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FOLK-LORE AT BALQUHIDDER.
THE following scraps of folk-lore at Balquhidder were collected by me, from personal observation and inquiry, at Balquhidder, Perthshire, in September 1888:—
At Balquhidder, on September 25th, 1888, I witnessed the ceremony of cutting the harvest "Maiden." The farmer, Mr. McLaren, knowing that we were interested in the custom, gave us notice when the cutting of the corn was almost finished and the "Maiden" was about to be made. When we entered the field the oats were all cut, except one small patch and a single slender bunch or sheaf which remained standing by itself uncut amid the cut corn. This bunch or sheaf was to form the "Maiden." First the standing patch was cut down; then an old man grasped the sheaf which was to form the "Maiden" and gave it a twist. It was the regular custom, he said, thus to twist it, and the sheaf should be cut at a single stroke. The youngest girl on the field (a child about four years old) then put her hands on the scythe and, assisted by an unmarried lady present, cut through the sheaf. At this point we left the field. But shortly afterwards I was told that the "Maiden" was being carried home by a small boy, who was hurrahing and kicking up his heels as he ran. I hastened out, but when I met him his demonstrations of joy had subsided, doubtless through shyness, into a very sober walk. Mrs. McLaren kindly made a special "Maiden" for us from part of this last sheaf cut, the remainder of the sheaf being used to make a "Maiden" for the farm. The head of our "Maiden" was formed of a bunch of ears of oats; a broad blue ribdand was tied in a bow under the head, the ends of the bow projecting (to form arms?); a skirt of paper neatly made and cut out in a pattern completed the costume of the "Maiden." I hope to place this "Maiden" in the Antiquarian Museum, Cambridge, and to make it the beginning of a collection of "Maidens," or "clyack sheafs" (see Mr. W. Gregor,
