HARVEST CUSTOMS.
[To TEE EDITOR or TEE SPECTATOR."]
Sut—The throwing of water referred to in the article, "Harvest-Homes," in your issue of September 3rd, cannot fail to strike those who are interested as being closely con- nected with the custom still observed in Devonshire called " crying the neck."
A handful of wheat is plaited up into a shape forcibly reminding one of the fantastic constructions of plaited palm- leaves carried by Roman Canons in procession on Palm Sunday, and when the last of the corn on a farm is cut, the reapers and others form a ring, and " cry " or " holler " a certain formula, described elsewhere; then comes the part analogous to that performed it! Cambridgeshire. The " neck " has to be kept dry while being carried home, and after being on the supper-table, is hung up in the kitchen till harvest comes again ; but the maids, who are waiting round the door, throw water, to try to wet the neck ; and should the man who has it suffer it to get wetted, he is not allowed any cider all the evening. I have seen and heard the cry, but not the subse- quent proceedings ; my informant, however, who has "help cried the neck " for more than sixty years, has often been " wet droo," while some one else meanwhile slipped in and put the neck dry on the table.
This curious custom, which does not take place at Harvest- Home proper, is referred to in worth's "History of Devon- shire" (1886), p. 67; in Couch's " Polperro " (1871), pp. 159-60; and by Mrs. Bray, "Borders of the Tamar and Tavy " (1879), pp. 285.7. Brand also mentions a similar usage in Cumberland (" Popular Antiquities," ed. 1877, p. 302).
Some of your readers will doubtless be able to throw light upon this ancient practice, which appears to extend from Cum- berland, via Cambridge, to the Land's End.—I am, Sir, Sze.,
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