Crying the Neck

24 September · Devon

Still kept

In Devon the last handful of standing corn was called the nack or neck. When it was cut the reapers gathered round it and shouted at the top of their voices, the firkin was passed round, and they went home dancing and shouting. Bray thought it a relic of the Druids, but Chambers took arnack to mean no more than our nag, like the mare of other counties. Crying the neck is still performed, in revived form, in the West Country.

calling at the top of their voices, 'Arnack, arnack, arnack! we have'n, we have'n, we have'n,'

From Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 2, pp. 378-379. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

The Harvest Goose No longer kept EnglandTusser advised the farmer that when harvest was in he should give his ploughman a harvest home goose.
The Norfolk Horkey No longer kept NorfolkIn Norfolk the harvest home was the horkey.
Burning the Witch No longer kept YorkshireIn the East Riding, on the evening the last of a farmer's corn was cut, the reapers heaped eight or ten small piles of dried peas together in the field and set them alight.
The Harvest Catch in Norfolk No longer kept Essex, NorfolkThe last thing before parting at a Norfolk harvest supper was a health-drinking catch sung first to the mistress and then to the master.
Crying Largess No longer kept East Anglia, Essex, HertfordshireIn Suffolk the harvest lord would leave the field to ask any passer-by for a largess, then stand his reapers in a ring and call from a gate post while they answered with a groan and then three great shouts.
The Kirn No longer kept ScotlandIn Scotland the words harvest home were unknown, and the feast at the end of harvest was the kirn or kirn supper, thought to be named from the churn of cream served at it.
The Cripple Goat No longer kept Inner HebridesOn Skye the farmer who finished his harvest first sent the last handful he had cut to the next farmer still at work, calling it the cripple goat.
Crying the Mare No longer kept Hertfordshire, ShropshireIn Hertfordshire and Shropshire the reapers left the last few stalks standing and tied them up as the mare, then threw their sickles at it until one cut it down.
The Corn Baby and the Mell Supper No longer kept Northern EnglandIn the north of England the harvest feast was the mell supper.
Harvest Home and the Hock Cart No longer kept EnglandIn the southern counties the reapers chose a lord of the harvest to bargain with the farmer and lead the work, and in Buckinghamshire a lady as well, with fines for anyone who got the order of drinking wrong.

Crying the Neck

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