As a rule, the man who thus gets the name of Corn-goat has to bear
it a whole year till the next harvest.
According to one view, the corn-spirit, who has been caught in the
form of a goat or otherwise, lives in the farmhouse or barn over
winter. Thus, each farm has its own embodiment of the corn-spirit.
But, according to another view, the corn-spirit is the genius or
deity, not of the corn of one farm only, but of all the corn. Hence
when the corn on one farm is all cut, he flees to another where
there is still corn left standing. This idea is brought out in a
harvest-custom which was formerly observed in Skye. The farmer who
first finished reaping sent a man or woman with a sheaf to a
neighbouring farmer who had not finished; the latter in his turn,
when he had finished, sent on the sheaf to his neighbour who was
still reaping; and so the sheaf made the round of the farms till all
the corn was cut. The sheaf was called the _goabbir bhacagh,_ that
is, the Cripple Goat. The custom appears not to be extinct at the
present day, for it was reported from Skye not very many years ago.
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