The Golden Bough

1.  Animal Embodiments of the Corn-spirit

IN SOME of the examples which I have cited to establish the meaning of the term “neck” as applied to the last sheaf, the corn-spirit appears in animal form as a gander, a goat, a hare, a cat, and a fox.  This introduces us to a new aspect of the corn-spirit, which we must now examine.  By doing so we shall not only have fresh examples of killing the god, but may hope also to clear up some points which remain obscure in the myths and worship of Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Dionysus, Demeter, and Virbius.

Amongst the many animals whose forms the corn-spirit is supposed to take are the wolf, dog, hare, fox, cock, goose, quail, cat, goat, cow (ox, bull), pig, and horse.  In one or other of these shapes the corn-spirit is often believed to be present in the corn, and to be caught or killed in the last sheaf.  As the corn is being cut the animal flees before the reapers, and if a reaper is taken ill on the field, he is supposed to have stumbled unwittingly on the corn-spirit, who has thus punished the profane intruder.  It is said “the Rye-wolf has got hold of him,” “the Harvest-goat has given him a push.”  The person who cuts the last corn or binds the last sheaf gets the name of the animal, as the Rye-wolf, the Rye-sow, the Oats-goat, and so forth, and retains the name sometimes for a year.  Also the animal is frequently represented by a puppet made out of the last sheaf or of wood, flowers, and so on, which is carried home amid rejoicings on the last harvest-waggon.  Even where the last sheaf is not made up in animal shape, it is often called the Rye-wolf, the Hare, Goat, and so forth.  Generally each kind of crop is supposed to have its special animal, which is caught in the last sheaf, and called the Rye-wolf, the Barley-wolf, the Oats-wolf, the Pea-wolf, or the Potato-wolf, according to the crop; but sometimes the figure of the animal is only made up once for all at getting in the last crop of the whole harvest.  Sometimes the creature is believed to be killed by the last stroke of the sickle or scythe.  But oftener it is thought to live so long as there is corn still unthreshed, and to be caught in the last sheaf threshed.  Hence the man who gives the last stroke with the flail is told that he has got the Corn-sow, the Threshing-dog, or the like.  When the threshing is finished, a puppet is made in the form of the animal, and this is carried by the thresher of the last sheaf to a neighbouring farm, where the threshing is still going on.  This again shows that the corn-spirit is believed to live wherever the corn is still being threshed.  Sometimes the thresher of the last sheaf himself represents the animal; and if the people of the next farm, who are still threshing, catch him, they treat him like the animal he represents, by shutting him up in the pig-sty, calling him with the cries commonly addressed to pigs, and so forth.  These general statements will now be illustrated by examples.

2.  The Corn-spirit as a Wolf or a Dog

WE begin with the corn-spirit conceived as a wolf or a dog.  This conception is common in France, Germany, and Slavonic countries.  Thus, when the wind sets the corn in wave-like motion the peasants often say, “The Wolf is going over, or through, the corn,” “the Rye-wolf is rushing over the field,” “the Wolf is in the corn,” “the mad Dog is in the corn,” “the big Dog is there.”  When children wish to go into the corn-fields to pluck ears or gather the blue corn-flowers, they are warned not to do so, for “the big Dog sits in the corn,” or “the Wolf sits in the corn, and will tear you in pieces,” “the Wolf will eat you.”  The wolf against whom the children are warned is not a common wolf, for he is often spoken of as the Corn-wolf, Rye-wolf, or the like; thus they say, “The Rye-wolf will come and eat you up, children,” “the Rye-wolf will carry you off,” and so forth.  Still he has all the outward appearance of a wolf.  For in the neighbourhood of Feilenhof (East Prussia), when a wolf was seen running through a field, the peasants used to watch whether he carried his tail in the air or dragged it on the ground.  If he dragged it on the ground, they went after him, and thanked him for bringing them a blessing, and even set tit-bits before him.  But if he carried his tail high, they cursed him and tried to kill him.  Here the wolf is the corn-spirit whose fertilising power is in his tail.

Both dog and wolf appear as embodiments of the corn-spirit in harvest-customs.  Thus in some parts of Silesia the person who cuts or binds the last sheaf is called the Wheat-dog or the Peas-pug.  But it is in the harvest-customs of the north-east of France that the idea of the Corn-dog comes out most clearly.  Thus when a harvester, through sickness, weariness, or laziness, cannot or will not keep up with the reaper in front of him, they say, “The White Dog passed near him,” “he has the White Bitch,” or “the White Bitch has bitten him.”  In the Vosges the Harvest-May is called the “Dog of the harvest,” and the person who cuts the last handful of hay or wheat is said to “kill the Dog.”  About Lons-le-Saulnier, in the Jura, the last sheaf is called the Bitch.  In the neighbourhood of Verdun the regular expression for finishing the reaping is, “They are going to kill the Dog”; and at Epinal they say, according to the crop, “We will kill the Wheat-dog, or the Rye-dog, or the Potato-dog.”  In Lorraine it is said of the man who cuts the last corn, “He is killing the Dog of the harvest.”  At Dux, in the Tyrol, the man who gives the last stroke at threshing is said to “strike down the Dog”; and at Ahnebergen, near Stade, he is called, according to the crop, Corn-pug, Rye-pug, Wheat-pug.

