I never saw this done with my own Eyes; yet so many credible Witnesses have affirm'd the Truth thereof, and I believe it as well as if I had seen it. And I give equal Credit to the Story, I am now about to tell you.
It is so known a Truth in this Country, that he were an absurd Man that would offer to to deny it. They that come to Constantinople from Egypt, (as many do continually) affirm it for certain, that Chicken are not hatched, as with us, by a Hen sitting abrood upon them, but there are some appointed Officers, that, in Spring-time, gather all the Eggs of the Neighbourhood and put them in a certain kind of Oven, which they make of Dung and Trash heaped up together, and by the heat of the Sun and the hot putrid Vapours, the Chicken in due time, are animated and break their Shells; and then the Owners come to claim the Chickens, which the Overseers of the Work deliver out to them, not by Tale, for that would be too tedious, but by Admeasurement. I mention this the rather, because I read of such a Passage in Vopiscus, where the Emperor Adrian, being angry with the Egyptians, inveighs against them with this Sarcasm; I wish them, says he, no greater Curse, than that they may always feed on their own Chicken, which, how they are hatch'd, I am asham'd to tell. So that, without Question, this was an old Custom among the Egyptians; and, therefore, Adrian upbraided them with their Food, which he looked upon as obscene, being begotten by Dung and Dirt. You may think, perhaps, that I am mistaken; but I leave the Matter with you, and shall now hasten to acquaint you with the rest of my Diversions.
