person who binds the last sheaf is called the Wheat-dog or the Peas-pug.1 But it is in the harvest-customs of the northeast 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." 2 In the Vosges the Harvest-May is called the "Dog of the harvest," and the person who cuts the last handful of hay or wheat is said to "kill the Dog." About Lons-le

In

Saulnier, in the Jura, the last sheaf is called the Bitch. 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." 5 In Lorraine it is said of the man who cuts the last corn, "He is killing the Dog of the harvest." " At Dux, in the Tyrol, the man who gives the last stroke at threshing is said to "strike down the Dog";" and at Ahnebergen, near Stade, he is called, according to the crop, Corn-pug, Rye-pug, Wheat-pug.R

» 10

So with the wolf. In Germany it is said that "the Wolf sits in the last sheaf." 9 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." The last bunch of standing corn is called the Wolf, and the man who cuts it "has the Wolf." The last sheaf is also called the Wolf; 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 is herself called Wolf and has to bear the name for a whole year; sometimes, according to the crop, she is called the Rye-wolf or the Potato-wolf. 12 In the island of Rügen they call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, "You're Wolf"; and when she comes home

11

she bites the lady of the house and the stewardess, for which she receives a large piece of meat. 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.1 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. 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.*

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

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." 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

1 Roggenwolf, p. 28; A.W.F. p. 320.

2 Ibid. p. 25.

3 Ibid. p. 26.

Ibid. p. 26; A. IV.F. p. 320. 54. IV.F. p. 321.

6 A.W.F. p. 321 sq.

Ibid. p. 320.

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 cornspirit, 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.1

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.? 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.

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. 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." Then a cock is made of flowers, fastened on a pole, and carried home by the reapers, singing as they go. At Braller, in Transylvania, when the reapers come to the last patch of corn, they cry, "Here we shall catch the Cock." " 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;

1 A.W.F. p. 320 sq.

2 Ibid. p. 322.

3 Ibid. p. 323.

4 Die Kornlämonen, p. 13.

5 Ibid.; Schmitz, Sitten und Sagen des Eifler Volkes, i. 95; Kuhn, West

fälische Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche, ii. 181; Kuhn und Schwartz, Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche, p. 398.

G. A. Heinrich, Agrarische Sitten und Gebräuche unter den Sachsen Siebenbürgens, p. 21.

he who succeeds in grasping it must crow, and is called Cock.1 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 "Cockbeer." The last sheaf is called Cock, Cock-sheaf, Harvestcock, Harvest-hen, Autumn-hen. A distinction is made between a Wheat-cock, Bean-cock, and so on, according to the crop.3 At Wünschensuhl, in Thüringen, the last sheaf is made into the shape of a cock, and called Harvest-cock.* A figure of a cock, made of wood, pasteboard, or ears of corn, 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.5 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. 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.? The harvest-waggon, with the figure of

1 Die Korndämonen, p. 13. Cp. Kuhn and Schwartz, .c.

2 K. Haupt, Sagenbuch der Lausitz, i. p. 232, No. 277 note.

3 Die Korndämonen, p. 13. 4 Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen, p. 220.

5 Die Korndämonen, p. 13 sq.; Kuhn, Westfälische Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche, ii. 180 sq.; Pfannenschmid, Germanische Erntefeste, p. 110.

Die Korndämonen, p. 14; Pfannenschmid, op. cit. pp. 111, 419 sq.

7 Die Korndämonen, p. 15. So in Shropshire, where the corn-spirit is conceived in the form of a gander (see above, p. 260), the expression for overthrowing a load at harvest is "to lose the goose," and the penalty used to be the loss of the goose at the harvest-supper (Burne and Jackson, Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 375); and in some parts of England the harvestsupper was called the Harvest Gosling, or the Inning Goose (Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. 23, 26, Bohn's ed.).

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.1 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.2

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. 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 show them the head of the cock which has been killed for the soup. 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." 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. 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.

1 Die Korndämonen, p. 14.

2 Ibid. p. 15.

3 M.F. p. 30.

+ Die Korndämonen, p. 15.

5 Ibid. p. 15 sq.

• Ibid. p. 15; M.F. p. 30.