object:1.45 - The Corn-Mother and the Corn-Maiden in Northern Europe
book class:The Golden Bough
author class:James George Frazer
subject class:Occultism
class:chapter
XLV. 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.
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.
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.
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.
Sometimes the last sheaf is called, not the Corn-mother, but the
Harvest-mother or the Great Mother. In the province of Osnabrck,
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 (_hrenknigin_) 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."
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, Thringen, 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.
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 Salign (Vende), 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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Mglitz, 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."
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
questions, comments, suggestions/feedback, take-down requests, contribute, etc
contact me @ integralyogin@gmail.com or via the comments below
or join the integral discord server (chatrooms)
if the page you visited was empty, it may be noted and I will try to fill it out. cheers