To find
examples of actually killing the human representative of the
corn-spirit we had naturally to go to savage races; but the
harvest-suppers of our European peasants have furnished unmistakable
examples of the sacramental eating of animals as representatives of
the corn-spirit. But further, as might have been anticipated, the
new corn is itself eaten sacramentally, that is, as the body of the
corn-spirit. In Wermland, Sweden, the farmer's wife uses the grain
of the last sheaf to bake a loaf in the shape of a little girl; this
loaf is divided amongst the whole household and eaten by them. Here
the loaf represents the corn-spirit conceived as a maiden; just as
in Scotland the corn-spirit is similarly conceived and represented
by the last sheaf made up in the form of a woman and bearing the
name of the Maiden. As usual, the corn-spirit is believed to reside
in the last sheaf; and to eat a loaf made from the last sheaf is,
therefore, to eat the corn-spirit itself. Similarly at La Palisse,
in France, a man made of dough is hung upon the fir-tree which is
carried on the last harvest-waggon.
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