Elsewhere the
sheaf was divided between all the cows and their calves or between
all the horses and the cattle of the farm. In Fifeshire the last
handful of corn, known as the Maiden, is cut by a young girl and
made into the rude figure of a doll, tied with ribbons, by which it
is hung on the wall of the farm-kitchen till the next spring. The
custom of cutting the Maiden at harvest was also observed in
Inverness-shire and Sutherlandshire.
A somewhat maturer but still youthful age is assigned to the
corn-spirit by the appellations of Bride, Oats-bride, and
Wheat-bride, which in Germany are sometimes bestowed both on the
last sheaf and on the woman who binds it. At wheat-harvest near
M?glitz, in Moravia, a small portion of the wheat is left standing
after all the rest has been reaped. This remnant is then cut, amid
the rejoicing of the reapers, by a young girl who wears a wreath of
wheaten ears on her head and goes by the name of the Wheat-bride. It
is supposed that she will be a real bride that same year. Near
Roslin and Stonehaven, in Scotland, the last handful of corn cut
"got the name of 'the bride,' and she was placed over the _bress_ or
chimney-piece; she had a ribbon tied below her numerous _ears,_ and
another round her waist.
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