CHAPTER VIII. THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL.

§ 1. Animal Embodiments of the Corn-spirit.

(M229) In some of the examples which I have cited to establish the meaning

of the term “neck” as applied to the last sheaf, the corn-spirit appears

in animal form as a gander, a goat, a hare, a cat, and a fox. This

introduces us to a new aspect of the corn-spirit, which we must now

examine. By doing so we shall not only have fresh examples of killing the

god, but may hope also to clear up some points which remain obscure in the

myths and worship of Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Dionysus, Demeter, and

Virbius.

(M230) Amongst the many animals whose forms the corn-spirit is supposed to

take are the wolf, dog, hare, fox, cock, goose, quail, cat, goat, cow (ox,

bull), pig, and horse. In one or other of these shapes the corn-spirit is

often believed to be present in the corn, and to be caught or killed in

the last sheaf. As the corn is being cut the animal flees before the

reapers, and if a reaper is taken ill on the field, he is supposed to have

stumbled unwittingly on the corn-spirit, who has thus punished the profane

intruder. It is said “the Rye-wolf has got hold of him,” “the Harvest-goat

has given him a push.” The person who cuts the last corn or binds the last

sheaf gets the name of the animal, as the Rye-wolf, the Rye-sow, the

Oats-goat, and so forth, and retains the name sometimes for a year. Also

the animal is frequently represented by a puppet made out of the last

sheaf or of wood, flowers, and so on, which is carried home amid

rejoicings on the last harvest-waggon. Even where the last sheaf is not

made up in animal shape, it is often called the Rye-wolf, the Hare, Goat,

and so forth. Generally each kind of crop is supposed to have its special

animal, which is caught in the last sheaf, and called the Rye-wolf, the

Barley-wolf, the Oats-wolf, the Pea-wolf, or the Potato-wolf, according to

the crop; but sometimes the figure of the animal is only made up once for

all at getting in the last crop of the whole harvest. Sometimes the

creature is believed to be killed by the last stroke of the sickle or

scythe. But oftener it is thought to live so long as there is corn still

unthreshed, and to be caught in the last sheaf threshed. Hence the man who

gives the last stroke with the flail is told that he has got the Corn-sow,

the Threshing-dog, or the like. When the threshing is finished, a puppet

is made in the form of the animal, and this is carried by the thresher of

the last sheaf to a neighbouring farm, where the threshing is still going

on. This again shews that the corn-spirit is believed to live wherever the

corn is still being threshed. Sometimes the thresher of the last sheaf

himself represents the animal; and if the people of the next farm, who are

still threshing, catch him, they treat him like the animal he represents,

by shutting him up in the pig-sty, calling him with the cries commonly

addressed to pigs, and so forth.(833) These general statements will now be

illustrated by examples.

§ 2. The Corn-spirit as a Wolf or a Dog.

(M231) We begin with the corn-spirit conceived as a wolf or a dog. This

conception is common in France, Germany, and Slavonic countries. Thus,

when the wind sets the corn in wave-like motion the peasants often say,

“The Wolf is going over, or through, the corn,” “the Rye-wolf is rushing

over the field,” “the Wolf is in the corn,” “the mad Dog is in the corn,”

“the big Dog is there.”(834) When children wish to go into the corn-fields

to pluck ears or gather the blue corn-flowers, they are warned not to do

so, for “the big Dog sits in the corn,” or “the Wolf sits in the corn, and

will tear you in pieces,” “the Wolf will eat you.” The wolf against whom

the children are warned is not a common wolf, for he is often spoken of as

the Corn-wolf, Rye-wolf, or the like; thus they say, “The Rye-wolf will

come and eat you up, children,” “the Rye-wolf will carry you off,” and so

forth.(835) Still he has all the outward appearance of a wolf. For in the

neighbourhood of Feilenhof (East Prussia), when a wolf was seen running

through a field, the peasants used to watch whether he carried his tail in

the air or dragged it on the ground. If he dragged it on the ground, they

went after him, and thanked him for bringing them a blessing, and even set

tit-bits before him. But if he carried his tail high, they cursed him and

tried to kill him. Here the wolf is the corn-spirit whose fertilising

power is in his tail.(836)

(M232) Both dog and wolf appear as embodiments of the corn-spirit in

harvest-customs. Thus in some parts of Silesia the person who cuts or

binds the last sheaf is called the Wheat-dog or the Peas-pug.(837) But it

is in the harvest-customs of the north-east of France that the idea of the

Corn-dog comes out most clearly. Thus when a harvester, through sickness,

weariness, or laziness, cannot or will not keep up with the reaper in

front of him, they say, “The White Dog passed near him,” “he has the White

Bitch,” or “the White Bitch has bitten him.”(838) In the Vosges the

Harvest-May is called the “Dog of the harvest,”(839) and the person who

cuts the last handful of hay or wheat is said to “kill the Dog.”(840)

About Lons-le-Saulnier, in the Jura, the last sheaf is called the Bitch.

In the neighbourhood of Verdun the regular expression for finishing the

reaping is, “They are going to kill the Dog”; and at Epinal they say,

according to the crop, “We will kill the Wheat-dog, or the Rye-dog, or the

Potato-dog.”(841) In Lorraine it is said of the man who cuts the last

corn, “He is killing the Dog of the harvest.”(842) At Dux, in the Tyrol,

the man who gives the last stroke at threshing is said to “strike down the

Dog”;(843) and at Ahnebergen, near Stade, he is called, according to the

crop, Corn-pug, Rye-pug, Wheat-pug.(844)

(M233) So with the wolf. In Silesia, when the reapers gather round the

last patch of standing corn to reap it they are said to be about “to catch

the Wolf.”(845) In various parts of Mecklenburg, where the belief in the

Corn-wolf is particularly prevalent, every one fears to cut the last corn,

because they say that the Wolf is sitting in it; hence every reaper exerts

himself to the utmost in order not to be the last, and every woman

similarly fears to bind the last sheaf because “the Wolf is in it.” So

both among the reapers and the binders there is a competition not to be

the last to finish.(846) And in Germany generally it appears to be a

common saying that “the Wolf sits in the last sheaf.”(847) In some places

they call out to the reaper, “Beware of the Wolf”; or they say, “He is

chasing the Wolf out of the corn.”(848) In Mecklenburg the last bunch of

standing corn is itself commonly called the Wolf, and the man who reaps it

“has the Wolf,” the animal being described as the Rye-wolf, the

Wheat-wolf, the Barley-wolf, and so on according to the particular crop.

The reaper of the last corn is himself called Wolf or the Rye-wolf, if the

crop is rye, and in many parts of Mecklenburg he has to support the

character by pretending to bite the other harvesters or by howling like a

wolf.(849) The last sheaf of corn is also called the Wolf or the Rye-wolf

or the Oats-wolf according to the crop, and of the woman who binds it they

say, “The Wolf is biting her,” “She has the Wolf,” “She must fetch the

Wolf” (out of the corn). Moreover, she herself is called Wolf; they cry

out to her, “Thou art the Wolf,” and she has to bear the name for a whole

year; sometimes, according to the crop, she is called the Rye-wolf or the

Potato-wolf.(850) In the island of Rügen not only is the woman who binds

the last sheaf called Wolf, but when she comes home she bites the lady of

the house and the stewardess, for which she receives a large piece of

meat. Yet nobody likes to be the Wolf. The same woman may be Rye-wolf,

Wheat-wolf, and Oats-wolf, if she happens to bind the last sheaf of rye,

wheat, and oats.(851) At Buir, in the district of Cologne, it was formerly

the custom to give to the last sheaf the shape of a wolf. It was kept in

the barn till all the corn was threshed. Then it was brought to the farmer

and he had to sprinkle it with beer or brandy.(852) At Brunshaupten in

Mecklenburg the young woman who bound the last sheaf of wheat used to take

a handful of stalks out of it and make “the Wheat-wolf” with them; it was

the figure of a wolf about two feet long and half a foot high, the legs of

the animal being represented by stiff stalks and its tail and mane by

wheat-ears. This Wheat-wolf she carried back at the head of the harvesters

to the village, where it was set up on a high place in the parlour of the

farm and remained there for a long time.(853) In many places the sheaf

called the Wolf is made up in human form and dressed in clothes. This

indicates a confusion of ideas between the corn-spirit conceived in human

and in animal form. Generally the Wolf is brought home on the last waggon

with joyful cries. Hence the last waggon-load itself receives the name of

the Wolf.(854)

(M234) Again, the Wolf is supposed to hide himself amongst the cut corn in

the granary, until he is driven out of the last bundle by the strokes of

the flail. Hence at Wanzleben, near Magdeburg, after the threshing the

peasants go in procession, leading by a chain a man who is enveloped in

the threshed-out straw and is called the Wolf.(855) He represents the

corn-spirit who has been caught escaping from the threshed corn. In the

district of Treves it is believed that the Corn-wolf is killed at

threshing. The men thresh the last sheaf till it is reduced to chopped

straw. In this way they think that the Corn-wolf, who was lurking in the

last sheaf, has been certainly killed.(856)

(M235) In France also the Corn-wolf appears at harvest. Thus they call out

to the reaper of the last corn, “You will catch the Wolf.” Near Chambéry

they form a ring round the last standing corn, and cry, “The Wolf is in

there.” In Finisterre, when the reaping draws near an end, the harvesters

cry, “There is the Wolf; we will catch him.” Each takes a swath to reap,

and he who finishes first calls out, “I’ve caught the Wolf.”(857) In

Guyenne, when the last corn has been reaped, they lead a wether all round

the field. It is called “the Wolf of the field.” Its horns are decked with

a wreath of flowers and corn-ears, and its neck and body are also

encircled with garlands and ribbons. All the reapers march, singing,

behind it. Then it is killed on the field. In this part of France the last

sheaf is called the _coujoulage_, which, in the patois, means a wether.

Hence the killing of the wether represents the death of the corn-spirit,

considered as present in the last sheaf; but two different conceptions of

the corn-spirit—as a wolf and as a wether—are mixed up together.(858)

(M236) Sometimes it appears to be thought that the Wolf, caught in the

last corn, lives during the winter in the farmhouse, ready to renew his

activity as corn-spirit in the spring. Hence at midwinter, when the

lengthening days begin to herald the approach of spring, the Wolf makes

his appearance once more. In Poland a man, with a wolf’s skin thrown over

his head, is led about at Christmas; or a stuffed wolf is carried about by

persons who collect money.(859) There are facts which point to an old

custom of leading about a man enveloped in leaves and called the Wolf,

while his conductors collected money.(860)

§ 3. The Corn-spirit as a Cock.

(M237) Another form which the corn-spirit often assumes is that of a cock.

In Austria children are warned against straying in the corn-fields,

because the Corn-cock sits there, and will peck their eyes out.(861) In

North Germany they say that “the Cock sits in the last sheaf”; and at

cutting the last corn the reapers cry, “Now we will chase out the Cock.”

When it is cut they say, “We have caught the Cock.”(862) At Braller, in

Transylvania, when the reapers come to the last patch of corn, they cry,

“Here we shall catch the Cock.”(863) At Fürstenwalde, when the last sheaf

is about to be bound, the master releases a cock, which he has brought in

a basket, and lets it run over the field. All the harvesters chase it till

they catch it. Elsewhere the harvesters all try to seize the last corn

cut; he who succeeds in grasping it must crow, and is called Cock.(864)

Among the Wends it is or used to be customary for the farmer to hide a

live cock under the last sheaf as it lay on the field; and when the corn

was being gathered up, the harvester who lighted upon this sheaf had a

right to keep the cock, provided he could catch it. This formed the close

of the harvest-festival and was known as “the Cock-catching,” and the beer

which was served out to the reapers at this time went by the name of

“Cock-beer.”(865) The last sheaf is called Cock, Cock-sheaf, Harvest-cock,

Harvest-hen, Autumn-hen. A distinction is made between a Wheat-cock,

Bean-cock, and so on, according to the crop.(866) At Wünschensuhl, in

Thüringen, the last sheaf is made into the shape of a cock, and called the

Harvest-cock.(867) A figure of a cock, made of wood, pasteboard, ears of

corn, or flowers, is borne in front of the harvest-waggon, especially in

Westphalia, where the cock carries in his beak fruits of the earth of all

kinds. Sometimes the image of the cock is fastened to the top of a

May-tree on the last harvest-waggon. Elsewhere a live cock, or a figure of

one, is attached to a harvest-crown and carried on a pole. In Galicia and

elsewhere this live cock is fastened to the garland of corn-ears or

flowers, which the leader of the women-reapers carries on her head as she

marches in front of the harvest procession.(868) In Silesia a live cock is

presented to the master on a plate. The harvest-supper is called

Harvest-cock, Stubble-cock, etc., and a chief dish at it, at least in some

places, is a cock.(869) If a waggoner upsets a harvest-waggon, it is said

that “he has spilt the Harvest cock,” and he loses the cock, that is, the

harvest-supper.(870) The harvest-waggon, with the figure of the cock on

it, is driven round the farmhouse before it is taken to the barn. Then the

cock is nailed over or at the side of the house-door, or on the gable, and

remains there till next harvest.(871) In East Friesland the person who

gives the last stroke at threshing is called the Clucking-hen, and grain

is strewed before him as if he were a hen.(872)

(M238) Again, the corn-spirit is killed in the form of a cock. In parts of

Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Picardy the reapers place a live cock in the

corn which is to be cut last, and chase it over the field, or bury it up

to the neck in the ground; afterwards they strike off its head with a

sickle or scythe.(873) In many parts of Westphalia, when the harvesters

bring the wooden cock to the farmer, he gives them a live cock, which they

kill with whips or sticks, or behead with an old sword, or throw into the

barn to the girls, or give to the mistress to cook. If the harvest-cock

has not been spilt—that is, if no waggon has been upset—the harvesters

have the right to kill the farmyard cock by throwing stones at it or

beheading it. Where this custom has fallen into disuse, it is still common

for the farmer’s wife to make cockie-leekie for the harvesters, and to

shew them the head of the cock which has been killed for the soup.(874) In

the neighbourhood of Klausenburg, Transylvania, a cock is buried on the

harvest-field in the earth, so that only its head appears. A young man

then takes a scythe and cuts off the cock’s head at a single sweep. If he

fails to do this, he is called the Red Cock for a whole year, and people

fear that next year’s crop will be bad.(875) Near Udvarhely, in

Transylvania, a live cock is bound up in the last sheaf and killed with a

spit. It is then skinned. The flesh is thrown away, but the skin and

feathers are kept till next year; and in spring the grain from the last

sheaf is mixed with the feathers of the cock and scattered on the field

which is to be tilled.(876) Nothing could set in a clearer light the

identification of the cock with the spirit of the corn. By being tied up

in the last sheaf and killed, the cock is identified with the corn, and

its death with the cutting of the corn. By keeping its feathers till

spring, then mixing them with the seed-corn taken from the very sheaf in

which the bird had been bound, and scattering the feathers together with

the seed over the field, the identity of the bird with the corn is again

emphasised, and its quickening and fertilising power, as an embodiment of

the corn-spirit, is intimated in the plainest manner. Thus the

corn-spirit, in the form of a cock, is killed at harvest, but rises to

fresh life and activity in spring. Again, the equivalence of the cock to

the corn is expressed, hardly less plainly, in the custom of burying the

bird in the ground, and cutting off its head (like the ears of corn) with

the scythe.

