58 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



marriage ceremonies. In them too, as in other marriage 

 ceremonies discussed in the present chapter, the fertili- 

 sing power of the object itself passes into a charm or a 

 mere symbol of good wishes. The West Russian Jews, 

 particularly the strict sect of the Chasidim, have the 

 custom of setting a raw egg before a bride at the 

 wedding feast, a symbol of fruitfulness and that she 

 may bear as easily as a hen lays an egg. 1 At 

 Gossensass in the Tirol, when the wedded pair come to 

 the inn to pay for the wedding-feast, after the business 

 is settled it is the custom to serve the bride with a 

 hard-boiled egg on a large iron fork ; and she is 

 expected to eat it alone. 2 In the seventeenth century, 

 a French bride, in order to be happy in her marriage, 

 on entering her new home on the wedding-day trod 

 upon and broke an egg, and wheat was thrown over 

 her. 8 Fertility is obviously regarded as the first con- 

 dition of happiness here. Among the Sundanese in 

 West Java a hen's egg is placed before the door of 

 the newly wedded pair ; which appears to imply a 

 similar rite of breaking it. In East Java the 

 Tenggerese bridegroom on the last day of the festivi- 

 ties breaks an egg and the bride smears her feet 

 with its contents mixed with turmeric. 



The direct fertilising power as distinguished from 

 the magical effect or the symbolism of the egg tends 

 to fall into the background when both husband and 

 wife share the virtue of the egg in food or other ways. 

 Among the Mordvins a pot of groats, an omelet and a 

 baked egg are always put upon the table at the bride's 

 house in the elaborate ceremonies of the day before 



1 Andree, Juden, 145. 2 Zeits, des Vereins^ x. 401. 



3 Thiers, ap. Liebrecht's Gerv. Tilb. 259 (No. 475). 



