226 The Animal-Lore of ShaJcspeare’s Time. 
Spenser refers to the several periods of crowing :— 
“ What time the native belman of the night. 
The bird, that warned Peter of his fall, 
First rings his silver bell t’ each sleepy wight, 
That should their mindes up to devotion call.” 
{Faerie Queene , Y. vi. 36.) 
Tusser, more precise, gives the exact hours in the night 
when the cock goes through his performance— 
“ Cock croweth at midnight, few times above six, 
With pause to his neighbour, to answer betwix: 
At three a clock thicker; and then as ye know, 
Like al in to mattins, near day they do crow. 
“ At midnight, at three, and an hour ere day, 
They utter their language, as well as they may; 
Which who so regardeth, what counsel they give, 
Will better love crowing, as long as they live.” 
{Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandries) 
Mr. Harting illustrates from Hamlet the popular notion 
that ghosts vanished at the sound of cock-crowing, and 
that consequently no spirit dare stir abroad at Christmas 
time, since at that period of the year chanticleer clamors 
the livelong night. It has been suggested that as the 
cock wakes readily, and crows lustily if roused by any 
artificial light, the prolonged labours of the housewife 
consequent upon the approaching Christmas festivities, 
and the extension of hours of the lights of the household 
at this season, keep him in constant activity. 
The process of hatching eggs by artificial heat is not 
by any means a recent invention. The plan adopted in 
Cairo is minutely described by George Sandys, in his 
account of a journey into Africa, in 1610 ( Purchas , vol. 
ii. p. 906). According to this author, as many as six 
thousand eggs were laid on mats in a single oven. The 
floor of the oven was grated, and a slow, smouldering fire 
was kindled underneath. After eight days of moderate 
heat the eggs were carefully sorted over, and the bad were 
