48 TILLEES OF THE GKOUND CHAP. 



they show their gladness in various ways. They 

 perhaps dress up the last sheaf as a " corn- 

 maiden," they bring it home singing and with 

 many quaint ceremonies. There is a supper in 

 the barn to finish up, with music and dancing 

 and singing. 



The supper, the singing, the dancing are easy 

 to understand. If we had worked so long and so 

 hard we should rejoice when our work was over, 

 but what about the corn-maiden, decked with 

 ribbons, what does that mean ? It becomes even 

 more puzzling when we find that almost every- 

 where, not only in many parts of England and 

 Scotland, in Germany, in Kussia, but even in parts 

 of the world that we call uncivilised, we have much 

 the same curious customs connected with " harvest- 

 homes." Well, the consideration of the exact 

 meaning of these ceremonies would take us too far 

 from our subject, but now it is interesting to note 

 that they are the remains of far-distant religious 

 rites, the object of which was to make the corn 

 grow again next year. 



The first farmers reaped their scanty crops in 

 autumn, and they saved a few seeds, even through 

 the days of hunger, in order that they might sow 

 new fields in the spring. But they felt, much 

 more than we do, that the greatest of miracles OH 

 this earth is that from a handful of dry seeds new 



