Again, the concrete notion of the dying tree or dying
vegetation would by a similar process of generalisation glide into a
notion of death in general; so that the practice of carrying out the
dying or dead vegetation in spring, as a preliminary to its revival,
would in time widen out into an attempt to banish Death in general
from the village or district. The view that in these spring
ceremonies Death meant originally the dying or dead vegetation of
winter has the high support of W. Mannhardt; and he confirms it by
the analogy of the name Death as applied to the spirit of the ripe
corn. Commonly the spirit of the ripe corn is conceived, not as
dead, but as old, and hence it goes by the name of the Old Man or
the Old Woman. But in some places the last sheaf cut at harvest,
which is generally believed to be the seat of the corn spirit, is
called "the Dead One": children are warned against entering the
corn-fields because Death sits in the corn; and, in a game played by
Saxon children in Transylvania at the maize harvest, Death is
represented by a child completely covered with maize leaves.
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