A
similar corn-medicine festival was held in autumn for the purpose of
attracting the herds of buffaloes and securing a supply of meat. At
that time every woman carried in her arms an uprooted plant of
maize. They gave the name of the Old Woman who Never Dies both to
the maize and to those birds which they regarded as symbols of the
fruits of the earth, and they prayed to them in autumn saying,
"Mother, have pity on us! send us not the bitter cold too soon, lest
we have not meat enough! let not all the game depart, that we may
have something for the winter!" In autumn, when the birds were
flying south, the Indians thought that they were going home to the
Old Woman and taking to her the offerings that had been hung up on
the scaffolds, especially the dried meat, which she ate. Here then
we have the spirit or divinity of the corn conceived as an Old Woman
and represented in bodily form by old women, who in their capacity
of representatives receive some at least of the offerings which are
intended for her.
In some parts of India the harvest-goddess Gauri is represented at
once by an unmarried girl and by a bundle of wild balsam plants,
which is made up into the figure of a woman and dressed as such with
mask, garments, and ornaments.
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