The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 07 of 12)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 07 of 12)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
(M244) Further, the corn-spirit under the form of a goat is sometimes
conceived as lurking among the cut corn in the barn, till he is driven
from it by the threshing-flail. Thus in Baden the last sheaf to be
threshed is called the Corn-goat, the Spelt-goat, or the Oats-goat
according to the kind of grain.(915) Again, near Marktl, in Upper Bavaria,
the sheaves are called Straw-goats or simply Goats. They are laid in a
great heap on the open field and threshed by two rows of men standing
opposite each other, who, as they ply their flails, sing a song in which
they say that they see the Straw-goat amongst the corn-stalks. The last
Goat, that is, the last sheaf, is adorned with a wreath of violets and
other flowers and with cakes strung together. It is placed right in the
middle of the heap. Some of the threshers rush at it and tear the best of
it out; others lay on with their flails so recklessly that heads are
sometimes broken. In threshing this last sheaf, each man casts up to the
man opposite him the misdeeds of which he has been guilty throughout the
year.(916) At Oberinntal, in the Tyrol, the last thresher is called
Goat.(917) So at Haselberg, in West Bohemia, the man who gives the last
stroke at threshing oats is called the Oats-goat.(918) At Tettnang, in
Würtemburg, the thresher who gives the last stroke to the last bundle of
corn before it is turned goes by the name of the He-goat, and it is said,
“He has driven the He-goat away.” The person who, after the bundle has
been turned, gives the last stroke of all, is called the She-goat.(919) In
this custom it is implied that the corn is inhabited by a pair of
corn-spirits, male and female.
(M245) Further, the corn-spirit, captured in the form of a goat at
threshing, is passed on to a neighbour whose threshing is not yet
finished. In Franche Comté, as soon as the threshing is over, the young
people set up a straw figure of a goat on the farmyard of a neighbour who
is still threshing. He must give them wine or money in return. At
Ellwangen, in Würtemburg, the effigy of a goat is made out of the last
bundle of corn at threshing; four sticks form its legs, and two its horns.
The man who gives the last stroke with the flail must carry the Goat to
the barn of a neighbour who is still threshing and throw it down on the
floor; if he is caught in the act, they tie the goat on his back.(920) A
similar custom is observed at Indersdorf, in Upper Bavaria; the man who
throws the straw Goat into the neighbour’s barn imitates the bleating of a
goat; if they catch him, they blacken his face and tie the Goat on his
back.(921) At Zabern, in Elsace, when a farmer is a week or more behind
his neighbours with his threshing, they set a real stuffed goat or fox
before his door.(922)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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