The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12) - Mirrors

160 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)[133]The Corn-motherin the last sheaf.Fertilising power ofthe Corn-mother.The Corn-motherin the last sheafamong the Slavsand in France.they are told not to do so, because the Corn-mother is sitting inthe corn and will catch them. 423 Or again she is called, accordingto the crop, the Rye-mother or the Pea-mother, and children arewarned against straying in the rye or among the peas by threatsof the Rye-mother or the Pea-mother. In Norway also the Peamotheris said to sit among the peas. 424 Similar expressions arecurrent among the Slavs. The Poles and Czechs warn childrenagainst the Corn-mother who sits in the corn. Or they call her theold Corn-woman, and say that she sits in the corn and stranglesthe children who tread it down. 425 The Lithuanians say, “TheOld Rye-woman sits in the corn.” 426 Again the Corn-mother isbelieved to make the crop grow. Thus in the neighbourhood ofMagdeburg it is sometimes said, “It will be a good year for flax;the Flax-mother has been seen.” At Dinkelsbühl, in Bavaria,down to the latter part of the nineteenth century, people believedthat when the crops on a particular farm compared unfavourablywith those of the neighbourhood, the reason was that the Cornmotherhad punished the farmer for his sins. 427 In a village ofStyria it is said that the Corn-mother, in the shape of a femalepuppet made out of the last sheaf of corn and dressed in white,may be seen at midnight in the corn-fields, which she fertilisesby passing through them; but if she is angry with a farmer, shewithers up all his corn. 428Further, the Corn-mother plays an important part in harvestcustoms. She is believed to be present in the handful of cornwhich is left standing last on the field; and with the cutting ofthis last handful she is caught, or driven away, or killed. Inthe first of these cases, the last sheaf is carried joyfully home423 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen (Strasburg, 1884), p. 297.424 Ibid. pp. 297 sq.425 Ibid. p. 299. Compare R. Andree, Braunschweiger Volkskunde (Brunswick,1896), p. 281.426 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, p. 300.427 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, p. 310.428 Ibid. pp. 310 sq. Compare O. Hartung, l.c.