§ 4. The Corn-spirit as a Hare.

(M239) Another common embodiment of the corn-spirit is the hare.(877) In

Galloway the reaping of the last standing corn is called “cutting the

Hare.” The mode of cutting it is as follows. When the rest of the corn has

been reaped, a handful is left standing to form the Hare. It is divided

into three parts and plaited, and the ears are tied in a knot. The reapers

then retire a few yards and each throws his or her sickle in turn at the

Hare to cut it down. It must be cut below the knot, and the reapers

continue to throw their sickles at it, one after the other, until one of

them succeeds in severing the stalks below the knot. The Hare is then

carried home and given to a maidservant in the kitchen, who places it over

the kitchen-door on the inside. Sometimes the Hare used to be thus kept

till the next harvest. In the parish of Minnigaff, when the Hare was cut,

the unmarried reapers ran home with all speed, and the one who arrived

first was the first to be married.(878) In Southern Ayrshire the last corn

cut is also called the Hare, and the mode of cutting it seems to be the

same as in Galloway; at least in the neighbourhood of Kilmarnock the last

corn left standing in the middle of the field is plaited, and the reapers

used to try to cut it by throwing their sickles at it. When cut, it was

carried home and hung up over the door.(879) In the Vosges Mountains the

person who cuts the last handful of hay or wheat is sometimes said to have

caught the Hare; he is congratulated by his comrades and has the honour of

carrying the nosegay or the small fir-tree decorated with ribbons which

marks the conclusion of the harvest.(880) In Germany also one of the names

for the last sheaf is the Hare.(881) Thus in some parts of Anhalt, when

the corn has been reaped and only a few stalks are left standing, they

say, “The Hare will soon come,” or the reapers cry to each other, “Look

how the Hare comes jumping out.”(882) In East Prussia they say that the

Hare sits in the last patch of standing corn, and must be chased out by

the last reaper. The reapers hurry with their work, each being anxious not

to have “to chase out the Hare”; for the man who does so, that is, who

cuts the last corn, is much laughed at.(883) At Birk, in Transylvania,

when the reapers come to the last patch, they cry out, “We have the

Hare.”(884) At Aurich, as we have seen,(885) an expression for cutting the

last corn is “to cut off the Hare’s tail.” “He is killing the Hare” is

commonly said of the man who cuts the last corn in Germany, Sweden,

Holland, France, and Italy.(886) In Norway the man who is thus said to

“kill the Hare” must give “hare’s blood” in the form of brandy, to his

fellows to drink.(887) In Lesbos, when the reapers are at work in two

neighbouring fields, each party tries to finish first in order to drive

the Hare into their neighbour’s field; the reapers who succeed in doing so

believe that next year the crop will be better. A small sheaf of corn is

made up and kept beside the holy picture till next harvest.(888)

§ 5. The Corn-spirit as a Cat.

(M240) Again, the corn-spirit sometimes takes the form of a cat. Near Kiel

children are warned not to go into the corn-fields because “the Cat sits

there.” In the Eisenach Oberland they are told “the Corn-cat will come and

fetch you,” “the Corn-cat goes in the corn.” In some parts of Silesia at

mowing the last corn they say, “The Cat is caught”; and at threshing, the

man who gives the last stroke is called the Cat. In the neighbourhood of

Lyons the last sheaf and the harvest-supper are both called the Cat. About

Vesoul when they cut the last corn they say, “We have the Cat by the

tail.” At Briançon, in Dauphiné, at the beginning of reaping a cat is

decked out with ribbons, flowers, and ears of corn. It is called the Cat

of the ball-skin (_le chat de peau de balle_). If a reaper is wounded at

his work, they make the cat lick the wound. At the close of the reaping

the cat is again decked out with ribbons and ears of corn; then they dance

and make merry. When the dance is over the girls solemnly strip the cat of

its finery. At Grüneberg, in Silesia, the reaper who cuts the last corn

goes by the name of the Tom-cat. He is enveloped in rye-stalks and green

withes, and is furnished with a long plaited tail. Sometimes as a

companion he has a man similarly dressed, who is called the (female) Cat.

Their duty is to run after people whom they see and to beat them with a

long stick. Near Amiens the expression for finishing the harvest is, “They

are going to kill the Cat”; and when the last corn is cut they kill a cat

in the farmyard. At threshing, in some parts of France, a live cat is

placed under the last bundle of corn to be threshed, and is struck dead

with the flails. Then on Sunday it is roasted and eaten as a holiday

dish.(889) In the Vosges Mountains the close of haymaking or harvest is

called “catching the cat,” “killing the dog,” or more rarely “catching the

hare.” The cat, the dog, or the hare is said to be fat or lean according

as the crop is good or bad. The man who cuts the last handful of hay or of

wheat is said to catch the cat or the hare or to kill the dog. He is

congratulated by his comrades and has the honour of carrying the nosegay

or rather the small fir-tree decked with ribbons which marks the end of

the haymaking or of the harvest.(890) In Franche-Comté also the close of

harvest is called “catching or killing the cat.”(891)

§ 6. The Corn-spirit as a Goat.

(M241) Further, the corn-spirit often appears in the form of a goat. In

some parts of Prussia, when the corn bends before the wind, they say, “The

Goats are chasing each other,” “the wind is driving the Goats through the

corn,” “the Goats are browsing there,” and they expect a very good

harvest. Again they say, “The Oats-goat is sitting in the oats-field,”

“the Corn-goat is sitting in the rye-field.”(892) Children are warned not

to go into the corn-fields to pluck the blue corn-flowers, or amongst the

beans to pluck pods, because the Rye-goat, the Corn-goat, the Oats-goat,

or the Bean-goat is sitting or lying there, and will carry them away or

kill them.(893) When a harvester is taken sick or lags behind his fellows

at their work, they call out, “The Harvest-goat has pushed him,” “he has

been pushed by the Corn-goat.”(894) In the neighbourhood of Braunsberg

(East Prussia) at binding the oats every harvester makes haste “lest the

Corn-goat push him.” At Oefoten, in Norway, each reaper has his allotted

patch to reap. When a reaper in the middle has not finished reaping his

piece after his neighbours have finished theirs, they say of him, “He

remains on the island.” And if the laggard is a man, they imitate the cry

with which they call a he-goat; if a woman, the cry with which they call a

she-goat.(895) Near Straubing, in Lower Bavaria, it is said of the man who

cuts the last corn that “he has the Corn-goat, or the Wheat-goat, or the

Oats-goat,” according to the crop. Moreover, two horns are set up on the

last heap of corn, and it is called “the horned Goat.” At Kreutzburg, East

Prussia, they call out to the woman who is binding the last sheaf, “The

Goat is sitting in the sheaf.”(896) At Gablingen, in Swabia, when the last

field of oats upon a farm is being reaped, the reapers carve a goat out of

wood. Ears of oats are inserted in its nostrils and mouth, and it is

adorned with garlands of flowers. It is set up on the field and called the

Oats-goat. When the reaping approaches an end, each reaper hastens to

finish his piece first; he who is the last to finish gets the

Oats-goat.(897) Again, the last sheaf is itself called the Goat. Thus, in

the valley of the Wiesent, Bavaria, the last sheaf bound on the field is

called the Goat, and they have a proverb, “The field must bear a

goat.”(898) At Spachbrücken, in Hesse, the last handful of corn which is

cut is called the Goat, and the man who cuts it is much ridiculed.(899) At

Dürrenbüchig and about Mosbach in Baden the last sheaf is also called the

Goat.(900) Sometimes the last sheaf is made up in the form of a goat, and

they say, “The Goat is sitting in it.”(901) Again, the person who cuts or

binds the last sheaf is called the Goat. Thus, in parts of Mecklenburg

they call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, “You are the

Harvest-goat.” Near Uelzen, in Hanover, the harvest festival begins with

“the bringing of the Harvest-goat”; that is, the woman who bound the last

sheaf is wrapt in straw, crowned with a harvest-wreath, and brought in a

wheelbarrow to the village, where a round dance takes place. About

Luneburg, also, the woman who binds the last corn is decked with a crown

of corn-ears and is called the Corn-goat.(902) At Münzesheim in Baden the

reaper who cuts the last handful of corn or oats is called the Corn-goat

or the Oats-goat.(903) In the Canton St. Gall, Switzerland, the person who

cuts the last handful of corn on the field, or drives the last

harvest-waggon to the barn, is called the Corn-goat or the Rye-goat, or

simply the Goat.(904) In the Canton Thurgau he is called Corn-goat; like a

goat he has a bell hung round his neck, is led in triumph, and drenched

with liquor. In parts of Styria, also, the man who cuts the last corn is

called Corn-goat, Oats-goat, or the like. As a rule, the man who thus gets

the name of Corn-goat has to bear it a whole year till the next

harvest.(905)

(M242) According to one view, the corn-spirit, who has been caught in the

form of a goat or otherwise, lives in the farmhouse or barn over winter.

Thus, each farm has its own embodiment of the corn-spirit. But, according

to another view, the corn-spirit is the genius or deity, not of the corn

of one farm only, but of all the corn. Hence when the corn on one farm is

all cut, he flees to another where there is still corn left standing. This

idea is brought out in a harvest-custom which was formerly observed in

Skye. The farmer who first finished reaping sent a man or woman with a

sheaf to a neighbouring farmer who had not finished; the latter in his

turn, when he had finished, sent on the sheaf to his neighbour who was

still reaping; and so the sheaf made the round of the farms till all the

corn was cut. The sheaf was called the _goabbir bhacagh_, that is, the

Cripple Goat.(906) The custom appears not to be extinct at the present

day, for it was reported from Skye only a few years ago. We are told that

when the crofters and small farmers are cutting down their corn, each

tries his best to finish before his neighbour. The first to finish goes to

his neighbour’s field and makes up at one end of it a bundle of sheaves in

a fanciful shape which goes by the name of the _gobhar bhacach_ or Lame

Goat. As each man in succession finishes reaping his field, he proceeds to

set up a lame goat of this sort in his neighbour’s field where there is

still corn standing. No one likes to have the Lame Goat put in his field,

“not from any ill-luck it brings, but because it is humiliating to have it

standing there visible to all neighbours and passers-by, and of course he

cannot retaliate.”(907) The corn-spirit was probably thus represented as

lame because he had been crippled by the cutting of the corn. We have seen

that sometimes the old woman who brings home the last sheaf must limp on

one foot.(908) In the Böhmer Wald mountains, between Bohemia and Bavaria,

when two peasants are driving home their corn together, they race against

each other to see who shall get home first. The village boys mark the

loser in the race, and at night they come and erect on the roof of his

house the Oats-goat, which is a colossal figure of a goat made of

straw.(909)

(M243) But sometimes the corn-spirit, in the form of a goat, is believed

to be slain on the harvest-field by the sickle or scythe. Thus, in the

neighbourhood of Bernkastel, on the Moselle, the reapers determine by lot

the order in which they shall follow each other. The first is called the

fore-reaper, the last the tail-bearer. If a reaper overtakes the man in

front he reaps past him, bending round so as to leave the slower reaper in

a patch by himself. This patch is called the Goat; and the man for whom

“the Goat is cut” in this way, is laughed and jeered at by his fellows for

the rest of the day. When the tail-bearer cuts the last ears of corn, it

is said, “He is cutting the Goat’s neck off.”(910) In the neighbourhood of

Grenoble, before the end of the reaping, a live goat is adorned with

flowers and ribbons and allowed to run about the field. The reapers chase

it and try to catch it. When it is caught, the farmer’s wife holds it fast

while the farmer cuts off its head. The goat’s flesh serves to furnish the

harvest-supper. A piece of the flesh is pickled and kept till the next

harvest, when another goat is killed. Then all the harvesters eat of the

flesh. On the same day the skin of the goat is made into a cloak, which

the farmer, who works with his men, must always wear at harvest-time if

rain or bad weather sets in. But if a reaper gets pains in his back, the

farmer gives him the goat-skin to wear.(911) The reason for this seems to

be that the pains in the back, being inflicted by the corn-spirit, can

also be healed by it. Similarly, we saw that elsewhere, when a reaper is

wounded at reaping, a cat, as the representative of the corn-spirit, is

made to lick the wound.(912) Esthonian reapers in the island of Mon think

that the man who cuts the first ears of corn at harvest will get pains in

his back,(913) probably because the corn-spirit is believed to resent

especially the first wound; and, in order to escape pains in the back,

Saxon reapers in Transylvania gird their loins with the first handful of

ears which they cut.(914) Here, again, the corn-spirit is applied to for

healing or protection, but in his original vegetable form, not in the form

of a goat or a cat.

