| Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941). The Golden
Bough. 1922. |
XLV. The Corn-Mother and the Corn-Maiden in
Northern Europe |
| |
| IT has been argued by W. Mannhardt that the
first part of Demeter’s name is derived from an alleged Cretan word
deai, “barley,” and that accordingly Demeter means neither
more nor less than “Barley-mother” or “Corn-mother”; for the root of
the word seems to have been applied to different kinds of grain by
different branches of the Aryans. As Crete appears to have been one
of the most ancient seats of the worship of Demeter, it would not be
surprising if her name were of Cretan origin. But the etymology is
open to serious objections, and it is safer therefore to lay no
stress on it. Be that as it may, we have found independent reasons
for identifying Demeter as the Corn-mother, and of the two species
of corn associated with her in Greek religion, namely barley and
wheat, the barley has perhaps the better claim to be her original
element; for not only would it seem to have been the staple food of
the Greeks in the Homeric age, but there are grounds for believing
that it is one of the oldest, if not the very oldest, cereal
cultivated by the Aryan race. Certainly the use of barley in the
religious ritual of the ancient Hindoos as well as of the ancient
Greeks furnishes a strong argument in favour of the great antiquity
of its cultivation, which is known to have been practised by the
lake-dwellers of the Stone Age in Europe. |
1 |
| Analogies to the Corn-mother or Barley-mother of
ancient Greece have been collected in great abundance by W.
Mannhardt from the folk-lore of modern Europe. The following may
serve as specimens. |
2 |
| In Germany the corn is very commonly personified
under the name of the Corn-mother. Thus in spring, when the corn
waves in the wind, the peasants say, “There comes the Corn-mother,”
or “The Corn-mother is running over the field,” or “The Corn-mother
is going through the corn.” When children wish to go into the fields
to pull the blue corn-flowers or the red poppies, they are told not
to do so, because the Corn-mother is sitting in the corn and will
catch them. Or again she is called, according to the crop, the
Rye-mother or the Pea-mother, and children are warned against
straying in the rye or among the peas by threats of the Rye-mother
or the Pea-mother. Again the Corn-mother is believed to make the
crop grow. Thus in the neighbourhood of Magdeburg it is sometimes
said, “It will be a good year for flax; the Flax-mother has been
seen.” In a village of Styria it is said that the Corn-mother, in
the shape of a female puppet made out of the last sheaf of corn and
dressed in white, may be seen at mid-night
in the corn-fields, which she fertilises by
passing through them; but if she is angry with a farmer, she withers
up all his corn. |
3 |
| Further, the Corn-mother plays an important part in
harvest customs. She is believed to be present in the handful of
corn which is left standing last on the field; and with the cutting
of this last handful she is caught, or driven away, or killed. In
the first of these cases, the last sheaf is carried joyfully home
and honoured as a divine being. It is placed in the barn, and at
threshing the corn-spirit appears again. In the Hanoverian district
of Hadeln the reapers stand round the last sheaf and beat it with
sticks in order to drive the Corn-mother out of it. They call to
each other, “There she is! hit her! Take care she doesn’t catch
you!” The beating goes on till the grain is completely threshed out;
then the Corn-mother is believed to be driven away. In the
neighbourhood of Danzig the person who cuts the last ears of corn
makes them into a doll, which is called the Corn-mother or the Old
Woman and is brought home on the last waggon. In some parts of
Holstein the last sheaf is dressed in woman’s clothes and called the
Corn-mother. It is carried home on the last waggon, and then
thoroughly drenched with water. The drenching with water is
doubtless a rain-charm. In the district of Bruck in Styria the last
sheaf, called the Corn-mother, is made up into the shape of a woman
by the oldest married woman in the village, of an age from fifty to
fifty-five years. The finest ears are plucked out of it and made
into a wreath, which, twined with flowers, is carried on her head by
the prettiest girl of the village to the farmer or squire, while the
Corn-mother is laid down in the barn to keep off the mice. In other
villages of the same district the Corn-mother, at the close of
