Section 9. The Corn-spirit as a Pig (Boar or Sow).
THE LAST animal embodiment of the corn-spirit which we shall
notice is the pig (boar or sow). In Thüringen, when the wind sets
the young corn in motion, they sometimes say, "The Boar is
rushing through the corn." Amongst the Esthonians of the island of
Oesel the last sheaf is called the Ryeboar, and the man who gets
it is saluted with a cry of "You have the Rye-boar on your back!"
In reply he strikes up a song, in which he prays for plenty. At
Kohlerwinkel, near Augsburg, at the close of the harvest, the last
bunch of standing corn is cut down, stalk by stalk, by all the
reapers in turn. He who cuts the last stalk "gets the Sow," and is
laughed at. In other Swabian villages also the man who cuts the
last corn "has the Sow," or "has the Rye-sow." At Bohlingen,
near Radolfzell in Baden, the last sheaf is called the Rye-sow or
the Wheat-sow, according to the crop; and at Röhrenbach in
Baden the person who brings the last armful for the last sheaf is
called the Corn-sow or the Oats-sow. At Friedingen, in Swabia,
the thresher who gives the last stroke is called Sow-Barley-sow,
Corn-sow, or the like, according to the crop. At Onstmettingen the
man who gives the last stroke at threshing "has the Sow"; he is
often bound up in a sheaf and dragged by a rope along the
ground. And, generally, in Swabia the man who gives the last
stroke with the flail is called Sow. He may, however, rid himself of
this invidious distinction by passing on to a neighbour the
straw-rope, which is the badge of his position as Sow. So he
goes to a house and throws the straw-rope into it, crying, "There,
I bring you the Sow." All the inmates give chase; and if they catch
him they beat him, shut him up for several hours in the pig-sty,
and oblige him to take the "Sow" away again. In various parts of
Upper Bavaria the man who gives the last stroke at threshing must
"carry the Pig"-that is, either a straw effigy of a pig or merely a
bundle of straw-ropes. This he carries to a neighbouring farm
where the threshing is not finished, and throws it into the barn. If
the threshers catch him they handle him roughly, beating him,
blackening or dirtying his face, throwing him into filth, binding the
Sow on his back, and so on; if the bearer of the Sow is a woman
they cut off her hair. At the harvest supper or dinner the man who
"carried the Pig" gets one or more dumplings made in the form of
pigs. When the dumplings are served up by the maidservant, all
the people at table cry "Süz, süz, süz !" that being the cry used in
calling pigs. Sometimes after dinner the man who "carried the Pig"
has his face blackened, and is set on a cart and drawn round the
village by his fellows, followed by a crowd crying "Süz, süz, süz
!" as if they were calling swine. Sometimes, after being wheeled
round the village, he is flung on the dunghill. 1
Again, the corn-spirit in the form of a pig plays his part at
sowing-time as well as at harvest. At Neuautz, in Courland, when
barley is sown for the first time in the year, the farmer's wife boils
the chine of a pig along with the tail, and brings it to the sower on
the field. He eats of it, but cuts off the tail and sticks it in the field;
it is believed that the ears of corn will then grow as long as the
tail. Here the pig is the corn-spirit, whose fertilising power is
sometimes supposed to lie especially in his tail. As a pig he is put
in the ground at sowing-time, and as a pig he reappears amongst
the ripe corn at harvest. For amongst the neighbouring
Esthonians, as we have seen, the last sheaf is called the
Rye-boar. Somewhat similar customs are observed in Germany. In
the Salza district, near Meiningen, a certain bone in the pig is
called "the Jew on the winnowing-fan." The flesh of this bone is
boiled on Shrove Tuesday, but the bone is put amongst the ashes
which the neighbours exchange as presents on St. Peter's Day
(the twenty-second of February), and then mix with the seedcorn.
In the whole of Hesse, Meiningen, and other districts, people eat
pea-soup with dried pig-ribs on Ash Wednesday or Candlemas.
The ribs are then collected and hung in the room till sowing-time,
when they are inserted in the sown field or in the seed-bag
amongst the flax seed. This is thought to be an infallible specific
against earth-fleas and moles, and to cause the flax to grow well
and tall. 2
But the idea of the corn-spirit as embodied in pig form is
nowhere more clearly expressed than in the Scandinavian custom
of the Yule Boar. In Sweden and Denmark at Yule (Christmas) it is
the custom to bake a loaf in the form of a boar-pig. This is called
the Yule Boar. The corn of the last sheaf is often used to make it.
All through Yule the Yule Boar stands on the table. Often it is kept
till the sowing-time in spring, when part of it is mixed with the
seed-corn and part given to the ploughman and plough-horses or
ploughoxen to eat, in the expectation of a good harvest. In this
custom the corn-spirit, immanent in the last sheaf, appears at
midwinter in the form of a boar made from the corn of the last
sheaf; and his quickening influence on the corn is shown by
mixing part of the Yule Boar with the seed-corn, and giving part
of it to the ploughman and his cattle to eat. Similarly we saw that
the Corn-wolf makes his appearance at mid-winter, the time when
the year begins to verge towards spring. Formerly a real boar was
sacrificed at Christmas, and apparently also a man in the
character of the Yule Boar. This, at least, may perhaps be inferred
from a Christmas custom still observed in Sweden. A man is wrapt
up in a skin, and carries a wisp of straw in his mouth, so that the
projecting straws look like the bristles of a boar. A knife is brought,
and an old woman, with her face blackened, pretends to sacrifice
him. 3
On Christmas Eve in some parts of the Esthonian island of Oesel
they bake a long cake with the two ends turned up. It is called the
Christmas Boar, and stands on the table till the morning of New
Year's Day, when it is distributed among the cattle. In other parts
of the island the Christmas Boar is not a cake but a little pig born
in March, which the housewife fattens secretly, often without the
knowledge of the other members of the family. On Christmas Eve
the little pig is secretly killed, then roasted in the oven, and set on
the table standing on all fours, where it remains in this posture for
several days. In other parts of the island, again, though the
Christmas cake has neither the name nor the shape of a boar, it is
kept till the New Year, when half of it is divided among all the
members and all the quadrupeds of the family. The other half of the
cake is kept till sowing-time comes round, when it is similarly
distributed in the morning among human beings and beasts. In
other parts of Esthonia, again, the Christmas Boar, as it is called,
is baked of the first rye cut at harvest; it has a conical shape and
a cross is impressed on it with a pig's bone or a key, or three dints
are made in it with a buckle or a piece of charcoal. It stands with a
light beside it on the table all through the festal season. On New
Year's Day and Epiphany, before sunrise, a little of the cake is
crumbled with salt and given to the cattle. The rest is kept till the
day when the cattle are driven out to pasture for the first time in
spring. It is then put in the herdsman's bag, and at evening is
divided among the cattle to guard them from magic and harm. In
some places the Christmas Boar is partaken of by farm-servants
and cattle at the time of the barley sowing, for the purpose of
thereby producing a heavier crop. 4
