Sweat: The Illustrated History and Description of the Finnish Sauna, Russian Bania, Islamic Hammam, Japanese Mushi-Buro, Mexican Temescal, and American Indian & Eskimo Sweatlodge

SWEAT BATHING HAS BEEN as common to people as the making of bread and the squeezing of the grape. Numerous cultures through history have discovered that the sweat bath, in one form or another, enlivens both body and spirit. Although sweat bathing has only recently en­tered America’s contemporary life, it thrived here long before Col­umbus in the form of sweat lodges and temescals.

Imagine literally sweating yourself around the world, as Mikkel Aaland did-lying on a marble slab in a Turkish ...