Section 10. On the Animal Embodiments of the Corn-spirit.
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. 1
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. 2
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. 3