(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)

(M246) Sometimes the spirit of the corn in goat form is believed to be

killed at threshing. In the district of Traunstein, Upper Bavaria, they

think that the Oats-goat is in the last sheaf of oats. He is represented

by an old rake set up on end, with an old pot for a head. The children are

then told to kill the Oats-goat.(923) Elsewhere, however, the corn-spirit

in the form of a goat is apparently thought to live in the field

throughout the winter. Hence at Wannefeld near Gardelegen, and also

between Calbe and Salzwedel, in the Altmark, the last stalks used to be

left uncut on the harvest-field with the words, “That shall the He-goat

keep!” Evidently the last corn was here left as a provision for the

corn-spirit, lest, robbed of all his substance, he should die of hunger. A

stranger passing a harvest-field is sometimes taken for the Corn-goat

escaping in human shape from the cut or threshed grain. Thus, when a

stranger passes a harvest-field, all the labourers stop and shout as with

one voice, “He-goat! He-goat!” At rape-seed threshing in Schleswig, which

is generally done on the field, the same cry is raised if the stranger

does not take off his hat.(924)

(M247) At sowing their winter corn the old Prussians used to kill a goat,

consume its flesh with many superstitious ceremonies, and hang the skin on

a high pole near an oak and a large stone. There it remained till harvest,

when a great bunch of corn and herbs was fastened to the pole above the

goat-skin. Then, after a prayer had been offered by a peasant who acted as

priest (_Weidulut_), the young folks joined hands and danced round the oak

and the pole. Afterwards they scrambled for the bunch of corn, and the

priest distributed the herbs with a sparing hand. Then he placed the

goat-skin on the large stone, sat down on it, and preached to the people

about the history of their forefathers and their old heathen customs and

beliefs.(925) The goat-skin thus suspended on the field from sowing time

to harvest perhaps represents the corn-spirit superintending the growth of

the corn. The Tomori of Central Celebes imagine that the spirits which

cause rice to grow have the form of great goats with long hair and long

lips.(926)

§ 7. The Corn-spirit as a Bull, Cow, or Ox.

(M248) Another form which the corn-spirit often assumes is that of a bull,

cow, or ox. When the wind sweeps over the corn they say at Conitz, in West

Prussia, “The Steer is running in the corn”;(927) when the corn is thick

and strong in one spot, they say in some parts of East Prussia, “The Bull

is lying in the corn.” When a harvester has overstrained and lamed

himself, they say in the Graudenz district of West Prussia, “The Bull

pushed him”; in Lothringen they say, “He has the Bull.” The meaning of

both expressions is that he has unwittingly lighted upon the divine

corn-spirit, who has punished the profane intruder with lameness.(928) So

near Chambéry when a reaper wounds himself with his sickle, it is said

that he has “the wound of the Ox.”(929) In the district of Bunzlau

(Silesia) the last sheaf is sometimes made into the shape of a horned ox,

stuffed with tow and wrapt in corn-ears. This figure is called the Old

Man. In some parts of Bohemia the last sheaf is made up in human form and

called the Buffalo-bull.(930) These cases shew a confusion of the human

with the animal shape of the corn-spirit. The confusion is like that of

killing a wether under the name of a wolf.(931) In the Canton of Thurgau,

Switzerland, the last sheaf, if it is a large one, is called the Cow.(932)

All over Swabia the last bundle of corn on the field is called the Cow;

the man who cuts the last ears “has the Cow,” and is himself called Cow or

Barley-cow or Oats-cow, according to the crop; at the harvest-supper he

gets a nosegay of flowers and corn-ears and a more liberal allowance of

drink than the rest. But he is teased and laughed at; so no one likes to

be the Cow.(933) The Cow was sometimes represented by the figure of a

woman made out of ears of corn and corn-flowers. It was carried to the

farmhouse by the man who had cut the last handful of corn. The children

ran after him and the neighbours turned out to laugh at him, till the

farmer took the Cow from him.(934) 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.(935) 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!”(936) On the other hand, in the

district of Rosenheim, Upper Bavaria, when a farmer is later of 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. Attached to it is a

label on which are scrawled doggerel verses in ridicule of the man on

whose land the Straw-bull is set up.(937)

(M249) 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 slaughters 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 thrice 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 chosen 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 tools. 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.(938)

(M250) Sometimes again the corn-spirit hides himself amongst the cut corn

in the barn to reappear in bull or cow form at threshing. Thus at

Wurmlingen, in Thüringen, the man who gives the last stroke at threshing

is called the Cow, or rather the Barley-cow, Oats-cow, Peas-cow, or the

like, according to the crop. He is entirely enveloped in straw; his head

is surmounted by sticks in imitation of horns, and two lads lead him by

ropes to the well to drink. On the way thither he must low like a cow, and

for a long time afterwards he goes by the name of the Cow.(939) At

Obermedlingen, in Swabia, when the threshing draws near an end, each man

is careful to avoid giving the last stroke. He who does give it “gets the

Cow,” which is a straw figure dressed in an old ragged petticoat, hood,

and stockings. It is tied on his back with a straw-rope; his face is

blackened, and being bound with straw-ropes to a wheelbarrow he is wheeled

round the village.(940) Here, again, we meet with that confusion between

the human and animal shape of the corn-spirit which we have noted in other

customs. In Canton Schaffhausen the man who threshes the last corn is

called the Cow; in Canton Thurgau, the Corn-bull; in Canton Zurich, the

Thresher-cow. In the last-mentioned district he is wrapt in straw and

bound to one of the trees in the orchard.(941) At Arad, in Hungary, the

man who gives the last stroke at threshing is enveloped in straw and a

cow’s hide with the horns attached to it.(942) At Pessnitz, in the

district of Dresden, the man who gives the last stroke with the flail is

called Bull. He must make a straw-man and set it up before a neighbour’s

window.(943) Here, apparently, as in so many cases, the corn-spirit is

passed on to a neighbour who has not finished threshing. So at

Herbrechtingen, in Thüringen, the effigy of a ragged old woman is flung

into the barn of the farmer who is last with his threshing. The man who

throws it in cries, “There is the Cow for you.” If the threshers catch him

they detain him over night and punish him by keeping him from the

harvest-supper.(944) In these latter customs the confusion between the

human and the animal shape of the corn-spirit meets us again.

(M251) Further, the corn-spirit in bull form is sometimes believed to be

killed at threshing. At Auxerre, in threshing the last bundle of corn,

they call out twelve times, “We are killing the Bull.” In the

neighbourhood of Bordeaux, where a butcher kills an ox on the field

immediately after the close of the reaping, it is said of the man who

gives the last stroke at threshing that “he has killed the Bull.”(945) At

Chambéry the last sheaf is called the sheaf of the Young Ox, and a race

takes place to it in which all the reapers join. When the last stroke is

given at threshing they say that “the Ox is killed”; and immediately

thereupon a real ox is slaughtered by the reaper who cut the last corn.

The flesh of the ox is eaten by the threshers at supper.(946)

(M252) We have seen that sometimes the young corn-spirit, whose task it is

to quicken the corn of the coming year, is believed to be born as a

Corn-baby on the harvest-field.(947) Similarly in Berry the young

corn-spirit is sometimes supposed to be born on the field in calf form;

for when a binder has not rope enough to bind all the corn in sheaves, he

puts aside the wheat that remains over and imitates the lowing of a cow.

The meaning is that “the sheaf has given birth to a calf.”(948) In

Puy-de-Dôme when a binder cannot keep up with the reaper whom he or she

follows, they say “He (or she) is giving birth to the Calf.”(949) In some

parts of Prussia, in similar circumstances, they call out to the woman,

“The Bull is coming,” and imitate the bellowing of a bull.(950) In these

cases the woman is conceived as the Corn-cow or old corn-spirit, while the

supposed calf is the Corn-calf or young corn-spirit. In some parts of

Austria a mythical calf (_Muhkälbchen_) is believed to be seen amongst the

sprouting corn in spring and to push the children; when the corn waves in

the wind they say, “The Calf is going about.” Clearly, as Mannhardt

observes, this calf of the spring-time is the same animal which is

afterwards believed to be killed at reaping.(951)

§ 8. The Corn-spirit as a Horse or Mare.

(M253) Sometimes the corn-spirit appears in the shape of a horse or mare.

Between Kalw and Stuttgart, when the corn bends before the wind, they say,

“There runs the Horse.”(952) At Bohlingen, near Radolfzell in Baden, the

last sheaf of oats is called the Oats-stallion.(953) In Hertfordshire, at

the end of the reaping, there is or used to be observed a ceremony called

“crying the Mare.” The last blades of corn left standing on the field are

tied together and called the Mare. The reapers stand at a distance and

throw their sickles at it; he who cuts it through “has the prize, with

acclamations and good cheer.” After it is cut the reapers cry thrice with

a loud voice, “I have her!” Others answer thrice, “What have you?”—“A

Mare! a Mare! a Mare!”—“Whose is she?” is next asked thrice. “A. B.’s,”

naming the owner thrice. “Whither will you send her?”—“To C. D.,” naming

some neighbour who has not reaped all his corn.(954) In this custom the

corn-spirit in the form of a mare is passed on from a farm where the corn

is all cut to another farm where it is still standing, and where therefore

the corn-spirit may be supposed naturally to take refuge. In Shropshire

the custom is similar. “Crying, calling, or shouting the mare is a

ceremony performed by the men of that farm which is the first in any

parish or district to finish the harvest. The object of it is to make

known their own prowess, and to taunt the laggards by a pretended offer of

the ‘owd mar’’ [old mare] to help out their ‘chem’ [team]. All the men

assemble (the wooden harvest-bottle being of course one of the company) in

the stackyard, or, better, on the highest ground on the farm, and there

shout the following dialogue, preceding it by a grand ‘Hip, hip, hip,

hurrah!’

“ ‘I ’ave ’er, I ’ave ’er, I ’ave ’er!’

“ ‘Whad ’ast thee, whad ’ast thee, whad ’ast thee?’

“ ‘A mar’! a mar’! a mar’!’

“ ‘Whose is ’er, whose is ’er, whose is ’er?’

“ ‘Maister A.’s, Maister A.’s, Maister A.’s!’ (naming the farmer whose

harvest is finished).

“ ‘W’eer sha’t the’ send ’er? w’eer sha’t the’ send ’er? w’eer sha’t the’

send ’er?’

“ ‘To Maister B.’s, to Maister B.’s, to Maister B.’s’ (naming one whose

harvest is _not_ finished).

“ ‘’Uth a hip, hip, hip, hurrah!’ (in chorus).”

The farmer who finishes his harvest last, and who therefore cannot send

the Mare to any one else, is said “to keep her all winter.” The mocking

offer of the Mare was sometimes responded to by a mocking acceptance of

her help. Thus an old man told an enquirer, “While we wun at supper, a mon

cumm’d wi’ a autar [halter] to fatch her away.” But at one place (Longnor,

near Leebotwood), down to about 1850, the Mare used really to be sent.

“The head man of the farmer who had finished harvest first was mounted on

the best horse of the team—the leader—both horse and man being adorned

with ribbons, streamers, etc. Thus arrayed, a boy on foot led the pair in

triumph to the neighbouring farmhouses. Sometimes the man who took the

‘mare’ received, as well as plenty of harvest-ale, some rather rough,

though good-humoured, treatment, coming back minus his decorations, and so

on.”(955)

(M254) In the neighbourhood of Lille the idea of the corn-spirit in horse

form is clearly preserved. When a harvester grows weary at his work, it is

said, “He has the fatigue of the Horse.” The first sheaf, called the

“Cross of the Horse,” is placed on a cross of boxwood in the barn, and the

youngest horse on the farm must tread on it. The reapers dance round the

last blades of corn, crying, “See the remains of the Horse.” The sheaf

made out of these last blades is given to the youngest horse of the parish

(_commune_) to eat. This youngest horse of the parish clearly represents,

as Mannhardt says, the corn-spirit of the following year, the Corn-foal,

which absorbs the spirit of the old Corn-horse by eating the last corn

cut; for, as usual, the old corn-spirit takes his final refuge in the last

sheaf. The thresher of the last sheaf is said to “beat the Horse.”(956)

Again, a trace of the horse-shaped corn-spirit is reported from Berry. The

harvesters there are accustomed to take a noonday nap in the field. This

is called “seeing the Horse.” The leader or “King” of the harvesters gives

the signal for going to sleep. If he delays giving the signal, one of the

harvesters will begin to neigh like a horse, the rest imitate him, and

then they all go “to see the Horse.”(957)

§ 9. The Corn-spirit as a Bird.

(M255) Sometimes the corn-spirit assumes the form of a bird. Thus among

the Saxons of the Bistritz district in Transylvania there is a saying that

the quail is sitting in the last standing stalks on the harvest-field, and

all the reapers rush at these stalks in order, as they say, to catch the

quail.(958) Exactly the same expression is used by reapers in Austrian

Silesia when they are about to cut the last standing corn, whatever the

kind of grain may be.(959) In the Bocage of Normandy, when the reapers

have come to the last ears of the last rig, they surround them for the

purpose of catching the quail, which is supposed to have taken refuge

there. They run about the corn crying, “Mind the Quail!” and make believe

to grab at the bird amid shouts and laughter.(960) Connected with this

identification of the corn-spirit with a quail is probably the belief that

the cry of the bird in spring is prophetic of the price of corn in the

autumn; in Germany they say that corn will sell at as many gulden a bushel

as the quail uttered its cry over the fields in spring. Similar

prognostications are drawn from the note of the bird in central and

western France, in Switzerland and in Tuscany.(961) Perhaps one reason for

identifying the quail with the corn-spirit is that the bird lays its eggs

on the ground, without making much of a nest.(962) Similarly the Toradjas

of Central Celebes think that the soul of the rice is embodied in a pretty

little blue bird which builds its nest in the rice-field at the time when

the rice is beginning to germinate, and which disappears again after the

harvest. Thus both the place and the time of the appearance of the bird

suggest to the natives the notion that the blue bird is the rice

incarnate. And like the note of the quail in Europe the note of this

little bird in Celebes is believed to prognosticate the state of the

harvest, foretelling whether the rice will be abundant or scarce. Nobody

may drive the bird away; to do so would not merely injure the rice, it

would hurt the eyes of the sacrilegious person and might even strike him

blind. In Minahassa, a district in the north of Celebes, a similar though

less definite belief attaches to a sort of small quail which loves to

haunt the rice-fields before the rice is reaped; and when the Galelareeze

of Halmahera hear a certain kind of bird, which they call _togè_, croaking

among the rice in ear, they say that the bird is putting the grain into

the rice, so they will not kill it.(963)

§ 10. The Corn-spirit as a Fox.

