The Chinese spring festival always occurs in April when the sun enters the fifteenth degree of Aries, and as the cock is sacred to the sun, the egg may have come in this way to symbolise the new spring birth of nature through the vivifying influence of the sun. At all events the gift of brightly coloured eggs at the early spring festival can be traced not only in China but also in Persia, where we find them in connection with a festival, the origin of which is ascribed to the Persian mythical monarch Jemsheed, sixth in descent from Moses, who is said to have reigned 700 years. The writer above quoted says: - 'The greatest of Jemsheed's festivals was the Nowroose, or Feast of the beginning of the Religious or Solar Year. It commenced at the time of the "natural reproduction of all that conduces to the sustenance of man." With a slight variation from the Chinese calculation, the Persian Festival is held to begin the moment the sun enters Aries, or towards the end of March. The Nowroose Festival is, of course, much older than Maho-metanism. Some writers call it the "Feast of the Waters," and consider it a memorial of the Deluge; while others suppose it to have been instituted to commemorate the Creation. A prominent feature that all travellers record as taking place at the time is the handing about of eggs dyed of various colours and gilt, given as gifts to each other, and even to strangers, in honour of the great Spring fast.

Whether the Nowroose was originally intended to commemorate the Deluge or the Creation may be questioned, but the fact remains that here as elsewhere we find "painted eggs" as gifts heralding the return of the sun in Spring at the annual resurrection of Nature.'

The derivation of our Easter eggs from these ancient sources is evident; it is not the only Pagan custom adapted to Christianity by the early Church, and to quote once more from the very interesting article referred to: -

'When Pope Paul V. drew up a ritual to be used in England, Ireland, and Scotland, among many other prayers of Benediction for Eastertide was the following: - "Bless, Lord, we beseech Thee, this Thy creature of Eggs, that it may become a wholesome sustenance to Thy faithful servants, eating it in thankfulness to Thee on account of the Resurrection of our Lord." Countless thousands of eggs were thus annually blessed by the priests at Easter, both before and after they were coloured. Having obtained the blessing, the eggs became holy gifts, the bestowal of which conferred much benefit on both givers and receivers. It became a custom on Good Friday to "offer eggs and bacon to the Lord Christ," and thus special favours were secured to the donors. Some of our early Reformation records bring strange matters before those who care to dip into them; not the least strange referring to the mode of making "presentations of eggs to the Cross." It is a custom still in vogue in some parts of the Continent for each member of a parish to present the priest with an egg on Easter morning.'

In process of time Easter eggs, which were originally given and received as symbols of the Resurrection, degenerated into mere objects of sport, and were used as balls, or for the performance of dances, which often took place in churches; thus we are told that 'eggs always rose in price at Easter, they were boiled very hard in water coloured with red, blue, or violet dyes, with inscriptions or landscapes traced upon them; these were offered as presents among the valentines of the year, but more frequently played with by the boys as balls, for ball-playing on Easter Monday was universal in every rank. Even the clergy could not forego its delights, and made this game a part of their service. Bishops and deans took the ball into the church, and at the commencement of the autiphone began to dance, throwing the ball to the choristers, who handed it to each other during the time of the dancing and autiphone. All then retired for refreshment; a gammon of bacon, eaten in abhorrence of the Jews, was a standard dish; with a tansy pudding, symbolical of the bitter herbs commanded at the paschal feast' *

When we consider the lavish use of eggs in former days, we are constrained to believe that our forefathers certainly paid more attention to the keeping and rearing of poultry than English farmers do at the present day, for eggs must have been more plentiful and cheaper than they are now, even with our abundant foreign supplies, or they could never have been used as balls, and employed by the dozen in cookery, as old receipts show us they were.

We are now supplied with eggs from Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and France, and it is computed that from the last named country alone one million come daily to the London market. The number consumed in England yearly must be incalculable; but new-laid English eggs are always difficult to procure, and during the winter are often sold at threepence apiece, whereas our grandmothers would probably have considered a shilling a score very dear. It has been calculated that we pay six millions of pounds per annum for eggs; and French cooks say they may be dressed in more than five hundred different ways. They are, however, used not only in cookery. In one photographic establishment, we are told, two millions are used every year; and they are also employed largely in calico printing, leather dressing, and bookbinding; and it is calculated that in France the number used in wine clarifying amounts to more than eighty millions a year. It may be well here to give a few of the uses of eggs in medicine, for they are valuable in many ways as household remedies.

* Chambers's 'Book of Days,' vol. i., p. 429.

'The white is the most efficacious of remedies for burns, and the oil extractable from the yolk is regarded by the Russians as an almost miraculous salve for cuts, bruises, and scratches. A raw egg, if swallowed in time, will effectually detach a fish-bone in the throat, and the white of two eggs will render the deadly corrosive sublimate as harmless as a dose of calomel. They strengthen the consumptive, invigorate the feeble, and render the most susceptible all but proof against jaundice in its more malignant phase.' The old saw had it -