So with the wolf.  In Silesia, when the reapers gather round the last patch of standing corn to reap it they are said to be about “to catch the Wolf.”  In various parts of Mecklenburg, where the belief in the Corn-wolf is particularly prevalent, every one fears to cut the last corn, because they say that the Wolf is sitting in it; hence every reaper exerts himself to the utmost in order not to be the last, and every woman similarly fears to bind the last sheaf because “the Wolf is in it.”  So both among the reapers and the binders there is a competition not to be the last to finish.  And in Germany generally it appears to be a common saying that “the Wolf sits in the last sheaf.”  In some places they call out to the reaper, “Beware of the Wolf”; or they say, “He is chasing the Wolf out of the corn.”  In Mecklenburg the last bunch of standing corn is itself commonly called the Wolf, and the man who reaps it “has the Wolf,” the animal being described as the Rye-wolf, the Wheat-wolf, the Barley-wolf, and so on according to the particular crop.  The reaper of the last corn is himself called Wolf or the Rye-wolf, if the crop is rye, and in many parts of Mecklenburg he has to support the character by pretending to bite the other harvesters or by howling like a wolf.  The last sheaf of corn is also called the Wolf or the Rye-wolf or the Oats-wolf according to the crop, and of the woman who binds it they say, “The Wolf is biting her,” “She has the Wolf,” “She must fetch the Wolf” (out of the corn).  Moreover, she herself is called Wolf; they cry out to her, “Thou art the Wolf,” and she has to bear the name for a whole year; sometimes, according to the crop, she is called the Rye-wolf or the Potato-wolf.  In the island of Rügen not only is the woman who binds the last sheaf called Wolf, but when she comes home she bites the lady of the house and the stewardess, for which she receives a large piece of meat.  Yet nobody likes to be the Wolf.  The same woman may be Rye-wolf, Wheat-wolf, and Oats-wolf, if she happens to bind the last sheaf of rye, wheat, and oats.  At Buir, in the district of Cologne, it was formerly the custom to give to the last sheaf the shape of a wolf.  It was kept in the barn till all the corn was threshed.  Then it was brought to the farmer and he had to sprinkle it with beer or brandy.  At Brunshaupten in Mecklenburg the young woman who bound the last sheaf of wheat used to take a handful of stalks out of it and make “the Wheat-wolf” with them; it was the figure of a wolf about two feet long and half a foot high, the legs of the animal being represented by stiff stalks and its tail and mane by wheat-ears.  This Wheat-wolf she carried back at the head of the harvesters to the village, where it was set up on a high place in the parlour of the farm and remained there for a long time.  In many places the sheaf called the Wolf is made up in human form and dressed in clothes.  This indicates a confusion of ideas between the corn-spirit conceived in human and in animal form.  Generally the Wolf is brought home on the last waggon with joyful cries.  Hence the last waggon-load itself receives the name of the Wolf.

Again, the Wolf is supposed to hide himself amongst the cut corn in the granary, until he is driven out of the last bundle by the strokes of the flail.  Hence at Wanzleben, near Magdeburg, after the threshing the peasants go in procession, leading by a chain a man who is enveloped in the threshed-out straw and is called the Wolf.  He represents the corn-spirit who has been caught escaping from the threshed corn.  In the district of Treves it is believed that the Corn-wolf is killed at threshing.  The men thresh the last sheaf till it is reduced to chopped straw.  In this way they think that the Corn-wolf, who was lurking in the last sheaf, has been certainly killed.

In France also the Corn-wolf appears at harvest.  Thus they call out to the reaper of the last corn, “You will catch the Wolf.”  Near Chambéry they form a ring round the last standing corn, and cry, “The Wolf is in there.”  In Finisterre, when the reaping draws near an end, the harvesters cry, “There is the Wolf; we will catch him.”  Each takes a swath to reap, and he who finishes first calls out, “I’ve caught the Wolf.”  In Guyenne, when the last corn has been reaped, they lead a wether all round the field.  It is called “the Wolf of the field.”  Its horns are decked with a wreath of flowers and corn-ears, and its neck and body are also encircled with garlands and ribbons.  All the reapers march, singing, behind it.  Then it is killed on the field.  In this part of France the last sheaf is called the coujoulage, which, in the patois, means a wether.  Hence the killing of the wether represents the death of the corn-spirit, considered as present in the last sheaf; but two different conceptions of the corn-spirit—­as a wolf and as a wether—­are mixed up together.

Sometimes it appears to be thought that the Wolf, caught in the last corn, lives during the winter in the farmhouse, ready to renew his activity as corn-spirit in the spring.  Hence at midwinter, when the lengthening days begin to herald the approach of spring, the Wolf makes his appearance once more.  In Poland a man, with a wolf’s skin thrown over his head, is led about at Christmas; or a stuffed wolf is carried about by persons who collect money.  There are facts which point to an old custom of leading about a man enveloped in leaves and called the Wolf, while his conductors collected money.

3.  The Corn-spirit as a Cock

ANOTHER form which the corn-spirit often assumes is that of a cock.  In Austria children are warned against straying in the corn-fields, because the Corn-cock sits there, and will peck their eyes out.  In North Germany they say that “the Cock sits in the last sheaf”; and at cutting the last corn the reapers cry, “Now we will chase out the Cock.”  When it is cut they say, “We have caught the Cock.”  At Braller, in Transylvania, when the reapers come to the last patch of corn, they cry, “Here we shall catch the Cock.”  At Fürstenwalde, when the last sheaf is about to be bound, the master releases a cock, which he has brought in a basket, and lets it run over the field.  All the harvesters chase it till they catch it.  Elsewhere the harvesters all try to seize the last corn cut; he who succeeds in grasping it must crow, and is called Cock.  Among the Wends it is or used to be customary for the farmer to hide a live cock under the last sheaf as it lay on the field; and when the corn was being gathered up, the harvester who lighted upon this sheaf had a right to keep the cock, provided he could catch it.  This formed the close of the harvest-festival and was known as “the Cock-catching,” and the beer which was served out to the reapers at this time went by the name of “Cock-beer.”  The last sheaf is called Cock, Cock-sheaf, Harvest-cock, Harvest-hen, Autumn-hen.  A distinction is made between a Wheat-cock, Bean-cock, and so on, according to the crop.  At Wünschensuhl, in Thüringen, the last sheaf is made into the shape of a cock, and called the Harvest-cock.  A figure of a cock, made of wood, pasteboard, ears of corn, or flowers, is borne in front of the harvest-waggon, especially in Westphalia, where the cock carries in his beak fruits of the earth of all kinds.  Sometimes the image of the cock is fastened to the top of a May-tree on the last harvest-waggon.  Elsewhere a live cock, or a figure of one, is attached to a harvest-crown and carried on a pole.  In Galicia and elsewhere this live cock is fastened to the garland of corn-ears or flowers, which the leader of the women-reapers carries on her head as she marches in front of the harvest procession.  In Silesia a live cock is presented to the master on a plate.  The harvest-supper is called Harvest-cock, Stubble-cock, etc., and a chief dish at it, at least in some places, is a cock.  If a waggoner upsets a harvest-waggon, it is said that “he has spilt the Harvest-cock,” and he loses the cock, that is, the harvest-supper.  The harvest-waggon, with the figure of the cock on it, is driven round the farmhouse before it is taken to the barn.  Then the cock is nailed over or at the side of the house-door, or on the gable, and remains there till next harvest.  In East Friesland the person who gives the last stroke at threshing is called the Clucking-hen, and grain is strewed before him as if he were a hen.

