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

350 The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12)[298]§ 11. The Corn-spirit as a Pig (Boar or Sow).The corn-spirit asa boar rushingthrough the corn.The corn-spirit asa boar or sow atreaping. The cornspiritas a sow atthreshing.The last animal embodiment of the corn-spirit which we shallnotice is the pig (boar or sow). In Thüringen, when the windsets the young corn in motion, they sometimes say, “The Boaris rushing through the corn.” 969 Amongst the Esthonians of theisland of Oesel the last sheaf is called the Rye-boar, and the manwho gets it is saluted with a cry of “You have the Rye-boar onyour back!” In reply he strikes up a song, in which he prays forplenty. 970 At Kohlerwinkel, near Augsburg, at the close of theharvest, the last bunch of standing corn is cut down, stalk bystalk, by all the reapers in turn. He who cuts the last stalk “getsthe Sow,” and is laughed at. 971 In other Swabian villages alsothe man who cuts the last corn “has the Sow,” or “has the Ryesow.”972 In the Traunstein district, Upper Bavaria, the man whoallowed to run about with burning torches tied to their tails, and the customwas explained as a punishment inflicted on foxes because a fox had once inthis way burned down the crops (Ovid, Fasti, iv. 679 sqq.). Samson is saidto have burned the crops of the Philistines in a similar fashion (Judges xv. 4sq.). Whether the custom and the tradition are connected with the idea of thefox as an embodiment of the corn-spirit is doubtful. Compare W. Mannhardt,Mythologische Forschungen, pp. 108 sq.; W. Warde Fowler, Roman Festivalsof the Period of the Republic (London, 1899), pp. 77-79.969 A. Witzschel, Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche aus Thüringen (Vienna, 1878),p. 213, § 4. So at Klepzig, in Anhalt (Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde,vii. (1897) p. 150).970 J. B. Holzmayer, “Osiliana,” Verhandlungen der gelehrten EstnischenGesellschaft zu Dorpat, vii. Heft 2 (Dorpat, 1872), p. 107; W. Mannhardt,Mythologische Forschungen, p. 187.971 A. Birlinger, Aus Schwaben (Wiesbaden, 1874), ii. 328.972 F. Panzer, Beitrag zur deutschen Mythologie (Munich, 1848-1855), ii. pp.223, 224, §§ 417, 419.