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35 chapters
Introduction.
Introduction.
Of course we must expect to find such legends very much altered, and in a state of almost inextricable confusion, and this not only through forgetfulness, and through the lapse of time since their origin, not only by the influence of a total change of religion, but they are also mingled and inter-penetrated with totally new ideas; the old and the new will be found side by side in striking and sometimes grotesque contrast. As in Campbell’s “Tales of the West Highlands,” personages of mythical ant
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The Tartaro.
The Tartaro.
Our next story was communicated by M. d’Abbadie to the Société des Sciences et des Arts de Bayonne . The narrator is M. l’Abbé Heguiagaray, the Parish Priest of Esquiule in La Soule:— In my infancy I often heard from my mother the story of the Tartaro. He was a Colossus, with only one eye in the middle of his forehead. He was a shepherd and a hunter, but a hunter of men. Every day he ate a sheep; then, after a snooze, every one who had the misfortune to fall into his hands. His dwelling was a hu
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M. d’Abbadie’s Version.
M. d’Abbadie’s Version.
Immediately the mother of the Tartaro meets him, and says to him: “O, you lucky young fellow! You have escaped the cruel tyrant; take this ring as a remembrance of your escape.” He accepts, puts the ring on his finger, and immediately the ring begins to cry out, “Heben nuk! Heben nuk!” (“Thou hast me here! Thou hast me here!”) The Tartaro pursues, and is on the point of catching him, when the young man, maddened with fright, and not being able to pull off the ring, takes out his knife, and cuts
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Errua, the Madman.
Errua, the Madman.
“Will you make a wager as to who will throw a stone farthest?” He accepted the wager. That evening our madman was very sad. While he was at his prayers, an old woman appeared to him, and asks him— “What is the matter with you? Why are you so sad?” He tells her the wager that he has made with the Tartaro. The old woman says to him— “If it is only that, it is nothing.” And so she gives him a bird, and says to him— “Instead of a stone, throw this bird.” The madman was very glad at this. The next da
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Variations of Errua.
Variations of Errua.
Like many others in the world, there lived a mother with her three sons. They were not rich, but lived by their work. The eldest son said one day to his mother— “It would be better for us if I should go out to service.” The mother did not like it, but at last she let him go. He goes off, far, far, far away, and comes to a house, and asks if they want a servant. They say “Yes,” and they make their agreement. The master was to give a very high salary—100,000 francs—but the servant was to do everyt
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The Three Brothers, the Cruel Master, and the Tartaro.
The Three Brothers, the Cruel Master, and the Tartaro.
“Have you done your work?” He says, “No.” “Do you remember the agreement we made? I must tear the skin off your back: that is your salary.” He tears the skin off, as he had said, and sends him away home without anything. His mother was in great grief at seeing him come home so thin and weak, and without any money. He tells what has happened, and the second brother wishes to start off at once, saying that he is strong, and that he will do more work. The mother did not like it, but she was obliged
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The Tartaro and Petit Perroquet.
The Tartaro and Petit Perroquet.
He asks for a great deal of money, and sets off. He travels on, and on, and on, and he had to pass a wide river. He speaks to the ferryman, and pays the passage money, and tells him that perhaps he will have a heavy load on his return, but that he will be well paid. He lands on the other side; but he had yet a long way to go in the forest, because the Tartaro lived in a corner of the mountain. At last he arrives, and knocks at the door. An old, old woman comes to him, and says to him, “Be off fr
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The Grateful Tartaro and the Heren-Suge.
The Grateful Tartaro and the Heren-Suge.
The boy says, “Yes, yes,” takes his ball, and goes off. The ball goes there for the third time, but the Tartaro will not give it before he is let out. The boy says that he has not the key. The Tartaro says to him: “Go to your mother, and tell her to look in your right ear, because something hurts you there. Your mother will have the key in her left pocket, and take it out.” The boy goes, and does as the Tartaro had told him. He takes the key from his mother, and delivers the Tartaro. When he was
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The Seven-Headed Serpent.
The Seven-Headed Serpent.