(M256) Another animal whose shape the corn-spirit is sometimes thought to

assume is the fox. The conception is recorded at various places in Germany

and France. Thus at Nördlingen in Bavaria, when the corn waves to and fro

in the wind, they say, “The fox goes through the corn,” and at Usingen in

Nassau they say, “The foxes are marching through the corn.” At Ravensberg,

in Westphalia, and at Steinau, in Kurhessen, children are warned against

straying in the corn, “because the Fox is there.” At Campe, near Stade,

when they are about to cut the last corn, they call out to the reaper,

“The Fox is sitting there, hold him fast!” In the Department of the

Moselle they say, “Watch whether the Fox comes out.” In Bourbonnais the

expression is, “You will catch the Fox.” When a reaper wounds himself or

is sick at reaping, they say in the Lower Loire that “He has the Fox.” In

Côte-d’or they say, “He has killed the Fox.” At Louhans, in

Sâone-et-Loire, when the reapers are cutting the last corn they leave a

handful standing and throw their sickles at it. He who hits it is called

the Fox, and two girls deck his bonnet with flowers. In the evening there

is a dance, at which the Fox dances with all the girls. The supper which

follows is also called the Fox; they say, “We have eaten the Fox,” meaning

that they have partaken of the harvest-supper. In the Canton of Zurich the

last sheaf is called the Fox. At Bourgogne, in Ain, they cry out, “The Fox

is sitting in the last sheaf,” and having made the figure of an animal out

of white cloth and some ears of the last corn, they dub it the Fox and

throw it into the house of a neighbour who has not yet got in all his

harvest.(964) In Poitou, when the corn is being reaped in a district, all

the reapers strive to finish as quickly as possible in order that they may

send “the Fox” to the fields of a farmer who has not yet garnered his

sheaves. The man who cuts the last handful of standing corn is said to

“have the Fox.” This last handful is carried to the farmer’s house and

occupies a place on the table during the harvest-supper; and the custom is

to drench it with water. After that it is set up on the chimney-piece and

remains there the whole year.(965) At threshing, also, in Sâone-et-Loire,

the last sheaf is called the Fox; in Lot they say, “We are going to beat

the Fox”; and at Zabern in Alsace they set a stuffed fox before the door

of the threshing-floor of a neighbour who has not finished his

threshing.(966) With this conception of the fox as an embodiment of the

corn-spirit may possibly be connected an old custom, observed in Holstein

and Westphalia, of carrying a dead or living fox from house to house in

spring; the intention of the custom was perhaps to diffuse the refreshing

and invigorating influence of the reawakened spirit of vegetation.(967) In

Japan the rice-god Inari is represented as an elderly man with a long

beard riding on a white fox, and the fox is always associated with this

deity. In front of his shrines may usually be seen a pair of foxes carved

in wood or stone.(968)

§ 11. The Corn-spirit as a Pig (Boar or Sow).

(M257) The last animal embodiment of the corn-spirit which we shall notice

is the pig (boar or sow). In Thüringen, when the wind sets the young corn

in motion, they sometimes say, “The Boar is rushing through the

corn.”(969) Amongst the Esthonians of the island of Oesel the last sheaf

is called the Rye-boar, and the man who gets it is saluted with a cry of

“You have the Rye-boar on your back!” In reply he strikes up a song, in

which he prays for plenty.(970) At Kohlerwinkel, near Augsburg, at the

close of the harvest, the last bunch of standing corn is cut down, stalk

by stalk, by all the reapers in turn. He who cuts the last stalk “gets the

Sow,” and is laughed at.(971) In other Swabian villages also the man who

cuts the last corn “has the Sow,” or “has the Rye-sow.”(972) In the

Traunstein district, Upper Bavaria, the man who cuts the last handful of

rye or wheat “has the Sow,” and is called Sow-driver.(973) At Bohlingen,

near Radolfzell in Baden, the last sheaf is called the Rye-sow or the

Wheat-sow, according to the crop; and at Röhrenbach in Baden the person

who brings the last armful for the last sheaf is called the Corn-sow or

the Oats-sow. And in the south-east of Baden the thresher who gives the

last stroke at threshing, or is the last to hang up his flail on the wall,

is called the Sow or the Rye-sow.(974) At Friedingen, in Swabia, the

thresher who gives the last stroke is called Sow—Barley-sow, Corn-sow, or

the like, according to the crop. At Onstmettingen the man who gives the

last stroke at threshing “has the Sow”; he is often bound up in a sheaf

and dragged by a rope along the ground.(975) And, generally, in Swabia the

man who gives the last stroke with the flail is called Sow. He may,

however, rid himself of this invidious distinction by passing on to a

neighbour the straw-rope, which is the badge of his position as Sow. So he

goes to a house and throws the straw-rope into it, crying, “There, I bring

you the Sow.” All the inmates give chase; and if they catch him they beat

him, shut him up for several hours in the pig-sty, and oblige him to take

the “Sow” away again.(976) In various parts of Upper Bavaria the man who

gives the last stroke at threshing must “carry the Pig”—that is, either a

straw effigy of a pig or merely a bundle of straw-ropes. This he carries

to a neighbouring farm where the threshing is not finished, and throws it

into the barn. If the threshers catch him they handle him roughly, beating

him, blackening or dirtying his face, throwing him into filth, binding the

Sow on his back, and so on; if the bearer of the Sow is a woman they cut

off her hair. At the harvest supper or dinner the man who “carried the

Pig” gets one or more dumplings made in the form of pigs; sometimes he

gets a large dumpling and a number of small ones, all in pig form, the

large one being called the sow and the small ones the sucking-pigs.

Sometimes he has the right to be the first to put his hand into the dish

and take out as many small dumplings (“sucking-pigs”) as he can, while the

other threshers strike at his hand with spoons or sticks. When the

dumplings are served up by the maid-servant, all the people at table cry

“Süz, süz, süz!” that being the cry used in calling pigs. Sometimes after

dinner the man who “carried the Pig” has his face blackened, and is set on

a cart and drawn round the village by his fellows, followed by a crowd

crying “Süz, süz, süz!” as if they were calling swine. Sometimes, after

being wheeled round the village, he is flung on the dunghill.(977)

(M258) Again, the corn-spirit in the form of a pig plays his part at

sowing-time as well as at harvest At Neuautz, in Courland, when barley is

sown for the first time in the year, the farmer’s wife boils the chine of

a pig along with the tail, and brings it to the sower on the field. He

eats of it, but cuts off the tail and sticks it in the field; it is

believed that the ears of corn will then grow as long as the tail.(978)

Here the pig is the corn-spirit, whose fertilising power is sometimes

supposed to lie especially in his tail.(979) As a pig he is put in the

ground at sowing-time, and as a pig he reappears amongst the ripe corn at

harvest. For amongst the neighbouring Esthonians, as we have seen,(980)

the last sheaf is called the Rye-boar. Somewhat similar customs are

observed in Germany. In the Salza district, near Meiningen, a certain bone

in the pig is called “the Jew on the winnowing-fan.” The flesh of this

bone is boiled on Shrove Tuesday, but the bone is put amongst the ashes

which the neighbours exchange as presents on St. Peter’s Day (the

twenty-second of February), and then mix with the seed-corn.(981) In the

whole of Hesse, Meiningen, and other districts, people eat pea-soup with

dried pig-ribs on Ash Wednesday or Candlemas. The ribs are then collected

and hung in the room till sowing-time, when they are inserted in the sown

field or in the seed-bag amongst the flax seed. This is thought to be an

infallible specific against earth-fleas and moles, and to cause the flax

to grow well and tall.(982) In many parts of White Russia people eat a

roast lamb or sucking-pig at Easter, and then throw the bones backwards

upon the fields, to preserve the corn from hail.(983)

(M259) But the idea of the corn-spirit as embodied in pig form is nowhere

more clearly expressed than in the Scandinavian custom of the Yule Boar.

In Sweden and Denmark at Yule (Christmas) it is the custom to bake a loaf

in the form of a boar-pig. This is called the Yule Boar. The corn of the

last sheaf is often used to make it. All through Yule the Yule Boar stands

on the table. Often it is kept till the sowing-time in spring, when part

of it is mixed with the seed-corn and part given to the ploughmen and

plough-horses or plough-oxen to eat, in the expectation of a good

harvest.(984) In this custom the corn-spirit, immanent in the last sheaf,

appears at midwinter in the form of a boar made from the corn of the last

sheaf; and his quickening influence on the corn is shewn by mixing part of

the Yule Boar with the seed-corn, and giving part of it to the ploughman

and his cattle to eat. Similarly we saw that the Corn-wolf makes his

appearance at midwinter, the time when the year begins to verge towards

spring.(985) We may conjecture that the Yule straw, which Swedish peasants

turn to various superstitious uses, comes, in part at least, from the

sheaf out of which the Yule Boar is made. The Yule straw is long

rye-straw, a portion of which is always set apart for this season. It is

strewn over the floor at Christmas, and the peasants attribute many

virtues to it. For example, they think that some of it scattered on the

ground will make a barren field productive. Again, the peasant at

Christmas seats himself on a log; and his eldest son or daughter, or the

mother herself, if the children are not old enough, places a wisp of the

Yule straw on his knee. From this he draws out single straws, and throws

them, one by one, up to the ceiling; and as many as lodge in the rafters,

so many will be the sheaves of rye he will have to thresh at harvest.(986)

Again, it is only the Yule straw which may be used in binding the

fruit-trees as a charm to fertilise them.(987) These uses of the Yule

straw shew that it is believed to possess fertilising virtues analogous to

those ascribed to the Yule Boar; we may therefore fairly conjecture that

the Yule straw is made from the same sheaf as the Yule Boar. Formerly a

real boar was sacrificed at Christmas,(988) and apparently also a man in

the character of the Yule Boar. This, at least, may perhaps be inferred

from a Christmas custom still observed in Sweden. A man is wrapt up in a

skin, and carries a wisp of straw in his mouth, so that the projecting

straws look like the bristles of a boar. A knife is brought, and an old

woman, with her face blackened, pretends to sacrifice him.(989)

(M260) On Christmas Eve in some parts of the Esthonian island of Oesel

they bake a long cake with the two ends turned up. It is called the

Christmas Boar, and stands on the table till the morning of New Year’s

Day, when it is distributed among the cattle. In other parts of the island

the Christmas Boar is not a cake but a little pig born in March, which the

housewife fattens secretly, often without the knowledge of the other

members of the family. On Christmas Eve the little pig is secretly killed,

then roasted in the oven, and set on the table standing on all fours,

where it remains in this posture for several days. In other parts of the

island, again, though the Christmas cake has neither the name nor the

shape of a boar, it is kept till the New Year, when half of it is divided

among all the members and all the quadrupeds of the family. The other half

of the cake is kept till sowing-time comes round, when it is similarly

distributed in the morning among human beings and beasts.(990) In other

parts of Esthonia, again, the Christmas Boar, as it is called, is baked of

the first rye cut at harvest; it has a conical shape and a cross is

impressed on it with a pig’s bone or a key, or three dints are made in it

with a buckle or a piece of charcoal. It stands with a light beside it on

the table all through the festal season. On New Year’s Day and Epiphany,

before sunrise, a little of the cake is crumbled with salt and given to

the cattle. The rest is kept till the day when the cattle are driven out

to pasture for the first time in spring. It is then put in the herdsman’s

bag, and at evening is divided among the cattle to guard them from magic

and harm. In some places the Christmas Boar is partaken of by

farm-servants and cattle at the time of the barley sowing, for the purpose

of thereby producing a heavier crop.(991)

§ 12. On the Animal Embodiments of the Corn-spirit.

(M261) So much for the animal embodiments of the corn-spirit as they are

presented to us in the folk-customs of Northern Europe. These customs

bring out clearly the sacramental character of the harvest-supper. The

corn-spirit is conceived as embodied in an animal; this divine animal is

slain, and its flesh and blood are partaken of by the harvesters. Thus,

the cock, the goose, the hare, the cat, the goat, and the ox are eaten

sacramentally by the harvesters, and the pig is eaten sacramentally by

ploughmen in spring.(992) Again, as a substitute for the real flesh of the

divine being, bread or dumplings are made in his image and eaten

sacramentally; thus, pig-shaped dumplings are eaten by the harvesters, and

loaves made in boar-shape (the Yule Boar) are eaten in spring by the

ploughman and his cattle.

(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.

(M263) Other animal forms assumed by the corn-spirit are the stag, roe,

sheep, bear, ass, mouse, stork, swan, and kite.(993) If it is asked why

the corn-spirit should be thought to appear in the form of an animal and

of so many different animals, we may reply that to primitive man the

simple appearance of an animal or bird among the corn is probably enough

to suggest a mysterious link between the creature and the corn; and when

we remember that in the old days, before fields were fenced in, all kinds

of animals must have been free to roam over them, we need not wonder that

the corn-spirit should have been identified even with large animals like

the horse and cow, which nowadays could not, except by a rare accident, be

found straying in an English corn-field. This explanation applies with

peculiar force to the very common case in which the animal embodiment of

the corn-spirit is believed to lurk in the last standing corn. For at

harvest a number of wild animals, such as hares, rabbits, and partridges,

are commonly driven by the progress of the reaping into the last patch of

standing corn, and make their escape from it as it is being cut down. So

regularly does this happen that reapers and others often stand round the

last patch of corn armed with sticks or guns, with which they kill the

animals as they dart out of their last refuge among the stalks. Now,

primitive man, to whom magical changes of shape seem perfectly credible,

finds it most natural that the spirit of the corn, driven from his home in

the ripe grain, should make his escape in the form of the animal which is

seen to rush out of the last patch of corn as it falls under the scythe of

the reaper. Thus the identification of the corn-spirit with an animal is

analogous to the identification of him with a passing stranger. As the

sudden appearance of a stranger near the harvest-field or threshing-floor

is, to the primitive mind, enough to identify him as the spirit of the

corn escaping from the cut or threshed corn, so the sudden appearance of

an animal issuing from the cut corn is enough to identify it with the

corn-spirit escaping from his ruined home. The two identifications are so

analogous that they can hardly be dissociated in any attempt to explain

them. Those who look to some other principle than the one here suggested

for the explanation of the latter identification are bound to shew that

their theory covers the former identification also.

NOTE. THE PLEIADES IN PRIMITIVE CALENDARS.

