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

264 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)[224]receives a gratuity from the farmer and a jugful of water over hishead from the farmer's wife. 667 According to another account,every Lithuanian reaper makes haste to finish his task; for theOld Rye-woman lives in the last stalks, and whoever cuts thelast stalks kills the Old Rye-woman, and by killing her he bringstrouble on himself. 668 In Wilkischken, in the district of Tilsit, theman who cuts the last corn goes by the name of “the killer of theRye-woman.” 669 In Lithuania, again, the corn-spirit is believedto be killed at threshing as well as at reaping. When only a singlepile of corn remains to be threshed, all the threshers suddenlystep back a few paces, as if at the word of command. Thenthey fall to work, plying their flails with the utmost rapidity andvehemence, till they come to the last bundle. Upon this theyfling themselves with almost frantic fury, straining every nerve,and raining blows on it till the word “Halt!” rings out sharplyfrom the leader. The man whose flail is the last to fall after thecommand to stop has been given is immediately surrounded byall the rest, crying out that “he has struck the Old Rye-womandead.” He has to expiate the deed by treating them to brandy; and,like the man who cuts the last corn, he is known as “the killerof the Old Rye-woman.” 670 Sometimes in Lithuania the slaincorn-spirit was represented by a puppet. Thus a female figurewas made out of corn-stalks, dressed in clothes, and placed on thethreshing-floor, under the heap of corn which was to be threshedlast. Whoever thereafter gave the last stroke at threshing “struckthe Old Woman dead.” 671 We have already met with examples ofburning the figure which represents the corn-spirit. 672 In the EastRiding of Yorkshire a custom called “burning the Old Witch”667 Ibid. p. 330.668 Ibid.669 Ibid. p. 331.670 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, p. 335.671 Ibid. p. 335.672 Above, pp. 135, 146.