He asks her if she knows of a servant’s place. She replies, “No.” And on he goes, on, on, on, deeper into the forest. He meets a huge bear. He says to him, “Ant of the earth! Who has given you permission to come here?” The third son asks his mother to give him a cake, for he wishes to go off, like his brothers. He sets off, and walks on, and on, and on. And he finds an old woman. She asks him, “Where are you going?” “I want a situation as servant.” “Give me a little bit of your cake.” “Here! Tak
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The Serpent in the Wood.
The Serpent in the Wood.
She went very much farther into the wood, and she was caught, and kept prisoner by a serpent. She remained there crying, and not able to eat anything; and she remained like that eight days, very sad; then she began to grow resigned, and she remained there three years. At the end of three years she began to wish to return home. The serpent told her to come back again at the end of two days; that his time was nearly finished, and that he was a king’s son condemned for four years 15 (to be a serpen
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Acheria, the Fox.
Acheria, the Fox.
And the fox goes off well filled. Another day he was again very hungry, and did not know what to contrive. Every day he saw a boy pass by on the road with his father’s dinner. He says to a blackbird, “Blackbird, you don’t know what we ought to do? We ought to have a good dinner. A boy will pass by here directly. You will go in front of him, and when the boy goes to catch you, you will go on a little farther, limping, and when you shall have done that a little while the boy will get impatient, an
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The Ass and the Wolf.
The Ass and the Wolf.
Our ass goes off then. When he gets into the church he shuts the door inside with his foot, and stops quietly there. When the wolf began to get impatient at waiting, he said: “Ay, ay, what a long mass! one would say it was Palm Sunday.” The ass said to him: “Dirty old wolf, have patience. I am staying here with the angels, and I have my life (safe) for to-night.” “Ay, ay, you bad ass, you are too, too, filthy, you know. If ever you meet with me again, mass you shall not hear.” “There are no dogs
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Basa-Jauna, the Wild Man.
Basa-Jauna, the Wild Man.
“And do you not see anything?” He says to them: “Yes; I see a long column of smoke, but very, very thin, and far, very far away. Let us go towards that.” And the three brothers set out together. At eight o’clock in the evening they come to a grand castle, and they knock at the door, and the Basa-Andre (wild woman) comes to answer. She asks: “Who is there?” And they reply, “It is we who are here.” “What do you want, young children? Where are you going to at this time of night?” “We ask and beg of
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The Servant at the Fairy’s.
The Servant at the Fairy’s.
“Tchau, tchau, tchow; I too, I want something.” “Be off from here, silly little dog; I will give you a kick.” But the dog did not go away; and at last she gave him something to eat—a little, not much. “And now,” says he, “I will tell you what the mistress has told you to do. She told you to sweep the kitchen, to fill the pitcher, and to wash all the plates, and that if it is all well done she will give you the choice of a sack of charcoal or of a bag of gold; of a beautiful star on your forehead
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The Fairy in the House.
The Fairy in the House.
The man replies, “Yes, now I am tired.” As his wife used to give her ham to eat, the man offers her some also. “Will you take your supper now?” “Yes, if you please,” replies the fairy. He puts the frying-pan on the fire with a bit of ham. While that was cooking, and when it was red, red-hot, he throws it right into the fairy’s face. The poor fairy begins to cry out, and then come thirty of her friends. “Who has done any harm to you?” “I, to myself; I have hurt myself.” 16 “If you have done it yo
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The Pretty but Idle Girl.17
The Pretty but Idle Girl.17
“Here are seven shirts, and if you finish them by such a time we will marry together.” She sat thinking without doing anything, and with tears in her eyes. Then comes to her an old woman, who was a witch, and says to her: “What is it makes you so sad?” She answers, “Such a gentleman has brought me seven shirts to sew, but I cannot do them. I am sitting here thinking.” This old woman says to her: “You know how to sew?” “I know how to thread the needle; (that is all).” This woman says to her: “I w
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The Devil’s Age.
The Devil’s Age.
