Strip the corn of husk and tassel,
Warm the dullness of October
With the life of spring and May;
While through every chink the lanterns
And sonorous gusts of laughter
Make assault on night and silence
With the counterfeit of day.”
The literature of the husking bee is extensive, and there are mysterious legends of ancient date about the red ear of corn. As early as the year 1700, in the ceremony of marriage among the Caughnawaga Indians, the husband gave the wife a deer’s leg, and the wife gave the husband a red ear, and in Hiawatha, Longfellow speaks of the husking as if it were a usage among the Indians.
“When’er some lucky maiden
Found a red ear in the husking,