Chap. 76.] AN AUGURY DERIVED FROM EGGS. 535 



before the vernal equinox : chickens that are hatched after the 

 summer solstice, never attain their full growth, and the more 

 so, the later they are produced. 



CHAP. 75. (54.) DEFECTS IN BROOD-HENS, AND THEIR REMEDIES. 



Those eggs which have heen laid within the last ten days, are 

 the best for putting under the hen ; old ones, or those which 

 have just been laid, will be unfruitful ; an uneven number 23 

 also ought to be placed. On the fourth day after the hen has 

 begun to sit, if, upon taking an egg with one hand by the two 

 ends and holding it up to the light, it is found to be clear and 

 of one uniform colour, it is most likely to be barren, and an- 

 other should be substituted in its place. There is also a way 

 of testing them by means of water ; an empty egg will float 

 on the surface, while those that fall to the bottom, or, in other 

 words, are full, should be placed under the hen. Care must 

 be taken, however, not to make trial by shaking them, for if 

 the organs which are necessary for life become confused, they 

 will come to nothing. 24 Incubation ought to begin just after 

 the new moon ; for, if commenced before, the eggs will be un- 

 productive. The chickens are hatched sooner if the weather 

 is warm : hence it is that in summer they break the shell on 

 the nineteenth day, but in winter on the twenty-fifth only. 

 If it happens to thunder during the time of incubation, the 

 eggs are addled, and if the cry of a hawk is heard they are 

 spoilt. The best remedy against the effects of thunder, is to 

 put an iron nail beneath the straw on which the eggs are laid, 

 or else some earth from off a ploughshare. Some eggs, how- 

 ever, are hatched by the spontaneous action of Mature, without 

 the process of incubation, as is the case in the dung-hills of 

 Egypt. There is a well-known story related about a man at 

 Syracuse, who was in the habit of covering eggs with earth, 25 

 and then continuing his drinking bout till they were hatched. 



CHAP. 76. (55.) AN AUGURY DERIVED FROM EGGS BY AN EMPRESS. 



And, what is even more singular still, eggs can be hatched 

 also by a human being. Julia Augusta, when pregnant in 



23 To secure their being more equably covered. 



24 Or rather, will produce chickens hideously deformed. This trick is 

 sometimes practised among the country people against those to whom they 

 owe a grudge. 25 Aristotle says with a straw mat. 



