fields, it is
not often tiny feet trample down the golden stalks. At nightfall, in
Germany, an old peasant, observing the gentle undulating motion of the
ripe crop while seated before his cottage, will exclaim--

"There goes the rye-wolf. The wolf is passing through the corn."

In some parts the "corn spirit" was said to be a cow.

"The cow's in the corn."

In one of our home counties--Hertfordshire--it is a "mare," and the
custom of "crying the mare" has allusion to the corn spirit, and is
spoken of in some villages to-day. There are several rhymes that carry a
notice of cornfield games.

"Ring a ring a rosies,
A pocket full of posies.
Hush!--The Cry?--Hush!--The Cry?
All fall down."

* * * * *

"Little boy blue come blow me thy horn,
The sheep in the meadow,
The cow's in the corn.
Where is the boy that looks after the sheep?
Under the haystack fast asleep."

The "Little Boy Blue" rhyme, it has been urged, had only reference to
the butcher's boy. The rhyme is very much older than the blue-smocked
butcher's boy, and in truth it may be said the butcher boy of a century
ago wore white overalls.

The former rhyme, "Ring a Ring a Rosies," is known in Italy and Germany.
In the northern counties of England the children use the words, "Hushu!
Hushu!" in the third line.

The Spirit of the Cornfield is dreaded by children of all European
countries. In Saxon Transylvania the children gather maize leaves and
completely cover one of their playmates with them. This game is intended
to prefigure death.

"CUCKOOS!"

"Cuckoo cherrytree, catch a bird
And give it to me."[G]

The people of the Oral and Tula Governments, especially the maidens,
christen the cuckoo "gossip darlings!"

In one of the Lithuanian districts the girls sing--

"Sister, dear,
Mottled cuckoo!
Thou who feedest
The horses of thy brother,
Thou who spinnest silken threads,
Sing, O cuckoo,
Shall I soon be married?"

In _Love's Labour's Lost_ a passage occurs where the two seasons, Spring
and Winter, vie with each other in extolling the cuckoo and the owl.

_Spring._

"When daisies pied, and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue,
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married m