Basque Legends; With an Essay on the Basque Language

The Witches and the Idiots

Once upon a time there were two brothers, the one an idiot, and the other a fool. They had an old mother, old, old, very old. One morning early the elder arranges to go with his sheep to the mountain, and he leaves the fool at home with his old, old, mother, and said to him:

“I will give my mother some chocolate now, and you will give her a hot bath (afterwards), quite, quite, hot.”

He goes to the mountain with his sheep. The second son put the water on to boil, and said to his mother:

“My mother, the water is hot, what bath would you like?”65

She says to him:

“A bath with wood-ashes.”

And he carries it to the bed while it is boiling; and as she did not get up, he said to her:

“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.”

“Go and see if she is still asleep.”

He goes, and says, “No, no; she is laughing—she keeps on laughing.”

The other brother goes there, and perceives that their mother is quite dead. He did not know what to do. They both go into the garden, and there they make a great hole and bury her.

They then burn the house, go into the woods, see the witches, cure the king’s daughter, whom one of them marries, and they live happily.66

It is possible that this first part may be a narrative of fact. We knew at Asté, near Bagnères de Bigorre, a brother, an idiot “crétin,” who deliberately began to chop up his sister (also an idiot and “crétin”), who offered no resistance. He had chopped off several of her fingers, when they were accidently interrupted. In spite of the blood and pain, she was only laughing at it.

We have another tale of this kind, which may be also founded on fact, so sad is often the condition of the crétins in the mountains. It is of a mother and her imbecile son; he nearly kills himself by chopping off the branch of the tree on which he was sitting. Then he believes himself dead, and commits various other follies. His mother thinks a wife might be able to take care of him, and tells him to cast sheeps’ eyes at the young girls coming out of church after mass. He takes this literally, cuts out the eyes of all their flock, and so kills their sheep, the only thing they had, and throws these at the girls, who are disgusted, and quarrel with him. He goes home, and mother and son end their lives together in wretchedness.

The Witch and the New-Born Infant

Like many others in the world, there was a man and woman, labourers, who lived by their toil. They were at ease. They had a mule, and the man lived by his mule carrying wine. Sometimes he was a week away from home. He always went to the same inn, where there was a woman and her daughter. One day the labourer sets off with his loaded mule, and his wife was very near her confinement. She was expecting it hourly; but, as he had orders upon orders, he was obliged to set off. He goes then, and comes to this inn. It was a market-day, and they had not kept a bedroom for him as usual, because there were so many people there, and he is put into a dark room without windows near the kitchen. He had not yet gone to sleep, when he hears the woman say to her daughter,

“You are not aware that the wife of the man who is there is confined? Go and see if he is asleep.”

When the man heard that, he began to snore; and when the young girl heard through a slit in the door that he was snoring, she said to her mother,

“Yes, yes, he is asleep.”

The mother said to her then (you may guess whether he was listening)—

“I must go and charm this newly-born infant.”

She takes up a stone under the hearth, and takes from under it a saucepan, in which there was an ointment. She takes a brush, and well rubs herself over her whole body, saying,67

“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 there68)—“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 pieces by the thorns, and his clothes in strips, but that was all the same to him; he places himself behind the door of his wife’s bedroom with a big stick. There comes a great white cat, “Miau, miau!”69 When the man heard that, he goes out of the place where he was hiding, and with his stick he almost killed this cat, and set out directly afterwards for the inn, but not easily, under all the hedges. In spite of that, he arrives at the woman’s house. He goes to bed quickly. The next day, when he gets up, he sees only the daughter. He asks her where her mother is. “She is ill, and you must pay me.”

“No! I prefer to see your mother.”

He goes to the mother, and finds her very ill. From this day he goes no more to that inn. When he gets home, he tells his wife what had happened, and how he had saved the child. But all was not ended there. They had misfortune upon misfortune. All their cows died, and all their other animals too. They were sinking into the deepest misery.70 They did not know what would become of them. This man was brooding sadly in thought, when he met an old woman, who asked him what was the matter with him. He told her all his troubles, how many misfortunes they had had—all his cows lost. He had bought others, and they too had died directly. He is charmed by witches.

“If you are like that you have only to put a consecrated taper under the peck measure in the stable, and you will catch her.”

He does as the old woman told him, and hides himself in the manger. At midnight she comes under the form of a cat, and gets astride the ox, saying:

“The others before were fine, but this is very much finer.”

When our man heard that he comes out from where he was hiding, and with his stick he leaves her quite dead; although when he had done that our man was without any resources; (he had) neither bread, nor maize, nor cows, nor pigs, and his wife and children were starving.

