Egel. See Heifer.
Egg (njJ^3, beytsah' , so called from' its ichiteness, woi') occurs, in the plur., of eggs deserted (Isa. x, 14), of the eggs of a bird (Deut. xxii, 6), of the ostrich (Job xxxix, 14), or the cockatrice (Isa. lix, 5). See Fowl ; Ostrich ; Cockatrice. It is apparently in tliis last sense that an egg is contrasted with a scorjnon in Luke xi, 12, as a desirable article of food. The body of the scorpion is said to be ver}' like an egg ; the head can scarcely be distinguished, as it appears to be joined and continued to the breast. Bochart adduces authorities to prove that scorpions in Juda'a were about the size of an egg (Job xxxix, 14; Isa. x, 14; lix, 5). The passage in Deut. xxii, 6, humanely pro- hibits the taking away of a brooding bird from a nest, and is similar in its nature to the provision respecting other animals and their young (Lev. xxii, 28).
Eggs are usually considered a great delicacy in the East, and are served up with fish and honey at their entertainments. Among the ancient Egj'ptians poul- try seems to have been bred in abundance, and the most remarkable thing connected with it is the man- ner in which the eggs were hatched bj^ artificial means, and which, from the monuments, we have reason to infer, was known and practised there at a very carh^ period. At the present time there are as many as four hundred and fifty of these establishments, which, be- ing heavily taxed, produce a large revenue to the gov- ernment. The pro])rietors of these egg-ovens make the round of the villages in their vicinity, and collect eggs from the peasants, which are given in charge to the rearers, who, without any previous examination, place all they receive on mats strewed with bran, in a room eleven feet square, Avith a flat roof, and about four feet high, over which is a chamber of the same size, but with a vaulted roof, aliout nine feet high; a small aperture in the centre of the vaulted roof ad- mitting light during the warm weather, and another of larger diameter innnediately below, communicating with the oven, through whose ceiling it is pierced. r>y this the man descends to observe the eggs ; but in the cold season both openings are closed, and a lamp is kept burning instead, another entrance at the front part of the oven being then used for the same purpose, and shut immediately on his quitting it. In tiie up- per room, the fire is disposed along tlie length of two troughs, based with earthern slabs, reaching from one side to the other against the front and back walls. In the oven the eggs are placed in a line corresponding to and immediately below the fire, where they remain half a daj'. They are then removed to a warmer
place, and replaced by others, and so on, till all have taken their share of the warmest positions, to which each set returns, again and again, in regular succes- sion, till the expiration of six days. Thej' are then held up one b}' one towards a strong light, and if the egg appears clear, and of a uniform color, it is evident it has not succeeded ; but if it shows an opaque sub- stance within, or the appearance of different shades, the chicken is already formed ; and these last are all returned to the oven for four days more, their positions being changed as before. At the expiration of the fourth day they are removed to another oven, over which, however, there are no fires, where the}' remain for five days in one heap, the aperture in the roof be- ing closed with tow to exclude air ; after which they are placed separately about one, two, or three inches apart, over the whole surface of the mats, which are sprinkled with a little bran. They are now continu- ally turned and shifted from one part of the mats to another for six or seven days, all air being carefully excluded, and are constantlj' examined by one of the rearers, who applies each singh' to his upper eyelid. Those which are cold prove the chickens to be dead; but warmth greater than that of the human skin is the fiivorable sign that the eggs have succeeded. The average temperature maintained is from 100° to 105°. The manager, having been accustomed to his art from his youth, knows from experience the exact tempera- ture required for the success of the operation, without having any instrument like our thermometer to guide him. Each md'amal, or set of ovens, receives about one hundred and fiftj' thousand eggs during the an- nual period of its being brought into use, which is only during about two or three months in the spring. Of. this number, generally one quarter, or a third, fail to be productive ; so that when the peasants bring their eggs to be hatched, the proprietor of the ma'amal re- turns one chicken for everj' two eggs. The fowls pro- duced in this way are inferior both in size and flavor to those of Europe (Wilkinson's Anc. Egyptians, ii, 170, Am. cd. ; Lane's Mod. Egyptians, ii, 5).
The word n^TCzn, challamut}/ , in Job vi, 6, which our translators have rendered "the white of an egg,^' is so rendered by the Hebrew interpreters, and the Targum, or rather, "the slime of the yolk of an egg." The Syriac interpretation gives "a tasteless herb," which is tliere proverbiallj' used for something unsa- vory or insipid. See Purslain.