The 'bride of the corn'

I’d like to add a bit to Rosie’s post on corn-dollies, with some information about a very ancient sort from Egypt, known as arūset el-kamh ‘the bride of the corn’. This may, perhaps, be the most ancient sort of corn-dolly known, and – happily – they are still made, in a thousands year old tradition, to the same ancient design.

I bought this example a couple of years ago at Abydos, from a woman selling them just outside the temple. How I wish I’d bought a few more, now, and encouraged a true, surviving, Pharaonic tradition!

Well, Goddess willing, I shall one day go back, and if I can, shall put that right!

(Abydos, by the way, is easily reachable from Luxor by train; maybe an option for the free day that many tours offer. The ever-helpful Tourist-Police will spot you, and help you to get from station to temple, and back again).

The best information about ‘brides of the corn’ comes from that great classic of Egyptian life during the last century, Winifred Blackman’s The Fellahin of Upper Egypt, first published 1927, and now re-printed by the American University in Cairo Press, 2000. (It is a fascinating book, and really is a must-have for your Egypt shelf).

I can’t do better than to quote at length from the book:

‘Before any of the corn is cut some of the villagers go into the fields and pluck the finest ears by hand. These are plaited into a special form, and this object, called the ‘bride of the corn’ (arūset el-kamh) is used as a charm. One may be suspended over the house-door as an antidote to the evil eye; another may be hung up in the room containing the stores of food, as a charm to ensure abundance. Many tradesmen hand such objects in their shop-windows, believing that this will bring them plenty of customers.

Again, in some parts of Egypt, the ‘bride of the corn’ is placed on the heaps of grain after the winnowing is completed, as a charm to secure a good harvest the following year. … The ‘bride’ may be left hanging until it is replaced at the next harvest, or again, it may be allowed to remain in its place until it falls to pieces.

(pp. 171-172)

This photo from the book illustrate ‘brides’ made in the 1920s; as you can see, they are perfectly identical to my modern one.

However, in the history of ‘brides of the corn’, a mere 81 years is less than the blink of an eye!

Winifred’s brother, Aylward Manley Blackman, was a famous Egyptologist, and information gained from him encouraged her write a chapter of her book called ‘Ancient Egyptian Analogies’, which showed how ancient many of the customs, and traditions, etc., that she noted were. After all, every nation is founded on its past.

So another quote, and two more photos from the book:

‘The object now known as arūset el-kamh ‘the bride of the corn’ is depicted in several Theban tomb-chapels of the 18th Dynasty, and can possibly be traced back to the Old Kingdom in a different form.
…

According to several ancient representations of winnowing this object was placed on the winnowing-floor while the winnowers were at work and that an offering was laid before it consisting either of a vessel of water and dishes containing cakes, etc., or of a bowl of water only.’
(pp. 307-308)

So as you can see from these photos, the ‘bride of the corn’ from Abydos is a design that is around 3,500 years old! Similar ‘brides’ would have in fact been familiar to the ancient worshippers at Abydos.

It was one of those moments, in fact, that you sometimes experience in Egypt, where millennia fall away in an instant…