Note 416 — Chapter VI · VILLAGE FESTIVALS

Brand, i. 97; Dyer, 159; Ditchfield, 78. Eggs are used ceremonially at the Scotch Beltane fires (Frazer, iii. 261; Simpson, 285). Strings of birds’ eggs are hung on the Lynn May garland (F. L. x. 443). In Dauphiné an omelette is made when the sun rises on St. John’s day (Cortet, 217). In Germany children are sent to look for the Easter eggs in the nest of a hare, a very divine animal. Among the miscellaneous Benedictions in the Sarum Manual, with the Ben. Seminis and the Ben. Pomorum in die Sti Iacobi are a Ben. Carnis Casei Butyri Ovorum sive Pastillarum in Pascha and a Ben. Agni Paschalis, Ovorum et Herbarum in die Paschae. These Benedictions are little more than graces. The Durham Accounts, i. 71-174, contain entries of fifteenth-and sixteenth-century payments ‘fratribus et sororibus de Wytton pro eorum Egsilver erga festum pasche.’