for a good while, sometimes till the Maiden of the next year is brought in. The writer of this book witnessed the ceremony of cutting the Maiden at Balquhidder in September 1888.[1] On some farms on the Gareloch, Dumbartonshire, about sixty years ago the last handful of standing corn was called the Maiden. It was divided in two, plaited, and then cut with the sickle by a girl, who, it was thought, would be lucky and would soon be married. When it was cut the reapers gathered together and threw their sickles in the air. The Maiden was dressed with ribbons and hung in the kitchen near the roof, where it was kept for several years with the date attached. Sometimes five or six Maidens might be seen hanging at once on hooks. The harvest supper was called the Kirn.[2] In other farms on the Gareloch the last handful of corn was called the Maidenhead or the Head; it was neatly plaited, sometimes decked with ribbons, and hung in the kitchen for a year, when the grain was given to the poultry.[3] In the North of Scotland, the Maiden is kept till Christmas morning, and then divided among the cattle “to make them thrive all the year round.”[4] In Aberdeenshire also the last sheaf (called the clyack sheaf) was formerly cut, as it is still cut at Balquhidder, by the youngest girl on the field; then it was dressed in woman’s clothes, carried home in triumph, and kept till Christmas or New Year’s morning, when it was given to a mare in foal, or, failing such, to the oldest cow.[5] Lastly, a somewhat maturer, but still youthful age is assigned to the corn-spirit by
- ↑ Folk-lore Journal, vi. 268 sq.
- ↑ From information supplied by Archie Leitch, gardener, Rowmore, Garelochhead.
- ↑ Communicated by Mr. Macfarlane of Faslane, Gareloch.
- ↑ Jamieson, Dictionary of the Scottish Language, s. v. “Maiden.”
- ↑ W. Gregor, in Revue des Traditions populaires, iii. 533 (485 B); id., Folk-lore of the North-East of Scotland, p. 182. An old Scottish name for the
