Gulliver's Travels: The Egg Matter
LilliputĀ andĀ BlefuscuĀ are two fictional islandĀ nationsĀ that appear in the first part of the 1726 novelĀ Gulliver's TravelsĀ byĀ Jonathan Swift. The two islands are neighbors in the SouthĀ Indian Ocean, separated by a channel eight hundred yards wide. Both are inhabited by tiny people who are aboutĀ one-twelfth the height of ordinary human beings. Both kingdoms are empires ruled by a self-styled emperor.
The novel describes an intra-Lilliputian quarrel over the practice of breaking eggs. Traditionally, Lilliputians broke boiled eggs on the larger end; a few generations ago, an Emperor of Lilliput had decreed that all eggs be broken on the smaller end. The differences between Big-Endians (those who broke their eggs at the larger end) and Little-Endians had given rise to six rebellions wherein one Emperor lost his life and another his crown.
What kind of Endian are you?