At Gommern,
near Magdeburg, the reaper who cuts the last ears of corn is often
wrapt up in corn-stalks so completely that it is hard to see whether
there is a man in the bundle or not. Thus wrapt up he is taken by
another stalwart reaper on his back, and carried round the field
amidst the joyous cries of the harvesters. At Neuhausen, near
Merseburg, the person who binds the last sheaf is wrapt in ears of
oats and saluted as the Oatsman, whereupon the others dance round
him. At Brie, Isle de France, the farmer himself is tied up in the
_first_ sheaf. At Dingelstedt, in the district of Erfurt, down to
the first half of the nineteenth century it was the custom to tie up
a man in the last sheaf. He was called the Old Man, and was brought
home on the last waggon, amid huzzas and music. On reaching the
farmyard he was rolled round the barn and drenched with water. At
N?rdlingen in Bavaria the man who gives the last stroke at threshing
is wrapt in straw and rolled on the threshing-floor. In some parts
of Oberpfalz, Bavaria, he is said to "get the Old Man," is wrapt in
straw, and carried to a neighbour who has not yet finished his
threshing.
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