(M264) The constellation of the Pleiades plays an important part in the

calendar of primitive peoples, both in the northern and in the southern

hemisphere; indeed for reasons which at first sight are not obvious

savages appear to have paid more attention to this constellation than to

any other group of stars in the sky, and in particular they have commonly

timed the various operations of the agricultural year by observation of

its heliacal rising or setting. Some evidence on the subject was adduced

by the late Dr. Richard Andree,(994) but much more exists, and it may be

worth while to put certain of the facts together.

(M265) In the first place it deserves to be noticed that great attention

has been paid to the Pleiades by savages in the southern hemisphere who do

not till the ground, and who therefore lack that incentive to observe the

stars which is possessed by peoples in the agricultural stage of society;

for we can scarcely doubt that in early ages the practical need of

ascertaining the proper seasons for sowing and planting has done more than

mere speculative curiosity to foster a knowledge of astronomy by

compelling savages to scrutinise the great celestial clock for indications

of the time of year. Now amongst the rudest of savages known to us are the

Australian aborigines, none of whom in their native state ever practised

agriculture. Yet we are told that “they do, according to their manner,

worship the hosts of heaven, and believe particular constellations rule

natural causes. For such they have names, and sing and dance to gain the

favour of the Pleiades (_Mormodellick_), the constellation worshipped by

one body as the giver of rain; but if it should be deferred, instead of

blessings curses are apt to be bestowed upon it.”(995) According to a

writer, whose evidence on other matters of Australian beliefs is open to

grave doubt, some of the aborigines of New South Wales denied that the sun

is the source of heat, because he shines also in winter when the weather

is cold; the real cause of warm weather they held to be the Pleiades,

because as the summer heat increases, that constellation rises higher and

higher in the sky, reaching its greatest elevation in the height of

summer, and gradually sinking again in autumn as the days grow cooler,

till in winter it is either barely visible or lost to view

altogether.(996) Another writer, who was well acquainted with the natives

of Victoria in the early days of the colony and whose testimony can be

relied upon, tells us that an old chief of the Spring Creek tribe “taught

the young people the names of the favourite planets and constellations, as

indications of the seasons. For example, when Canopus is a very little

above the horizon in the east at daybreak, the season for emu eggs has

come; when the Pleiades are visible in the east an hour before sunrise,

the time for visiting friends and neighbouring tribes is at hand.”(997)

(M266) Again, the Abipones of Paraguay, who neither sowed nor reaped,(998)

nevertheless regarded the Pleiades as an image of their ancestor. As that

constellation is invisible in the sky of South America for several months

every year, the Abipones believed that their ancestor was then sick, and

they were dreadfully afraid that he would die. But when the constellation

reappeared in the month of May, they saluted the return of their ancestor

with joyous shouts and the glad music of flutes and horns, and they

congratulated him on his recovery from sickness. Next day they all went

out to collect wild honey, from which they brewed a favourite beverage.

Then at sunset they feasted and kept up the revelry all night by the light

of torches, while a sorceress, who presided at the festivity, shook her

rattle and danced. But the proceedings were perfectly decorous; the sexes

did not mix with each other.(999) The Mocobis of Paraguay also looked upon

the Pleiades as their father and creator.(1000) The Guaycurus of the Gran

Chaco used to rejoice greatly at the reappearance of the Pleiades. On this

occasion they held a festival at which men and women, boys and girls all

beat each other soundly, believing that this brought them health,

abundance, and victory over their enemies.(1001) Amongst the Lengua

Indians of Paraguay at the present day the rising of the Pleiades is

connected with the beginning of spring, and feasts are held at this time,

generally of a markedly immoral character.(1002) The Guaranis of Paraguay

knew the time of sowing by observation of the Pleiades;(1003) they are

said to have revered the constellation and to have dated the beginning of

their year from the rising of the constellation in May.(1004) The

Tapuiyas, formerly a numerous and warlike tribe of Brazil, hailed the

rising of the Pleiades with great respect, and worshipped the

constellation with songs and dances.(1005) The Indians of north-western

Brazil, an agricultural people who subsist mainly by the cultivation of

manioc, determine the time for their various field labours by the position

of certain constellations, especially the Pleiades; when that

constellation has sunk beneath the horizon, the regular, heavy rains set

in.(1006) The Omagua Indians of Brazil ascribe to the Pleiades a special

influence on human destiny.(1007) A Brazilian name for the Pleiades is

_Cyiuce_, that is, “Mother of those who are thirsty.” The constellation,

we are told, “is known to the Indians of the whole of Brasil and appears

to be even worshipped by some tribes in Matto Grosso. In the valley of the

Amazon a number of popular sayings are current about it. Thus they say

that in the first days of its appearance in the firmament, while it is

still low, the birds and especially the fowls sleep on the lower branches

or perches, and that just as it rises so do they; that it brings much cold

and rain; that when the constellation vanishes, the serpents lose their

venom; that the reeds used in making arrows must be cut before the

appearance of the Pleiades, else they will be worm-eaten. According to the

legend the Pleiades disappear in May and reappear in June. Their

reappearance coincides with the renewal of vegetation and of animal life.

Hence the legend relates that everything which appears before the

constellation is renewed, that is, the appearance of the Pleiades, marks

the beginning of spring.”(1008) The Indians of the Orinoco called the

Pleiades _Ucasu_ or _Cacasau_, according to their dialect, and they dated

the beginning of their year from the time when these stars are visible in

the east after sunset.(1009)

(M267) By the Indians of Peru “the Pleiades were called _Collca_ (the

maize-heap): in this constellation the Peruvians both of the sierra and

the coast beheld the prototype of their cherished stores of corn. It made

their maize to grow, and was worshipped accordingly.”(1010) When the

Pleiades appeared above the horizon on or about Corpus Christi Day, these

Indians celebrated their chief festival of the year and adored the

constellation “in order that the maize might not dry up.”(1011) Adjoining

the great temple of the Sun at Cuzco there was a cloister with halls

opening off it. One of these halls was dedicated to the Moon, and another

to the planet Venus, the Pleiades, and all the other stars. The Incas

venerated the Pleiades because of their curious position and the symmetry

of their shape.(1012) The tribes of Vera Cruz, on the coast of Mexico,

dated the beginning of their year from the heliacal setting of the

Pleiades, which in the latitude of Vera Cruz (19° N.) in the year 1519

fell on the first of May of the Gregorian calendar.(1013) The Aztecs

appear to have attached great importance to the Pleiades, for they timed

the most solemn and impressive of all their religious ceremonies so as to

coincide with the moment when that constellation was in the middle of the

sky at midnight. The ceremony consisted in kindling a sacred new fire on

the breast of a human victim on the last night of a great period of

fifty-two years. They expected that at the close of one of these periods

the stars would cease to revolve and the world itself would come to an

end. Hence, when the critical moment approached, the priests watched from

the top of a mountain the movement of the stars, and especially of the

Pleiades, with the utmost anxiety. When that constellation was seen to

cross the meridian, great was the joy; for they knew that the world was

respited for another fifty-two years. Immediately the bravest and

handsomest of the captives was thrown down on his back; a board of dry

wood was placed on his breast, and one of the priests made fire by

twirling a stick between his hands on the board. As soon as the flame

burst forth, the breast of the victim was cut open, his heart was torn

out, and together with the rest of his body was thrown into the fire.

Runners carried the new fire at full speed to all parts of the kingdom to

rekindle the cold hearths; for every fire throughout the country had been

extinguished as a preparation for this solemn rite.(1014)

(M268) The Blackfeet Indians of North America “know and observe the

Pleiades, and regulate their most important feast by those stars. About

the first and the last days of the occultation of the Pleiades there is a

sacred feast among the Blackfeet. The mode of observance is national, the

whole of the tribe turning out for the celebration of its rites, which

include two sacred vigils, the solemn blessing and planting of the seed.

It is the opening of the agricultural season.... In all highly religious

feasts the calumet, or pipe, is always presented towards the Pleiades,

with invocation for life-giving goods. The women swear by the Pleiades as

the men do by the sun or the morning star.” At the general meeting of the

nation there is a dance of warriors, which is supposed to represent the

dance of the seven young men who are identified with the Pleiades. For the

Indians say that the seven stars of the constellation were seven brothers,

who guarded by night the field of sacred seed and danced round it to keep

themselves awake during the long hours of darkness.(1015) According to

another legend told by the Blackfeet, the Pleiades are six children, who

were so ashamed because they had no little yellow hides of buffalo calves

that they wandered away on the plains and were at last taken up into the

sky. “They are not seen during the moon, when the buffalo calves are

yellow (spring, the time of their shame), but, every year, when the calves

turn brown (autumn), the lost children can be seen in the sky every

night.”(1016) This version of the myth, it will be observed, recognises

only six stars in the constellation, and many savages apparently see no

more, which speaks ill for the keenness of their vision; since among

ourselves persons endowed with unusually good sight are able, I

understand, to discern seven. Among the Pueblo Indians of Tusayan, an

ancient province of Arizona, the culmination of the Pleiades is often used

to determine the proper time for beginning a sacred nocturnal rite,

especially an invocation addressed to the six deities who are believed to

rule the six quarters of the world. The writer who records this fact adds:

“I cannot explain its significance, and why of all stellar objects this

minute cluster of stars of a low magnitude is more important than other

stellar groups is not clear to me.”(1017) If the Pueblo Indians see only

six stars in the cluster, as to which I cannot speak, it might seem to

them a reason for assigning one of the stars to each of the six quarters,

namely, north, south, east, west, above, and below.

(M269) The Society Islanders in the South Pacific divided the year into

two seasons, which they determined by observation of the Pleiades. “The

first they called _Matarii i nia_, Pleiades above. It commenced when, in

the evening, these stars appeared on or near the horizon; and the half

year, during which, immediately after sunset, they were seen above the

horizon, was called _Matarii i nia_. The other season commenced when, at

sunset, the stars were invisible, and continued until at that hour they

appeared again above the horizon. This season was called _Matarii i raro_,

Pleiades below.”(1018) In the Hervey Islands of the South Pacific it is

said that the constellation was originally a single star, which was

shattered into six fragments by the god Tane. “This cluster of little

stars is appropriately named Mata-riki or _little-eyes_, on account of

their brightness. It is also designated Tau-ono, or _the-six_, on account

of the apparent number of the fragments; the presence of the seventh star

not having been detected by the unassisted native eye.”(1019) Among these

islanders the arrival of the new year was indicated by the appearance of

the constellation on the eastern horizon just after sunset, that is, about

the middle of December. “Hence the idolatrous worship paid to this

beautiful cluster of stars in many of the South Sea Islands. The Pleiades

were worshipped at Danger Island, and at the Penrhyns, down to the

introduction of Christianity in 1857. In many islands extravagant joy is

still manifested at the rising of this constellation out of the

ocean.”(1020) For example, in Manahiki or Humphrey’s Island, South

Pacific, “when the constellation Pleiades was seen there was unusual joy

all over the month, and expressed by singing, dancing, and blowing-shell

trumpets.”(1021) So the Maoris of New Zealand, another Polynesian people

of the South Pacific, divided the year into moons and determined the first

moon by the rising of the Pleiades, which they called _Matariki_.(1022)

Indeed throughout Polynesia the rising of the Pleiades (variously known as

Matariki, Mataliki, Matalii, Makalii, etc.) seems to have marked the

beginning of the year.(1023)

(M270) Among some of the Melanesians also the Pleiades occupy an important

position in the calendar. “The Banks’ islanders and Northern New Hebrides

people content themselves with distinguishing the Pleiades, by which the

approach of yam harvest is marked.”(1024) “Amongst the constellations, the

Pleiades and Orion’s belt seem to be those which are most familiar to the

natives of Bougainville Straits. The former, which they speak of as

possessing six stars, they name _Vuhu_; the latter _Matatala_. They have

also names for a few other stars. As in the case of many other savage

races, the Pleiades is a constellation of great significance with the

inhabitants of these straits. The Treasury Islanders hold a great feast

towards the end of October, to celebrate, as far as I could learn, the

approaching appearance of the constellation above the eastern horizon soon

after sunset. Probably, as in many of the Pacific Islands, this event

marks the beginning of their year. I learned from Mr. Stephens that, in

Ugi, where of all the constellations the Pleiades alone receives a name,

the natives are guided by it in selecting the times for planting and

taking up the yams.”(1025)

(M271) The natives of the Torres Straits islands observe the appearance of

the Pleiades (_Usiam_) on the horizon at sunset; and when they see it,

they say that the new yam time has come.(1026) The Kai and the Bukaua, two

agricultural tribes of German New Guinea, also determine the season of

their labour in the fields by observation of the Pleiades: the Kai say

that the time for such labours is when the Pleiades are visible above the

horizon at night.(1027) In some districts of northern Celebes the

rice-fields are similarly prepared for cultivation when the Pleiades are

seen at a certain height above the horizon.(1028) As to the Dyaks of

Sarawak we read that “the Pleiades themselves tell them when to farm; and

according to their position in the heavens, morning and evening, do they

cut down the forest, burn, plant, and reap. The Malays are obliged to

follow their example, or their lunar year would soon render their farming

operations unprofitable.”(1029) When the season for clearing fresh land in

the forest approaches, a wise man is appointed to go out before dawn and

watch for the Pleiades. As soon as the constellation is seen to rise while

it is yet dark, they know that the time has come to begin. But not until

the Pleiades are at the zenith before dawn do the Dyaks think it desirable

to burn the fallen timber and to sow the rice.(1030) However, the Kenyahs

and Kayans, two other tribes of Sarawak, determine the agricultural

seasons by observation of the sun rather than of the stars; and for this

purpose they have devised certain simple but ingenious mechanisms. The

Kenyahs measure the length of the shadow cast by an upright pole at noon;

and the Kayans let in a beam of light through a hole in the roof and

measure the distance from the point immediately below the hole to the

place where the light reaches the floor.(1031) But the Kayans of the

Mahakam river, in Dutch Borneo, determine the time for sowing by observing

when the sun sets in a line with two upright stones.(1032) In Bali, an

island to the east of Java, the appearance of the Pleiades at sunset in

March marks the end of the year.(1033) The Pleiades and Orion are the only

constellations which the people of Bali observe for the purpose of

correcting their lunar calendar by intercalation. For example, they bring

the lunar year into harmony with the solar by prolonging the month Asada

until the Pleiades are visible at sunset.(1034) The natives of Nias, an

island to the south of Sumatra, pay little heed to the stars, but they

have names for the Morning Star and for the Pleiades; and when the

Pleiades appear in the sky, the people assemble to till their fields, for

they think that to do so before the rising of the constellation would be

useless.(1035) In some districts of Sumatra “much confusion in regard to

the period of sowing is said to have arisen from a very extraordinary

cause. Anciently, say the natives, it was regulated by the stars, and

particularly by the appearance (heliacal rising) of the _bintang baniak_

or Pleiades; but after the introduction of the Mahometan religion, they

were induced to follow the returns of the _puāsa_ or great annual fast,

and forgot their old rules. The consequence of this was obvious; for the

lunar year of the _hejrah_ being eleven days short of the sidereal or

solar year, the order of the seasons was soon inverted; and it is only

astonishing that its inaptness to the purposes of agriculture should not

have been immediately discovered.”(1036) The Battas or Bataks of central

Sumatra date the various operations of the agricultural year by the

positions of Orion and the Pleiades. When the Pleiades rise before the sun

at the beginning of July, the Achinese of northern Sumatra know that the

time has come to sow the rice.(1037)

