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

342 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)The corn-spirit inthe form of abull supposed to bekilled at threshing.[292]The corn-spirit as acalf at harvest or inspring.orchard. 941 At Arad, in Hungary, the man who gives the laststroke at threshing is enveloped in straw and a cow's hide withthe horns attached to it. 942 At Pessnitz, in the district of Dresden,the man who gives the last stroke with the flail is called Bull.He must make a straw-man and set it up before a neighbour'swindow. 943 Here, apparently, as in so many cases, the corn-spiritis passed on to a neighbour who has not finished threshing. So atHerbrechtingen, in Thüringen, the effigy of a ragged old womanis flung into the barn of the farmer who is last with his threshing.The man who throws it in cries, “There is the Cow for you.” Ifthe threshers catch him they detain him over night and punishhim by keeping him from the harvest-supper. 944 In these lattercustoms the confusion between the human and the animal shapeof the corn-spirit meets us again.Further, the corn-spirit in bull form is sometimes believed tobe killed at threshing. At Auxerre, in threshing the last bundleof corn, they call out twelve times, “We are killing the Bull.”In the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, where a butcher kills an oxon the field immediately after the close of the reaping, it is saidof the man who gives the last stroke at threshing that “he haskilled the Bull.” 945 At Chambéry the last sheaf is called the sheafof the Young Ox, and a race takes place to it in which all thereapers join. When the last stroke is given at threshing they saythat “the Ox is killed”; and immediately thereupon a real ox isslaughtered by the reaper who cut the last corn. The flesh of theox is eaten by the threshers at supper. 946We have seen that sometimes the young corn-spirit, whosetask it is to quicken the corn of the coming year, is believed941 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, pp. 61 sq.942 Ibid. p. 62.943 Ibid. p. 62.944 E. Meier, Deutsche Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Schwaben, pp. 445sq., § 163.945 W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, p. 60.946 W. Mannhardt, op. cit. p. 62.