The tree and the dough-man are
taken to the mayor's house and kept there till the vintage is over.
Then the close of the harvest is celebrated by a feast at which the
mayor breaks the dough-man in pieces and gives the pieces to the
people to eat.
In these examples the corn-spirit is represented and eaten in human
shape. In other cases, though the new corn is not baked in loaves of
human shape, still the solemn ceremonies with which it is eaten
suffice to indicate that it is partaken of sacramentally, that is,
as the body of the corn-spirit. For example, the following
ceremonies used to be observed by Lithuanian peasants at eating the
new corn. About the time of the autumn sowing, when all the corn had
been got in and the threshing had begun, each farmer held a festival
called Sabarios, that is, "the mixing or throwing together." He took
nine good handfuls of each kind of crop--wheat, barley, oats, flax,
beans, lentils, and the rest; and each handful he divided into three
parts. The twentyseven portions of each grain were then thrown on a
heap and all mixed up together.
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