Where Did Scarecrows Come From?

It’s the season of Fall and with it comes the harvest.  And along with the empty cornstalks and pumpkins are the scarecrows who have stood guard over the fields from crows and other creatures who would prey upon the corn and other crops.  Have you ever wondered how and when scarecrows originated?

Would you believe...farmers have been making scarecrows for over 3.000 years? The first ones in recorded history were made along the Nile River to protect wheat fields from flocks of quail.  EGYPTIAN farmers put wooden frames in their fields and covered them with nets. Farmers would then hide in the fields, scare the quail into the nets and take them home for dinner.

The GREEKS carved wooden scarecrows about 2,500 years ago to look like Priapus, son of their god and goddess Dionysus and Aphrodite.  The son lived with some vineyard keepers and he was not handsome at all.  The vineyard keepers noticed that when Priapus was there, the birds would not ravage the grapes and harvest time was most bountiful.  Other farmers used purple figures and put a club in one hand to make the figure more dangerous and a sickle in the other.

Seeing that the Greeks had a great idea, the ROMANS copied them and made their own carved scarecrows.  And they brought the Priapus figures to all the lands within their domain like France, Germany, and England.

Around the same time the Greeks and Romans used their scarecrows, JAPANESE farmers had their own version to protect the rice fields.  The Japanese used old rags, meat, or fish bones suspended from bamboo poles and set the sticks on fire.  The smell was so bad that birds and other animals stayed away from the rice.  The Japanese called their ‘crows kakashis meaning “something that smells badly”.  There were other scarecrows that resembled people wearing a raincoat made from reeds and a round straw hat with a peak in the middle.  They even added bows and arrows to make them more threatening.

If we fast forward to EUROPE’S MIDDLE AGES, farmers believed scarecrows had special powers.  Italian versions used animal skulls perched on the top of tall poles out in the fields.  Farmers believed this would scare the birds away and protect crops from disease.  German farmers used witches and kept them in the fields at the end of winter.  They thought the witches would draw out winter’s evil spirit into their bodies so that spring could come.

Britain’s medieval version actually used live boys age 9 or older.  They were called “bird scarers” or bird shooers.  They patrolled wheat fields carrying bags of stones.  If crows or starlings landed in the fields, they would be chased off by waving of arms and throwing the stones.  But when the Plague killed off almost half the population, landowners resorted to sacks stuffed with straw, turnips or gourds with carved faces, and propped them up against poles.  Those boys who survived the plague carried clappers of wood so that the noise would scare off bird flocks.

Native Americans also used bird scarers to protect their crops except that adult men and not boys assumed this function.  In Virginia and North Carolina, the men sat on platforms, shouting or howling whenever crows or woodchucks came near the corn.  In Georgia, Creek Indian families moved their huts into the fields of corn during growing season to ward off birds and other animals.  And New York Seneca Indians used a poisoned herb mixture on corn seeds to make crows fly crazily around the fields and scare other birds away.

Zuni children in the American Southwest held contests in the 1800s to see who made the most unusual scarecrow.  Cords made from yucca fibers were strung between cedar poles in the cornfield.  They resembled clotheslines.  Then rags, pieces of skins from dogs and coyotes, and animal shoulder blades were hung from the lines.  This kept most birds away.  The Navajo also made scarecrows.

The Pilgrims were bird scarers and took turns guarding the fields.  Birds weren’t their only worry; wolves were always digging up the fish that were buried with corn seeds to help them grow.  During the 1700s bounties were offered for dead crows.  This created another problem – worms and insects destroyed more corn because the crows were not there to eat them.  This led to farmers going back to making scarecrows.  Even as late as 1882, as this exerpt from the Vermont Phoenix, Brattleboro, VT, 03 Feb 1882, P.4 indicates, bounties were still being offered for crows.

German immigrants to the U.S. had some creative ideas in Pennsylvania. Their "bootzamon" or bogeyman had a wooden cross body and a head made from a broom, mop top, or cloth bundle stuffed with straw. Old overalls, a coat or long-sleeved shirt, an old hat, and a large red handkerchief around the neck completed his ensemble. Sometimes a "bootzafrau" or bogeywife kept him company. She would wear a long dress and a sunbonnet and placed at the opposite end of the field. Together they guarded cornfields, strawberry patches, and cherry orchards.

Scarecrows are still used by farmers all over the world.  India and some of the Arab nations use old men as bird scarers who sit in chairs and throw stones at birds trying to eat their crops.   The scarecrows still adorn fields during growing season and many areas have scarecrow building contests similar to the contests of the Zuni children.



Sources:
http://www.whitworthvalley.com/download/i/mark_dl/u/4007080262/4572839817/

http://www.bctv.org/citizen_reports/northern_berks/the-scarecrow-s-roots/article_b9d931e0-f5af-11e0-997b-001cc4c03286.html

http://thehistoryanorak.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-history-of-scarecrow.html