The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 2 of 2)Frazer, James George
ReligionComparative
The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 2 of 2)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
turned out to laugh at him, till the farmer took the Cow from him.(86)
Here again the confusion between the human and the animal form of the
corn-spirit is apparent. In various parts of Switzerland the reaper who
cuts the last ears of corn is called Wheat-cow, Corn-cow, Oats-cow, or
Corn-steer, and is the butt of many a joke.(87) In some parts of East
Prussia, when a few ears of corn have been left standing by inadvertence
on the last swath, the foremost reaper seizes them and cries, “Bull!
Bull!”(88) On the other hand, in the district of Rosenheim, in Upper
Bavaria, when a farmer is later in getting in his harvest than his
neighbours, they set up on his land a Straw-bull, as it is called. This is
a gigantic figure of a bull made of stubble on a framework of wood and
adorned with flowers and leaves. A label is attached to it containing
doggerel verses in ridicule of the man on whose land the Straw-bull is
placed.(89)
Again, the corn-spirit in the form of a bull or ox is killed on the
harvest-field at the close of the reaping. At Pouilly near Dijon, when the
last ears of corn are about to be cut, an ox adorned with ribbons,
flowers, and ears of corn is led all round the field, followed by the
whole troop of reapers dancing. Then a man disguised as the Devil cuts the
last ears of corn and immediately kills the ox. Part of the flesh of the
animal is eaten at the harvest supper; part is pickled and kept till the
first day of sowing in spring. At Pont à Mousson and elsewhere on the
evening of the last day of reaping a calf adorned with flowers and ears of
corn is led three times round the farmyard, being allured by a bait or
driven by men with sticks, or conducted by the farmer’s wife with a rope.
The calf selected for this ceremony is the calf which was born first on
the farm in the spring of the year. It is followed by all the reapers with
their implements. Then it is allowed to run free; the reapers chase it,
and whoever catches it is called King of the Calf. Lastly, it is solemnly
killed; at Lunéville the man who acts as butcher is the Jewish merchant of
the village.(90)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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