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

§ 6. The Corn-spirit as a Goat. 333the village, where a round dance takes place. About Luneburg,also, the woman who binds the last corn is decked with a crownof corn-ears and is called the Corn-goat. 902 At Münzesheim inBaden the reaper who cuts the last handful of corn or oats iscalled the Corn-goat or the Oats-goat. 903 In the Canton St. Gall,Switzerland, the person who cuts the last handful of corn on thefield, or drives the last harvest-waggon to the barn, is called theCorn-goat or the Rye-goat, or simply the Goat. 904 In the CantonThurgau he is called Corn-goat; like a goat he has a bell hunground his neck, is led in triumph, and drenched with liquor. Inparts of Styria, also, the man who cuts the last corn is calledCorn-goat, Oats-goat, or the like. As a rule, the man who thusgets the name of Corn-goat has to bear it a whole year till thenext harvest. 905According to one view, the corn-spirit, who has been caughtin the form of a goat or otherwise, lives in the farmhouse or barnover winter. Thus, each farm has its own embodiment of thecorn-spirit. But, according to another view, the corn-spirit is thegenius or deity, not of the corn of one farm only, but of all the [284]corn. Hence when the corn on one farm is all cut, he flees toanother where there is still corn left standing. This idea is broughtout in a harvest-custom which was formerly observed in Skye.The farmer who first finished reaping sent a man or woman with asheaf to a neighbouring farmer who had not finished; the latter inhis turn, when he had finished, sent on the sheaf to his neighbourwho was still reaping; and so the sheaf made the round of thefarms till all the corn was cut. The sheaf was called the goabbirbhacagh, that is, the Cripple Goat. 906 The custom appears not to902 Ibid. p. 164.903 E. H. Meyer, Badisches Volksleben (Strasburg, 1900), p. 428.904 W. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- und Feldkulte, pp. 164 sq.905 Ibid. p. 165.906 J. Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. 24, Bohn's edition, quoting TheGentleman's Magazine for February, 1795, p. 124; W. Mannhardt, op.The corn-spirit asthe Cripple Goat inSkye.