Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/119

 Items of Armenian Folk- Lore collected in Boston. 107

each take an egg, and one of them will hold his egg stationary while the other strikes it with the point of his egg. If A is holding the stationary egg and B is doing the striking, then, in case A's egg cracks, he turns the other end and lets B strike again. If the other end is cracked, B gets the egg and A must produce another egg to be treated as before and with like possible results. If B's egg cracks, then he turns the other end of the egg and strikes again. If it suf- fers in like manner, he loses his egg and must supply another, where- upon A does the striking until he forfeits his right by losing an egg. Thus they go on breaking eggs, until oftentimes one couple has broken as many as a hundred. The man with the strongest egg will of course win the most eggs from his opponent. These cracked eggs which he has won he sells at a reduced price. Some- times a man will pay a dollar for a strong egg before he enters into a contest, if there is evidence to prove that he is really getting a strong one.

Formerly, Easter eggs were always colored red in order to repre- sent the blood of Christ. They are usually colored red now, but are beginning to vary somewhat.

G. D. Edwards.

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