Basque Legends; With an Essay on the Basque Language

At that moment the moon appeared, and said to his mother that he smelt some one. His mother told him how that there was a wretched man who had lost everything; that he was come to him (for help), and that he would guide him. The moon told him to show himself. He comes, and asks him if he has not seen a house with beams of gold and with tiles of diamonds, and the rest of gold and silver; and he tells him how it was taken away from him.

He answers, “No;” that he has not seen it, but that the sun makes longer journeys than he, and of greater extent, and that he would do better to go to him.

He goes off again, on, and on, and on, with his horse, whom he nourished as he could, and begging for himself. At length he arrives at the sun’s house. He finds an old woman, who said to him,

“Where do you come from? Be off from here! Do you not know that my son eats all Christians?”

He said to her, “No! I will not go away. I am so wretched that I do not care if he does eat me.”

And he tells her how he has lost everything; that he had a house, which had not its equal, with beams of gold and tiles of diamonds, and all the ornaments of gold and precious stones; and that he had been going about looking for it so long a time, and that there was no man so wretched as he. This woman hides him. The sun comes out and says to his mother—

“I smell the smell of a Christian, and I must eat him.”

The mother tells him that it was an unfortunate man who had lost his all, that he had come to speak to him, and begs him to take pity on him. He tells her to bring him out. Then the young man comes and asks the sun if he has seen a palace which has its equal nowhere, with its laths of gold and its tiles of diamonds, and the rest of gold and silver. The sun says to him:

“No, but the south wind searches everything that I cannot see. He enters into every corner, he does, and if any one ought to know he will know.”

Our poor man then sets off again, feeding his horse how he could and begging for himself, and he comes at length to the house of the south wind.95 He finds an old woman carrying water, and who was filling a great many barrels. She said to him:

“What are you thinking of to come here? My son eats up everything when he arrives hungry and furious. You must beware of him.”

He says to her, “It is all the same to me. Let him eat me; I am so wretched that I fear nothing.”

And he tells her how he had a beautiful house which had not its equal in all the world, and with it all sorts of riches, and that, “Having abandoned my wife, I am seeking it, and I am come to consult your son, being sent by the sun.”

She hides him under the staircase. The south wind arrives as if he meant to tear the house up, and very thirsty. Before beginning to drink he smells the smell of the race of Christians, and said to his mother:

“Out with what you have hidden,” and that he must begin by eating him.

His mother said to him, “Eat and drink what is before you.”

And she tells him the misfortunes of this man, and how that the sun has spared his life that he might come and consult him.

Then he makes the man come out, and the man tells him how that he is going about trying to find a house, and that if anybody ought to know it is he, and that they had robbed him of his house, which had laths of gold, tiles of diamonds, and all the rest of gold and silver, and if he has not seen it anywhere?

He tells him, “Yes, yes, and all to-day I have been passing over it, and have not been able to take away one of its tiles.”

“Oh! if you will tell me where it is!”

He says that it is on the other side of the Red Sea, very, very far away.

When our man heard that, the length of the road did not frighten him—he had already travelled over so much. He sets out then, and at last arrives at that city. He asks if anyone is in want of a gardener. They tell him that the gardener of the castle has gone away, and that perhaps they will take him. He goes off, and recognises his house—judge with what joy and delight! He asks if they are in want of a gardener. They tell him “Yes,” and our lad is very pleased. He passes some time tolerably happily—middling. He talks with a servant about the riches of the masters and of the power which they had. He flattered and cajoled this young girl very much to get from her the history of the snuff-box, and he told her once that he very much wished to see it. One evening she brought it to him to look at, and our lad, very much pleased, pays great attention to where it was hidden in the room of the mistress. At night, when everybody is asleep, he goes and takes the snuff-box. You will understand with what joy he opens it.

It says to him, “Que quieres?”

And the lad says to it, “Que quieres, Que quieres,96 carry me with my castle to the same place as (we were in) formerly, and drown the king and the queen and all the servants in this Red Sea.”

