Section 6. The Corn-spirit as a Goat.
FURTHER, the corn-spirit often appears in the form of a goat. In
some parts of Prussia, when the corn bends before the wind, they
say, "The Goats are chasing each other," "the wind is driving the
Goats through the corn," "the Goats are browsing there," and they
expect a very good harvest. Again they say, "The Oats-goat is
sitting in the oats-field," "the Corn-goat is sitting in the rye-field."
Children are warned not to go into the corn-fields to pluck the
blue corn-flowers, or amongst the beans to pluck pods, because
the Rye-goat, the Corn-goat, the Oats-goat, or the Bean-goat is
sitting or lying there, and will carry them away or kill them. When a
harvester is taken sick or lags behind his fellows at their work,
they call out, "The Harvest-goat has pushed him," "he has been
pushed by the Corn-goat." In the neighbourhood of Braunsberg
(East Prussia) at binding the oats every harvester makes haste
"lest the Corn-goat push him." At Oefoten, in Norway, each
reaper has his allotted patch to reap. When a reaper in the middle
has not finished reaping his piece after his neighbours have
finished theirs, they say of him, "He remains on the island." And if
the laggard is a man, they imitate the cry with which they call a
he-goat; if a woman, the cry with which they call a she-goat.
Near Straubing, in Lower Bavaria, it is said of the man who cuts
the last corn that "he has the Corn-goat, or the Wheat-goat, or
the Oats-goat," according to the crop. Moreover, two horns are
set up on the last heap of corn, and it is called "the horned Goat."
At Kreutzburg, East Prussia, they call out to the woman who is
binding the last sheaf, "The Goat is sitting in the sheaf." At
Gablingen, in Swabia, when the last field of oats upon a farm is
being reaped, the reapers carve a goat out of wood. Ears of oats
are inserted in its nostrils and mouth, and it is adorned with
garlands of flowers. It is set up on the field and called the
Oats-goat. When the reaping approaches an end, each reaper
hastens to finish his piece first; he who is the last to finish gets the
Oats-goat. Again, the last sheaf is itself called the Goat. Thus, in
the valley of the Wiesent, Bavaria, the last sheaf bound on the
field is called the Goat, and they have a proverb, "The field must
bear a goat." At Spachbrücken, in Hesse, the last handful of corn
which is cut is called the Goat, and the man who cuts it is much
ridiculed. At Dürrenbüchig and about Mosbach in Baden the last
sheaf is also called the Goat. Sometimes the last sheaf is made up
in the form of a goat, and they say, "The Goat is sitting in it."
Again, the person who cuts or binds the last sheaf is called the
Goat. Thus, in parts of Mecklenburg they call out to the woman
who binds the last sheaf, "You are the Harvest-goat." Near
Uelzen, in Hanover, the harvest festival begins with "the bringing
of the Harvest-goat"; that is, the woman who bound the last sheaf
is wrapt in straw, crowned with a harvest-wreath, and brought in
a wheel-barrow to the village, where a round dance takes place.
About Luneburg, also, the woman who binds the last corn is
decked with a crown of corn-ears and is called the Corn-goat. At
Münzesheim in Baden the reaper who cuts the last handful of corn
or oats is called the Corn-goat or the Oats-goat. In the Canton St.
Gall, Switzerland, the person who cuts the last handful of corn on
the field, or drives the last harvest-waggon to the barn, is called
the Corn-goat or the Rye-goat, or simply the Goat. In the Canton
Thurgau he is called Corn-goat; like a goat he has a bell hung
round his neck, is led in triumph, and drenched with liquor. In
parts of Styria, also, the man who cuts the last corn is called
Corn-goat, Oats-goat, or the like. As a rule, the man who thus
gets the name of Corn-goat has to bear it a whole year till the
next harvest. 1
According to one view, the corn-spirit, who has been caught in
the form of a goat or otherwise, lives in the farmhouse or barn over
winter. Thus, each farm has its own embodiment of the corn-spirit.
But, according to another view, the corn-spirit is the genius or
deity, not of the corn of one farm only, but of all the corn. Hence
when the corn on one farm is all cut, he flees to another where
there is still corn left standing. This idea is brought out in a
harvest-custom which was formerly observed in Skye. The farmer
who first finished reaping sent a man or woman with a sheaf to a
neighbouring farmer who had not finished; the latter in his turn,
when he had finished, sent on the sheaf to his neighbour who was
still reaping; and so the sheaf made the round of the farms till all
the corn was cut. The sheaf was called the goabbir bhacagh, that
is, the Cripple Goat. The custom appears not to be extinct at the
present day, for it was reported from Skye not very many years
ago. The corn-spirit was probably thus represented as lame
because he had been crippled by the cutting of the corn.
