ORDER GALLING. 213 



As soon as a sufficient quantity is arrived, they are put 

 into the chambers intended for the first incubation. It is to 

 be observed, that for this purpose they never employ all the 

 ovens, but only half of those which the building contains ; 

 and that if there are a dozen, for example, they are taken in 

 the following order : the first, the third, the fifth, the seventh, 

 the ninth, and the eleventh. 



The eggs are ranged three deep, in the lower chambers of 

 each oven, on a bed of cut straw and dust— a mixture which 

 Aristotle in all probability took for dung. In the trenches 

 of the upper apartments is then placed the live fuel, resulting 

 from the combustion of the pieces of dung, and which is taken 

 from the furnace allotted for its preparation. After a few 

 moments, the doors of the two compartments are closed, and 

 the apertures in the vaulted roofs of the upper compartments 

 alone left open an instant. 



When the fuel is consumed, it is renewed, two or three 

 times a day, and as often by night, observing the precaution 

 at the same time of unstopping, for an instant, the hole in 

 the vault, either to receive the air, or to secure the eggs 

 against the first impression of the heat. 



The fire is thus continued for ten days. Long experience, 

 practised tact, and the application of the eggs against the 

 eyelids, are the only thermometers used in Egypt for the 

 regulation and equalization of the temperature. 



During this space of time, the eggs are frequently turned 

 and examined, and those which are damaged, or unfecundated, 

 are removed. 



On the eleventh day the second hatching begins, that is, 

 new eggs are placed in the lower lodges of the six ovens left 

 empty at the time the first hatching began : and these are 

 managed as we have already described ; but as soon as the 

 fire is kindled in these ovens, it is put out in the others, so 

 that the eggs of the latter are wanned only by the fire newly 



