The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Oxford World's Classics) by Frazer Sir James George & Sir

Author:Frazer, Sir James George & Sir [Frazer, Sir James George]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1998-07-16T04:00:00+00:00

The Corn-mother in the last sheaf.

Fertilising power of the Corn-mother.

The Corn-mother in the last sheaf among the Slavs and in France.

Sometimes the last sheaf is called the Grandmother, and is adorned with flowers, ribbons, and a woman’s apron. In East Prussia, at the rye or wheat harvest, the reapers call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, ‘You are getting the Old Grandmother.’ In the neighbourhood of Magdeburg the men and women servants strive who shall get the last sheaf, called the Grandmother. Whoever gets it will be married in the next year, but his or her spouse will be old; if a girl gets it, she will marry a widower; if a man gets it, he will marry an old crone. In Silesia the Grandmother—a huge bundle made up of three or four sheaves by the person who tied the last sheaf—was formerly fashioned into a rude likeness of the human form. In the neighbourhood of Belfast the last sheaf sometimes goes by the name of the Granny. It is not cut in the usual way, but all the reapers throw their sickles at it and try to bring it down. It is plaited and kept till the (next ?) autumn. Whoever gets it will marry in the course of the year.

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