The heap of paddy is divided and one half spread out for
threshing, while the other half is left piled up. On the pile food
and spirits are set, and one of the elders, addressing "the father
and mother of the paddy-plant," prays for plenteous harvests in
future, and begs that the seed may bear many fold. Then the whole
party eat, drink, and make merry. This ceremony at the
threshing-floor is the only occasion when these people invoke "the
father and mother of the paddy."
3. The Spirit of the Corn embodied in Human Beings
THUS the theory which recognises in the European Corn-mother,
Corn-maiden, and so forth, the embodiment in vegetable form of the
animating spirit of the crops is amply confirmed by the evidence of
peoples in other parts of the world, who, because they have lagged
behind the European races in mental development, retain for that
very reason a keener sense of the original motives for observing
those rustic rites which among ourselves have sunk to the level of
meaningless survivals. The reader may, however, remember that
according to Mannhardt, whose theory I am expounding, the spirit of
the corn manifests itself not merely in vegetable but also in human
form; the person who cuts the last sheaf or gives the last stroke at
threshing passes for a temporary embodiment of the corn-spirit, just
as much as the bunch of corn which he reaps or threshes.
Pages:
1154
1155
1156
1157
1158
1159
1160
1161
1162
1163
1164
1165
1166
1167
1168
1169
1170
1171
1172
1173
1174
1175
1176
1177
1178