The bones were given to the dog to eat; if he did not
eat them all up, the remains were buried under the dung in the
cattle-stall. This ceremony was observed at the beginning of
December. On the day on which it took place no bad word might be
spoken.
Such was the custom about two hundred years or more ago. At the
present day in Lithuania, when new potatoes or loaves made from the
new corn are being eaten, all the people at table pull each other's
hair. The meaning of this last custom is obscure, but a similar
custom was certainly observed by the heathen Lithuanians at their
solemn sacrifices. Many of the Esthonians of the island of Oesel
will not eat bread baked of the new corn till they have first taken
a bite at a piece of iron. The iron is here plainly a charm,
intended to render harmless the spirit that is in the corn. In
Sutherlandshire at the present day, when the new potatoes are dug
all the family must taste them, otherwise "the spirits in them [the
potatoes] take offence, and the potatoes would not keep." In one
part of Yorkshire it is still customary for the clergyman to cut the
first corn; and my informant believes that the corn so cut is used
to make the communion bread.
Pages:
1327
1328
1329
1330
1331
1332
1333
1334
1335
1336
1337
1338
1339
1340
1341
1342
1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
1348
1349
1350
1351