harvest, is carried by two lads at the top of a pole. They march
behind the girl who wears the wreath to the squire’s house, and
while he receives the wreath and hangs it up in the hall, the
Corn-mother is placed on the top of a pile of wood, where she is the
centre of the harvest supper and dance. Afterwards she is hung up in
the barn and remains there till the threshing is over. The man who
gives the last stroke at threshing is called the son of the
Corn-mother; he is tied up in the Corn-mother, beaten, and carried
through the village. The wreath is dedicated in church on the
following Sunday; and on Easter Eve the grain is rubbed out of it by
a seven-year-old girl and scattered amongst the young corn. At
Christmas the straw of the wreath is placed in the manger to make
the cattle thrive. Here the fertilising power of the Corn-mother is
plainly brought out by scattering the seed taken from her body (for
the wreath is made out of the Corn-mother) among the new corn; and
her influence over animal life is indicated by placing the straw in
the manger. Amongst the Slavs also the last sheaf is known as the
Rye-mother, the Wheat-mother, the Oats-mother, the Barley-mother,
and so on, according to the crop. In the district of Tarnow,
Galicia, the wreath made out of the last stalks is called the
Wheat-mother, Rye-mother, or Pea-mother. It is placed on a girl’s
head and kept till spring, when some of the grain is mixed with the seed-corn. Here
again the fertilising power of the Corn-mother is indicated. In
France, also, in the neighbourhood of Auxerre, the last sheaf goes
by the name of the Mother of the Wheat, Mother of the Barley, Mother
of the Rye, or Mother of the Oats. They leave it standing in the
field till the last waggon is about to wend homewards. Then they
make a puppet out of it, dress it with clothes belonging to the
farmer, and adorn it with a crown and a blue or white scarf. A
branch of a tree is stuck in the breast of the puppet, which is now
called the Ceres. At the dance in the evening the Ceres is set in
the middle of the floor, and the reaper who reaped fastest dances
round it with the prettiest girl for his partner. After the dance a
pyre is made. All the girls, each wearing a wreath, strip the
puppet, pull it to pieces, and place it on the pyre, along with the
flowers with which it was adorned. Then the girl who was the first
to finish reaping sets fire to the pile, and all pray that Ceres may
give a fruitful year. Here, as Mannhardt observes, the old custom
has remained intact, though the name Ceres is a bit of
schoolmaster’s learning. In Upper Brittany the last sheaf is always
made into human shape; but if the farmer is a married man, it is
made double and consists of a little corn-puppet placed inside of a
large one. This is called the Mother-sheaf. It is delivered to the
farmer’s wife, who unties it and gives drink-money in return. |
4 |
| Sometimes the last sheaf is called, not the
Corn-mother, but the Harvest-mother or the Great Mother. In the
province of Osnabrück, Hanover, it is called the Harvest-mother; it
is made up in female form, and then the reapers dance about with it.
In some parts of Westphalia the last sheaf at the rye-harvest is
made especially heavy by fastening stones in it. They bring it home
on the last waggon and call it the Great Mother, though they do not
fashion it into any special shape. In the district of Erfurt a very
heavy sheaf, not necessarily the last, is called the Great Mother,
and is carried on the last waggon to the barn, where all hands lift
it down amid a fire of jokes. |
5 |
| Sometimes again the last sheaf is called the
Grandmother, and is adorned with flowers, ribbons, and a woman’s
apron. In East Prussia, at the rye or wheat harvest, the reapers
call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, “You are getting the
Old Grandmother.” In the neighbourhood of Magdeburg the men and
women servants strive who shall get the last sheaf, called the
Grandmother. Whoever gets it will be married in the next year, but
his or her spouse will be old; if a girl gets it, she will marry a
widower; if a man gets it, he will marry an old crone. In Silesia
the Grandmother—a huge bundle made up of three or four sheaves by
the person who tied the last sheaf—was formerly fashioned into a
rude likeness of the human form. In the neighbourhood of Belfast the
last sheaf sometimes goes by the name of the Granny. It is not cut
in the usual way, but all the reapers throw their sickles at it and
try to bring it down. It is plaited and kept till the (next?)