Again, the corn-spirit is killed in the form of a cock.  In parts of Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Picardy the reapers place a live cock in the corn which is to be cut last, and chase it over the field, or bury it up to the neck in the ground; afterwards they strike off its head with a sickle or scythe.  In many parts of Westphalia, when the harvesters bring the wooden cock to the farmer, he gives them a live cock, which they kill with whips or sticks, or behead with an old sword, or throw into the barn to the girls, or give to the mistress to cook.  It the Harvest-cock has not been spilt—­that is, if no waggon has been upset—­the harvesters have the right to kill the farmyard cock by throwing stones at it or beheading it.  Where this custom has fallen into disuse, it is still common for the farmer’s wife to make cockie-leekie for the harvesters, and to show them the head of the cock which has been killed for the soup.  In the neighbourhood of Klausenburg, Transylvania, a cock is buried on the harvest-field in the earth, so that only its head appears.  A young man then takes a scythe and cuts off the cock’s head at a single sweep.  If he fails to do this, he is called the Red Cock for a whole year, and people fear that next year’s crop will be bad.  Near Udvarhely, in Transylvania, a live cock is bound up in the last sheaf and killed with a spit.  It is then skinned.  The flesh is thrown away, but the skin and feathers are kept till next year; and in spring the grain from the last sheaf is mixed with the feathers of the cock and scattered on the field which is to be tilled.  Nothing could set in a clearer light the identification of the cock with the spirit of the corn.  By being tied up in the last sheaf and killed, the cock is identified with the corn, and its death with the cutting of the corn.  By keeping its feathers till spring, then mixing them with the seed-corn taken from the very sheaf in which the bird had been bound, and scattering the feathers together with the seed over the field, the identity of the bird with the corn is again emphasised, and its quickening and fertilising power, as an embodiment of the corn-spirit, is intimated in the plainest manner.  Thus the corn-spirit, in the form of a cock, is killed at harvest, but rises to fresh life and activity in spring.  Again, the equivalence of the cock to the corn is expressed, hardly less plainly, in the custom of burying the bird in the ground, and cutting off its head (like the ears of corn) with the scythe.

4.  The Corn-spirit as a Hare

ANOTHER common embodiment of the corn-spirit is the hare.  In Galloway the reaping of the last standing corn is called “cutting the Hare.”  The mode of cutting it is as follows.  When the rest of the corn has been reaped, a handful is left standing to form the Hare.  It is divided into three parts and plaited, and the ears are tied in a knot.  The reapers then retire a few yards and each throws his or her sickle in turn at the Hare to cut it down.  It must be cut below the knot, and the reapers continue to throw their sickles at it, one after the other, until one of them succeeds in severing the stalks below the knot.  The Hare is then carried home and given to a maidservant in the kitchen, who places it over the kitchen-door on the inside.  Sometimes the Hare used to be thus kept till the next harvest.  In the parish of Minnigaff, when the Hare was cut, the unmarried reapers ran home with all speed, and the one who arrived first was the first to be married.  In Germany also one of the names for the last sheaf is the Hare.  Thus in some parts of Anhalt, when the corn has been reaped and only a few stalks are left standing, they say, “The Hare will soon come,” or the reapers cry to each other, “Look how the Hare comes jumping out.”  In East Prussia they say that the Hare sits in the last patch of standing corn, and must be chased out by the last reaper.  The reapers hurry with their work, each being anxious not to have “to chase out the Hare”; for the man who does so, that is, who cuts the last corn, is much laughed at.  At Aurich, as we have seen, an expression for cutting the last corn is “to cut off the Hare’s tail.”  “He is killing the Hare” is commonly said of the man who cuts the last corn in Germany, Sweden, Holland, France, and Italy.  In Norway the man who is thus said to “kill the Hare” must give “hare’s blood,” in the form of brandy, to his fellows to drink.  In Lesbos, when the reapers are at work in two neighbouring fields, each party tries to finish first in order to drive the Hare into their neighbour’s field; the reapers who succeed in doing so believe that next year the crop will be better.  A small sheaf of corn is made up and kept beside the holy picture till next harvest.

5.  The Corn-spirit as a Cat

AGAIN, the corn-spirit sometimes takes the form of a cat.  Near Kiel children are warned not to go into the corn-fields because “the Cat sits there.”  In the Eisenach Oberland they are told “the Corn-cat will come and fetch you,” “the Corn-cat goes in the corn.”  In some parts of Silesia at mowing the last corn they say, “The Cat is caught”; and at threshing, the man who gives the last stroke is called the Cat.  In the neighbourhood of Lyons the last sheaf and the harvest-supper are both called the Cat.  About Vesoul when they cut the last corn they say, “We have the Cat by the tail.”  At Briançon, in Dauphiné, at the beginning of reaping, a cat is decked out with ribbons, flowers, and ears of corn.  It is called the Cat of the ball-skin (le chat de peau de balle).  If a reaper is wounded at his work, they make the cat lick the wound.  At the close of the reaping the cat is again decked out with ribbons and ears of corn; then they dance and make merry.  When the dance is over the girls solemnly strip the cat of its finery.  At Grüneberg, in Silesia, the reaper who cuts the last corn goes by the name of the Tom-cat.  He is enveloped in rye-stalks and green withes, and is furnished with a long plaited tail.  Sometimes as a companion he has a man similarly dressed, who is called the (female) Cat.  Their duty is to run after people whom they see and to beat them with a long stick.  Near Amiens the expression for finishing the harvest is, “They are going to kill the Cat”; and when the last corn is cut they kill a cat in the farmyard.  At threshing, in some parts of France, a live cat is placed under the last bundle of corn to be threshed, and is struck dead with the flails.  Then on Sunday it is roasted and eaten as a holiday dish.  In the Vosges Mountains the close of haymaking or harvest is called “catching the cat,” “killing the dog,” or more rarely “catching the hare.”  The cat, the dog, or the hare is said to be fat or lean according as the crop is good or bad.  The man who cuts the last handful of hay or of wheat is said to catch the cat or the hare or to kill the dog.

