EGGS IN LITERATURE. 39 
It is mentioned in several places in the Bible: 
Deut xxii. 6; Job vi. 6; Luke xi. 12. 
Frequent references to its use as food may be 
found among the Latin authors. 
Plutarch left an elaborate treatise on the ques- 
tion of the precedence of the hen or the ege. 
Pliny exalts the medicinal qualities the egg 
possessed. 
Cesar, Juvenal, Cicero, Martial, Horace and 
others will be quoted further on respecting the 
use of eges as food among the ancient races. 
The belief in the mundane egg appears to 
spread through the traditions of all nations, as 
do the stories of the deluge. 
The Arabian Nights tells of the roc’s ege of 
marvelous size. Similar tales are found. in 
Jewish legends. from one such bird’s nest an 
egg fell which broke, and the white glued three 
hundred cedar-trees to the ground and over- 
flowed a village. 
Munchausen mentions a_ kingfisher’s nest 
twice as large as the dome of St. Paul’s, which 
contained five hundred eggs each as large as 
four hogsheads. 
