Again they say, "The Oats-goat is
sitting in the oats-field," "the Corn-goat is sitting in the
rye-field." Children are warned not to go into the corn-fields to
pluck the blue corn-flowers, or amongst the beans to pluck pods,
because the Rye-goat, the Corn-goat, the Oats-goat, or the Bean-goat
is sitting or lying there, and will carry them away or kill them.
When a harvester is taken sick or lags behind his fellows at their
work, they call out, "The Harvest-goat has pushed him," "he has been
pushed by the Corn-goat." In the neighbourhood of Braunsberg (East
Prussia) at binding the oats every harvester makes haste "lest the
Corn-goat push him." At Oefoten, in Norway, each reaper has his
allotted patch to reap. When a reaper in the middle has not finished
reaping his piece after his neighbours have finished theirs, they
say of him, "He remains on the island." And if the laggard is a man,
they imitate the cry with which they call a he-goat; if a woman, the
cry with which they call a she-goat. Near Straubing, in Lower
Bavaria, it is said of the man who cuts the last corn that "he has
the Corn-goat, or the Wheat-goat, or the Oats-goat," according to
the crop.
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