As soon as he had said it, he was carried to his wife, and they lived happily, and the others all perished in the Red Sea.97

Catherine Elizondo.

Mahistruba, the Master Mariner

Like many others in the world, there was a master mariner. Having had many losses and misfortunes in his life he no longer made any voyages, but every day went down to the seaside for amusement, and every day he met a large serpent, and every day he said to it:

“God has given thy life to thee; live then.”

This master mariner lived upon what his wife and daughter earned by sewing. One day the serpent said to him:

“Go to such a shipbuilder’s, and order a ship of so many tons burden. Ask the price of it, and then double the price they tell you.”98

He does as the serpent told him, and the next day he goes down to the shore, and he tells the serpent that he has done as he had told him. The serpent then bids him go and fetch twelve sailors, very strong men, and to double whatever they shall ask. He goes and does what he was told to do. He returns to the serpent and tells him that he has twelve men. The serpent gives him all the money which he needed to pay for the ship. The shipbuilder is astonished to find that he is paid so large a sum of money in advance by this miserable man, but he hastens to finish his work as quickly as possible. The serpent again bids him have made in the hold of the ship a large empty space and a huge chest, and tells him to bring this down himself. He brings it, and the serpent gets into it. The ship was quickly ready, he embarks the chest in the ship, and they set out.

This captain used to go every day to the serpent, but the sailors did not know what he went (into the hold) to do, nor what there was in the chest. The ship had already gone some distance, and nobody knew its destination. One day the serpent told the captain that there was going to be a frightful storm, that the earth and sky would mingle together, and that at midnight a large black bird would pass over the ship, and that it must be killed, and (he tells him) to go and see if there is any sportsman among his sailors. He goes and asks the sailors if there is any sportsman among them.99

One of them answers, “Yes; I can kill a swallow in its flight.”

“All the better, all the better; that will be of use to you.”

He goes down to tell the serpent that there is a sportsman who can kill a swallow in its flight. And at the same moment the weather becomes black as night, and earth and sky are mingled together, and all are trembling with fright. The serpent gives the captain a good drink for the sportsman, and they bind him to the mast. At midnight a piercing cry was heard. It was the bird which was passing over, and our sportsman has the good luck to kill him. At the very instant the sea becomes calm. The captain goes to the serpent, and tells him that the bird is killed.

The serpent answers him, “I know it.”

When they had gone a little further without anything happening, the serpent said one day:

“Are we not near such a port?”

The captain says to him, “It is in sight.”

“Very well, then, we are going there.”

He tells him to go again, and ask his sailors if there is a fast runner among them. The captain goes and asks his sailors if there is any fast runner among them.

One of them says to him, “As for me, I can catch a hare running.”

“So much the better, so much the better; that will be of use to you.”

The captain goes to tell the serpent that there is one who can catch a hare running. The serpent says to him:

“You will land the runner at this port, and you will tell him that he must go to the top of a little mountain; that there is a little house there, and an old, old woman in it; and that there is there a steel, a flint, and a tinder-box; and that he must bring these three things on board one by one, making a separate journey each time.”

Our runner goes off, and comes to this house. He sees the old woman, with red eyes, spinning at the threshold of her door. He asks her for a drop of water, that he has walked a long way without finding any water, and will she give him a little drop? The old woman says to him, “No.” He begs her again, telling her that he does not know the roads in the country, nor where he is going to. This old woman kept constantly looking at the chimney-piece, and she said to him:

“I am going to give you some, then.”

While she went to the pitcher, our runner takes the steel off the chimney-piece, and goes off at full speed, like the lightning; but the old woman is after him. At the very instant that he is about to leap into the ship the old woman catches him, and snatches off a bit of his coat, and a piece of the skin of his back with it.100 The captain goes to the serpent, and says to him:

“We have got the steel, but our man has got the skin of his back torn off.”

He gives him a remedy, and a good drink, and tells him that the man will be cured by to-morrow, but that he must go again next day.

