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

§ 2. Killing the Corn-spirit. 267arm, and he is obliged to ransom himself by the payment of afine. 683 In the canton of Putanges, in Normandy, a pretence oftying up the owner of the land in the last sheaf of wheat is stillpractised, or at least was still practised some quarter of a centuryago. The task falls to the women alone. They throw themselveson the proprietor, seize him by the arms, the legs, and the body,throw him to the ground, and stretch him on the last sheaf. Thena show is made of binding him, and the conditions to be observedat the harvest-supper are dictated to him. When he has acceptedthem, he is released and allowed to get up. 684 At Brie, Isle deFrance, when any one who does not belong to the farm passesby the harvest-field, the reapers give chase. If they catch him,they bind him in a sheaf and bite him, one after the other, in theforehead, crying, “You shall carry the key of the field.” 685 “Tohave the key” is an expression used by harvesters elsewhere inthe sense of to cut or bind or thresh the last sheaf; 686 hence, it isequivalent to the phrases “You have the Old Man,” “You are theOld Man,” which are addressed to the cutter, binder, or thresherof the last sheaf. Therefore, when a stranger, as at Brie, is tied upin a sheaf and told that he will “carry the key of the field,” it is asmuch as to say that he is the Old Man, that is, an embodiment ofthe corn-spirit. In hop-picking, if a well-dressed stranger passesthe hop-yard, he is seized by the women, tumbled into the bin,covered with leaves, and not released till he has paid a fine. 687 Insome parts of Scotland, particularly in the counties of Fife and [227]683 O. Hartung, “Zur Volkskunde aus Anhalt,” Zeitschrift des Vereins fürVolkskunde, vii. (1897) p. 153.684 J. Lecœur, Esquisses du Bocage Normand (Condé-sur-Noireau, 1883-1887),ii. 240 sq.685 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, p. 36.686 For the evidence, see ibid. p. 36, note 2. The “key” in the European customis probably intended to serve the same purpose as the “knot” in the Cingalesecustom, as to which see Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 308 sq.687 From a letter written to me by Colonel Henry Wilson, of FarnboroughLodge, Farnborough, Kent. The letter is dated 21st March, 1901.