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

§ 2. Killing the Corn-spirit. 275Wood-woman” in return for the blessing she has bestowed. 708In the Frankenwald of Bavaria three handfuls of flax were lefton the field “for the Wood-woman.” 709 At Lindau in Anhalt the [233]reapers used to leave some stalks standing in the last corner of thelast field for “the Corn-woman to eat.” 710 In some parts of Silesiait was till lately the custom to leave a few corn-stalks standingin the field, “in order that the next harvest should not fail.” 711In Russia it is customary to leave patches of unreaped corn inthe fields and to place bread and salt on the ground near them.“These ears are eventually knotted together, and the ceremony iscalled ‘the plaiting of the beard of Volos,’ and it is supposed thatafter it has been performed no wizard or other evilly-disposedperson will be able to hurt the produce of the fields. The unreapedpatch is looked upon as tabooed; and it is believed that if anyone meddles with it he will shrivel up, and become twisted likethe interwoven ears. Similar customs are kept up in various partsof Russia. Near Kursk and Voroneje, for instance, a patch ofrye is usually left in honour of the Prophet Elijah, and in anotherdistrict one of oats is consecrated to St. Nicholas. As it is wellknown that both the Saint and the Prophet have succeeded to theplace once held in the estimation of the Russian people by Perun,it seems probable that Volos really was, in ancient times, one ofthe names of the thunder-god.” 712 In the north-east of Scotlanda few stalks were sometimes left unreaped on the field for the708 A. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen (Vienna, 1878),p. 224, § 74.709 Bavaria, Landes- und Volkskunde des Königreichs Bayern (Munich, 1860-1867), iii. 343 sq.710 Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, vii. (1897) p. 154.711 P. Drechsler, Sitte, Brauch, und Volksglaube in Schlesien (Leipsic, 1903-1906), ii. 64, § 419.712 W. R. S. Ralston, Songs of the Russian People, Second Edition (London,1872), pp. 251 sq. As to Perun, the old Slavonic thunder-god, see The MagicArt and the Evolution of Kings, ii. 365.