autumn. Whoever gets it will marry in the course of the year. |
6 |
| Often the last sheaf is called the Old Woman or the
Old Man. In Germany it is frequently shaped and dressed as a woman,
and the person who cuts it or binds it is said to “get the Old
Woman.” At Altisheim, in Swabia, when all the corn of a farm has
been cut except a single strip, all the reapers stand in a row
before the strip; each cuts his share rapidly, and he who gives the
last cut “has the Old Woman.” When the sheaves are being set up in
heaps, the person who gets hold of the Old Woman, which is the
largest and thickest of all the sheaves, is jeered at by the rest,
who call out to him, “He has the Old Woman and must keep her.” The
woman who binds the last sheaf is sometimes herself called the Old
Woman, and it is said that she will be married in the next year. In
Neusaass, West Prussia, both the last sheaf—which is dressed up in
jacket, hat, and ribbons—and the woman who binds it are called the
Old Woman. Together they are brought home on the last waggon and are
drenched with water. In various parts of North Germany the last
sheaf at harvest is made up into a human effigy and called “the Old
Man”; and the woman who bound it is said “to have the Old Man.” |
7 |
| In West Prussia, when the last rye is being raked
together, the women and girls hurry with the work, for none of them
likes to be the last and to get “the Old Man,” that is, a puppet
made out of the last sheaf, which must be carried before the other
reapers by the person who was the last to finish. In Silesia the
last sheaf is called the Old Woman or the Old Man and is the theme
of many jests; it is made unusually large and is sometimes weighted
with a stone. Among the Wends the man or woman who binds the last
sheaf at wheat harvest is said to “have the Old Man.” A puppet is
made out of the wheaten straw and ears in the likeness of a man and
decked with flowers. The person who bound the last sheaf must carry
the Old Man home, while the rest laugh and jeer at him. The puppet
is hung up in the farmhouse and remains till a new Old Man is made
at the next harvest. |
8 |
| In some of these customs, as Mannhardt has remarked,
the person who is called by the same name as the last sheaf and sits
beside it on the last waggon is obviously identified with it; he or
she represents the corn-spirit which has been caught in the last
sheaf; in other words, the corn-spirit is represented in duplicate,
by a human being and by a sheaf. The identification of the person
with the sheaf is made still clearer by the custom of wrapping up in
the last sheaf the person who cuts or binds it. Thus at Hermsdorf in
Silesia it used to be the regular practice to tie up in the last
sheaf the woman who had bound it. At Weiden, in Bavaria, it is the
cutter, not the binder, of the last sheaf who is tied up in it. Here
the person wrapt up in the corn represents the corn-spirit, exactly
as a person wrapt in branches or leaves represents the
tree-spirit. |
9 |
| The last sheaf, designated as the Old Woman, is
often distinguished from the other sheaves by its size and weight.
Thus in some villages of West Prussia the Old Woman is made twice as
long and thick as a common sheaf, and a
stone is fastened in the middle of it. Sometimes it is made so heavy
that a man can barely lift it. At Alt-Pillau, in Samland, eight or
nine sheaves are often tied together to make the Old Woman, and the
man who sets it up grumbles at its weight. At Itzgrund, in
Saxe-Coburg, the last sheaf, called the Old Woman, is made large
with the express intention of thereby securing a good crop next
year. Thus the custom of making the last sheaf unusually large or
heavy is a charm, working by sympathetic magic, to ensure a large
and heavy crop at the following harvest. |
10 |
| In Scotland, when the last corn was cut after
Hallowmas, the female figure made out of it was sometimes called the
Carlin or Carline, that is, the Old Woman. But if cut before
Hallowmas, it was called the Maiden; if cut after sunset, it was
called the Witch, being supposed to bring bad luck. Among the
Highlanders of Scotland the last corn cut at harvest is known either
as the Old Wife (Cailleach) or as the Maiden; on the whole
the former name seems to prevail in the western and the latter in
the central and eastern districts. Of the Maiden we shall speak
presently; here we are dealing with the Old Wife. The following
general account of the custom is given by a careful and
well-informed enquirer, the Rev. J. G. Campbell, minister of the
remote Hebridean island of Tiree: “The Harvest Old Wife (a
Cailleach).—In harvest, there was a struggle to escape from
being the last done with the shearing, and when tillage in common
existed, instances were known of a ridge being left unshorn (no
person would claim it) because of it being behind the rest. The fear
entertained was that of having the ‘famine of the farm’ (gort a
bhaile), in the shape of an imaginary old woman
(cailleach), to feed till next harvest. Much emulation and
amusement arose from the fear of this old woman… . . The first done
made a doll of some blades of corn, which was called the ‘old wife,’
and sent it to his nearest neighbour. He in turn, when ready, passed
it to another still less expeditious, and the person it last
remained with had ‘the old woman’ to keep for that year.” |
11 |
| In the island of Islay the last corn cut goes by the
name of the Old Wife (Cailleach), and when she has done her
duty at harvest she is hung up on the wall and stays there till the
time comes to plough the fields for the next year’s crop. Then she
is taken down, and on the first day when the men go to plough she is
divided among them by the mistress of the house. They take her in
their pockets and give her to the horses to eat when they reach the
field. This is supposed to secure good luck for the next harvest,
and is understood to be the proper end of the Old Wife. |
12 |
| Usages of the same sort are reported from Wales.
