Chapter 45. 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
