EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 77 
a dofe texture, pure and of a light white. It is now extremely- 
bad, and fo fcarce as to fell for fourteen pence the pound, 
retail. 
The fal ammoniac made at Kahira is of a very good quality, 
Glafs lamps, faltpetre, and gun- powder, red and yellow lea- 
ther, for home-confumption. There is a great manufadure of 
linen cloth made of the fine Egyptian flax. 
The mode almoft peculiar to Kahira, of hatching eggs with- 
out incubation, has been very minutely defcribed by former 
travellers. — The practice is faid by the Egyptians to proceed 
from the experience that, at a certain feafon, the eggs foftered 
only by the hens are commonly unprolific. Of thofe hatched 
in the ovens, on the contrary, not quite one third is loft. — The 
ovens where thefe eggs are placed are of the moft fimple con- 
ftrudion, confifting only of a low arched apartment of clay. 
Two rows of fhelves are formed, and the eggs placed on each 
in fuch a manner as not to touch each other. They are flightly 
moved five or fix times in twenty-four hours, and the whole 
time they are in the oven does not exceed twenty-two days, 
when the chickens free themfelves from the fhell. All poffible 
care is taken to dilfufe the heat equally throughout, and there 
is but one fmall aperture, large enough to admit a man ft cop- 
ing. During the firft eight days the heat is rendered great, 
and, during the laft eight is gradually diminifhed ; till at length, 
when the young brood is ready to come forth, it is reduced 
almoft to the ftate of the natural atmofphere. At the end of 
the firft eight days, it is known which eggs will not be pro- 
dudlive* 