6.  The Corn-spirit as a Goat

FURTHER, the corn-spirit often appears in the form of a goat.  In some parts of Prussia, when the corn bends before the wind, they say, “The Goats are chasing each other,” “the wind is driving the Goats through the corn,” “the Goats are browsing there,” and they expect a very good harvest.  Again they say, “The Oats-goat is sitting in the oats-field,” “the Corn-goat is sitting in the rye-field.”  Children are warned not to go into the corn-fields to pluck the blue corn-flowers, or amongst the beans to pluck pods, because the Rye-goat, the Corn-goat, the Oats-goat, or the Bean-goat is sitting or lying there, and will carry them away or kill them.  When a harvester is taken sick or lags behind his fellows at their work, they call out, “The Harvest-goat has pushed him,” “he has been pushed by the Corn-goat.”  In the neighbourhood of Braunsberg (East Prussia) at binding the oats every harvester makes haste “lest the Corn-goat push him.”  At Oefoten, in Norway, each reaper has his allotted patch to reap.  When a reaper in the middle has not finished reaping his piece after his neighbours have finished theirs, they say of him, “He remains on the island.”  And if the laggard is a man, they imitate the cry with which they call a he-goat; if a woman, the cry with which they call a she-goat.  Near Straubing, in Lower Bavaria, it is said of the man who cuts the last corn that “he has the Corn-goat, or the Wheat-goat, or the Oats-goat,” according to the crop.  Moreover, two horns are set up on the last heap of corn, and it is called “the horned Goat.”  At Kreutzburg, East Prussia, they call out to the woman who is binding the last sheaf, “The Goat is sitting in the sheaf.”  At Gablingen, in Swabia, when the last field of oats upon a farm is being reaped, the reapers carve a goat out of wood.  Ears of oats are inserted in its nostrils and mouth, and it is adorned with garlands of flowers.  It is set up on the field and called the Oats-goat.  When the reaping approaches an end, each reaper hastens to finish his piece first; he who is the last to finish gets the Oats-goat.  Again, the last sheaf is itself called the Goat.  Thus, in the valley of the Wiesent, Bavaria, the last sheaf bound on the field is called the Goat, and they have a proverb, “The field must bear a goat.”  At Spachbrücken, in Hesse, the last handful of corn which is cut is called the Goat, and the man who cuts it is much ridiculed.  At Dürrenbüchig and about Mosbach in Baden the last sheaf is also called the Goat.  Sometimes the last sheaf is made up in the form of a goat, and they say, “The Goat is sitting in it.”  Again, the person who cuts or binds the last sheaf is called the Goat.  Thus, in parts of Mecklenburg they call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, “You are the Harvest-goat.”  Near Uelzen, in Hanover, the harvest festival begins with “the bringing of the Harvest-goat”; that is, the woman who bound the last sheaf is wrapt in straw, crowned with a harvest-wreath, and brought in a wheel-barrow to the village, where a round dance takes place.  About Luneburg, also, the woman who binds the last corn is decked with a crown of corn-ears and is called the Corn-goat.  At Münzesheim in Baden the reaper who cuts the last handful of corn or oats is called the Corn-goat or the Oats-goat.  In the Canton St. Gall, Switzerland, the person who cuts the last handful of corn on the field, or drives the last harvest-waggon to the barn, is called the Corn-goat or the Rye-goat, or simply the Goat.  In the Canton Thurgau he is called Corn-goat; like a goat he has a bell hung round his neck, is led in triumph, and drenched with liquor.  In parts of Styria, also, the man who cuts the last corn is called Corn-goat, Oats-goat, or the like.  As a rule, the man who thus gets the name of Corn-goat has to bear it a whole year till the next harvest.

According to one view, the corn-spirit, who has been caught in the form of a goat or otherwise, lives in the farmhouse or barn over winter.  Thus, each farm has its own embodiment of the corn-spirit.  But, according to another view, the corn-spirit is the genius or deity, not of the corn of one farm only, but of all the corn.  Hence when the corn on one farm is all cut, he flees to another where there is still corn left standing.  This idea is brought out in a harvest-custom which was formerly observed in Skye.  The farmer who first finished reaping sent a man or woman with a sheaf to a neighbouring farmer who had not finished; the latter in his turn, when he had finished, sent on the sheaf to his neighbour who was still reaping; and so the sheaf made the round of the farms till all the corn was cut.  The sheaf was called the goabbir bhacagh, that is, the Cripple Goat.  The custom appears not to be extinct at the present day, for it was reported from Skye not very many years ago.  The corn-spirit was probably thus represented as lame because he had been crippled by the cutting of the corn.  Sometimes the old woman who brings home the last sheaf must limp on one foot.