Thus in North Pembrokeshire a tuft of the last corn cut, from six to
twelve inches long, is plaited and goes by the name of the Hag
(wrach); and quaint old customs used to be practised with it
within the memory of many persons still alive. Great was the
excitement among the reapers when the last patch of standing corn
was reached. All in turn threw their sickles at it, and the one who
succeeded in cutting it received a jug of
home-brewed ale. The Hag (wrach) was then hurriedly made and
taken to a neighbouring farm, where the reapers were still busy at
their work. This was generally done by the ploughman; but he had to
be very careful not to be observed by his neighbours, for if they
saw him coming and had the least suspicion of his errand they would
soon make him retrace his steps. Creeping stealthily up behind a
fence he waited till the foreman of his neighbour’s reapers was just
opposite him and within easy reach. Then he suddenly threw the Hag
over the fence and, if possible, upon the foreman’s sickle. On that
he took to his heels and made off as fast as he could run, and he
was a lucky man if he escaped without being caught or cut by the
flying sickles which the infuriated reapers hurled after him. In
other cases the Hag was brought home to the farmhouse by one of the
reapers. He did his best to bring it home dry and without being
observed; but he was apt to be roughly handled by the people of the
house, if they suspected his errand. Sometimes they stripped him of
most of his clothes, sometimes they would drench him with water
which had been carefully stored in buckets and pans for the purpose.
If, however, he succeeded in bringing the Hag in dry and unobserved,
the master of the house had to pay him a small fine; or sometimes a
jug of beer “from the cask next to the wall,” which seems to have
commonly held the best beer, would be demanded by the bearer. The
Hag was then carefully hung on a nail in the hall or elsewhere and
kept there all the year. The custom of bringing in the Hag
(wrach) into the house and hanging it up still exists in some
farms of North Pembrokeshire, but the ancient ceremonies which have
just been described are now discontinued. |
13 |
| In County Antrim, down to some years ago, when the
sickle was finally expelled by the reaping machine, the few stalks
of corn left standing last on the field were plaited together; then
the reapers, blindfolded, threw their sickles at the plaited corn,
and whoever happened to cut it through took it home with him and put
it over his door. This bunch of corn was called the Carley—probably
the same word as Carlin. |
14 |
| Similar customs are observed by Slavonic peoples.
Thus in Poland the last sheaf is commonly called the Baba, that is,
the Old Woman. “In the last sheaf,” it is said, “sits the Baba.” The
sheaf itself is also called the Baba, and is sometimes composed of
twelve smaller sheaves lashed together. In some parts of Bohemia the
Baba, made out of the last sheaf, has the figure of a woman with a
great straw hat. It is carried home on the last harvest-waggon and
delivered, along with a garland, to the farmer by two girls. In
binding the sheaves the women strive not to be last, for she who
binds the last sheaf will have a child next year. Sometimes the
harvesters call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, “She has
the Baba,” or “She is the Baba.” In the district of Cracow, when a
man binds the last sheaf, they say, “The Grandfather is sitting in
it”; when a woman binds it, they say, “The Baba is sitting in it,”
and the woman herself is wrapt up in the
sheaf, so that only her head projects out of it. Thus encased in the
sheaf, she is carried on the last harvest-waggon to the house, where
she is drenched with water by the whole family. She remains in the
sheaf till the dance is over, and for a year she retains the name of
Baba. |
15 |
| In Lithuania the name for the last sheaf is Boba
(Old Woman), answering to the Polish name Baba. The Boba is said to
sit in the corn which is left standing last. The person who binds
the last sheaf or digs the last potato is the subject of much
banter, and receives and long retains the name of the Old Rye-woman
or the Old Potato-woman. The last sheaf—the Boba—is made into the
form of a woman, carried solemnly through the village on the last
harvest-waggon, and drenched with water at the farmer’s house; then
every one dances with it. |
16 |
In Russia also the last sheaf is often shaped and
dressed as a woman, and carried with dance and song to the
farmhouse. Out of the last sheaf the Bulgarians make a doll which
they call the Corn-queen or Corn-mother; it is dressed in a woman’s
shirt, carried round the village, and then thrown into the river in
order to secure plenty of rain and dew for the next year’s crop. Or
it is burned and the ashes strew on the fields, doubtless to
fertilise them. The name Queen, as applied to the last sheaf, has
its analogies in Central and Northern Europe. Thus, in the Salzburg
district of Austria, at the end of the harvest a great procession
