Section 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. 1
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. 2