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

168 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)[140]The Carlin andthe Maiden inScotland. The OldWife (Cailleach)at harvest in theHighlands ofScotland.Thus the custom of making the last sheaf unusually large orheavy is a charm, working by sympathetic magic, to ensure alarge and heavy crop at the following harvest. In Denmark alsothe last sheaf is made larger than the others, and is called the OldRye-woman or the Old Barley-woman. No one likes to bind it,because whoever does so will be sure, they think, to marry an oldman or an old woman. Sometimes the last wheat-sheaf, calledthe Old Wheat-woman, is made up in human shape, with head,arms, and legs, and being dressed in clothes is carried home onthe last waggon, while the harvesters sit beside it drinking andhuzzaing. 464 Of the person who binds the last sheaf it is said,“She or he is the Old Rye-woman.” 465In Scotland, when the last corn was cut after Hallowmas, thefemale figure made out of it was sometimes called the Carlin orCarline, that is, the Old Woman. But if cut before Hallowmas, itwas called the Maiden; if cut after sunset, it was called the Witch,being supposed to bring bad luck. 466 Among the Highlanders ofScotland the last corn cut at harvest is known either as the OldWife (Cailleach) or as the Maiden; on the whole the former nameseems to prevail in the western and the latter in the central andeastern districts. Of the Maiden we shall speak presently; herewe are dealing with the Old Wife. The following general accountof the custom is given by a careful and well-informed enquirer,the Rev. J. G. Campbell, minister of the remote Hebridean islandof Tiree: “The Harvest Old Wife (a Chailleach).—In harvest,there was a struggle to escape from being the last done with themade large in order that all the sheaves next year may be of the same size; buthe says nothing as to the shape or name of the sheaf. Compare A. John, Sitte,Brauch und Volksglaube im deutschen Westböhmen (Prague, 1905), p. 188.464 W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 327.465 Ibid. p. 328.466 J. Jamieson, Dictionary of the Scottish Language, New Edition (Paisley,1879-1882), iii. 206, s.v. “Maiden”; W. Mannhardt, MythologischeForschungen, p. 326.