This is thought to be an infallible specific against earth-fleas and
moles, and to cause the flax to grow well and tall.
But the idea of the corn-spirit as embodied in pig form is nowhere
more clearly expressed than in the Scandinavian custom of the Yule
Boar. In Sweden and Denmark at Yule (Christmas) it is the custom to
bake a loaf in the form of a boar-pig. This is called the Yule Boar.
The corn of the last sheaf is often used to make it. All through
Yule the Yule Boar stands on the table. Often it is kept till the
sowing-time in spring, when part of it is mixed with the seed-corn
and part given to the ploughman and plough-horses or ploughoxen to
eat, in the expectation of a good harvest. In this custom the
corn-spirit, immanent in the last sheaf, appears at midwinter in the
form of a boar made from the corn of the last sheaf; and his
quickening influence on the corn is shown by mixing part of the Yule
Boar with the seed-corn, and giving part of it to the ploughman and
his cattle to eat. Similarly we saw that the Corn-wolf makes his
appearance at mid-winter, the time when the year begins to verge
towards spring.
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