Bath: A Russian bath, at least in the sense used in this tale, is closer to a sauna than to a bath in a tub. Hence, "heating up the bathhouse," i.e. a sauna-like construction, does not mean attending a public facility. Although most well-to-do traditional houses in Russia had private bathhouses, villages also had communal bathhouses that were used for more than the washing of unclean bodies. Births, magic rituals, and other occult events occurred there. All in all, bathhouses were both a welcoming and dangerous place.

In practical terms, since fire (and hence smoke and steam) was required to heat up a small, enclosed place, a bathhouse presented, especially in winter, a multitude of fire-related hazards.

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