Our man had heard enough. He went off home at full speed, and told his wife that they would want for nothing, that he had done as she had told him, just as if she had been a witch, and that he was no longer afraid of the devil. They lived rich and happily, and if they lived well, they died well too. Franchun Beltzarri. There were, like many others in the world, a man and a woman over-burthened with children, and very poor. The woman no more knew what to do. She said that she would go and beg. Sh
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The Fairy-Queen Godmother.20
The Fairy-Queen Godmother.20
The queen takes her to a corner of a mountain. It is there where her house was. She had already another god-daughter; this was a little dog, whose name was Rose, 21 and she named this last god-daughter Pretty-Rose. She gave her, too, a glint of diamonds in the middle of her forehead. 22 She was very pretty. She grew up in the corner of the mountain, amusing herself with this dog. She said to her one day: “Has the queen no other houses? I am tired of being always here.” The dog said to her: “Yes,
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The Witches at the Sabbat.2
The Witches at the Sabbat.2
“We must look in the lime-kiln, to see what may be there.” They go to look, and they find the hunchback girl, and they send her off— “Go, go—through hedges and hedges, through thorns and thorns, through furze-bushes and furze-bushes, scratches and pricks.” And in no way could our poor hunchback find her way home. All torn to pieces and exhausted, at last, in the morning, she arrived at her house. Estefanella Hirigaray. The second part of this story is evidently a blundered version, transferred f
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The Witches and the Idiots.
The Witches and the Idiots.
“Would you like a little broth?” And she said “Yes.” “My mother, get up quickly!” and she did not get up. He takes her, and puts her himself into this boiling water, so that he boiled his poor mother. And he said to her, “My mother, get up again; the water is not cold.” She did not answer. The night comes, and the other brother returns from the mountains, and says to him: “How is our mother?” “All right.” “Have you given her the bath?” “Yes; but she is still there, and she is asleep in her bath.
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The Witch and the New-Born Infant.
The Witch and the New-Born Infant.
“ Under all the clouds and over all the hedges, half an hour on the road, another half-hour there, and another to return.” As soon as she had said that, off she went. When the man saw that she was gone, he comes out of his room. He had seen what she did. He anoints himself like her, and says, “ Over the clouds, and under the hedges”—(he made a blunder there 7 )—“a quarter of an hour to go there, half an hour to stop, and a quarter of an hour for the return.” He arrives at his house, but torn to
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The Changeling.
The Changeling.
“Easily. When the infant sneezes nobody says, ‘Domine stekan,’ 11 and then I become mistress of the child.” The witch enters, doubtless as she liked, much more easily than our lad; but nevertheless he got in himself too. He was busy choosing his sheep, when he hears the infant sneeze. He says very, very loudly: “Domine stekan; even if I should not get my sheep.” They go to see who is there, and what he was saying. The lad relates what the old woman had told him. As you may imagine they thanked h
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(A.)—Tales like the Keltic.
(A.)—Tales like the Keltic.
The old Malbrouk went to his house. His wife was a witch, and they had three daughters. The little Malbrouk grew fast, and at seven years’ old he was as tall as a tall man. His godfather said to him: “Malbrouk, would you like to go to your own home?” He said to him, “Am I not here in my own home?” He told him, “No,” and that he might go there for three days. “Go to such a mountain, and the first house that you will see there will be yours.” He goes, then, to the mountain, and sees the house, and
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(B.)—Contes des Fées, derived directly from the French.
(B.)—Contes des Fées, derived directly from the French.
After some time there appeared to her one day an old woman, who called to her: “Faithful, you have done penance enough. The son of the king is going to give some grand feasts, and you must go to them. This evening you will ask madame permission, and you will tell her that you will give her all the news of the ball if she will let you go for a little while. And, see, here is a nut. All the dresses and things you want will come out of that. You will break it as you go to the place of the festival.
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Fourteen.1
Fourteen.1
As long as he had work the master said nothing, but afterwards, when he saw that all the harvest served only for the servant to eat, he did not know how to get rid of him. He sends him to a forest in which he knew that there were terrible beasts, and told him to bring wood from there. As soon as he has arrived a bear attacks him. He takes him by the nostrils and throws him on the ground, and twists his neck. He keeps pulling up all the young trees, and again a wolf attacks him; he takes him like
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Jesus Christ and the Old Soldier.
Jesus Christ and the Old Soldier.
