This puppet is
called the Maiden or the Corn-maiden. Sometimes the corn-spirit is
conceived as a child who is separated from its mother by the stroke
of the sickle. This last view appears in the Polish custom of
calling out to the man who cuts the last handful of corn, "You have
cut the navel-string." In some districts of West Prussia the figure
made out of the last sheaf is called the Bastard, and a boy is wrapt
up in it. The woman who binds the last sheaf and represents the
Corn-mother is told that she is about to be brought to bed; she
cries like a woman in travail, and an old woman in the character of
grandmother acts as midwife. At last a cry is raised that the child
is born; whereupon the boy who is tied up in the sheaf whimpers and
squalls like an infant. The grandmother wraps a sack, in imitation
of swaddling bands, round the pretended baby, who is carried
joyfully to the barn, lest he should catch cold in the open air. In
other parts of North Germany the last sheaf, or the puppet made out
of it, is called the Child, the Harvest-Child, and so on, and they
call out to the woman who binds the last sheaf, "you are getting the
child.
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