(M272) Scattered and fragmentary as these notices are, they suffice to

shew that the Pleiades have received much attention from savages in the

tropical regions of the world from Brasil in the east to Sumatra in the

west. Far to the north of the tropics the rude Kamchatkans are said to

know only three constellations, the Great Bear, the Pleiades, and three

stars in Orion.(1038) When we pass to Africa we again find the Pleiades

employed by tribes in various parts of the continent to mark the seasons

of the agricultural year. We have seen that the Caffres of South Africa

date their new year from the rising of the Pleiades just before sunrise

and fix the time for sowing by observation of that constellation.(1039)

“They calculate only twelve lunar months for the year, for which they have

descriptive names, and this results in frequent confusion and difference

of opinion as to which month it really is. The confusion is always

rectified by the first appearance of Pleiades just before sunrise, and a

fresh start is made and things go on smoothly till once more the moons get

out of place, and reference has again to be made to the stars.”(1040)

According to another authority on the Bantu tribes of South Africa, “the

rising of the Pleiades shortly after sunset was regarded as indicating the

planting season. To this constellation, as well as to several of the

prominent stars and planets, they gave expressive names. They formed no

theories concerning the nature of the heavenly bodies and their motions,

and were not given to thinking of such things.”(1041) The Amazulu call the

Pleiades _Isilimela_, which means “The digging-for (stars),” because when

the Pleiades appear the people begin to dig. They say that “_Isilimela_

(the Pleiades) dies, and is not seen. It is not seen in winter; and at

last, when the winter is coming to an end, it begins to appear—one of its

stars first, and then three, until going on increasing it becomes a

cluster of stars, and is perfectly clear when the sun is about to rise.

And we say _Isilimela_ is renewed, and the year is renewed, and so we

begin to dig.”(1042) The Bechuanas “are directed by the position of

certain stars in the heavens, that the time has arrived, in the revolving

year, when particular roots can be dug up for use, or when they may

commence their labours of the field. This is their _likhakologo_ (turnings

or revolvings), or what we should call the spring time of the year. The

Pleiades they call _seleméla_, which may be translated ‘cultivator,’ or

the precursor of agriculture, from _leméla_, the relative verb to

cultivate _for_; and _se_, a pronominal prefix, distinguishing them as the

actors. Thus, when this constellation assumes a certain position in the

heavens, it is the signal to commence cultivating their fields and

gardens.”(1043) Among some of these South African tribes the period of

seclusion observed by lads after circumcision comes to an end with the

appearance of the Pleiades, and accordingly the youths are said to long as

ardently for the rising of the constellation as Mohammedans for the rising

of the moon which will put an end to the fast of Ramadan.(1044) The

Hottentots date the seasons of the year by the rising and setting of the

Pleiades.(1045) An early Moravian missionary settled among the Hottentots,

reports that “at the return of the Pleiades these natives celebrate an

anniversary; as soon as these stars appear above the eastern horizon

mothers will lift their little ones on their arms, and running up to

elevated spots, will show to them those friendly stars, and teach them to

stretch their little hands towards them. The people of a kraal will

assemble to dance and to sing according to the old custom of their

ancestors. The chorus always sings: ‘O Tiqua, our Father above our heads,

give rain to us, that the fruits (bulbs, etc.), _uientjes_, may ripen, and

that we may have plenty of food, send us a good year.’ ”(1046) With some

tribes of British Central Africa the rising of the Pleiades early in the

evening is the signal for the hoeing to begin.(1047) To the Masai of East

Africa the appearance of the Pleiades in the wrest is the sign of the

beginning of the rainy season, which takes its name from the

constellation.(1048) In Masailand the Pleiades are above the horizon from

September till about the seventeenth of May; and the people, as they

express it themselves, “know whether it will rain or not according to the

appearance or non-appearance of the six stars, called The Pleiades, which

follow after one another like cattle. When the month which the Masai call

‘Of the Pleiades’(1049) arrives, and the Pleiades are no longer visible,

they know that the rains are over. For the Pleiades set in that month and

are not seen again until the season of showers has come to an end:(1050)

it is then that they reappear.”(1051) The only other groups of stars for

which the Masai appear to have names are Orion’s sword and Orion’s

belt.(1052) The Nandi of British East Africa have a special name

(_Koremerik_) for the Pleiades, “and it is by the appearance or

non-appearance of these stars that the Nandi know whether they may expect

a good or a bad harvest.”(1053) The Kikuyu of the same region say that

“the Pleiades is the mark in the heavens to show the people when to plant

their crops; they plant when this constellation is in a certain position

early in the night.”(1054) In Sierra Leone “the proper time for preparing

the plantations is shewn by the particular situation in which the

Pleiades, called by the Bulloms _a-warrang_, the only stars which they

observe or distinguish by peculiar names, are to be seen at sunset.”(1055)

We have seen that ancient Greek farmers reaped their corn when the

Pleiades rose at sunrise in May, and that they ploughed their fields when

the constellation set at sunrise in November.(1056) The interval between

the two dates is about six months. Both the Greeks and the Romans dated

the beginning of summer from the heliacal rising of the Pleiades and the

beginning of winter from their heliacal setting.(1057) Pliny regarded the

autumnal setting of the Pleiades as the proper season for sowing the corn,

particularly the wheat and the barley, and he tells us that in Greece and

Asia all the crops were sown at the setting of that constellation.(1058)

(M273) So widespread over the world has been and is the association of the

Pleiades with agriculture, especially with the sowing or planting of the

crops. The reason for the association seems to be the coincidence of the

rising or setting of the constellation with the commencement of the rainy

season; since men must very soon have learned that the best, if not the

only, season to sow and plant is the time of year when the newly-planted

seeds or roots will be quickened by abundant showers. The same association

of the Pleiades with rain seems sufficient to explain their importance

even for savages who do not till the ground; for ignorant though such

races are, they yet can hardly fail to observe that wild fruits grow more

plentifully, and therefore that they themselves have more to eat after a

heavy fall of rain than after a long drought. In point of fact we saw that

some of the Australian aborigines, who are wholly ignorant of agriculture,

look on the Pleiades as the givers of rain, and curse the constellation if

its appearance is not followed by the expected showers.(1059) On the other

side of the world, and at the opposite end of the scale of culture, the

civilised Greeks similarly supposed that the autumnal setting of the

Pleiades was the cause of the rains which followed it; and the

astronomical writer Geminus thought it worth while to argue against the

supposition, pointing out that the vicissitudes of the weather and of the

seasons, though they may coincide with the risings and settings of the

constellations, are not produced by them, the stars being too distant from

the earth to exercise any appreciable influence on our atmosphere. Hence,

he says, though the constellations serve as the signals, they must not be

regarded as the causes, of atmospheric changes; and he aptly illustrates

the distinction by a reference to beacon-fires, which are the signals, but

not the causes, of war.(1060)

FOOTNOTES

M1 Death and resurrection of Oriental gods of vegetation. The Dying and

Reviving god of vegetation in ancient Greece.

M2 Dionysus, the god of the vine, originally a Thracian deity.

1 On Dionysus in general, see L. Preller, _Griechische Mythologie_,4

i. 659 _sqq._; Fr. Lenormant, _s.v._ “Bacchus,” in Daremberg and

Saglio’s _Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines_, i. 591

_sqq._; Voigt and Thraemer, _s.v._ “Dionysus,” in W. H. Roscher’s

_Lexikon der griech. u. röm. Mythologie_, i. 1029 _sqq._; E. Rohde,

_Psyche_3 (Tübingen and Leipsic, 1903), ii. 1 _sqq._; Miss J. E.

Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_, Second

Edition (Cambridge, 1908), pp. 363 _sqq._; Kern, _s.v._ “Dionysus,”

in Pauly-Wissowa’s _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen

Altertumswissenschaft_, v. 1010 _sqq._; M. P. Nilsson, _Griechische

Feste von religiöser Bedeutung_ (Leipsic, 1906), pp. 258 _sqq._; L.

R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, v. (Oxford, 1909) pp.

85 _sqq._ The epithet _Bromios_ bestowed on Dionysus, and his

identification with the Thracian and Phrygian deity Sabazius, have

been adduced as evidence that Dionysus was a god of beer or of other

cereal intoxicants before he became a god of wine. See W. Headlam,

in _Classical Review_, xv. (1901) p. 23; Miss J. E. Harrison,

_Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_, pp. 414-426.

2 Plato, _Laws_, i. p. 637 E; Theopompus, cited by Athenaeus, x. 60,

p. 442 E F; Suidas, _s.v._ κατασκεδάζειν; compare Xenophon,

_Anabasis_, vii. 3. 32. For the evidence of the Thracian origin of

Dionysus, see the writers cited in the preceding note, especially

Dr. L. R. Farnell, _op. cit._ v. 85 _sqq._ Compare W. Ridgeway, _The

Origin of Tragedy_ (Cambridge, 1910), pp. 10 _sqq._

3 Herodotus, ii. 49; Diodorus Siculus, i. 97. 4; P. Foucart, _Le Culte

de Dionyse en Attique_ (Paris, 1904), pp. 9 _sqq._, 159 _sqq._

(_Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres_,

xxxvii.).

M3 Dionysus a god of trees, especially of fruit-trees.

4 Plutarch, _Quaest. Conviv._ v. 3: Διονύσῳ δὲ δενδρίτῃ πάντες, ὡς

ἔπος εἰπεῖν, Ἕλληνες θύουσιν.

5 Hesychius, _s.v._ Ἔνδενδρος.

6 See the pictures of his images, drawn from ancient vases, in C.

Bötticher’s _Baumkultus der Hellenen_ (Berlin, 1856), plates 42, 43,

43 A, 43 B, 44; Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités

Grecques et Romaines_, i. 361, 626 _sq._

7 Daremberg et Saglio, _op. cit._ i. 626.

8 P. Wendland und O. Kern, _Beiträge zur Geschichte der griechischen

Philosophie und Religion_ (Berlin, 1895), pp. 79 _sqq._; Ch. Michel,

_Recueil d’ Inscriptions Grecques_ (Brussels, 1900), No. 856.

9 Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 30.

10 Pindar, quoted by Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 35.

11 Maximus Tyrius, _Dissertat._ viii. 1.

12 Athenaeus, iii. chs. 14 and 23, pp. 78 C, 82 D.

_ 13 Orphica_, Hymn l. 4. liii. 8.

14 Aelian, _Var. Hist._ iii. 41; Hesychius, _s.v._ Φλέω[ς]. Compare

Plutarch, _Quaest. Conviv._ v. 8. 3.

15 Pausanias, i. 31. 4; _id._ vii. 21. 6.

16 Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum Graecarum_,2 No. 636, vol. ii.

p. 435, τῶν καρπῶν τῶν ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ. However, the words may equally

well refer to the cereal crops.

17 Plutarch, _Quaest. Conviv._ v. 3.

18 Pausanias, ii. 2. 6 _sq._ Pausanias does not mention the kind of

tree; but from Euripides, _Bacchae_, 1064 _sqq._, and Philostratus,

_Imag._ i. 17 (18), we may infer that it was a pine, though

Theocritus (xxvi. 11) speaks of it as a mastich-tree.

19 Müller-Wieseler, _Denkmäler der alten Kunst_, ii. pll. xxxii.

_sqq._; A. Baumeister, _Denkmäler des klassischen Altertums_, i.

figures 489, 491, 492, 495. Compare F. Lenormant, in Daremberg et

Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines_, i. 623;

Ch. F. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_ (Königsberg, 1829), p. 700.

20 Pausanias, i. 31. 6.

21 Athenaeus, iii. 14, p. 78 C.

M4 Dionysus as a god of agriculture and the corn. The winnowing-fan as

an emblem of Dionysus.

22 Himerius, _Orat._ i. 10, Δίονυσος γεωργεῖ.

23 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 64. 1-3, iv. 4. 1 _sq._ On the agricultural

aspect of Dionysus, see L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek

States_, v. (Oxford, 1909) pp. 123 _sq._

24 [Aristotle,] _Mirab. Auscult._ 122 (p. 842 A, ed. Im. Bekker, Berlin

edition).

25 Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ i. 166; Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 35.

The literary and monumental evidence as to the winnowing-fan in the

myth and ritual of Dionysus has been collected and admirably

interpreted by Miss J. E. Harrison in her article “Mystica Vannus

Iacchi,” _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xxiii. (1903) pp. 292-324.

Compare her _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_2

(Cambridge, 1908), pp. 517 _sqq._ I must refer the reader to these

works for full details on the subject. In the passage of Servius

referred to the reading is somewhat uncertain; in his critical

edition G. Thilo reads λικμητὴν and λικμὸς instead of the usual

λικνιτὴν and λικνόν. But the variation does not affect the meaning.

M5 Use of the winnowing-fan to cradle infants. The winnowing-fan

sometimes intended to avert evil spirits from children.

26 Ἐν γὰρ λείκνοις τὸ παλαιὸν κατεκοίμιζον τὰ Βρέφη πλοῦτον καὶ καρπούς

οἰωνιζόμενοι, Scholiast on Callimachus, i. 48 (_Callimachea_, edidit

O. Schneider, Leipsic, 1870-1873, vol. i. p. 109).

27 T. S. Raffles, _History of Java_ (London, 1817), i. 323; C. F.

Winter, “Instellingen, Gewoontenen Gebruiken der Javanen te

Soerakarta,” _Tijdschrift voor Neêrlands Indie_, Vijfde Jaargang,

Eerste Deel (1843), p. 695; P. J. Veth, _Java_ (Haarlem, 1875-1884),

i. 639.