Sometimes the old woman who brings home the last sheaf must
limp on one foot. 2
But sometimes the corn-spirit, in the form of a goat, is believed
to be slain on the harvest-field by the sickle or scythe. Thus, in
the neighbourhood of Bernkastel, on the Moselle, the reapers
determine by lot the order in which they shall follow each other.
The first is called the fore-reaper, the last the tail-bearer. If a
reaper overtakes the man in front he reaps past him, bending
round so as to leave the slower reaper in a patch by himself. This
patch is called the Goat; and the man for whom "the Goat is cut" in
this way, is laughed and jeered at by his fellows for the rest of the
day. When the tail-bearer cuts the last ears of corn, it is said, "He
is cutting the Goat's neck off." In the neighbourhood of Grenoble,
before the end of the reaping, a live goat is adorned with flowers
and ribbons and allowed to run about the field. The reapers chase
it and try to catch it. When it is caught, the farmer's wife holds it
fast while the farmer cuts off its head. The goat's flesh serves to
furnish the harvest-supper. A piece of the flesh is pickled and
kept till the next harvest, when another goat is killed. Then all the
harvesters eat of the flesh. On the same day the skin of the goat is
made into a cloak, which the farmer, who works with his men, must
always wear at harvest-time if rain or bad weather sets in. But if a
reaper gets pains in his back, the farmer gives him the goat-skin
to wear. The reason for this seems to be that the pains in the back,
being inflicted by the corn-spirit, can also be healed by it.
Similarly, we saw that elsewhere, when a reaper is wounded at
reaping, a cat, as the representative of the corn-spirit, is made to
lick the wound. Esthonian reapers of the island of Mon think that
the man who cuts the first ears of corn at harvest will get pains in
his back, probably because the corn-spirit is believed to resent
especially the first wound; and, in order to escape pains in the
back, Saxon reapers in Transylvania gird their loins with the first
handful of ears which they cut. Here, again, the corn-spirit is
applied to for healing or protection, but in his original vegetable
form, not in the form of a goat or a cat. 3
Further, the corn-spirit under the form of a goat is sometimes
conceived as lurking among the cut corn in the barn, till he is
driven from it by the threshing-flail. Thus in Baden the last sheaf
to be threshed is called the Corn-goat, the Spelt-goat, or the
Oats-goat according to the kind of grain. Again, near Marktl, in
Upper Bavaria, the sheaves are called Straw-goats or simply
Goats. They are laid in a great heap on the open field and
threshed by two rows of men standing opposite each other, who,
as they ply their flails, sing a song in which they say that they see
the Straw-goat amongst the corn-stalks. The last Goat, that is, the
last sheaf, is adorned with a wreath of violets and other flowers
and with cakes strung together. It is placed right in the middle of
the heap. Some of the threshers rush at it and tear the best of it
out; others lay on with their flails so recklessly that heads are
sometimes broken. At Oberinntal, in the Tyrol, the last thresher is
called Goat. So at Haselberg, in West Bohemia, the man who
gives the last stroke at threshing oats is called the Oats-goat. At
Tettnang, in Würtemburg, the thresher who gives the last stroke to
the last bundle of corn before it is turned goes by the name of the
He-goat, and it is said, "He has driven the He-goat away." The
person who, after the bundle has been turned, gives the last
stroke of all, is called the She-goat. In this custom it is implied that
the corn is inhabited by a pair of corn-spirits, male and female. 4
Further, the corn-spirit, captured in the form of a goat at
threshing, is passed on to a neighbour whose threshing is not yet
finished. In Franche Comté, as soon as the threshing is over, the
young people set up a straw figure of a goat on the farmyard of a
neighbour who is still threshing. He must give them wine or money
in return. At Ellwangen, in Würtemburg, the effigy of a goat is
made out of the last bundle of corn at threshing; four sticks form its
legs, and two its horns. The man who gives the last stroke with the
flail must carry the Goat to the barn of a neighbour who is still
threshing and throw it down on the floor; if he is caught in the act,
they tie the Goat on his back. A similar custom is observed at
Indersdorf, in Upper Bavaria; the man who throws the straw Goat
into the neighbour's barn imitates the bleating of a goat; if they
catch him, they blacken his face and tie the Goat on his back. At
Saverne, in Alsace, when a farmer is a week or more behind his
neighbours with his threshing, they set a real stuffed goat or fox
before his door. 5
Sometimes the spirit of the corn in goat form is believed to be
killed at threshing. In the district of Traunstein, Upper Bavaria, they
think that the Oats-goat is in the last sheaf of oats. He is
represented by an old rake set up on end, with an old pot for a
head. The children are then told to kill the Oats-goat. 6