But sometimes the corn-spirit, in the form of a goat, is believed to be slain on the harvest-field by the sickle or scythe.  Thus, in the neighbourhood of Bernkastel, on the Moselle, the reapers determine by lot the order in which they shall follow each other.  The first is called the fore-reaper, the last the tail-bearer.  If a reaper overtakes the man in front he reaps past him, bending round so as to leave the slower reaper in a patch by himself.  This patch is called the Goat; and the man for whom “the Goat is cut” in this way, is laughed and jeered at by his fellows for the rest of the day.  When the tail-bearer cuts the last ears of corn, it is said, “He is cutting the Goat’s neck off.”  In the neighbourhood of Grenoble, before the end of the reaping, a live goat is adorned with flowers and ribbons and allowed to run about the field.  The reapers chase it and try to catch it.  When it is caught, the farmer’s wife holds it fast while the farmer cuts off its head.  The goat’s flesh serves to furnish the harvest-supper.  A piece of the flesh is pickled and kept till the next harvest, when another goat is killed.  Then all the harvesters eat of the flesh.  On the same day the skin of the goat is made into a cloak, which the farmer, who works with his men, must always wear at harvest-time if rain or bad weather sets in.  But if a reaper gets pains in his back, the farmer gives him the goat-skin to wear.  The reason for this seems to be that the pains in the back, being inflicted by the corn-spirit, can also be healed by it.  Similarly, we saw that elsewhere, when a reaper is wounded at reaping, a cat, as the representative of the corn-spirit, is made to lick the wound.  Esthonian reapers of the island of Mon think that the man who cuts the first ears of corn at harvest will get pains in his back, probably because the corn-spirit is believed to resent especially the first wound; and, in order to escape pains in the back, Saxon reapers in Transylvania gird their loins with the first handful of ears which they cut.  Here, again, the corn-spirit is applied to for healing or protection, but in his original vegetable form, not in the form of a goat or a cat.

Further, the corn-spirit under the form of a goat is sometimes conceived as lurking among the cut corn in the barn, till he is driven from it by the threshing-flail.  Thus in Baden the last sheaf to be threshed is called the Corn-goat, the Spelt-goat, or the Oats-goat according to the kind of grain.  Again, near Marktl, in Upper Bavaria, the sheaves are called Straw-goats or simply Goats.  They are laid in a great heap on the open field and threshed by two rows of men standing opposite each other, who, as they ply their flails, sing a song in which they say that they see the Straw-goat amongst the corn-stalks.  The last Goat, that is, the last sheaf, is adorned with a wreath of violets and other flowers and with cakes strung together.  It is placed right in the middle of the heap.  Some of the threshers rush at it and tear the best of it out; others lay on with their flails so recklessly that heads are sometimes broken.  At Oberinntal, in the Tyrol, the last thresher is called Goat.  So at Haselberg, in West Bohemia, the man who gives the last stroke at threshing oats is called the Oats-goat.  At Tettnang, in Würtemburg, the thresher who gives the last stroke to the last bundle of corn before it is turned goes by the name of the He-goat, and it is said, “He has driven the He-goat away.”  The person who, after the bundle has been turned, gives the last stroke of all, is called the She-goat.  In this custom it is implied that the corn is inhabited by a pair of corn-spirits, male and female.

Further, the corn-spirit, captured in the form of a goat at threshing, is passed on to a neighbour whose threshing is not yet finished.  In Franche Comté, as soon as the threshing is over, the young people set up a straw figure of a goat on the farmyard of a neighbour who is still threshing.  He must give them wine or money in return.  At Ellwangen, in Würtemburg, the effigy of a goat is made out of the last bundle of corn at threshing; four sticks form its legs, and two its horns.  The man who gives the last stroke with the flail must carry the Goat to the barn of a neighbour who is still threshing and throw it down on the floor; if he is caught in the act, they tie the Goat on his back.  A similar custom is observed at Indersdorf, in Upper Bavaria; the man who throws the straw Goat into the neighbour’s barn imitates the bleating of a goat; if they catch him, they blacken his face and tie the Goat on his back.  At Saverne, in Alsace, when a farmer is a week or more behind his neighbours with his threshing, they set a real stuffed goat or fox before his door.

Sometimes the spirit of the corn in goat form is believed to be killed at threshing.  In the district of Traunstein, Upper Bavaria, they think that the Oats-goat is in the last sheaf of oats.  He is represented by an old rake set up on end, with an old pot for a head.  The children are then told to kill the Oats-goat.

7.  The Corn-spirit as a Bull, Cow, or Ox

ANOTHER form which the corn-spirit often assumes is that of a bull, cow, or ox.  When the wind sweeps over the corn they say at Conitz, in West Prussia, “The Steer is running in the corn”; when the corn is thick and strong in one spot, they say in some parts of East Prussia, “The Bull is lying in the corn.”  When a harvester has overstrained and lamed himself, they say in the Graudenz district of West Prussia, “The Bull pushed him”; in Lorraine they say, “He has the Bull.”  The meaning of both expressions is that he has unwittingly lighted upon the divine corn-spirit, who has punished the profane intruder with lameness.  So near Chambéry when a reaper wounds himself with his sickle, it is said that he has “the wound of the Ox.”  In the district of Bunzlau (Silesia) the last sheaf is sometimes made into the shape of a horned ox, stuffed with tow and wrapt in corn-ears.  This figure is called the Old Man.  In some parts of Bohemia the last sheaf is made up in human form and called the Buffalo-bull.  These cases show a confusion of the human with the animal shape of the corn-spirit.  The confusion is like that of killing a wether under the name of a wolf.  All over Swabia the last bundle of corn on the field is called the Cow; the man who cuts the last ears “has the Cow,” and is himself called Cow or Barley-cow or Oats-cow, according to the crop; at the harvest-supper he gets a nosegay of flowers and corn-ears and a more liberal allowance of drink than the rest.  But he is teased and laughed at; so no one likes to be the Cow.  The Cow was sometimes represented by the figure of a woman made out of ears of corn and corn-flowers.  It was carried to the farmhouse by the man who had cut the last handful of corn.  The children ran after him and the neighbours turned out to laugh at him, till the farmer took the Cow from him.  Here again the confusion between the human and the animal form of the corn-spirit is apparent.  In various parts of Switzerland the reaper who cuts the last ears of corn is called Wheat-cow, Corn-cow, Oats-cow, or Corn-steer, and is the butt of many a joke.  On the other hand, in the district of Rosenheim, Upper Bavaria, when a farmer is later of getting in his harvest than his neighbours, they set up on his land a Straw-bull, as it is called.  This is a gigantic figure of a bull made of stubble on a framework of wood and adorned with flowers and leaves.  Attached to it is a label on which are scrawled doggerel verses in ridicule of the man on whose land the Straw-bull is set up.

