James George Frazer

“ There was no ceremony about it, beyond often a struggle, as to who would get, or cut, the last sheaf to select the maiden' from . . . . . . A friend from Wigtonshire was here some weeks ago, when I was away from home, and he told my wife, the only custom in that district was throwing water on the man that led the last load home, but this has been done away with, as the horses often got frightened. He did not know the origin of the custom, nor could he give any reason why the water was thrown. ”

“ J. S. Black tells me that in the counties of Fife and Kinross it is the custom for the reapers to seize and "dump" any person who happens to pass by the harvest fields. The person is seized by his (or her) ankles and armpits, lifted up, and the lower part of his person brought into violent contact with the ground. ”

“ With regard to harvest customs in Ayrshire, I have received the following note from my sister. It is dated—
"Lanfine, Ayrshire, Oct. 4th, 1888. "Caldwell says that in her part of the country (South Ayrshire) , the last sheaf-cutting is called 'cutting the hare or hair, she does not now which spelling is meant. In speaking of witches she says they often turn themselves into hares, so that perhaps it should be hare, as it might be a witch was in the last sheaf. [1]
"Last week here a field of corn was cut, and all the maids went up to see it done. ”

“ A friend tells me that the same thing happens when the reaping is done by hand ; but the machine by its whirring noise seems to daze and stupify the creatures more than does the simple reaping by hand. ”

“ Nicholson, of Eden Lodge, Morningside, Edinburgh, remembers that as a girl at Bonaly, Collinton, not many years ago, she was warned not to go into the harvest fields, as one of the servants had been "dumped."
J. G. Frazer. ↑ The analogy of the German Hase which is applied to the last sheaf in some parts of Germany (see W. Mannhardt, Die Korndämonen, p. 3) makes it almost certain that the Ayrshire name is hare. Animal names for the last sheaf, though common in Germany, are not common in this country. In Hertfordshire and Shropshire the last sheaf was called the Mare ”