The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 1 of 2)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 1 of 2)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
In 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.(1124) 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 custom to tie up in
the last sheaf the woman who had bound it.(1125) At Weiden in Bavaria it
is the cutter, not the binder, of the last sheaf who is tied up in
it.(1126) 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.(1127)
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.(1128) Sometimes eight or nine sheaves are
tied together to make the Old Woman, and the man who sets it up complains
of its weight.(1129) 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.(1130) Thus the custom of making the last
sheaf unusually large or heavy is a charm, working by sympathetic magic,
to secure a large and heavy crop in the following year.
In Denmark also the last sheaf is made larger than the others, and is
called the Old Rye-woman or the Old Barley-woman. No one likes to bind it,
because whoever does so will, it is believed, marry an old man or an old
woman. Sometimes the last wheat-sheaf, called the Old Wheat-woman, is made
up in human shape, with head, arms, and legs, is dressed in clothes and
carried home on the last waggon, the harvesters sitting beside it,
drinking and huzzaing.(1131) Of the person who binds the last sheaf it is
said, “She (or he) is the Old Rye-woman.”(1132)
In Scotland, when the last corn was cut after Hallowmas, the female figure
made out of it was sometimes called the Carlin or Carline, _i.e._ 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.(1133)
We shall return to the Maiden presently. In County Antrim, down to a few
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(1134)—probably the same word as Carlin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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