Again, the corn-spirit in the form of a bull or ox is killed on the harvest-field at the close of the reaping.  At Pouilly, near Dijon, when the last ears of corn are about to be cut, an ox adorned with ribbons, flowers, and ears of corn is led all round the field, followed by the whole troop of reapers dancing.  Then a man disguised as the Devil cuts the last ears of corn and immediately slaughters the ox.  Part of the flesh of the animal is eaten at the harvest-supper; part is pickled and kept till the first day of sowing in spring.  At Pont à Mousson and elsewhere on the evening of the last day of reaping, a calf adorned with flowers and ears of corn is led thrice round the farmyard, being allured by a bait or driven by men with sticks, or conducted by the farmer’s wife with a rope.  The calf chosen for this ceremony is the calf which was born first on the farm in the spring of the year.  It is followed by all the reapers with their tools.  Then it is allowed to run free; the reapers chase it, and whoever catches it is called King of the Calf.  Lastly, it is solemnly killed; at Lunéville the man who acts as butcher is the Jewish merchant of the village.

Sometimes again the corn-spirit hides himself amongst the cut corn in the barn to reappear in bull or cow form at threshing.  Thus at Wurmlingen, in Thüringen, the man who gives the last stroke at threshing is called the Cow, or rather the Barley-cow, Oats-cow, Peas-cow, or the like, according to the crop.  He is entirely enveloped in straw; his head is surmounted by sticks in imitation of horns, and two lads lead him by ropes to the well to drink.  On the way thither he must low like a cow, and for a long time afterwards he goes by the name of the Cow.  At Obermedlingen, in Swabia, when the threshing draws near an end, each man is careful to avoid giving the last stroke.  He who does give it “gets the Cow,” which is a straw figure dressed in an old ragged petticoat, hood, and stockings.  It is tied on his back with a straw-rope; his face is blackened, and being bound with straw-ropes to a wheelbarrow he is wheeled round the village.  Here, again, we meet with that confusion between the human and animal shape of the corn-spirit which we have noted in other customs.  In Canton Schaffhausen the man who threshes the last corn is called the Cow; in Canton Thurgau, the Corn-bull; in Canton Zurich, the Thresher-cow.  In the last-mentioned district he is wrapt in straw and bound to one of the trees in the orchard.  At Arad, in Hungary, the man who gives the last stroke at threshing is enveloped in straw and a cow’s hide with the horns attached to it.  At Pessnitz, in the district of Dresden, the man who gives the last stroke with the flail is called Bull.  He must make a straw-man and set it up before a neighbour’s window.  Here, apparently, as in so many cases, the corn-spirit is passed on to a neighbour who has not finished threshing.  So at Herbrechtingen, in Thüringen, the effigy of a ragged old woman is flung into the barn of the farmer who is last with his threshing.  The man who throws it in cries, “There is the Cow for you.”  If the threshers catch him they detain him over night and punish him by keeping him from the harvest-supper.  In these latter customs the confusion between the human and the animal shape of the corn-spirit meets us again.

Further, the corn-spirit in bull form is sometimes believed to be killed at threshing.  At Auxerre, in threshing the last bundle of corn, they call out twelve times, “We are killing the Bull.”  In the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, where a butcher kills an ox on the field immediately after the close of the reaping, it is said of the man who gives the last stroke at threshing that “he has killed the Bull.”  At Chambéry the last sheaf is called the sheaf of the Young Ox, and a race takes place to it in which all the reapers join.  When the last stroke is given at threshing they say that “the Ox is killed”; and immediately thereupon a real ox is slaughtered by the reaper who cut the last corn.  The flesh of the ox is eaten by the threshers at supper.

We have seen that sometimes the young corn-spirit, whose task it is to quicken the corn of the coming year, is believed to be born as a Corn-baby on the harvest-field.  Similarly in Berry the young corn-spirit is sometimes supposed to be born on the field in calf form; for when a binder has not rope enough to bind all the corn in sheaves, he puts aside the wheat that remains over and imitates the lowing of a cow.  The meaning is that “the sheaf has given birth to a calf.”  In Puy-de-Dôme when a binder cannot keep up with the reaper whom he or she follows, they say “He (or she) is giving birth to the Calf.”  In some parts of Prussia, in similar circumstances, they call out to the woman, “The Bull is coming,” and imitate the bellowing of a bull.  In these cases the woman is conceived as the Corn-cow or old corn-spirit, while the supposed calf is the Corn-calf or young corn-spirit.  In some parts of Austria a mythical calf (Muhkälbchen) is believed to be seen amongst the sprouting corn in spring and to push the children; when the corn waves in the wind they say, “The Calf is going about.”  Clearly, as Mannhardt observes, this calf of the spring-time is the same animal which is afterwards believed to be killed at reaping.

8.  The Corn-spirit as a Horse or Mare

SOMETIMES the corn-spirit appears in the shape of a horse or mare.  Between Kalw and Stuttgart, when the corn bends before the wind, they say, “There runs the Horse.”  At Bohlingen, near Radolfzell in Baden, the last sheaf of oats is called the Oats-stallion.  In Hertfordshire, at the end of the reaping, there is or used to be observed a ceremony called “crying the Mare.”  The last blades of corn left standing on the field are tied together and called the Mare.  The reapers stand at a distance and throw their sickles at it; he who cuts it through “has the prize, with acclamations and good cheer.”  After it is cut the reapers cry thrice with a loud voice, “I have her!” Others answer thrice, “What have you?”—­“A Mare! a Mare! a Mare!”—­“Whose is she?” is next asked thrice.  “A.  B.’s,” naming the owner thrice.  “Whither will you send her?”—­“To C. D.,” naming some neighbour who has not reaped all his corn.  In this custom the corn-spirit in the form of a mare is passed on from a farm where the corn is all cut to another farm where it is still standing, and where therefore the corn-spirit may be supposed naturally to take refuge.  In Shropshire the custom is similar.  The farmer who finishes his harvest last, and who therefore cannot send the Mare to any one else, is said “to keep her all winter.”  The mocking offer of the Mare to a laggard neighbour was sometimes responded to by a mocking acceptance of her help.  Thus an old man told an inquirer, “While we wun at supper, a mon cumm’d wi’ a autar [halter] to fatch her away.”  At one place a real mare used to be sent, but the man who rode her was subjected to some rough treatment at the farmhouse to which he paid his unwelcome visit.

