Our viands

in the records of the ancient State of King-ts-oo under the date B.C. 722. The giving gifts to one another of brightly coloured hard-boiled eggs at this season he also found occurring in the annals of the old State of Ye, between the dates B.C. 481 — B.C. 255. Schlegel tells us the custom is met with in the records of the Tang Dynasty, A.D. 618 — A.D. 907. It seems the custom originated in China in this wise. Annually, at the mid-spring time of year, which answers to our Easter, Chinese functionaries were sent out through the towns, villages, and country parts, each armed with a wooden bell, their duty being to make proclamation that all fires must be put out, and must remain out for the space of three days, after which, by the friction of two pieces of wood, new fire was obtained, and from this the household hearths were rekindled. The three days specified seems to have been intended to ensure that no smouldering ember should by any possibility linger anywhere in the Celestial Empire. For as the old Chinese writer has it — " All fire under the expanse of Heaven ought to be extinguished before the new fire is lighted." During those three days " sacred to the revival of spring and the sun's heat," when in honour of the sun there must be no fire, of course no cooking was possible. It is highly probable a large number of the less devout among the millions of John Chinaman's compatriots were ill-pleased to have to submit to the cheerless, unpalatable diet imposed upon them while the fast from fire lasted. At any rate, the Chinese feast of Tsing-ming came to be popularly called the " Cold Meat Festival." Hard-boiled eggs would, of course, be an acceptable addition to the prepared viands to be used during the fireless three days. Whether they were so used ii2 OUR VIANDS before I know not, but it is attributed to a certain " powerful chieftain of antiquity " who lived in the before-named ancient State of King-ts-oo to have been the first person who laid in stores of " painted eggs," and set the fashion of dispensing them as gifts to friends and acquaintances at that same time of year when we celebrate Easter/ 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 calcula- tion, 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.