takes place, in which a Queen of the Corn-ears (Ährenkönigin)
is drawn along in a little carriage by young fellows. The custom of
the Harvest Queen appears to have been common in England. Milton
must have been familiar with it, for in Paradise Lost he
says:
|
| “Adam the while |
|
| Waiting desirous her return, had wove |
|
| Of choicest flow’rs a garland to adorn |
|
| Her tresses, and her rural labours crown, |
|
| As reapers oft are wont their harvest-queen.” |
| | |
17 |
| Often customs of this sort are practised, not on the
harvest-field but on the threshing-floor. The spirit of the corn,
fleeing before the reapers as they cut down the ripe grain, quits
the reaped corn and takes refuge in the barn, where it appears in
the last sheaf threshed, either to perish under the blows of the
flail or to flee thence to the still unthreshed corn of a
neighbouring farm. Thus the last corn to be threshed is called the
Mother-Corn or the Old Woman. Sometimes the person who gives the
last stroke with the flail is called the Old Woman, and is wrapt in
the straw of the last sheaf, or has a bundle of straw fastened on
his back. Whether wrapt in the straw or carrying it on his back, he
is carted through the village amid general laughter. In some
districts of Bavaria, Thüringen, and elsewhere, the man who threshes
the last sheaf is said to have the Old Woman or the Old Corn-woman;
he is tied up in straw, carried or carted about the village, and set down at last on the
dunghill, or taken to the threshing-floor of a neighbouring farmer
who has not finished his threshing. In Poland the man who gives the
last stroke at threshing is called Baba (Old Woman); he is wrapt in
corn and wheeled through the village. Sometimes in Lithuania the
last sheaf is not threshed, but is fashioned into female shape and
carried to the barn of a neighbour who has not finished his
threshing. |
18 |
| In some parts of Sweden, when a stranger woman
appears on the threshing-floor, a flail is put round her body,
stalks of corn are wound round her neck, a crown of ears is placed
on her head, and the threshers call out, “Behold the Corn-woman.”
Here the stranger woman, thus suddenly appearing, is taken to be the
corn-spirit who has just been expelled by the flails from the
corn-stalks. In other cases the farmer’s wife represents the
corn-spirit. Thus in the Commune of Saligné (Vendée), the farmer’s
wife, along with the last sheaf, is tied up in a sheet, placed on a
litter, and carried to the threshing machine, under which she is
shoved. Then the woman is drawn out and the sheaf is threshed by
itself, but the woman is tossed in the sheet, as if she were being
winnowed. It would be impossible to express more clearly the
identification of the woman with the corn than by this graphic
imitation of threshing and winnowing her. |
19 |
| In these customs the spirit of the ripe corn is
regarded as old, or at least as of mature age. Hence the names of
Mother, Grandmother, Old Woman, and so forth. But in other cases the
corn-spirit is conceived as young. Thus at Saldern, near
Wolfenbuttel, when the rye has been reaped, three sheaves are tied
together with a rope so as to make a puppet with the corn ears for a
head. This puppet is called the Maiden or the Corn-maiden. Sometimes
the corn-spirit is conceived as a child who is separated from its
mother by the stroke of the sickle. This last view appears in the
Polish custom of calling out to the man who cuts the last handful of
corn, “You have cut the navel-string.” In some districts of West
Prussia the figure made out of the last sheaf is called the Bastard,
and a boy is wrapt up in it. The woman who binds the last sheaf and
represents the Corn-mother is told that she is about to be brought
to bed; she cries like a woman in travail, and an old woman in the
character of grandmother acts as midwife. At last a cry is raised
that the child is born; whereupon the boy who is tied up in the
sheaf whimpers and squalls like an infant. The grandmother wraps a
sack, in imitation of swaddling bands, round the pretended baby, who
is carried joyfully to the barn, lest he should catch cold in the
open air. In other parts of North Germany the last sheaf, or the
puppet made out of it, is called the Child, the Harvest-Child, and
so on, and they call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, “you
are getting the child.” |
20 |
| In some parts of Scotland, as well as in the north
of England, the last handful of corn cut on the harvest-field was
called the kirn, and the person who carried it off was said
“to win the kirn.” It was then dressed up like a child’s doll and
went by the name of the kirn-baby, the
kirn-doll, or the Maiden. In Berwickshire down to about the middle
of the nineteenth century there was an eager competition among the
reapers to cut the last bunch of standing corn. They gathered round
it at a little distance and threw their sickles in turn at it, and
the man who succeeded in cutting it through gave it to the girl he
