Here, again, the corn-spirit is
applied to for healing or protection, but in his original vegetable
form, not in the form of a goat or a cat.
Further, the corn-spirit under the form of a goat is sometimes
conceived as lurking among the cut corn in the barn, till he is
driven from it by the threshing-flail. Thus in Baden the last sheaf
to be threshed is called the Corn-goat, the Spelt-goat, or the
Oats-goat according to the kind of grain. Again, near Marktl, in
Upper Bavaria, the sheaves are called Straw-goats or simply Goats.
They are laid in a great heap on the open field and threshed by two
rows of men standing opposite each other, who, as they ply their
flails, sing a song in which they say that they see the Straw-goat
amongst the corn-stalks. The last Goat, that is, the last sheaf, is
adorned with a wreath of violets and other flowers and with cakes
strung together. It is placed right in the middle of the heap. Some
of the threshers rush at it and tear the best of it out; others lay
on with their flails so recklessly that heads are sometimes broken.
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