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

298 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)[253]The victim whorepresented thecorn-spirit mayhave been a passingstranger or thereaper, binder, orthresher of the lastcorn.representative of the corn-spirit was annually killed upon theharvest-field. Grounds have been already shewn for believingthat similarly in Europe the representative of the tree-spirit wasannually slain. The proofs of these two remarkable and closelyanalogous customs are entirely independent of each other. Theircoincidence seems to furnish fresh presumption in favour of both.To the question, How was the representative of the corn-spiritchosen? one answer has been already given. Both the Lityersesstory and European folk-custom shew that passing strangers wereregarded as manifestations of the corn-spirit escaping from thecut or threshed corn, and as such were seized and slain. But thisis not the only answer which the evidence suggests. Accordingto the Phrygian legend the victims of Lityerses were not simplypassing strangers, but persons whom he had vanquished in areaping contest and afterwards wrapt up in corn-sheaves andbeheaded. 777 This suggests that the representative of the cornspiritmay have been selected by means of a competition on theharvest-field, in which the vanquished competitor was compelledto accept the fatal honour. The supposition is countenanced byEuropean harvest-customs. We have seen that in Europe there issometimes a contest amongst the reapers to avoid being last, andthat the person who is vanquished in this competition, that is,who cuts the last corn, is often roughly handled. It is true we havenot found that a pretence is made of killing him; but on the otherhand we have found that a pretence is made of killing the manwho gives the last stroke at threshing, that is, who is vanquishedin the threshing contest. 778 Now, since it is in the character ofrepresentative of the corn-spirit that the thresher of the last cornis slain in mimicry, and since the same representative characterattaches (as we have seen) to the cutter and binder as well asto the thresher of the last corn, and since the same repugnanceis evinced by harvesters to be last in any one of these labours,777 See above, p. 217.778 Above, p. 224.