In the neighbourhood of Lille the idea of the corn-spirit in horse form in clearly preserved.  When a harvester grows weary at his work, it is said, “He has the fatigue of the Horse.”  The first sheaf, called the “Cross of the Horse,” is placed on a cross of boxwood in the barn, and the youngest horse on the farm must tread on it.  The reapers dance round the last blades of corn, crying, “See the remains of the Horse.”  The sheaf made out of these last blades is given to the youngest horse of the parish (commune) to eat.  This youngest horse of the parish clearly represents, as Mannhardt says, the corn-spirit of the following year, the Corn-foal, which absorbs the spirit of the old Corn-horse by eating the last corn cut; for, as usual, the old corn-spirit takes his final refuge in the last sheaf.  The thresher of the last sheaf is said to “beat the Horse.”

9.  The Corn-spirit as a Pig (Boar or Sow)

THE LAST animal embodiment of the corn-spirit which we shall notice is the pig (boar or sow).  In Thüringen, when the wind sets the young corn in motion, they sometimes say, “The Boar is rushing through the corn.”  Amongst the Esthonians of the island of Oesel the last sheaf is called the Ryeboar, and the man who gets it is saluted with a cry of “You have the Rye-boar on your back!” In reply he strikes up a song, in which he prays for plenty.  At Kohlerwinkel, near Augsburg, at the close of the harvest, the last bunch of standing corn is cut down, stalk by stalk, by all the reapers in turn.  He who cuts the last stalk “gets the Sow,” and is laughed at.  In other Swabian villages also the man who cuts the last corn “has the Sow,” or “has the Rye-sow.”  At Bohlingen, near Radolfzell in Baden, the last sheaf is called the Rye-sow or the Wheat-sow, according to the crop; and at Röhrenbach in Baden the person who brings the last armful for the last sheaf is called the Corn-sow or the Oats-sow.  At Friedingen, in Swabia, the thresher who gives the last stroke is called Sow—­Barley-sow, Corn-sow, or the like, according to the crop.  At Onstmettingen the man who gives the last stroke at threshing “has the Sow”; he is often bound up in a sheaf and dragged by a rope along the ground.  And, generally, in Swabia the man who gives the last stroke with the flail is called Sow.  He may, however, rid himself of this invidious distinction by passing on to a neighbour the straw-rope, which is the badge of his position as Sow.  So he goes to a house and throws the straw-rope into it, crying, “There, I bring you the Sow.”  All the inmates give chase; and if they catch him they beat him, shut him up for several hours in the pig-sty, and oblige him to take the “Sow” away again.  In various parts of Upper Bavaria the man who gives the last stroke at threshing must “carry the Pig”—­that is, either a straw effigy of a pig or merely a bundle of straw-ropes.  This he carries to a neighbouring farm where the threshing is not finished, and throws it into the barn.  If the threshers catch him they handle him roughly, beating him, blackening or dirtying his face, throwing him into filth, binding the Sow on his back, and so on; if the bearer of the Sow is a woman they cut off her hair.  At the harvest supper or dinner the man who “carried the Pig” gets one or more dumplings made in the form of pigs.  When the dumplings are served up by the maidservant, all the people at table cry “Süz, süz, süz !” that being the cry used in calling pigs.  Sometimes after dinner the man who “carried the Pig” has his face blackened, and is set on a cart and drawn round the village by his fellows, followed by a crowd crying “Süz, süz, süz !” as if they were calling swine.  Sometimes, after being wheeled round the village, he is flung on the dunghill.

Again, the corn-spirit in the form of a pig plays his part at sowing-time as well as at harvest.  At Neuautz, in Courland, when barley is sown for the first time in the year, the farmer’s wife boils the chine of a pig along with the tail, and brings it to the sower on the field.  He eats of it, but cuts off the tail and sticks it in the field; it is believed that the ears of corn will then grow as long as the tail.  Here the pig is the corn-spirit, whose fertilising power is sometimes supposed to lie especially in his tail.  As a pig he is put in the ground at sowing-time, and as a pig he reappears amongst the ripe corn at harvest.  For amongst the neighbouring Esthonians, as we have seen, the last sheaf is called the Rye-boar.  Somewhat similar customs are observed in Germany.  In the Salza district, near Meiningen, a certain bone in the pig is called “the Jew on the winnowing-fan.”  The flesh of this bone is boiled on Shrove Tuesday, but the bone is put amongst the ashes which the neighbours exchange as presents on St. Peter’s Day (the twenty-second of February), and then mix with the seedcorn.  In the whole of Hesse, Meiningen, and other districts, people eat pea-soup with dried pig-ribs on Ash Wednesday or Candlemas.  The ribs are then collected and hung in the room till sowing-time, when they are inserted in the sown field or in the seed-bag amongst the flax seed.  This is thought to be an infallible specific against earth-fleas and moles, and to cause the flax to grow well and tall.

But the idea of the corn-spirit as embodied in pig form is nowhere more clearly expressed than in the Scandinavian custom of the Yule Boar.  In Sweden and Denmark at Yule (Christmas) it is the custom to bake a loaf in the form of a boar-pig.  This is called the Yule Boar.  The corn of the last sheaf is often used to make it.  All through Yule the Yule Boar stands on the table.  Often it is kept till the sowing-time in spring, when part of it is mixed with the seed-corn and part given to the ploughman and plough-horses or ploughoxen to eat, in the expectation of a good harvest.  In this custom the corn-spirit, immanent in the last sheaf, appears at midwinter in the form of a boar made from the corn of the last sheaf; and his quickening influence on the corn is shown by mixing part of the Yule Boar with the seed-corn, and giving part of it to the ploughman and his cattle to eat.  Similarly we saw that the Corn-wolf makes his appearance at mid-winter, the time when the year begins to verge towards spring.  Formerly a real boar was sacrificed at Christmas, and apparently also a man in the character of the Yule Boar.  This, at least, may perhaps be inferred from a Christmas custom still observed in Sweden.  A man is wrapt up in a skin, and carries a wisp of straw in his mouth, so that the projecting straws look like the bristles of a boar.  A knife is brought, and an old woman, with her face blackened, pretends to sacrifice him.

