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

§ 2. Killing the Corn-spirit. 259the rest form a ring round them; afterwards they all, one after theother, dance a single round with him. Further, the woman whobound the last sheaf goes herself by the name of the Old Man tillthe next harvest, and is often mocked with the cry, “Here comesthe Old Man.” 646 In the Mittelmark district of Prussia, when therye has been reaped, and the last sheaves are about to be tied up,the binders stand in two rows facing each other, every womanwith her sheaf and her straw rope before her. At a given signalthey all tie up their sheaves, and the one who is the last to finishis ridiculed by the rest. Not only so, but her sheaf is made upinto human shape and called the Old Man, and she must carryit home to the farmyard, where the harvesters dance in a circleround her and it. Then they take the Old Man to the farmer anddeliver it to him with the words, “We bring the Old Man to theMaster. He may keep him till he gets a new one.” After that theOld Man is set up against a tree, where he remains for a longtime, the butt of many jests. 647 At Aschbach in Bavaria, whenthe reaping is nearly finished, the reapers say, “Now, we willdrive out the Old Man.” Each of them sets himself to reap a patchof corn as fast as he can; he who cuts the last handful or the laststalk is greeted by the rest with an exulting cry, “You have theOld Man.” Sometimes a black mask is fastened on the reaper'sface and he is dressed in woman's clothes; or if the reaper is awoman, she is dressed in man's clothes. A dance follows. At thesupper the Old Man gets twice as large a portion of food as theothers. The proceedings are similar at threshing; the person whogives the last stroke is said to have the Old Man. At the supper [220]given to the threshers he has to eat out of the cream-ladle and todrink a great deal. Moreover, he is quizzed and teased in all sortsof ways till he frees himself from further annoyance by treatingthe others to brandy or beer. 648646 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, pp. 19 sq.647 A. Kuhn, Märkische Sagen und Märchen (Berlin, 1843), p. 342.648 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, p. 20; F. Panzer, Beitrag zur