III. Thus far the representatives of the corn-spirit have generally
been the man or woman who cuts, binds, or threshes the last corn. We
now come to the cases in which the corn-spirit is represented either
by a stranger passing the harvest-field (as in the Lityerses tale),
or by a visitor entering it for the first time. All over Germany it
is customary for the reapers or threshers to lay hold of passing
strangers and bind them with a rope made of corn-stalks, till they
pay a forfeit; and when the farmer himself or one of his guests
enters the field or the threshing-floor for the first time, he is
treated in the same way. Sometimes the rope is only tied round his
arm or his feet or his neck. But sometimes he is regularly swathed
in corn. Thus at Sol?r in Norway, whoever enters the field, be he
the master or a stranger, is tied up in a sheaf and must pay a
ransom. In the neighbourhood of Soest, when the farmer visits the
flax-pullers for the first time, he is completely enveloped in flax.
Passers-by are also surrounded by the women, tied up in flax, and
compelled to stand brandy.
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