He goes off to see if he can do anything. There meets him a gentleman, who says to him:

“What is the matter, man, that you are so sad?”

“It is this misery that I am in that torments me so.”

“If you have only that, we will arrange all that if you like. I will give you as much money as you wish, if at the end of the year you can guess, and if you tell me with what the devil makes his chalice; and if you do not guess it then your soul shall be for us.”

When our man has got his money, he goes off home without thinking at all of the future. He lived happily for some time with his wife and child; but as the time approached he grew sad, and said nothing to his wife. One day he had gone a long way, wishing and trying to find out his secret, and the night overtakes him. He stops at a cross-roads, and hides himself. (You know that the witches come to the cross-roads71 to meet together.) They come then, “hushta” from one side, “fushta” from the other, dancing. When they had well amused themselves like that, they begin to tell each other the news. One says:

“You do not know, then, such a man has sold his head to the devil; certainly he will not guess with what the devil makes his chalice. I do not know myself; tell it me.”

“With the parings of the finger-nails which Christians cut on the Sunday.”

Our man with difficulty, with great difficulty, kept from showing himself, through his joy and delight. As soon as the day appeared all the witches went off to their homes, and our man too went off to his. He was no more sad. He waited till the day arrived, and went to the cross-roads. This gentleman was already there, come with a lot of devils, thinking that he would be for hell. He asks him:

“You know what the devil makes his chalice of?”

“I do not know, but I will try. With the parings of the finger-nails which Christians cut on Sundays?”

As soon as he heard that, the devil goes off with all the others in fire and flame to the bottom of hell. Our man went off home, and lived a long time with his wife and daughter. If they had lived well, they would have died well too.

The Changeling

Like many others in the world, there was a gentleman and lady. They were very well off, but they could not keep any of their children. They had had ever so many, and all died. The lady was again in a hopeful condition. At the beginning of the night she was confined of a fine boy.

Two young men heard this news, and they said to each other:

“We ought to have a feast; we must steal a sheep out of this house. They will not pay attention to us with all their bustle and their joy.”

One of the lads then goes after eleven o’clock towards the house. He meets an old woman, who said to him:

“Where are you off to, lad? There is nothing like the truth.”

“I was going, then, to such a house; the lady has been confined, and I wish to take advantage of it to steal a sheep. They will not pay any attention to-day. And you, where are you going?”

“I too am going to the house. I am a witch, and it is I who have killed all their children.”

“And how do you do that?”

“Easily. When the infant sneezes nobody says, ‘Domine stekan,’72 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 him well, and told him to choose the finest sheep. The father and mother were delighted that they would save this child; but, poor wretches, they had not seen everything. A devil had come, who took their child and carried it to the roadside, and left it there. A coachman passing by sees this child, and takes it with him. He was married, but had no children. They had a great desire to have one. They were very well off also. His wife was delighted to see this fine child; they gave it a good nurse, and the child grew fast and became wonderfully handsome. The devil had placed himself in the child’s cradle. This mother gave him suck, and, contrary to the other, he did not grow at all. The parents were vexed at having such a child; they did not know what to think of it. Their true child was more than extraordinarily clever. The coachman and his wife were dazed with joy, and they loved him as (if he were) their own child. When he was twelve years old, he said to his father and mother that he wished to become a monk. The coachman and his wife were very sorry, and they asked him to become only a priest. But after having seen his great desire they allow him to do as he wished.

He went away then, and at the age of eighteen years he was able to say mass. When he was there, one day two men were passing in front of the garden of his real father, and they began to quarrel. They got so enraged that one killed the other, and threw him into his father’s garden. This father was tried and condemned to death for having killed this man.

While this young monk was saying mass, there comes to him a white pigeon and tells him what was taking place in his father’s house, and that the pigeon will assume the form of the monk, “and you shall go off in my shape.” The monk willingly does what he tells him, and arrives when they are leading his father to execution. He was being followed by the judges and by a crowd of people. He asks what he has done. They tell him that he has killed a man. He asks if they would do him a favour before they put him to death—if they would accompany him to the grave of the man whom he has killed. They tell him, “Yes.”

They all go off then. The monk has the grave opened, restores him to life, and asks him, pointing to his father:

“Is this the man who has killed you?”

The dead man says to him, “No!”

After having said that he dies again. The monk did not wish to know who had killed him; he knew all he wanted with that. The father wished to take the monk home with him to dinner, but he would not go that day. He said to him:

“I will come on such a day.”

