The uses of dung were two-fold --as manure and as fuel. The manure consisted either of straw steeped in liquid manure, ( Isaiah 25:10 ) or the sweepings, ( Isaiah 5:25 ) of the streets and roads, which were carefully removed from about the houses, and collected in heaps outside the walls of the towns at fixed spots --hence the dung-gate at Jerusalem --and thence removed in due course to the fields. The difficulty of procuring fuel in Syria, Arabia and Egypt has made dung in all ages valuable as a substitute. It was probably used for heating ovens and for baking cakes, ( Ezra 4:12 Ezra 4:15 ) the equable heat which it produced adapting it pecularily for the latter operation. Cows and camels dung is still used for a similar purpose by the Bedouins. [E] indicates this entry was also found in Easton's Bible Dictionary