Chapter 35 The corn-spirit transformed into an animal: imagine the corn-spirit transformed into an animal figure

Earlier I gave some examples to show that the word "neck" means the last sheaf of corn.There are also examples in which the corn-spirit takes the form of animals such as gander, goat, hare, cat, and fox.This brings us to a new aspect of the corn-spirit.We will examine it below.By examining we may not only obtain new examples of god-killing, but hopefully clarify the myths and cults of Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Dionysus, Demeter, and Virbius Some of them are still unclear. The corn-spirit is supposed to take the form of many animals, among them wolf, dog, hare, fox, cock, goose, quail, cat, goat, cow (ox, bull), pig, horse.In one of these forms it is thought that the corn-spirit hid in the corn, and was caught or killed in the last sheaf.When the corn was being harvested and the animals fled before the reapers, if a reaper fell ill in the field, he was assumed to have unknowingly stumbled upon the corn-spirit, who punished the sacrilegious offence. By.It was said that "the rye wolf caught him" and "the harvest-goat gave him a hand."He who reaps the last corn or binds the last sheaf is called the name of the animal, the Rye Wolf, the Rye Sow, the Oat Goat, etc., sometimes for a year.The animal is also often represented by an idol of the last sheaf of corn or lumber, flowers, etc., carried home in the last wagon with much merriment.Even without tying the last sheaf in the shape of an animal, still calling it a rye wolf, a hare, a goat, and so on.In general, each kind of grain holds an animal of its own, caught in the last sheaf, called the rye wolf, barley wolf, oat wolf, pea wolf, potato wolf, according to the different grains; but the animal's Images are sometimes only crafted once, when the last grain is harvested.It is sometimes believed that the animal was killed by the final cut of a scythe or scythe.But the more common method is that as long as there is corn left to be threshed, the animal is still alive, and is caught when the last sheaf is threshed.So whoever takes the last blow with the flail is said to have caught a corn-sow, a thresher-dog, and so on.At the end of threshing, an idol in the shape of an animal is made, and the person who threshers the last handful of corn carries it to the neighboring farm where it is being threshed.This shows that it is supposed that wherever threshing is in progress the corn-spirit lives there.Sometimes the man who threshed the last sheaf himself represented the animal; and if he was caught by those who were still threshing on a neighboring farm, he was treated as if he were the animal he represented, and he was locked up in the pigsty, and treated as the animal he represented. The pig comes to call and so on.Here are some examples to illustrate.