preferred. She made the corn so cut into a kirn-dolly and dressed
it, and the doll was then taken to the farmhouse and hung up there
till the next harvest, when its place was taken by the new
kirn-dolly. At Spottiswoode in Berwickshire the reaping of the last
corn at harvest was called “cutting the Queen” almost as often as
“cutting the kirn.” The mode of cutting it was not by throwing
sickles. One of the reapers consented to be blindfolded, and having
been given a sickle in his hand and turned twice or thrice about by
his fellows, he was bidden to go and cut the kirn. His groping about
and making wild strokes in the air with his sickle excited much
hilarity. When he had tired himself out in vain and given up the
task as hopeless, another reaper was blindfolded and pursued the
quest, and so on, one after the other, till at last the kirn was
cut. The successful reaper was tossed up in the air with three
cheers by his brother harvesters. To decorate the room in which the
kirn-supper was held at Spottiswoode as well as the granary, where
the dancing took place, two women made kirn-dollies or Queens every
year; and many of these rustic effigies of the corn-spirit might be
seen hanging up together. |
21 |
| In some parts of the Highlands of Scotland the last
handful of corn that is cut by the reapers on any particular farm is
called the Maiden, or in Gaelic Maidhdeanbuain, literally,
“the shorn Maiden.” Superstitions attach to the winning of the
Maiden. If it is got by a young person, they think it an omen that
he or she will be married before another harvest. For that or other
reasons there is a strife between the reapers as to who shall get
the Maiden, and they resort to various stratagems for the purpose of
securing it. One of them, for example, will often leave a handful of
corn uncut and cover it up with earth to hide it from the other
reapers, till all the rest of the corn on the field is cut down.
Several may try to play the same trick, and the one who is coolest
and holds out longest obtains the coveted distinction. When it has
been cut, the Maiden is dressed with ribbons into a sort of doll and
affixed to a wall of the farmhouse. In the north of Scotland the
Maiden is carefully preserved till Yule morning, when it is divided
among the cattle “to make them thrive all the year round.” In the
neighbourhood of Balquhidder, Perthshire, the last handful of corn
is cut by the youngest girl on the field, and is made into the rude
form of a female doll, clad in a paper dress, and decked with
ribbons. It is called the Maiden, and is kept in the farmhouse,
generally above the chimney, for a good while, sometimes till the
Maiden of the next year is brought in. The writer of this book
witnessed the ceremony of cutting the Maiden at Balquhidder in
September 1888. A lady friend informed me that as a young girl she cut the Maiden several times at the
request of the reapers in the neighbourhood of Perth. The name of
the Maiden was given to the last handful of standing corn; a reaper
held the top of the bunch while she cut it. Afterwards the bunch was
plaited, decked with ribbons, and hung up in a conspicuous place on
the wall of the kitchen till the next Maiden was brought in. The
harvest-supper in this neighbourhood was also called the Maiden; the
reapers danced at it. |
22 |
| On some farms on the Gareloch, in Dumbartonshire,
about the year 1830, the last handful of standing corn was called
the Maiden. It was divided in two, plaited, and then cut with the
sickle by a girl, who, it was thought, would be lucky and would soon
be married. When it was cut the reapers gathered together and threw
their sickles in the air. The Maiden was dressed with ribbons and
hung in the kitchen near the roof, where it was kept for several
years with the date attached. Sometimes five or six Maidens might be
seen hanging at once on hooks. The harvest-supper was called the
Kirn. In other farms on the Gareloch the last handful of corn was
called the Maidenhead or the Head; it was neatly plaited, sometimes
decked with ribbons, and hung in the kitchen for a year, when the
grain was given to the poultry. |
23 |
| In Aberdeenshire “the last sheaf cut, or ‘Maiden,’
is carried home in merry procession by the harvesters. It is then
presented to the mistress of the house, who dresses it up to be
preserved till the first mare foals. The Maiden is then taken down
and presented to the mare as its first food. The neglect of this
would have untoward effects upon the foal, and disastrous
consequences upon farm operations generally for the season.” In the
north-east of Aberdeenshire the last sheaf is commonly called the
clyack sheaf. It used to be cut by the youngest girl present
and was dressed as a woman. Being brought home in triumph, it was
kept till Christmas morning, and then given to a mare in foal, if
there was one on the farm, or, if there was not, to the oldest cow
in calf. Elsewhere the sheaf was divided between all the cows and
their calves or between all the horses and the cattle of the farm.
