TO RO^ETTA. 315 
and covered with mats, on which is laid camel's chat. 
VI. 
dung; somewhat resembling the manner of ■ 
placing hops, for drying, in English Oast- 
houses. We counted twenty chambers, and in 
each chamber had been placed three thousand 
eggs ; so that the aggregate of the eggs then 
hatching amounted to the astonishing number 
of sixty thousand. Of these, above half are 
destroyed in the process. The time of hatching 
continues from autumn until spring. At first, 
all the eggs are put in the lower tier. The 
most important part of the business consists, of 
course, in a precise attention to the requisite 
temperature : this we would willingly have 
ascertained by the thermometer, but could not 
adjust it to the nice test adopted by the ^rab 
superintendant of the ovens. His manner of 
ascertaining it is very curious. Having closed 
one of his eyes, he applies an egg to the outside 
of his eyelid ; and if the heat be not great 
enough to cause any uneasy sensation, all is 
safe ; but if he cannot bear the heat of the egg 
thus applied to his eye, the temperature of the 
ovens must be quickly diminished, or the whole 
batch will be destroyed ^ During the first eight 
(2) We may therefore suppose the temperature about equal to 
blood-beat, or lOO" of Fahrenheit. 