As you may fancy they made a splendid dinner; nothing was wanting there. They invited all their friends and acquaintances to rejoice with them. When the monk arrives, the lady, before sitting down to table, wished to show him her child, how she had suckled him with her own milk eighteen years, and that he did not grow at all, but was always just as he was when he was born. The monk betook himself to prayer, and he saw that which they believed to be a child fly away under the shape of a devil in fire and flame, and he carried off with him part of the house. He told his mother not to vex herself because she had had the devil there, and that she would be happier without such a child.

All the world was astonished at the power of this monk; but the mother was still grieved. The monk, to console her, told her his history; how he was her true child; how the devil had taken him and carried him to the roadside; how he had been found and brought up by a coachman; and that it was he himself who had been made priest, and her son. All were astounded at his words. After they had well dined, the monk went back into his convent, and the father and mother lived honourably, as they did before; and as they lived well, they died well too.

Catherine Elizondo.

VI.—Contes des Fées

Under this head, we include all those legends which do not readily fall under our other denominations. Fée and fairy are not synonymous. All such tales as those of the “Arabian Nights” might come within the designation of Contes des Fées, but they could hardly be included under Fairy Tales, though the former may be said to embrace the latter. We have divided our legends of this kind into two sections:—(A) Those which have a greater or less similarity to Keltic legends, as recorded in Campbell’s “Tales of the West Highlands,” and elsewhere; (B) Those which we believe to be derived directly from the French.

We have chosen the designation Keltic, because the burning question concerning the Basques at present is their relation to the Keltic race. Anything that can throw light upon this will have a certain interest for a small portion of the scientific world. That these legends do in some degree resemble the Keltic ones will, we think, be denied by no one. Whether they have a closer affinity with them than with the general run of Indo-European mythology may be an open question. Or, again, whether the Basques have borrowed from the Kelts, or the Kelts from the Basques, we leave undetermined. One legend here given, that of “Juan Dekos,” has clearly been borrowed from the Gaelic, and that since the Keltic occupation of the Hebrides.73 The very term Keltiberi, as used by the classical writers, shows some contact of the Kelts with the Basques in ancient times, whether we take Basque and Iberi to be co-extensive and convertible terms or not. What the rôle of the “White Mare” is in these tales we do not understand. Can it be connected with the figure of a horse which appears so frequently on the so-called Keltiberian coins, or is it a mere variation of the Sanscrit “Harits, or horses of the sun?” Campbell, Vol. I., p. 63, says these “were always feminine, as the horses in Gaelic stories are.”

It may be, perhaps, as well to mention that we did not see Campbell’s “Tales of the West Highlands” till after these legends had been written down.

(A.)—Tales like the Keltic

Malbrouk. 74

Like many others in the world, there was a man and a woman who were over-burdened with children, and were very poor. The man used to go to the forest every day to get wood for his family. His wife was on the point of being confined. One day he was in the forest, and a gentleman comes to him, and says:

“What are you doing, friend?”

“I am looking for wood to support my family.”

“You are very poor, then?”

“Yes, yes.”

“If you will make me godfather to your next child according to your law, I will give you a great deal of money.”

He says to him, “Yes, I will do so.”

He gives him, then, a great deal of money, and he goes home. His wife is confined shortly afterwards, and they were waiting, not knowing what to do to tell it to the godfather, since they did not know where he lived. He himself appeared from somewhere. They go to the church, and he gives him the name Malbrouk. While they were returning to the house, the godfather disappears with the child like smoke. The father and mother were distressed about it, though they had plenty of money; but in time their grief faded away.

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 goes to it. He finds his two brothers at the door cutting wood. He tells them that he is their brother; but they will not believe him. They take him indoors, and he tells his father and mother that he is Malbrouk. They are astonished to see such a big man for seven years’ old. They pass these three days in great delight; and he said to his brothers:

“There is plenty of room at my godfather’s for you too, and you must come with me.”

They go off, then, all three together. When they arrive, the witch was not at all contented. She said to her husband:

“I don’t know. These three men will do us some mischief, and we must kill them.”

Malbrouk did not wish to; but as the witch gave him no rest, he told her that at the end of three days he would kill them. What does the little Malbrouk do? At night their daughters used to put crowns on their heads, and the little Malbrouk and his brothers cotton night-caps. The little Malbrouk says to them:

“We must make an exchange; it is now our turn to have the crowns.”

The girls were just as well pleased, and they gave them to them. One night (old) Malbrouk goes there, and after having felt their heads, when he perceived that they had the night-caps, he kills the three. After the little Malbrouk saw that he woke his brothers, took his godfather’s seven-leagued boots, and goes off, far, far, far away. The witch said to (the old Malbrouk):

“You have taken good care whom you have killed? I am not at all satisfied that you have not done some donkey-trick.”

The witch goes, and sees her three daughters dead. She was terribly angry,75 and there was no help for it.

