| Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941). The Golden
Bough. 1922. |
§ 10. On the
Animal Embodiments of the Corn-spirit |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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