ABSTRACT
Eggs, usually of chickens or ducks, play a major role in Chinese folk religion. One important use is in divination, a custom found widely among tribal groups in southern Asia. Eberhard (1968: 419-21) describes two forms of egg divination practiced in early and modern China. One involves tossing or throwing an egg (or eggs), with divination based on where it falls and/or whether or not it breaks. The second entails painting, blackening, or drawing on an egg, then boiling or roasting it, with divination based on patterns of cracks that appear on the shell or on examination of the yolk and/or white after cutting or dividing the egg.
