Bathing "We bathe to achieve communion with the water. So much of our day is spent in only one atmosphere, the airy atmosphere, but what about the liquid atmosphere? What fresh and unusual thoughts might we have in the bath?" - Lawrence Beauty. The history of bathing goes back to the early days of the Gum Gooloo settlement. Our Ancestors, who were trying to break free of their old, confused ways of thinking, discovered that by immersing themselves in warm water they became relaxed, calm and thoughtful. Their minds were at play. The struggle to survive seemed less formidible when viewed through the rising steam of a good bath. We know, however, that some zealots condemned bathing as a harmful, regressive activity. In the play Huong Blue, Jakob Dance and Constance Water, the character of Constance says, "You are better off buried up to your ears in earth than buried up to your waist in water, it drags the mind backward, puts the living into a living sleep, in a pool it flows in no direction it circles the body and drives the head mad ..." In the end, bathing survived where many other forms of relaxation did not. 'Watching The Growth Of Stones' and 'Thinking Of Leaves' were contemplative activities contemporary with bathing. Today we know them only from their names, which have been passed down in rhymes through the centuries. Over the years, bathing has become a fine art in Gum Gooloo Gum Jublet. Shallow circular pools have been dug along the banks of the River Fly. Water is introduced along the hollow roots of the Sky tree, being warmed as it goes by the natural heat of the plant, and egg-shaped domes to trap the heat are erected over the pools. Goolooians bathe in groups and it is customary to cleanse oneself before getting into the bath, so that the water is not dirtied. Criss-crossed slats of vines and wood standing near the water give the bathers a place to stand while they wash. Once clean, they lower themselves into the water and may remain there for considerable lengths of time, gazing upward at the green ceilings cupped above them. Some of the pools are built for certain activities: there are stargazers' pools where the weave of the roof is loose and open so that bathers can lie in their baths and watch the sky. There is an etiquette to be followed when one bathes. Visitors from out of town might like to ask local Goolooians what the rules are before they try it. The practice has been imitated throughout the country wherever there is fresh water. Umbagollians who consider themselves bathing conoisseurs should visit the village of Rest on the South Thrip River. The entire community bathes inside a column'd stone hall in which birds have been carved into the bottoms of the pools to look as if they are swimming, and stone fish fly insouciantly across the walls. Exians, as usual, have added their own distinctive twist to the idea. Their baths, conducted among the vast natural pillars of the Forest, have been placed in isolated clearings, so that each group of bathers feels entirely alone under the immensity of the trees and ferns. "It gives you a taste of what it was like to be the first people exploring this place," explains one bather. "We're so used to seeing buildings here that sometimes we forget it wasn't always like this." Exian baths are usually cold, 'invigorating' in contrast to the soothing wamth of the south. Around the sea the people take sea-dips; in Cumber Poidy's cave system the town lake is the place to bathe. Bats fly overhead, their fur infested with glowing cave-mites, and a changeable green light plays over the Poidians in their subterranean bath. People who do not live near water usually consider bathing an unnecessary luxury. It is not popular in inland farming communities, being used purely as a way of rubbing off annoying or smelly dirt, which is of course not the purpose baths were intended for.