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

193seed to very young girls, 532 and later on we shall meet with moreevidence in Africa of the notion that the corn may be handledonly by the pure. 533 And in the gruel of oat-meal and ale, whichthe harvesters sup with spoons as an indispensable part of theharvest supper, have we not the Scotch equivalent of the gruelof barley-meal and water, flavoured with pennyroyal, which theinitiates at Eleusis drank as a solemn form of communion withthe Barley Goddess Demeter? 534 May not that mystic sacramenthave originated in a simple harvest supper held by Eleusinian [162]farmers at the end of the reaping?According to a briefer account of the Aberdeenshire custom,“the last sheaf cut, or ‘maiden,’ is carried home in merryprocession by the harvesters. It is then presented to the mistressof the house, who dresses it up to be preserved till the first marefoals. The maiden is then taken down and presented to the mareas its first food. The neglect of this would have untoward effectsupon the foal, and disastrous consequences upon farm operationsgenerally for the season.” 535 In Fifeshire the last handful ofcorn, known as the Maiden, is cut by a young girl and madeinto the rude figure of a doll, tied with ribbons, by which it ishung on the wall of the farm-kitchen till the next spring. 536 The532 See above, pp. 115 sq.533 See below, vol. ii. p. 110.534 The drinking of the draught (called the κυκεών) as a solemn rite in theEleusinian mysteries is mentioned by Clement of Alexandria (Protrept. 21, p.18, ed. Potter) and Arnobius (Adversus Nationes, v. 26). The compositionof the draught is revealed by the author of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter(verses 206-211), where he represents Demeter herself partaking of the sacredcup. That the compound was a kind of thick gruel, half-solid, half-liquid, ismentioned by Eustathius (on Homer, Iliad, xi. 638, p. 870). Compare MissJ. E. Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Second Edition(Cambridge, 1908), pp. 155 sqq.535 Rev. J. Macdonald, Religion and Myth (London, 1893), pp. 140 sq., fromMS. notes of Miss J. Ligertwood.536 Folk-lore Journal, vii. (1889) p. 51; The Quarterly Review, clxxii. (1891)p. 195.