubbish, it is difficult to determine the height of the apartment. The distance from ground to roof was probably about five feet. There is but one aperture a doorway measuring at present two feet in leight by two in width. It is square-headed, with slightly inclined jambs."
S. A. D'ARCY, L.R.C.P. and S.I.
Rosslea, Clones, co. Fermanagh.
I believe the sweating or beehive buildings were very common in Ireland in former days, and some years ago such an erection was to be seen at Rathlin, on Mr. Gage's property, near Achill Island, co. Mayo. I recollect the subject was much discussed on the occasion of the late Dr. Barter introducing the Turkish bath for the first time into the United Kingdom at St. Anne's Hill, Blarney, co. Cork, about the year 1853 or 1854. These beehives, as they were called from their appearance, were heated by a turf fire inside or by red-hot stones, the bather entering or creeping into the building by a low entrance near the ground ; and when perspiration had been freely induced, he emerged into an adjoining stream or river, on the banks of which the structures were always built, to wash and close the pores by a cold plunge as a preventive of cold - catching after the hot process, the intention a most rational and enlightened one being to cure or prevent disease by eliminating all morbid matter through the safest possible channel, the outward skin, instead of throw- ing that all-important duty on the delicate internal organs, the cause of so much mis- chief to our race. I have also heard of the peasants digging holes in the summer in the warm and moist sand on the shore at Youghal, co. Cork, in which the body became immersed, covering themselves from the sun by a wooden table over them, thus subjecting
