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HARVEST (A.S. hcerfest " autumn," O.H. Ger. herbist, possibly through an old Teutonic See also: ancient Jews celebrated the Feast of See also: Pentecost as their harvest festival, the See also: wheat ripening earlier in See also: Palestine
.
The See also: Romans had their Cerealia or feasts in honour of See also: Ceres
.
The See also: Druids celebrated their harvest on the 1st of See also: November
.
In pre-See also: reformation See also: England Lammas See also: Day (Aug
.
1st, O.S.) was observed at the be-ginning of the harvest festival, every member of the See also: church presenting a
See also: loaf made of new wheat
.
Throughout the See also: world harvest has always been the occasion for many queer customs which all have their origin in the animistic belief in the Corn-Spirit or Corn-See also: Mother
.
This personification of the crops has See also: left its impress upon the harvest customs of See also: modern See also: Europe
.
In west See also: Russia, for example, the figure made out of the last sheaf of corn is called the See also: Bastard, and a boy is wrapped up in it
.
The woman who binds this sheaf represents the " Cornmother," and an elaborate simulation of childbirth takes place, the boy in the sheaf squalling like a new-See also: born See also: child, and being, on his liberation, wrapped in swaddling bands
.
Even in England vestiges of sympathetic magic can be detected
.
In See also: Northumberland, where the harvest rejoicing takes place at the close of the reaping and not at the ingathering, as soon as the last sheaf is set on end the reapers shout that they have " got the See also: kern." An image formed of a wheatsheaf, and dressed in a See also: white
See also: frock and coloured See also: ribbons, is hoisted on a See also: pole
.
This is the " kern-baby " or harvest-See also: queen, and it is carried back in See also: triumph with See also: music and shouting and set up in a prominent place during the harvest supper
.
In Scotland the last sheaf if cut before Hallowmas is called the " See also: maiden," and the youngest girl in the harvest-See also: field is given the
See also: privilege of cutting it
.
If the reaping finishes after Hallowmas the last corn cut is called the Cailleach (old woman)
.
In some parts of Scotland this last sheaf is kept till See also: Christmas See also: morning and then divided among the cattle " to make them
thrive all the See also: year round," or is kept till the first See also: mare foals and is then given to her as her first See also: food
.
Throughout the world, as J
.
G
.
Frazer shows, the semi-worship of the last sheaf is or has been the See also: great feature of the harvest-home
.
Among harvest customs none is more interesting than harvest cries
.
The cry of the See also: Egyptian reapers announcing the See also: death of the corn-spirit, the rustic prototype of See also: Osiris, has found its See also: echo on the world's harvest-See also: fields, and to this day, to take an See also: English example, the Devonshire reapers utter cries of the same sort and go through a ceremony which in its See also: main features is an exact counterpart of See also: pagan worship
.
" After the wheat is cut they ` cry the neck.'
...
An old See also: man goes round to the shocks and picks out a bundle of the best ears he can find
.
. . this bundle is called ` the neck '; the harvest hands then stand round in a ring, the old man holding ` the neck ' in the centre . At aSee also: signal from him they take off their hats, stooping and holding them with both hands towards the ground
.
Then all together they utter in a prolonged cry ` the neck
!
' three times, raising themselves upright with their hats held above their heads
.
Then they change their cry to ` Wee yen! way yen
!
' or, as some report, ` we haven!' " On a See also: fine still autumn evening " crying the neck " has a wonderful effect at a distance
.
In See also: East Anglia there still survives the See also: custom known as " Hallering Largess." The harvesters beg largess from passers, and when they have received See also: money they shout thrice " Halloo, largess." having first formed a circle, bowed their heads low crying " Hoo-Hoo-Hoo," and then jerked their heads back-wards and uttered a shrill shriek of " Ah
!
Ah
!
For a very full discussion of harvest customs see J
.
G
.
Frazer, The See also: Golden Bough, and Brand's See also: Anti?uities of Great Britain (See also: Hazlitt's edit., 1905)
.
HARVEST-See also: BUG, the See also: familiar name for mites of the See also: family Trombidiidae, belonging to the See also: order Acari of the class See also: Arachnida
.
Although at one See also: time regarded as constituting a distinct See also: species, described as Leptus autumnalis, harvest-bugs are now known to be the six-legged larval forms of several See also: British species of mites of the genus Trombidium
.
They are minute, rusty-See also: brown organisms, barely visible to the naked
See also: eye, which swarm in grass and low herbage in the summer and early autumn, and cause considerable, sometimes intense, irritation by piercing and adhering to the skin of the See also: leg, usually lodging themselves in some See also: part where the clothing is tight, such as the knee when covered with gartered stockings
.
They may be readily destroyed, and the irritation allayed, by rubbing the affected See also: area with some insecticide like turpentine or benzine
.
'They are not permanently parasitic, and if left alone will leave their temporary See also: host to resume the active See also: life characteristic of the adult See also: mite, which is predatory in habits, preying upon minute living animal organisms
.
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