THE COMMON FOWL. 53 



ceiling of the under room, wliich of course 

 forms the floor of the upper room. The use 

 of these two rooms is different. In the lower 

 room the eggs, to the number of four or five 

 thousand, are placed upon a bed of flax, or a 

 large mat, and in the upper room is placed 

 the fire, the heat of which communicates 

 through the hole to the lower room, the tem- 

 perature of which it duly raises. The fire- 

 place is a sort of gutter, about two inches deep 

 and six inches wide, running round two or 

 three sides of the floor. The material used for 

 burning consists of the dried dung of camels 

 or oxen mixed with straw, and formed into 

 compact cakes. These burn slowly, and the 

 heat produced is easily controlled. The smoke 

 escapes through the round entrance hole into 

 the gallery, and thence through openings in 

 the arched top of the galleiy itself. The fire 

 is not always kept burning, but only for an 

 hour night and morning, and if the tempera- 

 ture require, perhaps for an hour in the day 

 besides. When the smoke from the fires of 

 the several upper rooms has passed away, all 

 the round openings into the gallery are stuffied 

 up with bundles of coarse tow, which 

 effectually confines the heat, far more so than 