In Fifeshire the last handful of corn, known as the Maiden, is cut
by a young girl and made into the rude figure of a doll, tied with
ribbons, by which it is hung on the wall of the farm-kitchen till
the next spring. The custom of cutting the Maiden at harvest was
also observed in Inverness-shire and Sutherlandshire. |
24 |
| A somewhat maturer but still youthful age is
assigned to the corn-spirit by the appellations of Bride,
Oats-bride, and Wheat-bride, which in Germany are sometimes bestowed
both on the last sheaf and on the woman who binds it. At
wheat-harvest near Müglitz, in Moravia, a small portion of the wheat
is left standing after all the rest has been reaped. This remnant is
then cut, amid the rejoicing of the reapers, by a young girl who
wears a wreath of wheaten ears on her head and goes by the name of
the Wheat-bride. It is supposed that she will be a real bride that
same year. Near Roslin and Stonehaven, in Scotland, the last handful
of corn cut “got the name of ‘the bride,’
and she was placed over the bress or
chimney-piece; she had a ribbon tied below her numerous ears,
and another round her waist.” |
25 |
| Sometimes the idea implied by the name of Bride is
worked out more fully by representing the productive powers of
vegetation as bride and bridegroom. Thus in the Vorharz an Oats-man
and an Oats-woman, swathed in straw, dance at the harvest feast. In
South Saxony an Oats-bridegroom and an Oats-bride figure together at
the harvest celebration. The Oats-bridegroom is a man completely
wrapt in oats-straw; the Oats-bride is a man dressed in woman’s
clothes, but not wrapt in straw. They are drawn in a waggon to the
ale-house, where the dance takes place. At the beginning of the
dance the dancers pluck the bunches of oats one by one from the
Oats-bridegroom, while he struggles to keep them, till at last he is
completely stript of them and stands bare, exposed to the laughter
and jests of the company. In Austrian Silesia the ceremony of “the
Wheat-bride” is celebrated by the young people at the end of the
harvest. The woman who bound the last sheaf plays the part of the
Wheat-bride, wearing the harvest-crown of wheat ears and flowers on
her head. Thus adorned, standing beside her Bridegroom in a waggon
and attended by bridesmaids, she is drawn by a pair of oxen, in full
imitation of a marriage procession, to the tavern, where the dancing
is kept up till morning. Somewhat later in the season the wedding of
the Oats-bride is celebrated with the like rustic pomp. About
Neisse, in Silesia, an Oats-king and an Oats-queen, dressed up
quaintly as a bridal pair, are seated on a harrow and drawn by oxen
into the village. |
26 |
| In these last instances the corn-spirit is
personified in double form as male and female. But sometimes the
spirit appears in a double female form as both old and young,
corresponding exactly to the Greek Demeter and Persephone, if my
interpretation of these goddesses is right. We have seen that in
Scotland, especially among the Gaelic-speaking population, the last
corn cut is sometimes called the Old Wife and sometimes the Maiden.
Now there are parts of Scotland in which both an Old Wife
(Cailleach) and a Maiden are cut at harvest. The accounts of
this custom are not quite clear and consistent, but the general rule
seems to be that, where both a Maiden and an Old Wife
(Cailleach) are fashioned out of the reaped corn at harvest,
the Maiden is made out of the last stalks left standing, and is kept
by the farmer on whose land it was cut; while the Old Wife is made
out of other stalks, sometimes out of the first stalks cut, and is
regularly passed on to a laggard farmer who happens to be still
reaping after his brisker neighbour has cut all his corn. Thus while
each farmer keeps his own Maiden, as the embodiment of the young and
fruitful spirit of the corn, he passes on the Old Wife as soon as he
can to a neighbour, and so the old lady may make the round of all
the farms in the district before she finds a place in which to lay
her venerable head. The farmer with whom she finally takes up her
abode is of course the one who has been the last of all the
countryside to finish reaping his crops, and thus the distinction of
entertaining her is rather an invidious one. He is thought to be doomed to poverty or to be
under the obligation of “providing for the dearth of the township”
in the ensuing season. Similarly we saw that in Pembrokeshire, where
the last corn cut is called, not the Maiden, but the Hag, she is
passed on hastily to a neighbour who is still at work in his fields
and who receives his aged visitor with anything but a transport of
joy. If the Old Wife represents the corn-spirit of the past year, as
she probably does wherever she is contrasted with and opposed to a
Maiden, it is natural enough that her faded charms should have less
attractions for the husbandman than the buxom form of her daughter,
who may be expected to become in her turn the mother of the golden
grain when the revolving year has brought round another autumn. The
same desire to get rid of the effete Mother of the Corn by palming
her off on other people comes out clearly in some of the customs
observed at the close of threshing, particularly in the practice of
passing on a hideous straw puppet to a neighbour farmer who is still
threshing his corn. |
27 |
| The harvest customs just described are strikingly
analogous to the spring customs which we reviewed in an earlier part
of this work. (1) As in the spring customs the tree-spirit is