28 C. Poensen, “Iets over de kleeding der Javanen,” _Mededeelingen van

wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap_, xx. (1876) pp. 279

_sq._

29 Rev. J. Doolittle, _Social Life of the Chinese_, edited and revised

by the Rev. Paxton Hood (London, 1868), pp. 90 _sq._

30 Rev. E. M. Gordon, “Some Notes concerning the People of Mungēli

Tahsīl, Bilaspur District,” _Journal of the Asiatic Society of

Bengal_, lxxi., Part iii. (Calcutta, 1903) p. 74; _id._, _Indian

Folk Tales_ (London, 1908), p. 41.

31 C. B. Klunzinger, _Bilder aus Oberägypten_ (Stuttgart, 1877), pp.

181, 182; _id._, _Upper Egypt, its People and Products_ (London,

1878), pp. 185, 186.

32 R. C. Temple, “Opprobrious Names,” _Indian Antiquary_, x. (1881) pp.

331 _sq._ Compare H. A. Rose, “Hindu Birth Observances in the

Punjab,” _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_, xxxvii.

(1907) p. 234. See also _Panjab Notes and Queries_, vol. iii. August

1886, § 768, pp. 184 _sq._: “The winnowing fan in which a newly-born

child is laid, is used on the fifth day for the worship of Satwáí.

This makes it impure, and it is henceforward used only for the

house-sweepings.”

33 Lieut.-Colonel Gunthorpe, “On the Ghosí or Gaddí Gaolís of the

Deccan,” _Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay_, i. 45.

34 C. Bock, _Temples and Elephants_ (London, 1884), pp. 258 _sq._

M6 Use of the winnowing-fan to avert evil from children in India,

Madagascar, and China. Karen ceremony of fanning away evils from

children.

35 S. Mateer, _Native Life in Travancore_ (London, 1883), p. 213.

36 J. Richardson, “Tanala Customs, Superstitions, and Beliefs,”

_Antananarivo Annual and Madagascar Magazine, Reprint of the First

Four Numbers_ (Antananarivo, 1885), pp. 226 _sq._

37 Pausanias, ii. 31. 8; K. F. Hermann, _Lehrbuch der

gottesdienstlichen Alterthümer der Griechen_2 (Heidelberg, 1858),

pp. 132 _sq._, § 23, 25.

38 Rev. J. Doolittle, _Social Life of the Chinese_, edited and revised

by the Rev. Paxton Hood (London, 1868), pp. 114 _sq._ The beans used

in the ceremony had previously been placed before an image of the

goddess of small-pox.

39 Rev. F. Mason, D.D., “Physical Character of the Karens,” _Journal of

the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, New Series, No. cxxxi. (Calcutta,

1866), pp. 9 _sq._

M7 Among the reasons for the use of the winnowing-fan in birth-rites

may have been the wish to avert evils and to promote fertility and

growth.

40 Servius on Virgil, _Georg._ i. 166: “_Et vannus Iacchi.... Mystica

autem Bacchi ideo ait, quod Liberi patris sacra ad purgationem

animae pertinebant: et sic homines ejus mysteriis purgabantur, sicut

vannis frumenta purgantur._”

41 W. Mannhardt, “Kind und Korn,” _Mythologische Forschungen_

(Strasburg, 1884), pp. 351-374.

42 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ pp. 351 _sqq._

43 W. Mannhardt, _op. cit._ p. 372, citing A. Wuttke, _Der deutsche

Volks-aberglaube_2 (Berlin, 1869), p. 339, § 543; L. Strackerjan,

_Aberglaube und Sagen aus dem Herzogthum Oldenburg_ (Oldenburg,

1867), i. 81.

44 Boecler-Kreutzwald, _Der Ehsten abergläubische Gebräuche_ (St.

Petersburg, 1854), p. 61. This custom is also cited by Mannhardt

(_l.c._).

M8 Use of the winnowing-fan in the rites of Dionysus.

45 Miss J. E. Harrison, “Mystica Vannus Iacchi,” _Journal of Hellenic

Studies_, xxiii. (1903) pp. 296 _sqq._; _id._, _Prolegomena to the

Study of Greek Religion_,2 pp. 518 _sqq._; L. R. Farnell, _The Cults

of the Greek States_, v. (Oxford, 1909) p. 243.

46 Herodotus, ii. 48, 49; Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 34,

pp. 29-30, ed. Potter; Dittenberger, _Sylloge Inscriptionum

Graecarum_,2 No. 19, vol. i. p. 32; M. P. Nilsson, _Studia de

Dionysiis Atticis_ (Lund, 1900), pp. 90 _sqq._; L. R. Farnell, _The

Cults of the Greek States_, v. 125, 195, 205.

47 Augustine, _De civitate Dei_, vii. 21.

M9 Myth of the death and resurrection of Dionysus. Legend that the

infant Dionysus occupied for a short time the throne of his father

Zeus. Death and resurrection of Dionysus represented in his rites.

48 Nonnus, _Dionys._ vi. 155-205.

49 Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, 6.

50 Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 17. Compare Ch. A. Lobeck,

_Aglaophamus_, pp. 1111 _sqq._

51 Proclus on Plato, _Cratylus_, p. 59, quoted by E. Abel, _Orphica_,

p. 228. Compare Chr. A. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_, pp. 552 _sq._

52 Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 19. Compare _id._ ii. 22;

Scholiast on Lucian, _Dial. Meretr._ vii. p. 280, ed. H. Rabe.

53 Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii. 18; Proclus on Plato’s

_Timaeus_, iii. p. 200 D, quoted by Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_, p. 562,

and by Abel, _Orphica_, p. 234. Others said that the mangled body

was pieced together, not by Apollo but by Rhea (Cornutus,

_Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 30).

54 Ch. A. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_, pp. 572 _sqq._ See _The Dying God_, p.

3. For a conjectural restoration of the temple, based on ancient

authorities and an examination of the scanty remains, see an article

by J. H. Middleton, in _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, ix. (1888) pp.

282 _sqq._ The ruins of the temple have now been completely

excavated by the French.

55 S. Clemens Romanus, _Recognitiones_, x. 24 (Migne’s _Patrologia

Graeca_, i. col. 1434).

56 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 62.

57 Macrobius, _Comment. in Somn. Scip._ i. 12. 12; _Scriptores rerum

mythicarum Latini tres Romae nuper reperti_ (commonly referred to as

_Mythographi Vaticani_), ed. G. H. Bode (Cellis, 1834), iii. 12. 5,

p. 246; Origen, _Contra Celsum_, iv. 17 (vol. i. p. 286, ed. P.

Koetschau).

58 Himerius, _Orat._ ix. 4.

59 Proclus, _Hymn to Minerva_, quoted by Ch. A. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_,

p. 561; _Orphica_, ed. E. Abel, p. 235.

60 Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 167.

61 The festivals of Dionysus were biennial in many places. See G. F.

Schömann, _Griechische Alterthümer_,4 ii. 524 _sqq._ (The terms for

the festival were τριετηρίς, τριετηρικός, both terms of the series

being included in the numeration, in accordance with the ancient

mode of reckoning.) Perhaps the festivals were formerly annual and

the period was afterwards lengthened, as has happened with other

festivals. See W. Mannhardt, _Baumkultus_, pp. 172, 175, 491, 533

_sq._, 598. Some of the festivals of Dionysus, however, were annual.

Dr. Farnell has conjectured that the biennial period in many Greek

festivals is to be explained by “the original shifting of

land-cultivation which is frequent in early society owing to the

backwardness of the agricultural processes; and which would

certainly be consecrated by a special ritual attached to the god of

the soil.” See L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, v.

180 _sq._

62 Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, 6.

_ 63 Mythographi Vaticani_, ed. G. H. Bode, iii. 12. 5, p. 246.

64 Plutarch, _Consol. ad uxor._ 10. Compare _id._, _Isis et Osiris_,

35; _id._, _De E Delphico_, 9; _id._, _De esu carnium_, i. 7.

65 Pausanias, ii. 31. 2 and 37. 5; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 5.

3.

66 Pausanias, ii. 37. 5 _sq._; Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 35; _id._,

_Quaest. Conviv._ iv. 6. 2.

67 Himerius, _Orat._ iii. 6, xiv. 7.

68 For Dionysus in this capacity see F. Lenormant in Daremberg et

Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines_, i. 632.

For Osiris, see _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 344

_sq._

M10 Dionysus represented in the form of a bull.

69 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 35; _id._, _Quaest. Graec._ 36;

Athenaeus, xi. 51, p. 476 A; Clement of Alexandria, _Protrept._ ii.

16; _Orphica_, Hymn xxx. _vv._ 3, 4, xlv. 1, lii. 2, liii. 8;

Euripides, _Bacchae_, 99; Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Frogs_, 357;

Nicander, _Alexipharmaca_, 31; Lucian, _Bacchus_, 2. The title

Εἰραφιώτης applied to Dionysus (_Homeric Hymns_, xxxiv. 2; Porphyry,

_De abstinentia_, iii. 17; Dionysius, _Perieg._ 576; _Etymologicum

Magnum_, p. 371. 57) is etymologically equivalent to the Sanscrit

_varsabha_, “a bull,” as I was informed by my lamented friend the

late R. A. Neil of Pembroke College, Cambridge.

70 Euripides, _Bacchae_, 920 _sqq._, 1017; Nonnus, _Dionys._ vi. 197

_sqq._

71 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 35; Athenaeus, xi. 51, p. 476 A.

72 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 64. 2, iv. 4. 2; Cornutus, _Theologiae

Graecae Compendium_, 30.

73 Diodorus Siculus, iii. 64. 2; J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on Lycophron_,

209, 1236; Philostratus, _Imagines_, i. 14 (15).

74 Müller-Wieseler, _Denkmäler der alten Kunst_, ii. pl. xxxiii.;

Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et

Romaines_, i. 619 _sq._, 631; W. H. Roscher, _Lexikon d. griech. u.

röm. Mythologie_, i. 1149 _sqq._; F. Imhoof-Blumer, “Coin-types of

some Kilikian Cities,” _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xviii. (1898)

p. 165.

75 F. G. Welcker, _Alte Denkmäler_ (Göttingen, 1849-1864), v. taf. 2.

_ 76 Archaeologische Zeitung_, ix. (1851) pl. xxxiii., with Gerhard’s

remarks, pp. 371-373.

_ 77 Gazette Archéologique_, v. (1879) pl. 3.

78 Pausanias, viii. 19. 2.

79 Plutarch, _Quaestiones Graecae_, 36; _id._, _Isis et Osiris_, 35.

80 J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on Lycophron_, 1236.

81 Nonnus, _Dionys._ vi. 205.

82 Firmicus Maternus, _De errore profanarum religionum_, 6.

83 Euripides, _Bacchae_, 735 _sqq._; Scholiast on Aristophanes,

_Frogs_, 357.

M11 Dionysus as a goat. Live goats rent and devoured by his worshippers.

84 Hesychius, _s.v._ Ἔριφος ὁ Διόνυσος, on which there is a marginal

gloss ὁ μικρὸς αἴξ, ὁ ἐν τῷ ἔαρι φαινόμενος, ἤγουν ὁ πρώϊμος;

Stephanus Byzantius, _s.v._ Ἀκρώρεια.

85 Pausanias, ii. 35. 1; Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Acharn._ 146;

_Etymologicum Magnum_, _s.v._ Ἀπατούρια, p. 118. 54 _sqq._; Suidas,

_s.vv._ Ἀπατούρια and μελαναίγιδα Διόνυσον; Nonnus, _Dionys._ xxvii.

302. Compare Conon, _Narrat._ 39, where for Μελανθίδῃ we should

perhaps read Μελαναίγιδι.

86 Pausanias, ii. 13. 6. On their return from Troy the Greeks are said

to have found goats and an image of Dionysus in a cave of Euboea

(Pausanias, i. 23. 1).

87 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 4. 3.

88 Ovid, _Metam._ v. 329; Antoninus Liberalis, _Transform._ 28;

_Mythographi Vaticani_, ed. G. H. Bode, i. 86, p. 29.

89 Arnobius, _Adversus nationes_, v. 19. Compare Suidas, _s.v._

αἰγίζειν. As fawns appear to have been also torn in pieces at the

rites of Dionysus (Photius, _Lexicon_, _s.v._ νεβρίζειν;

Harpocration, _s.v._ νεβρίζων), it is probable that the fawn was

another of the god’s embodiments. But of this there seems no direct

evidence. Fawn-skins were worn both by the god and his worshippers

(Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 30). Similarly the

female Bacchanals wore goat-skins (Hesychius, _s.v._ τραγηφόροι).

M12 Custom of rending and devouring animals and men as a religious rite.

Ceremonial cannibalism among the Indians of British Columbia.

90 Mr. Duncan, quoted by Commander R. C. Mayne, _Four Years in British

Columbia and Vancouver Island_ (London, 1862), pp. 284-288. The

instrument which made the screeching sound was no doubt a

bull-roarer, a flat piece of stick whirled at the end of a string so

as to produce a droning or screaming note according to the speed of

revolution. Such instruments are used by the Koskimo Indians of the

same region at their cannibal and other rites. See Fr. Boas, “The

Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl

Indians,” _Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1895_ (Washington,

1897), pp. 610, 611.

M13 Religious societies of Cannibals and Dog-eaters among the Indians of

British Columbia. Live goats rent in pieces and devoured by fanatics

in Morocco.

91 Fr. Boas, _op. cit._ pp. 437-443, 527 _sq._, 536, 537 _sq._, 579,

664; _id._, in “Fifth Report on the North-western Tribes of Canada,”

_Report of the British Association for 1889_, pp. 54-56 (separate

reprint); _id._, in “Sixth Report on the North-western Tribes of

Canada,” _Report of the British Association for 1890_, pp. 62, 65

_sq._ (separate reprint). As to the rules observed after the eating

of human flesh, see _Taboo and the Perils of the Soul_, pp. 188-190.