Malbrouk and his brothers come to a place where a king lives, and he remarks that everything is sad. He asks what it is? They tell him that the king has lost his three daughters, and that nobody can find them. Malbrouk says to them:

“I will find them.”

They tell that quickly to the king, and bring them before him, and Malbrouk tells him, too, that he will find them. All three set out. When they have gone a little way they find an old woman, who says to them:

“Where are you going to in that fashion?”

“To look for the king’s three daughters.”

This old woman says to them:

“Go to the king, and ask him for three hundred fathoms of new rope, a bucket, and a bell.”

They go, and the king gives to them immediately what they ask for. They go, then, to the woman, and she says to them, pointing to a well, that they are in that well.76 The eldest put himself into the bucket, and says to them:

“When I am afraid, I will ring the bell.”

When he has gone only a little way he is frightened, and rings. They pull him up. The second goes; and when he has gone a little farther down he is frightened, and rings. Malbrouk then gets in, and he says to them:

“When I shall give a pull at the bucket from below, then you will pull it up.”

He goes down, then, and at last he sees that there is a beautiful house underground, and he sees there a beautiful young lady, who is sitting with a serpent asleep in her lap. When she sees Malbrouk, she says to him:

“Be off, I pray you, from here; he has only three-quarters of an hour to sleep, and if he wakes, it is all over with you and me.”

He says to her, “No matter; lay the head of the serpent on the ground, gently, gently, without waking him.”

She lays it there, and he carries off this young lady in the bucket, after having pulled the cord. He goes into another chamber, and he sees another young lady, still more beautiful, with the head of a lion asleep on her lap. She also says to him:

“Be off quickly from here. He has only half-an-hour to sleep, and if he wakes, it is all up with you and me.”

Malbrouk says to her, “Place gently, gently, without waking him, the head of the lion on the ground.”

She does so. Malbrouk takes her, gets into the bucket with her, and his brothers pull them both up. They write at once to the king to come and fetch them, that they have found two of his daughters. As you may suppose, the king sends a carriage directly to fetch them, and he makes great rejoicings. The king tells him to choose whichever of the two he likes for his wife. Malbrouk says to him:

“When I shall have found your third daughter she shall be my wife, and my two brothers may take these two young ladies for their wives.”

They do as Malbrouk said, and he sets out to see his sweetheart. He goes on, and on, and on. All the fowls of the air know Malbrouk. As he was going along he finds a wolf, a dog, a hawk, and an ant, and in their language they cry out:

“Oyhu!77 Malbrouk, Malbrouk!” and saying to him, “Where are you going, Malbrouk? these three days we have been here before this sheep, and cannot agree how to divide it; but you, you shall divide it.”

Malbrouk goes to them, then, trembling lest they should make a division of him, too. He cuts off the head, and gives it to the ant.

“You will have enough to eat, and for your whole household.”

He gives the entrails to the hawk, and for the dog and the wolf he cuts the carcase in half. He left them all well satisfied; and Malbrouk goes on his way in silence, in silence. When he had gone a little way, the ant says:

“We have not given Malbrouk any reward.”

The wolf calls to him to come back. Malbrouk comes trembling, thinking that it was his turn, and that they are going to eat him, without doubt. The ant says to him:

“We have not given you anything, after that you have made such a good division for us; but whenever you wish to become an ant, you have only to say, ‘Jesus, ant!’ and you will become an ant.”

The hawk says to him: “When you wish to make yourself a hawk, you will say, ‘Jesus, hawk!’ and you will be a hawk.”

The wolf says to him: “When you shall wish to become a wolf, you shall say, ‘Jesus, wolf!’ and you shall be a wolf.”

And the dog, he said to him the same thing, too.78 He goes off, then, well pleased, further into the forest. A woodpecker says to him:

“Malbrouk, where are you going?”

“To fetch such a daughter of a king.”

“You will not find her easily. Since they have delivered her sisters, he has carried her to the farther side of the Red Sea,79 in an island, and keeps her there in prison, in a beautiful house, with the doors and windows so closely shut that only the ants can get into that house.”

Malbrouk goes off happy at hearing this news, and that he would find the princess. He goes on, and on, and on, and he arrives opposite to this island, and remembering what the hawk had said to him, he said, “Jesus, hawk!” and immediately he becomes a hawk.80 He flies away, and goes on until he comes to the island of which the woodpecker had told him; he sees that he can only get in there like an ant, and he says, “Jesus, ant!” and he gets through the little lattice-work. He is dazed at the sight of the beauty of this young lady. He says, “Jesus, man!” and he becomes a man again. When the young lady sees him, she says to him: