Note 12 — Chapter II · THE INNER HEBRIDES.

Ceridwen. This was the goddess in whose honour our ancestors used to dress up an image made of corn, and crowned with flowers, which was carried home triumphantly with the last load of corn; while the reapers sang the song of harvest-home to the music of pipes and drums. A trace of this old custom still lingers in some of the northern counties, where the ‘kern,’ or corn baby, still figures at the harvest-home.