98 RURAL DENMARK 



When these countless hosts of eggs arrive at the 

 depot in Copenhagen they are graded by skilled 

 women (Denmark is full of skilled women !), who pick 

 them out like lightning by the aid of their expert 

 eyes. Of the best, 120 weigh about 18 lbs., and 120 

 of the worst weigh about 14 lbs. A certain number 

 of these arrive broken, for even in Denmark such 

 accidents will happen. That nothing may be wasted, 

 these are set aside and sold locally. They are used 

 for cooking and omelettes. 



The intact eggs are then "candled," that is, 

 arranged in trays or racks over powerful electric 

 lamps, from whose searching light nothing can be hid, 

 If they are bad they betray one kind of opacity. If 

 they have been sat on, weird embryos appear. To 

 the egg that lamp is a kind of Judgment Day. For 

 the good egg it has no terrors ; it declares itself at 

 once by a halo-like luminosity which it is impossible 

 to describe. The bad egg, however, becomes an 

 object of more interest to its neglectful despatcher, 

 who must pay the fine of 5 kroner. Such a person, 

 I was informed, very rarely produces a second 

 bad egg. 



The good eggs that have passed the test of the 

 shining lamps are conveyed away, and after each of 

 them has received the approbation of the society in 

 the shape of its trade-mark, a stamp of an ornamental 

 character bearing in its centre the letters D.A.A.E., 

 are packed by more skilled women amongst wood 

 shavings in boxes containing either 960 or 1440 eggs, 

 that is eight or twelve long hundreds. This stamp 

 of the Egg Export Society is very indelible, as I 

 know from experience. Having by accident pressed 

 it on my hand, notwithstanding repeated washings, 



