Chapter 38 The corn-spirit changes into an animal: The corn-spirit changes into a hare

It is also common to call the corn-spirit a hare.In Galloway, when the last pinch of grain is harvested, it is called "the cutting hare."The method is as follows: all the mature grains in the field are cut, and only a handful are left as "hares".Divide the handful into three strands, braid them, and tie the ear of grain into a knot.The reapers all stood back a few yards, and took turns throwing their scythes at the rabbits, to see who could cut them down, but only by cutting the stubble under the knot.The cut "rabbits" are brought home to the maid in the kitchen, and hung above the kitchen door, often when the grain is harvested in the coming year.In Minnigaff parish, as soon as the hares are cut, the unmarried reapers run home with great haste, and the first to reach heralds that he will be the first to marry.In Germany the hare is also known as one of the names of the last sheaf cut in the field.For example, in some parts of Anhot, when the corn in the field has been harvested and only a few stubbles are left standing on the ground, people say, "The rabbit is coming," or the reapers call to each other, "Look out, look! How the hare jumped out." People in East Prussia say that the hare hides in the last uncut corn in the field, and the last reaper must drive it out.All the reapers worked as fast as they could, and no one wanted to be the last to "drive the hares," because whoever "drives the hares" was the one who reaped the last piece of corn, and everyone would laugh at them.In Aurich, the last few stalks of millet in the cut field are called "cutting the hare's tail".Germany, Sweden, Holland, France, and Italy all say that the man who cuts the last grain in the field is "he is killing the hare."In Norway, a person who is called a "hare slaughterer" must sacrifice the blood of a rabbit, which means buying a lot of brandy.On Lesbos [an island in Greece, in the Aegean Sea. ], when the reapers were reaping in two adjacent fields, each side tried to finish the reaping first, and drive the hares into the other's field.It is said that those who cut first will have a better harvest in the coming year.They put a small sheaf of corn next to the holy image until the next year's harvest.