It is divided into three parts and plaited, and the ears are
tied in a knot. The reapers then retire a few yards and each throws
his or her sickle in turn at the Hare to cut it down. It must be cut
below the knot, and the reapers continue to throw their sickles at
it, one after the other, until one of them succeeds in severing the
stalks below the knot. The Hare is then carried home and given to a
maidservant in the kitchen, who places it over the kitchen-door on
the inside. Sometimes the Hare used to be thus kept till the next
harvest. In the parish of Minnigaff, when the Hare was cut, the
unmarried reapers ran home with all speed, and the one who arrived
first was the first to be married. In Germany also one of the names
for the last sheaf is the Hare. Thus in some parts of Anhalt, when
the corn has been reaped and only a few stalks are left standing,
they say, "The Hare will soon come," or the reapers cry to each
other, "Look how the Hare comes jumping out." In East Prussia they
say that the Hare sits in the last patch of standing corn, and must
be chased out by the last reaper.
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