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

184 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)[154]It was then dressed up like a child's doll and went by the name ofthe kirn-baby, the kirn-doll, or the Maiden. 516 In Berwickshiredown to about the middle of the nineteenth century there wasan eager competition among the reapers to cut the last bunch ofstanding corn. They gathered round it at a little distance and threwtheir sickles in turn at it, and the man who succeeded in cutting itthrough gave it to the girl he preferred. She made the corn so cutinto a kirn-dolly and dressed it, and the doll was then taken to thefarmhouse and hung up there till the next harvest, when its placewas taken by the new kirn-dolly. 517 At Spottiswoode (WestrutherParish) in Berwickshire the reaping of the last corn at harvestwas called “cutting the Queen” almost as often as “cutting thekirn.” The mode of cutting it was not by throwing sickles. One ofthe reapers consented to be blindfolded, and having been givena sickle in his hand and turned twice or thrice about by hisfellows, he was bidden to go and cut the kirn. His groping aboutand making wild strokes in the air with his sickle excited muchhilarity. When he had tired himself out in vain and given upthe task as hopeless, another reaper was blindfolded and pursuedthe quest, and so on, one after the other, till at last the kirn wascut. The successful reaper was tossed up in the air with threecheers by his brother harvesters. To decorate the room in whichthe kirn-supper was held at Spottiswoode as well as the granary,where the dancing took place, two women made kirn-dolliesor Queens every year; and many of these rustic effigies of thecorn-spirit might be seen hanging up together. 518 At Lanfine inAyrshire, down to near the end of the nineteenth century, thelast bunch of standing corn at harvest was, occasionally at least,plaited together, and the reapers tried to cut it by throwing their516 J. Jamieson, Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, NewEdition (Paisley, 1879-1882), iii. 42 sq., s.v. “Kirn.”517 Mrs. A. B. Gomme, “A Berwickshire Kirn-dolly,” Folk-lore, xii. (1901) p.215.518 Mrs. A. B. Gomme, “Harvest Customs,” Folk-lore, xiii. (1902) p. 178.