or with a silken band; the other delivers a rhyming address. The following are specimens of the speeches made by the reaper on these occasions. In some parts of Pomerania every passer-by is stopped, his way being barred with a corn-rope. The reapers form a circle round him and sharpen their scythes, while their leader says—
“The men are ready,
The scythes are bent,
The corn is great and small,
The gentleman must be mowed.”
Then the process of whetting the scythes is repeated.[1] At Ramin, in the district of Stettin, the stranger, standing encircled by the reapers, is thus addressed—
“We’ll stroke the gentleman
With our naked sword.
Wherewith we shear meadows and fields.
We shear princes and lords.
Labourers are often athirst;
If the gentleman will stand beer and brandy
The joke will soon be over.
But, if our prayer he does not like,
The sword has a right to strike.”[2]
That in these customs the whetting of the scythes is really meant as a preliminary to mowing appears from the following variation of the preceding customs. In the district of Lüneburg when any one enters the harvest-field, he is asked whether he will engage a good fellow. If he says yes, the harvesters mow some swaths, yelling and screaming, and then ask him for drink-money.[3]
On the threshing-floor strangers are also regarded as embodiments of the corn-spirit, and are treated
