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
(M262) 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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