92 Fr. Boas, “The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the

Kwakiutl Indians,” _Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1895_

(Washington, 1897), pp. 649 _sq._, 658 _sq._; _id._, in “Sixth

Report on the North-western Tribes of Canada,” _Report of the

British Association for 1890_, p. 51; (separate reprint); _id._,

“Seventh Report on the North-western Tribes of Canada,” _Report of

the British Association for 1891_, pp. 10 _sq._ (separate reprint);

_id._, “Tenth Report on the North-western Tribes of Canada,” _Report

of the British Association for 1895_, p. 58 (separate reprint).

93 G. M. Dawson, _Report on the Queen Charlotte Islands, 1878_

(Montreal, 1880), pp. 125 B, 128 B.

94 J. R. Swanton, _Contributions to the Ethnology of the Haida_ (Leyden

and New York, 1905), pp. 156, 160 _sq._, 170 _sq._, 181 (_The Jesup

North Pacific Expedition, Memoir of the American Museum of Natural

History_). For details as to the practice of these savage rites

among the Indian coast tribes of British Columbia, see my _Totemism

and Exogamy_ (London, 1910), iii. pp. 501, 511 _sq._, 515 _sq._,

519, 521, 526, 535 _sq._, 537, 539 _sq._, 542 _sq._, 544, 545.

95 A. Leared, _Morocco and the Moors_ (London, 1876), pp. 267-269.

Compare Budgett Meakin, _The Moors_ (London, 1902), pp. 331 _sq._

The same order of fanatics also exists and holds similar orgies in

Algeria, especially at the town of Tlemcen. See E. Doutté, _Les

Aïssâoua à Tlemcen_ (Châlons-sur-Marne, 1900), p. 13.

M14 Later misinterpretations of the custom of killing a god in animal

form.

96 Varro, _Rerum rusticarum_, i. 2. 19; Virgil, _Georg._ ii. 376-381,

with the comments of Servius on the passage and on _Aen._ iii. 118;

Ovid, _Fasti_, i. 353 _sqq._; _id._, _Metamorph._ xv. 114 _sq._;

Cornutus, _Theologiae Graecae Compendium_, 30.

97 Euripides, _Bacchae_, 138 _sq._: ἀγρεύων αἷμα τραγοκτόνον, ὠμοφάγον

χάριν.

98 Schol. on Aristophanes, _Frogs_, 357.

99 Hera αἰγοφάγος at Sparta, Pausanias, iii. 15. 9; Hesychius, _s.v._

αἰγοφάγος (compare the representation of Hera clad in a goat’s skin,

with the animal’s head and horns over her head, Müller-Wieseler,

_Denkmäler der alten Kunst_, i. No. 229 B; and the similar

representation of the Lanuvinian Juno, W. H. Roscher, _Lexikon d.

griech. u. röm. Mythologie_, ii. 605 _sqq._); Zeus αἰγοφάγος,

_Etymologicum Magnum_, _s.v._ αἰγοφάγος, p. 27. 52 (compare

Scholiast on Oppianus, _Halieut._ iii. 10; L. Stephani, in

_Compte-Rendu de la Commission Impériale Archéologique pour l’année

1869_ (St. Petersburg, 1870), pp. 16-18); Apollo ὀψοφάγος at Elis,

Athenaeus, viii. 36, p. 346 B; Artemis καπροφάγος in Samos,

Hesychius, _s.v._ καπροφάγος; compare _id._, _s.v._ κριοφάγος.

Divine titles derived from killing animals are probably to be

similarly explained, as Dionysus αἰγόβολος (Pausanias, ix. 8. 2);

Rhea or Hecate κυνοσφαγής (J. Tzetzes, _Scholia on Lycophron_, 77);

Apollo λυκοκτόνος (Sophocles, _Electra_, 6); Apollo σαυροκτόνος

(Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ xxxiv. 70).

100 See below, vol. ii. pp. 184, 194, 196, 197 _sq._, 233.

M15 Human sacrifices in the worship of Dionysus.

101 Porphyry, _De abstinentia_, ii. 55.

102 Pausanias, ix. 8. 2.

103 See _The Dying God_, pp. 163 _sq._

M16 The legendary deaths of Pentheus and Lycurgus may be reminiscences

of a custom of sacrificing divine kings in the character of

Dionysus.

_ 104 Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 332 _sq._

105 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 5. 1.

_ 106 The Magic Art and the Evolution of Kings_, i. 344, 345, 346, 352,

354, 366 _sq._

107 Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 5. 1.

108 Herodotus, vii. 197; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, i. 9. 1 _sq._;

Scholiast on Aristophanes, _Clouds_, 257; J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on

Lycophron_, 21; Hyginus, _Fabulae_, 1-5. See _The Dying God_, pp.

161-163.

109 Clemens Romanus, _Recognitiones_, x. 24 (Migne’s _Patrologia

Graeca_, i. col. 1434).

110 Euripides, _Bacchae_, 43 _sqq._, 1043 _sqq._; Theocritus, _Idyl._

xxvi.; Pausanias, ii. 2. 7. Strictly speaking, the murder of

Pentheus is said to have been perpetrated not at Thebes, of which he

was king, but on Mount Cithaeron.

M17 Survival of Dionysiac rites among the modern Thracian peasantry.

111 See Mr. R. M. Dawkins, “The Modern Carnival in Thrace and the Cult

of Dionysus,” _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xxvi. (1906) pp.

191-206. Mr. Dawkins describes the ceremonies partly from his own

observation, partly from an account of them published by Mr. G. M.

Vizyenos in a Greek periodical Θρακικὴ Ἐπετηρίς, of which only one

number was published at Athens in 1897. From his personal

observations Mr. Dawkins was able to confirm the accuracy of Mr.

Vizyenos’s account.

_ 112 Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, pp. 333 _sq._

M18 Drama annually performed at the Carnival in the villages round Viza,

an old Thracian capital. The actors in the drama.

113 Strabo, vii. frag. 48; Stephanus Byzantius, _s.v._ Βιζύη.

114 R. M. Dawkins, _op. cit._ p. 192.

M19 The ceremonies include the forging of a ploughshare, a mock

marriage, and a pretence of death and resurrection.

M20 The ceremonies also include a simulation of ploughing and sowing by

skin-clad men, accompanied by prayers for good crops.

115 R. M. Dawkins, “The Modern Carnival in Thrace and the Cult of

Dionysus,” _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, xxvi. (1906) pp. 193-201.

M21 Kindred ceremony performed by a masked and skin-clad man who is

called a king.

116 R. M. Dawkins, _op. cit._ pp. 201 _sq._

M22 Analogy of these modern Thracian ceremonies to the ancient rites of

Dionysus.

117 They have been clearly indicated by Mr. R. M. Dawkins, _op. cit._

pp. 203 _sqq._ Compare W. Ridgeway, _The Origin of Tragedy_

(Cambridge, 1910), pp. 15 _sqq._, who fully recognises the connexion

of the modern Thracian ceremonies with the ancient rites of

Dionysus.

118 Lucian, _Dialogi Deorum_, ix. 2; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, iii. 4.

4. According to the latter writer Dionysus was born in the sixth

month.

M23 The modern Thracian celebration seems to correspond most closely to

the ancient Athenian festival of the Anthesteria.

119 As to such festivals of All Souls see _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_,

Second Edition, pp. 301-318.

120 The passages of ancient authors which refer to the Anthesteria are

collected by Professor Martin P. Nilsson, _Studia de Dionysiis

Atticis_ (Lund, 1900), pp. 148 _sqq._ As to the festival, which has

been much discussed of late years, see August Mommsen, _Heortologie_

(Leipsic, 1864), pp. 345 _sqq._; _id._, _Feste der Stadt Athen im

Altertum_ (Leipsic, 1898), pp. 384 _sqq._; G. F. Schoemann,

_Griechische Alterthümer_4 (Berlin, 1902), ii. 516 _sqq._; E. Rohde,

_Psyche_3 (Tübingen and Leipsic, 1903), i. 236 _sqq._; Martin P.

Nilsson, _op. cit._ pp. 115 _sqq._; P. Foucart, _Le Culte de

Dionysos en Attique_ (Paris, 1904), pp. 107 _sqq._; Miss J. E.

Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_2 (Cambridge,

1908), pp. 32 _sqq._; L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek

States_, v. (Oxford, 1909) pp. 214 _sqq._ As to the marriage of

Dionysus to the Queen of Athens, see _The Magic Art and the

Evolution of Kings_, i. 136 _sq._

121 By Professor U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, _Aristoteles und Athen_

(Berlin, 1893), ii. 42; and afterwards by Miss J. E. Harrison,

_Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_,2 p. 536.

_ 122 The Dying God_, p. 71.

123 Plutarch, _Conjugalia Praecepta_, 42.

124 Miss J. E. Harrison, _Mythology and Monuments of Ancient Athens_

(London, 1890), pp. 166 _sq._

125 Aristotle, _Constitution of Athens_, 3. As to the situation of the

Prytaneum see my note on Pausanias, i. 18. 3 (vol. ii. p. 172).

M24 Theory that the rites of the Anthesteria comprised a drama of the

violent death and resurrection of Dionysus.

126 August Mommsen, _Heortologie_, pp. 371 _sqq._; _id._, _Feste der

Stadt Athen im Altertum_, pp. 398 _sqq._; P. Foucart, _Le Culte de

Dionysos en Attique_, pp. 138 _sqq._

127 Demosthenes, _Contra Neaer_. 73, pp. 1369 _sq._; Julius Pollux,

viii. 108; _Etymologicum Magnum_, p. 227, _s.v._ γεραῖραι;

Hesychius, _s.v._ γεραραί.

128 Chr. A. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_, p. 505.

129 Plutarch, _Isis et Osiris_, 18, 42.

130 The resurrection of Osiris is not described by Plutarch in his

treatise _Isis et Osiris_, which is still our principal source for

the myth of the god; but it is fortunately recorded in native

Egyptian writings. See _Adonis, Attis, Osiris_, Second Edition, p.

274. P. Foucart supposes that the resurrection of Dionysus was

enacted at the Anthesteria; August Mommsen prefers to suppose that

it was enacted in the following month at the Lesser Mysteries.

M25 Legends of human sacrifice in the worship of Dionysus may be mere

misinterpretations of ritual.

131 Aelian, _De Natura Animalium_, xii. 34. Compare W. Robertson Smith,

_Religion of the Semites_2 (London, 1894), pp. 300 _sqq._

132 Aulus Gellius, v. 12. 12.

133 See _The Dying God_, p. 166 note 1, and below, p. 249.

M26 Demeter and Persephone as Greek personifications of the decay and

revival of vegetation.

M27 The Homeric _Hymn to Demeter_. The rape of Persephone. The wrath of

Demeter. The return of Persephone.

134 R. Foerster, _Der Raub und die Rückkehr der Persephone_ (Stuttgart,

1874), pp. 37-39; _The Homeric Hymns_, edited by T. W. Allen and E.

E. Sikes (London, 1904), pp. 10 _sq._ A later date—the age of the

Pisistratids—is assigned to the hymn by A. Baumeister (_Hymni

Homerici_, Leipsic, 1860, p. 280).

_ 135 Hymn to Demeter_, 1 _sqq._, 302 _sqq._, 330 _sqq._, 349 _sqq._, 414

_sqq._, 450 _sqq._

_ 136 Hymn to Demeter_, 310 _sqq._ With the myth as set forth in the

Homeric hymn may be compared the accounts of Apollodorus

(_Bibliotheca_, i. 5) and Ovid (_Fasti_, iv. 425-618;

_Metamorphoses_, v. 385 _sqq._).

M28 The aim of the Homeric _Hymn to Demeter_ is to explain the

traditional foundation of the Eleusinian mysteries by Demeter.

_ 137 Hymn to Demeter_, 47-50, 191-211, 292-295, with the notes of

Messrs. Allen and Sikes in their edition of the Homeric Hymns

(London, 1904). As to representations of the candidates for

initiation seated on stools draped with sheepskins, see L. R.

Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, iii. (Oxford, 1907) pp.

237 _sqq._, with plate xv _a_. On a well-known marble vase there

figured the stool is covered with a lion’s skin and one of the

candidate’s feet rests on a ram’s skull or horns; but in two other

examples of the same scene the ram’s fleece is placed on the seat

(Farnell, _op. cit._ p. 240 note a), just as it is said to have been

placed on Demeter’s stool in the Homeric hymn. As to the form of

communion in the Eleusinian mysteries, see Clement of Alexandria,

_Protrept._ 21, p. 18 ed. Potter; Arnobius, _Adversus nationes_, v.

26; L. R. Farnell, _op. cit._ iii. 185 _sq._, 195 _sq._ For

discussions of the ancient evidence bearing on the Eleusinian

mysteries it may suffice to refer to Chr. A. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_

(Königsberg, 1829), pp. 3 _sqq._; G. F. Schoemann, _Griechische

Alterthümer_,4 ii. 387 _sqq._; Aug. Mommsen, _Heortologie_ (Leipsic,

1864), pp. 222 _sqq._; _id._, _Feste der Stadt Athen im Altertum_

(Leipsic, 1898), pp. 204 _sqq._; P. Foucart, _Recherches sur

l’Origine et la Nature des Mystères d’Eleusis_ (Paris, 1895)

(_Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions_, xxxv.); _id._, _Les

grands Mystères d’Eleusis_ (Paris, 1900) (_Mémoires de l’Académie

des Inscriptions_, xxxvii.); F. Lenormant and E. Pottier, _s.v._

“Eleusinia,” in Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités

Grecques et Romaines_, ii. 544 _sqq._; L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of

the Greek States_, iii. 126 _sqq._

M29 Revelation of a reaped ear of corn the crowning act of the

mysteries.

138 Hippolytus, _Refutatio Omnium Haeresium_, v. 8, p. 162, ed. L.

Duncker et F. G. Schneidewin (Göttingen, 1859). The word which the

poet uses to express the revelation (δεῖξε, _Hymn to Demeter_, verse

474) is a technical one in the mysteries; the full phrase was

δεικνύναι τὰ ἱερά. See Plutarch, _Alcibiades_, 22; Xenophon,

_Hellenica_, vi. 3. 6; Isocrates, _Panegyricus_, 6; Lysias, _Contra

Andocidem_, 51; Chr. A. Lobeck, _Aglaophamus_, p. 51.