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

272 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)Pretence madeby threshers ofchoking a personwith their flails.[231]Custom observed atthe madder-harvestin Zealand.That in these customs the whetting of the scythes is reallymeant as a preliminary to mowing appears from the followingvariation of the preceding customs. In the district of Lüneburg,when any one enters the harvest-field, he is asked whetherhe will engage a good fellow. If he says yes, the harvestersmow some swaths, yelling and screaming, and then ask him fordrink-money. 696On the threshing-floor strangers are also regarded asembodiments of the corn-spirit, and are treated accordingly.At Wiedingharde in Schleswig when a stranger comes to thethreshing-floor he is asked, “Shall I teach you the flail-dance?”If he says yes, they put the arms of the threshing-flail round hisneck as if he were a sheaf of corn, and press them together sotight that he is nearly choked. 697 In some parishes of Wermland(Sweden), when a stranger enters the threshing-floor where thethreshers are at work, they say that “they will teach him thethreshing-song.” Then they put a flail round his neck and a strawrope about his body. Also, as we have seen, if a stranger womanenters the threshing-floor, the threshers put a flail round her bodyand a wreath of corn-stalks round her neck, and call out, “See theCorn-woman! See! that is how the Corn-maiden looks!” 698In these customs, observed both on the harvest-field and on thethreshing-floor, a passing stranger is regarded as a personificationof the corn, in other words, as the corn-spirit; and a show is made696 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, pp. 41 sq.697 W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 42. See also above, p. 150.698 W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 42. See above, p. 149. In Thüringen a being calledthe Rush-cutter (Binsenschneider) used to be much dreaded. On the morningof St. John's Day he was wont to walk through the fields with sickles tied to hisankles cutting avenues in the corn as he walked. To detect him, seven bundlesof brushwood were silently threshed with the flail on the threshing-floor, andthe stranger who appeared at the door of the barn during the threshing was theRush-cutter. See A. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen(Vienna, 1878), p. 221. With the Binsenschneider compare the Bilschneiderand Biberschneider (F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie, Munich,1848-1855, ii. pp. 210 sq., §§ 372-378).