He says, “No, no; the devil may carry off this old woman, if he likes, but I will not go there any more.”

But, as he was cured next day by giving him that good drink again, he sets off. He dresses himself in a shirt without arms, and in an old torn pair of trousers, and goes to the old woman’s, saying that his ship is wrecked on the shore, that he has been wandering about for forty-eight hours, and he begs her to let him go to the fire to light his pipe.

She says, “No.”

“Do have pity—I am so wretched; it is only a little favour I ask of you.”

“No, no, I was deceived yesterday.”

But the man answered, “All the world are not deceivers. Don’t be afraid.”

The old woman rises to go to the fire, and as she stoops to take it,101 the man seizes the flint and escapes, running as if he would break his feet. But the old woman runs as fast as our runner; but she only catches him as he is jumping into the ship; she tears off the shirt, and the skin of his neck and back with it, and he falls into the ship.

The captain goes directly to the serpent: “We have got the flint.”

He says to him, “I know it.”

He gives him the medicine and the good drink, in order that the man may be cured by the morrow, and that he may go again. But the man says, “No,” that he does not want to see that red-eyed old woman any more. They tell him that they still want the tinder-box. The next day they give him the good drink. That gives him courage, and the desire to return again.

He dresses himself up as if he had been shipwrecked, and goes off half naked. He comes to the old woman’s, and asks for a little bread, as he has not eaten for a long time, (and begs her) to have pity on him—that he does not know where to go to.

The old woman says to him: “Be off, where you will; you shall get nothing at my house, and nobody shall come in here. Every day I have enemies.”

“But what have you to fear from a poor man who only wants a little bread, and who will be off immediately afterwards?”

At last the old woman rises to go to her cupboard, and our man takes her little tinder-box. The old woman runs after him, wishing to catch him, but our man is ahead. She overtakes him just as he is leaping into the ship. The old woman takes hold of the skin of his neck, and tears it all right down to the soles of his feet. Our runner falls down, and they do not know whether he is alive or dead; and the old woman says:

“I renounce him, and all those who are in this ship.”

The captain goes to the serpent, and says to him:

“We have the tinder-box, but our runner is in great danger. I do not know whether he will live; he has no skin left from his neck to the soles of his feet.”

“Console yourselves, console yourselves, he will be cured by to-morrow. Here is the medicine and the good drink. Now, you are saved. Go on deck, and fire seven rounds of cannon.”

He mounts on deck and fires the seven rounds of cannon, and returns to the serpent, and says to him:

“We have fired the seven rounds.”

He says to him, “Fire twelve rounds more; but do not be afraid. The police will come here; they will handcuff you. You will be put in prison, and you will ask, as a favour, not to be executed before that they have visited the ship, in order to prove that there is nothing in it to merit such a chastisement.”

The captain goes on deck, and fires the twelve rounds of cannon. As soon as he has fired them, the magistrates and the police arrive; they handcuff the men, the sailors, and the captain, and they put them in prison. The sailors were not pleased; but the captain said to them:

“You will soon be delivered.”

The next day the captain asks to go and speak to the king. He is brought before the king, and the king says:

“You are condemned to be hanged.”

The captain says to him, “What! because we have fired some cannon-shots you are going to hang us!!”

“Yes, yes, because for seven years we have not heard the cannon in this city.102 I am in mourning—I and my people. I had an only son, and I have lost him. I cannot forget him.”

The captain says to him: “I did not know either this news or this order, and I beg you not to kill us before going and seeing if there is anything in the ship which condemns us justly.”

The king goes with his courtiers, his soldiers, and his judges—in a word, with everybody. When he has mounted on deck, what a surprise! The king finds his dearly-loved son, who relates to him how he had been enchanted by an old woman, and that he remained a serpent seven years.103 How the captain every day went to walk by the seaside, and every day left him his life, saying to him, “The good God has made you too;” and having seen the captain’s good heart, “I thought he would spare me, and it is to him that I owe my life.”

