— 182 — 
te maken tot bewerking (*7). Zou hierin niet eveneens eene navolging der Natuur 
verscholen liggen? Ook deze ontvangt nieuwe warmte van het zonlicht, hetwelk 
vereenzelvigd is met den haan en uit het wereldei nieuwe groeikracht, bloei en leven 
doet te voorschijn komen: zou de mensch dan ook niet trachten dien groei eu bloei 
in zich op te nemen door een kippenei te verzwelgen als zinnebeeld van dat wereldei, 
waarin alle voortbrenging en leven is gezeteld? 
Ziehier dus een gebruik dat van de Atlantische kusten tot den Stillen Oceaan 
toe wordt gevonden, en derhalve verbreid is over meer dan een derde van den omtrek 
van de wereld (5%). De veronderstelling, die reeds onmiddelijk voor de hand ligt, 
(57) Het letterteeken sk beteekent namelijk het koken van de cocons, opdat zij ge- 
makkelijker kunnen ontsponnen worden. 
(C°) Ten einde eenigzins een denkbeeld te geven van de kolossale uitbreiding, die het gebruik 
van paascheieren over de wereld heeft genomen, geven wij hier, bij wijze van uittreksel, een overzicht 
van het desbetreffende hoofdstuk in Brand’s „Observations on popular Antiquities” (bladz. 89). Hut” 
chinson, in his History of Northumberland, speaking of Pasche eggs, says: „Eggs were held by the 
Egyptians as a sacred emblem of the renovation of mankind after the Deluge. The Jews adopted 
it to suit the circumstances of their history, as a type of their departure from the land of Egypt; 
and it was used in the feast of the Passover as part of the furniture of the table, with the Paschal 
Lamb”... 
Le Brun, in his Voyages, tells us that the Persians, on the 20th of March 1704 kept the 
Festival of the Solar New Year, which he says lasted several days, when they mutually proscoie 
each other, among other things, with coloured eggs. 
Father Carmeli, in his History of OE tells us that, De Faster and the following 
days, hard eggs, painted of different colours, but principally red, are the ordinary food of the season. 
In [taly, Spain, and in Provence, says he, where almost every ancient superstition is retained, there 
are in tbe public places certain sports with eggs. This custom he derives from the Jews, or the Pa- 
gans, for he observes it is common to both. 
The Jewish wives, at the Feast of the Passover, upon a table prepared for that purpose, place 
hard eggs, the symbols of a bird called Ziz, concerning which the Rabbins have a thousand fabulous 
accounts. 
Hyde, in his Oriental Sports (1694), tells us of one with eggs among the Christians of Me- 
sopotamia on Easter Day and forty days afterwards, during which time their children buy themselves as _ 
many eggs as they can, and stain them with a red colour in memory of the blood of Christ, shed as 
at that time of his crucifixion. Some tinge them with green and yellow. Stained eggs are sold all 
the while in the market. The sport consists in striking their eggs one against another, and the egg 
that first breaks is won by the owner of the egg that struck it. Immediately another egg is pitted 
against the winning egg, and so they go on, till the last remaining egg wins all the others, which 
their respective owners shall before have won... 
On Easter Bve, in Cumberland and Westmoreland, and other parts of the north of England, 
continues Hyde, boys beg eggs to play with, and beggars ask for them to eat. These eggs ae 
hardened by boiling, and tinged with the juice af herbs, broom’flowers, ete. The eggs being thus 4 
prepared, the boys go out and play with them in the fields... … E 
Chandler, in his Travels in Asia Minor, gives the following account of the manner of celebra, 
ting Easter among the modern Greeks: „A small bier, prettily deckt with orange and citron buds, 
jasmine, flowers, and boughs, was placed in the church, with a Christ crucified, rudely painted on F 
board, for the body. We saw it in the evening, and, before daybreak, were suddenly awakened by 

