Crying the Neck in the West Country

Crying the Neck in Cornwall 2008 - By Talskiddy (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

"A VERY old custom, that of crying the neck at the end of corn harvest, still obtains in some parishes in the west of England.

When the last sheaf of wheat is cut at the end of August, the reapers take the very last handful of straw and plait the ends together, tying them with lengths of bright-coloured ribbons ; then, lifting it high above their heads, wave their sickles frantically, and shout :

We-ha-neck ! we-ha-neck !
Well aplowed ! well asowed !
We've areaped ! and we've amowed !
Hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah !
Well-a-cut well abound !
Well-a-zot upon the ground !
We-ha-neck ! we-ha-neck '
Hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah !...

[I have put the discussion of Newton Abbot and Paignton ceremonies, discussed here by Hewett, in their own separate posts]

...The word a-neck is said to be derived from the Celtic language, and means " saved." Others claim for it an Irish origin, as the word "anaie" in that country means " save thou me." While another suggestion is that the custom may have been derived from the Jewish ceremonial of the wave offering mentioned in Leviticus xxiii, 10, and following verses, and introduced by the early Hebrew settlers in Britain. A long correspondence was carrried on in August, 1898, in the Western Morning News, on this ceremony, from which I glean that the practice is identical in every part of the county, but there are differences in the mode of its performance."

Hewett 1900