He goes to the court. The men are let out of prison, and they give the captain a large sum of money for a dowry for his two daughters, and the ship for himself. To the sailors they give as much as they like to eat and drink for all the time they wish to stop there, and afterwards enough to live upon for the rest of their lives. The king and his son lived happily, and as they had lived well, they died happily also.

Gachina,

The Net-maker.

Dragon

A king had a son who was called Dragon. He was as debauched as it is possible to be. All the money that he had he had spent, and still more; not having enough, he demanded his portion from his father. The father gives it him immediately, and he goes off, taking with him a companion who had been a soldier, and who was very like himself.104 Very quickly they spent all their money. While they were travelling in a forest they see a beautiful castle. They enter and find there a table ready set out, and a magnificent supper prepared. They sit down to table and sup. Nobody appears as yet, and they go up-stairs to see the house, and they find the beds all ready, and they go to bed. They pass a very good night. The next morning Dragon gets up and opens the shutters, and sees a dazzling garden.

He goes down into the garden, still without seeing anybody; but in passing under a fig tree, a voice says to him:

“Ay! ay! ay! what pain you have put me to, and what suffering you are causing me!”

He turns on all sides and finds nothing. He says:

“Who are you? You! I do not understand it. Appear!”

The voice says to him, “I cannot to-day; but perhaps to-morrow you will see me. But in order to do that you will have to suffer severely.”

He promises to suffer no matter what for her. The voice says to him:

“To-morrow night they will make you suffer every kind of torture, but you must not say anything; and if you do that, you will see me to-morrow.”

They had spoken all this before the soldier friend, but he had heard nothing of it.

They go to the house and find the dinner quite ready. Dragon would have wished that night had already come, to know what it was he was to see. He goes off to bed then, and after eleven o’clock he feels that something is coming, and his whole body is pricked all over. He keeps quite silent, because he wished to see the voice. And when the cock crew “Kukuruku!” he was released (from his torture). He lies waiting for daybreak to go to the fig tree. Day did not appear as soon as he would have wished it, and he goes running to the garden and sees under the fig tree, coming out of the ground as high as her shoulders, a young girl, and she says to him:

“Last night you have suffered in silence, but the next night they will make you suffer much more. I do not know if you can bear it without speaking.”

He promises her that he will suffer still more in order to save her.

As usual, they find the table ready for dinner and for supper. He goes off to bed. There happens to him the same thing as in the preceding night, but they do him still more harm. Happily he lies still without speaking. The cock crows “Kukuruku!” and they leave him quiet. As soon as daylight has come he goes off to the garden, and he sees the young lady visible as far as the knees. Dragon is delighted to save this beautiful girl, but she says sadly to him:

“You have seen nothing up to this time. They will make you suffer twice as much.”

He says that he has courage to endure anything, because he wishes to get her out of that state. When night comes, he perceives that two are coming instead of one. One of them was lame, and he says to him (and you know lame people and cripples are the most cruel).105 He says then to the other:

“What! You have not been able to make this wretched boy speak! I will make him speak, I will.”

He cuts off his arms and then his legs, and our Dragon does not say anything. They make him suffer a great deal, but happily the cock crows “Kukuruku!” and he is delivered. He was much afraid what would become of him without hands and without feet; but on touching himself he feels with pleasure that all that is made right again. While he is in bed he hears a great noise. He lies without saying anything, being frightened, and not knowing what might happen to him, when all of a sudden this young lady appears and says to him:

“You have saved me; I am very well pleased with you. But this is not enough; we must be off from here immediately.”

All the three go off together, and travel far, far, far away, and they arrive in a city. The young lady did not think it proper to lodge in the same hotel with them. Next morning the young lady gets up very early, and goes in search of the landlord of the hotel, and says to him:

“A gentleman will come here to ask for me. You will tell him that I have gone out, and if he wishes to see me he must come to the fountain at the Four Cantons106—but fasting—and he is to wait for me there.”

