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MAY, 1891.)
BOOK-NOTICE.
193
BOOK-NOTICE The GOLDEN BOUGR, a Study in Comparative Religion, King of the Calf at Pont-à-Mousson; and the by J. G. FRAZER. Two Vols. London: Macmillan naming of the last sheaf in various parts of France & Co. 1890.
and Germany as the Cow, the Buil, the Com-steer. SECOND NOTICE.
the Tresher Cow and so on. points to the spread of In our former notice of these interesting the same ideas. Crying the Mare in Hertfordshire. volumes we followed Mr. Frazer in his argu- the naming of the first whenf as the Cross of the ment so far as the killing of the Corn-spirit, and Horse at Liile, and the expression "seeing the were introduced to the conception of the Corn. horse" for the noonday sleep of harvesters at spirit as an animal. Now it can be shewn that Berry, prove the transfer of the Corn-spirit to the in the popular mind he can take the form of the horse. Similar customs prevail in Germany with wolf, dog, hare, cock, goose, cat, gcat, cow, ox, reference to the Rre-bour. Rye-sow. Corn-sow, anil bull, pig and horse.
to the Sow.driver, and Carrying the Pig in Bavaria. All throngh France, Germany, and the Slavonic
and burying a pig's tail or bone in Germany and countries, the Corn-spirit is often the Rye-wolf,
Russia in the fielil or with the seedl. And, lastly, Corn-wolf, Rye-dog, and is a common bugbear to
the well-known Scandinavian enstom of the Yulefrighton children with, whose fertilising power is
boar and mising the straw of it with the next in his tnit. In Germany the binder of the last
year's need to procnre a good harvest, is in interes. sheat is the Wheut-dog, Peas-pug, Rye-wolf,
ting addition to the evilence on this hend. So Bu
is the Swedislı ensto:n of throwing Yule-straws Potato.wolf, Wheat-wolf, Oats-wolf and so on, or simply the Wolf. In France the last shent is
to the ceiling and prognosticating the next year's the Bitch, and there are harvesting customs con.
sheaves from the number that stick there. Other nected with killing the Dog or the Wheat-dog,
manifestations of the Corn-spirit are to be Rye-dog, Potato-dog, Harvest-dog, as the case
found in inodern Enrope in the stag, roa, shoop, may be. At the threshing floor, too, in France the
bear, ass, fox, mouse, stork, swan and Dog or the Corn-pag. Rye-pug, Wheat-pug,
kite. is stuck down, to which there is an analogous
Now, Dionysus the tree-god appears as a goat German custom of killing the Corn-wolf in thresh.
and as a bull. As a goat he is hardly to be dising the last sheaf In France when a harvester tinguished from Pan, Silenus, the Satyrs, the is sick "the White Bitch has bitten him" or "the Fanns and the host of sylvan goat divinities, White Dog has passed him," and lastly, to com.
ancient forms of the modern Russian Ljeschie, plete the proof of the animal form of the Corn.
which are Wood and Oorn-spirits in human form, spirit, in the Vosges the Harvest-May is called
but with the horns, ears and legs of goats. As a the Harvest-dog.
bull, the Athenian ceremony in his honour of the
bouphonin, or murder of the ox, and the stuffing of Again, in Germany, Hungary, Poland and
the murdered ox and yoking him to a plough, shew Picardy a cock is sacrificed in one way or another
his close connection with agricultural divinitids. with the last corn cut, and its feathers mixed with
Further, the ceremonies of the bouphonia are the next year's seed. Cutting the Hare is in
partly paralleled by those of the Great Mortdard Ayrshire cutting the last oorn, and also in parte
at the apple harvest at Beauce in France. In of Germany, Sweden, Holland, France and Italy.
Guinea and in China also are customs directly In Norway the Hare's blood in the form of brandy is given to his comrades by the reaper who has
connecting the ox with the Corn-spirit. “killed the Hare." In Germany and France the
The pig was sacred to Demeter, and at the Cat takes the place of the Corn-dog and the Corn
great autumnal festival of the Thegmophoria in wolf above described. So also in Germany the
her honour pigs were thrown into the " chasme of Corn-goat, Rye-goat, Oats-Goat, Bean-goat or
Demeter and Proserpine," and their decayed flesh Harvest-goat plays the part of the Corn-wolf. So
afterwards recovered and sown with the seed corn. in Skye the Cripple-goat was the last sheat ont on
The connection of Demeter with the pig as the the last farm that finished reaping, every previous
Corn-spirit here comes out, and her connection last sheaf having been carefully transferred to a
with the horse as the Corn-spirit is visible in the neighbour who had not yet finished. At Grenoble
representation of the Black Demeter in the cave a gort is actually sacrificed at the harvest, and
of Phigalia in Arcadia as a long-robed woman with part of its flesh kept till the next barvest, and
the head and mane of a horse. a similar custom prevails among the Prussian Attis, Adonis and Osiris were all closely Flava. In several parts of France a bull or a calf is connected with the pig or the boar, and in killed in the same way, leading to the custom of the 'this connection Mr. Frazer cleverly brings out the
1 See page 45 81., above.
