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Lastly, it is solemnly killed; at Lun?ville the man who acts as
butcher is the Jewish merchant of the village.
Sometimes again the corn-spirit hides himself amongst the cut corn
in the barn to reappear in bull or cow form at threshing. Thus at
Wurmlingen, in Th?ringen, the man who gives the last stroke at
threshing is called the Cow, or rather the Barley-cow, Oats-cow,
Peas-cow, or the like, according to the crop. He is entirely
enveloped in straw; his head is surmounted by sticks in imitation of
horns, and two lads lead him by ropes to the well to drink. On the
way thither he must low like a cow, and for a long time afterwards
he goes by the name of the Cow. At Obermedlingen, in Swabia, when
the threshing draws near an end, each man is careful to avoid giving
the last stroke. He who does give it "gets the Cow," which is a
straw figure dressed in an old ragged petticoat, hood, and
stockings. It is tied on his back with a straw-rope; his face is
blackened, and being bound with straw-ropes to a wheelbarrow he is
wheeled round the village.


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