The next morning the young gentleman goes to the hotel, and they tell him what the young lady has said. On that very day he goes to the fountain, taking his comrade with him, and fasting; but as the young lady had not yet arrived, forgetting himself, he put his hand in his pocket, and finding there a small nut, he eats it. As soon as he has eaten it he falls asleep.107 The young lady arrives. She sees that he is asleep. She says to his companion:

“He has eaten something. Tell him that I will return, but tell, tell him, I beg you, to eat nothing.”

She leaves him a beautiful handkerchief. Dragon wakes up as soon as the young lady is gone. His comrade tells him that she had come, and that she had told him not to eat anything. And he shows Dragon the handkerchief. He was very vexed at having eaten, and would have wished that it was already the next day. He starts then very, very early, and waits for the young lady, and, as was fated to happen, finding a walnut in his pocket, he eats it. He immediately falls asleep. The young lady appears and finds him sleeping. She says that she will return again the next day, but that he must not eat anything. She leaves him another handkerchief. Dragon awakes as soon as she has gone. Judge with what vexation. His friend tells him that she said that she would return the next day, but that he must do his best not to eat anything. He goes then the third day without eating anything, but, as was to happen, despairing of seeing the young lady, who was late, arrive, he takes an apple from an apple tree and eats it. He falls asleep immediately. The young lady comes and finds him asleep. She gives his comrade a ring to give to Dragon, telling him that if Dragon wishes to see her he will find her in the City of the Four Quarters. Dragon is very vexed, and he says to his friend:

“The good God knows when I shall find this city, and it is better for you to go in one direction (and I in another).”

Thereupon they separate. Dragon goes off, far, far, far away. He comes to a mountain; there he sees a man, who had before his door holy water, and whoever made use of it was well received. He goes in, therefore, and asks him if he knows where is the City of the Four Quarters. He tells him—

“No; but there are the animals of the earth and of the air, and that the latter might perhaps guide him there.”

He whistles to them. They come from all quarters, and he asks them if they know where is the City of the Four Quarters? They tell him “No.” Then the man says to him—

“I have a brother on such a mountain, who has many more animals than I have; he has them all under his power, that man has.”

Dragon goes off then, and arrives there; he asks of that man if he knows where the City of the Four Quarters is? He tells him “No,” but that he has animals which will know it, if anyone ought to know it. He whistles to them. He sees the animals, small and great, coming from all quarters. Dragon was trembling with fright. He asks them one by one if they know where the City of the Four Quarters is. They tell him “No;” but the man sees that one animal is wanting, and that is the eagle. He whistles, and he comes. He asks him, too, if he knows where the City of the Four Quarters is. He says to him—

“I am just come from there.”

The man says to him,

“You must, then, guide this young gentleman there.”

The eagle says to him, “Willingly, if he will give me a morsel of flesh each time that I open my mouth.”

Dragon replies, “Yes, willingly.”

He then buys an ox. The eagle tells him to get upon his back. The man climbs up there with his ox, and when he opens his mouth he gives him a morsel of the ox, which kept gradually diminishing.

They were obliged to cross over the sea, and there was no bridge to it there. The ox was finished when they were in the middle of the sea, and there was a great rock there. The eagle opens his mouth again, and, as there was no more beef, what does he do? As he was afraid of being left upon that rock, he cuts a morsel from the back of his own thighs, and puts it in his mouth.108 They arrive on the other side of the sea. The eagle leaves him there, saying to him,

“You are in the City of the Four Quarters. Do your own business here. I am going off to my own home.”

This young gentleman asks what is the news in this city. They tell him that the king’s daughter is going to be married to-day. In this city it was permitted only to the wedding party to enter the church, but Dragon had bribed one of the keepers with money, (saying) that he would stop quiet in a corner of the church. It was also the custom in this city to publish the banns at the moment of marriage. When the priest began to publish them, Dragon came out of his corner, and said—

“I make an objection.”

He goes to the young lady, who recognises him; and he shows her the ring and the kerchiefs, and asks her in marriage. She says—