On Christmas Eve in some parts of the Esthonian island of Oesel they bake a long cake with the two ends turned up.  It is called the Christmas Boar, and stands on the table till the morning of New Year’s Day, when it is distributed among the cattle.  In other parts of the island the Christmas Boar is not a cake but a little pig born in March, which the housewife fattens secretly, often without the knowledge of the other members of the family.  On Christmas Eve the little pig is secretly killed, then roasted in the oven, and set on the table standing on all fours, where it remains in this posture for several days.  In other parts of the island, again, though the Christmas cake has neither the name nor the shape of a boar, it is kept till the New Year, when half of it is divided among all the members and all the quadrupeds of the family.  The other half of the cake is kept till sowing-time comes round, when it is similarly distributed in the morning among human beings and beasts.  In other parts of Esthonia, again, the Christmas Boar, as it is called, is baked of the first rye cut at harvest; it has a conical shape and a cross is impressed on it with a pig’s bone or a key, or three dints are made in it with a buckle or a piece of charcoal.  It stands with a light beside it on the table all through the festal season.  On New Year’s Day and Epiphany, before sunrise, a little of the cake is crumbled with salt and given to the cattle.  The rest is kept till the day when the cattle are driven out to pasture for the first time in spring.  It is then put in the herdsman’s bag, and at evening is divided among the cattle to guard them from magic and harm.  In some places the Christmas Boar is partaken of by farm-servants and cattle at the time of the barley sowing, for the purpose of thereby producing a heavier crop.

10.  On the Animal Embodiments of the Corn-spirit

SO much for the animal embodiments of the corn-spirit as they are presented to us in the folk-customs of Northern Europe.  These customs bring out clearly the sacramental character of the harvest-supper.  The corn-spirit is conceived as embodied in an animal; this divine animal is slain, and its flesh and blood are partaken of by the harvesters.  Thus the cock, the hare, the cat, the goat, and the OX are eaten sacramentally by the harvester, and the pig is eaten sacramentally by ploughmen in spring.  Again, as a substitute for the real flesh of the divine being, bread or dumplings are made in his image and eaten sacramentally; thus, pig-shaped dumplings are eaten by the harvesters, and loaves made in boar-shape (the Yule Boar) are eaten in spring by the ploughman and his cattle.

The reader has probably remarked the complete parallelism between the conceptions of the corn-spirit in human and in animal form.  The parallel may be here briefly resumed.  When the corn waves in the wind it is said either that the Corn-mother or that the Corn-wolf, etc., is passing through the corn.  Children are warned against straying in corn-fields either because the Corn-mother or because the Corn-wolf, etc., is there.  In the last corn cut or the last sheaf threshed either the Corn-mother or the Corn-wolf, etc., is supposed to be present.  The last sheaf is itself called either the Corn-mother or the Corn-wolf, etc., and is made up in the shape either of a woman or of a wolf, etc.  The person who cuts, binds, or threshes the last sheaf is called either the Old Woman or the Wolf, etc., according to the name bestowed on the sheaf itself.  As in some places a sheaf made in human form and called the Maiden, the Mother of the Maize, etc., is kept from one harvest to the next in order to secure a continuance of the corn-spirit’s blessing, so in some places the Harvest-cock and in others the flesh of the goat is kept for a similar purpose from one harvest to the next.  As in some places the grain taken from the Corn-mother is mixed with the seed-corn in spring to make the crop abundant, so in some places the feathers of the cock, and in Sweden the Yule Boar, are kept till spring and mixed with the seed-corn for a like purpose.  As part of the Corn-mother or Maiden is given to the cattle at Christmas or to the horses at the first ploughing, so part of the Yule Boar is given to the ploughing horses or oxen in spring.  Lastly, the death of the corn-spirit is represented by killing or pretending to kill either his human or his animal representative; and the worshippers partake sacramentally either of the actual body and blood of the representative of the divinity, or of bread made in his likeness.

Other animal forms assumed by the corn-spirit are the fox, stag, roe, sheep, bear, ass, mouse, quail, stork, swan, and kite.  If it is asked why the corn-spirit should be thought to appear in the form of an animal and of so many different animals, we may reply that to primitive man the simple appearance of an animal or bird among the corn is probably enough to suggest a mysterious link between the creature and the corn; and when we remember that in the old days, before fields were fenced in, all kinds of animals must have been free to roam over them, we need not wonder that the corn-spirit should have been identified even with large animals like the horse and cow, which nowadays could not, except by a rare accident, be found straying in an English corn-field.  This explanation applies with peculiar force to the very common case in which the animal embodiment of the corn-spirit is believed to lurk in the last standing corn.  For at harvest a number of wild animals, such as hares, rabbits, and partridges, are commonly driven by the progress of the reaping into the last patch of standing corn, and make their escape from it as it is being cut down.  So regularly does this happen that reapers and others often stand round the last patch of corn armed with sticks or guns, with which they kill the animals as they dart out of their last refuge among the stalks.  Now, primitive man, to whom magical changes of shape seem perfectly credible, finds it most natural that the spirit of the corn, driven from his home in the ripe grain, should make his escape in the form of the animal which is seen to rush out of the last patch of corn as it falls under the scythe of the reaper.  Thus the identification of the corn-spirit with an animal is analogous to the identification of him with a passing stranger.  As the sudden appearance of a stranger near the harvest-field or threshing-floor is, to the primitive mind, enough to identify him as the spirit of the corn escaping from the cut or threshed corn, so the sudden appearance of an animal issuing from the cut corn is enough to identify it with the corn-spirit escaping from his ruined home.  The two identifications are so analogous that they can hardly be dissociated in any attempt to explain them.  Those who look to some other principle than the one here suggested for the explanation of the latter identification are bound to show that their theory covers the former identification also.