The golden bough : a study in comparative religion / by J.G. Frazer.

Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The golden bough : a study in comparative religion / by J.G. Frazer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    children ; when the corn waves in the wind they say, ' ihe Calf IS going about. Clearly, as Mannhardt observes, this calf of the spring-time is the same animal which IS afterwards believed to be killed at reaping.^ Sometimes the corn-spirit appears in the shape of a horse or mare. Between Kalw and Stuttgart, when the corn bends before the wind, they say, There runs the Horse.2 In Hertfordshire, at the end of the reaping, there is or was a ceremony called cryincr the Mare. The last blades of corn left standing on the field are tied together and called the Mare. The reapers stand at a distance and throw their sickles at it; he who cuts it through has the prize, with acclamations and good cheer. After it is cut the reapers cry thrice with a loud voice, I have her! Others answer thrice, What have you ? — A Mare ! a Mare! a Mare !— Whose is she ? is next asked thrice. A. B.'s, naming the owner thrice. Whither will you send her ? — To C. D., naming some neigh- bour who has not all his corn reaped.^ In this custom the corn-spirit in the form of a mare is passed on from a farm where the corn is all cut to another farm where it is still standing, and where therefore the corn-spirit may be supposed naturally to take refuge. In Shrop- shire the custom is similar. Crying, calling, or shouting the mare is a ceremony performed by the men of that farm which is the first in any parish or district to finish the harvest. The object of it is to make known their own prowess, and to taunt the laggards by a pretended offer of the ' owd mar'' [old mare] to help out their ' chem ' [team]. All the men assemble (the wooden harvest-bottle being of course 1 M. F. p. 63. 2 M. F. p. 167. ' Brand, Popular Antiquities, ii. 24, Bohn's ed.