“ Artchila murtchila! fine leg of mutton, come into my sack!” and in an instant it was in it; and in the same way he had everything he wished for. One day the devil came to tempt this old man, but, as soon as he heard him, he opened his sack and said: “ Artchila murtchila! go into my sack!” And the devil himself entered into the sack. He takes the sack with the devil in it to a blacksmith, and for a long time and very vigorously he pounded it with his sledgehammer. When the old soldier died he w
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The Poor Soldier and the Rich Man.
The Poor Soldier and the Rich Man.
Once upon a time, and like many others in the world, there was a widow who had a son. This son was so good to his mother that they loved one another beyond all that can be told. One day this son said to his mother that he must go to Rome. The mother was in the greatest distress, but she let him go. (At parting) she gave him three apples, and said to him: “If you make acquaintance (with anyone) on the road, and if you are thirsty, give him one of these apples to divide; and he who will give you b
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The Widow and her Son.2
The Widow and her Son.2
She answers “Yes;” and then, lowering her voice, she adds, “Yes, to your misfortune.” It was only the widow’s son who heard these last words. So they go there, and enter, and are very well received. They had a good supper given them, and a good bed on the third story. The widow’s son puts the prince on the outside of the bed, and he himself goes next the wall. The former falls asleep immediately, because he was very tired; but the widow’s son was kept awake by his fear, and, just as twelve o’clo
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The Story of the Hair-Cloth Shirt (La Cilice).
The Story of the Hair-Cloth Shirt (La Cilice).
The father then said that he would tell him, (and he told him) how that his mother and he had made a vow to go to Rome if they had a child, and that they had never been there. The child said to him, “It is for me that this vow was made, and it is I who will go and fulfil it.” He says “Good-bye,” and sets out. He was seven years on the road, and begged his bread. At last he comes to the Holy Father, and tells him what has brought him there. Our Holy Father puts him in a room alone for an hour. Wh
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The Saintly Orphan Girl.
The Saintly Orphan Girl.
The master tells him that he has seen all, and the boy says that his penance is also finished, and that he must go home. The master does not wish it. “You shall go afterwards, if you wish it; but first you must marry my daughter.” He tells him that he has a father and mother, and that he cannot do it without telling them; but if they wish it, he will do so willingly. He starts home then at once. You may imagine what joy for the king and the queen. They were constantly trembling lest they should
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The Slandered and Despised Young Girl.
The Slandered and Despised Young Girl.
They answer, “Moved by charity, just to help her.” “Do not have her any more; she is a thief, and as bad as can be.” After having given her her day’s wages, they send her off, and say that they do not want her any more. 5 This poor young girl was in the greatest distress; if she wished to eat, she must beg. She set to work begging then, and everyone disliked her so much that, when they saw her, they used to spit at her. There came home from one of his voyages a ship’s captain, and, while he was
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An Essay on the Basque Language,
An Essay on the Basque Language,
These linguistic elements are, moreover, subject to the terrible law of the struggle for existence, and of vital competition. Many of them have perished and have left no trace; others are preserved to us merely in some scanty records. The Basque, pressed hard by Latin and its derived languages, has lost ground, especially in Spain. Beyond its actual limits, there are in Navarre many villages, the names of which are Basque, but in which Spanish only is spoken; and all along the frontiers of the a
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I.—Pastorales.
I.—Pastorales.
(2) The recitative is always accompanied by music; generally a violin or two, a flute, the chirola, and the so-called Basque tambourine, a species of six-stringed guitar, beaten by a short stick, or plectrum. The tune is almost a monotone, but differs in time, being faster or slower according to the action of the piece; with the exception of those parts in which the chorus alone has possession of the stage, when the Saut Basque or other lively dancing airs are played. The strong, clear chant of
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II.
II.
lelo. yl lelo ; lelo. yl lelo; leloa çarat 10 il leloa. Romaco armac aleguin eta Vizcayac daroa Zanzoa. Octabiano munduco jauna le coby di 10 Vizcayocoa. Ichasotati eta leorres y mini deusco molsoa. leor celayac bereac dira menditan tayac leusoac. lecu yronyan gagozanyan nocbera sendo daugogoa. bildurric guichi armabardinas oramayasu guexoa. Soyacgogorrac badyri tuys narrubiloxa surboa. bost urteco egun gabean gueldi bagaric pochoa. gurecobata ylbadaguyan bost amarren galdoa. aecanista gue guich
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