28 EASTER. 
for the king to distribute gilded eggs to his 
courtiers. 
Passion week in Paris may be called the feast 
of eggs. In the streets may be heard the cries 
of “des ceufs ” from women bearing piles of red 
and white eggs on barrows, and everybody pre- 
sents his neighbor with an egg real or artificial. 
Easter eggs are usually boiled hard, the 
shells being stained with bright colors and 
variously decorated. 
Boiling in dye gives any desired color to the 
shell. Madder or cochineal gives red, indigo 
with sulphuric acid, blue, onion skins a mottled 
yellow or brown if the boiling be long continued. 
The prepared dyes are however more conven- 
ient. Variegated eggs are produced by wrap- 
ping them tightly with silk or print and in the 
boiling process, pattern and color will be trans- 
ferred to the shell. 
If, before boiling, letters, names or dates be 
written on the shell with grease, that part will 
not take the color, so white letters will appear 
on a bright ground. 