represented both by a tree and by a person, so in the harvest
customs the corn-spirit is represented both by the last sheaf and by
the person who cuts or binds or threshes it. The equivalence of the
person to the sheaf is shown by giving him or her the same name as
the sheaf; by wrapping him or her in it; and by the rule observed in
some places, that when the sheaf is called the Mother, it must be
made up into human shape by the oldest married woman, but that when
it is called the Maiden, it must be cut by the youngest girl. Here
the age of the personal representative of the corn-spirit
corresponds with that of the supposed age of the corn-spirit, just
as the human victims offered by the Mexicans to promote the growth
of the maize varied with the age of the maize. For in the Mexican,
as in the European, custom the human beings were probably
representatives of the corn-spirit rather than victims offered to
it. (2) Again the same fertilising influence which the tree-spirit
is supposed to exert over vegetation, cattle, and even women is
ascribed to the corn-spirit. Thus, its supposed influence on
vegetation is shown by the practice of taking some of the grain of
the last sheaf (in which the corn-spirit is regularly supposed to be
present), and scattering it among the young corn in spring or mixing
it with the seed-corn. Its influence on animals is shown by giving
the last sheaf to a mare in foal, to a cow in calf, and to horses at
the first ploughing. Lastly, its influence on women is indicated by
the custom of delivering the Mother-sheaf, made into the likeness of
a pregnant woman, to the farmer’s wife; by the belief that the woman
who binds the last sheaf will have a child next year; perhaps, too,
by the idea that the person who gets it will soon be married. |
28 |
| Plainly, therefore, these spring and harvest customs
are based on the same ancient modes of thought, and form parts of
the same primitive heathendom, which was doubtless practised by our
forefathers long before the dawn of
history. Amongst the marks of a primitive ritual we may note the
following: |
29 |
| 1. No special class of persons is set apart for the
performance of the rites; in other words, there are no priests. The
rites may be performed by any one, as occasion demands. |
30 |
| 2. No special places are set apart for the
performance of the rites; in other words, there are no temples. The
rites may be performed anywhere, as occasion demands. |
31 |
| 3. Spirits, not gods, are recognised. (a) As
distinguished from gods, spirits are restricted in their operations
to definite departments of nature. Their names are general, not
proper. Their attributes are generic, rather than individual; in
other words, there is an indefinite number of spirits of each class,
and the individuals of a class are all much alike; they have no
definitely marked individuality; no accepted traditions are current
as to their origin, life, adventures, and character. (b) On
the other hand gods, as distinguished from spirits, are not
restricted to definite departments of nature. It is true that there
is generally some one department over which they preside as their
special province; but they are not rigorously confined to it; they
can exert their power for good or evil in many other spheres of
nature and life. Again, they bear individual or proper names, such
as Demeter, Persephone, Dionysus; and their individual characters
and histories are fixed by current myths and the representations of
art. |
32 |
| 4. The rites are magical rather than propitiatory.
In other words, the desired objects are attained, not by
propitiating the favour of divine beings through sacrifice, prayer,
and praise, but by ceremonies which, as I have already explained,
are believed to influence the course of nature directly through a
physical sympathy or resemblance between the rite and the effect
which it is the intention of the rite to produce. |
33 |
| Judged by these tests, the spring and harvest
customs of our European peasantry deserve to rank as primitive. For
no special class of persons and no special places are set
exclusively apart for their performance; they may be performed by
any one, master or man, mistress or maid, boy or girl; they are
practised, not in temples or churches, but in the woods and meadows,
beside brooks, in barns, on harvest fields and cottage floors. The
supernatural beings whose existence is taken for granted in them are
spirits rather than deities: their functions are limited to certain
well-defined departments of nature: their names are general like the
Barley-mother, the Old Woman, the Maiden, not proper names like
Demeter, Persephone, Dionysus. Their generic attributes are known,
but their individual histories and characters are not the subject of
myths. For they exist in classes rather than as individuals, and the
members of each class are indistinguishable. For example, every farm
has its Corn-mother, or its Old Woman, or its Maiden; but every
Corn-mother is much like every other Corn-mother, and so with the
Old Women and Maidens. Lastly, in these harvests, as in the spring
customs, the ritual is magical rather than propitiatory. This is
shown by throwing the Corn-mother into the
river in order to secure rain and dew for the crops; by making the
Old Woman heavy in order to get a heavy crop next year; by strewing
grain from the last sheaf amongst the young crops in spring; and by
giving the last sheaf to the cattle to make them thrive. |
34 |
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