Selected Writings of

José Miguel de Barandiarân:

Basque Prehistory and
Ethnography

IN TRO D U CTIO N B Y JESÜ S ALTU N A

 Center for Basque Studies
Basque Classics Series, N o. 3
 Selected Writings of
José Miguel de Barandiaran

• •
Basque Prehistory and
Ethnography

Compiled and with an Introduction

by Jesus Altuna

Translated by
Frederick H. Fornoff, Linda White,
and Carys Evans-Corrales

Center for Basque Studies

University of N evada, Reno
Reno, N evada
This book was published with generous financial support obtained
by the Association of Friends of the Center for Basque Studies
from the Provincial Government of Bizkaia.

Basque Classics Series, No. 3

Series Editors: William A. Douglass, Gregorio Monreal, and Pello Salaburu

Center for Basque Studies

University of Nevada, Reno
Reno, Nevada 89557
http://basque.unr.edu

Copyright © 2007 by the Center for Basque Studies

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

Cover and series design © 2007 by Jose Luis Agote.

Cover illustration: Josetxo Marin

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Barandiarân, José Miguel de.

[Selections. English. 2008]
Selected writings of Jose Miguel de Barandiaran : Basque prehistory and
ethnography / compiled and with an introduction by Jesus Altuna ; transla­
tion by Frederick H. Fornoff, Linda White, and Carys Evans-Corrales.
p. cm. -- (Basque classics series / Center for Basque Studies ; no. 3)
Summary: “ Extracts from works by Basque ethnographer Barandiaran
on Basque prehistory, mythology, magical beliefs, rural life, gender roles,
and life events such as birth, marriage, and death, gleaned from interviews
and excavations conducted in the rural Basque Country in the early to
mid-twentieth century. Introduction includes biographical information on
Barandiaran” --Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-877802-69-0 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-877802-70-6 (hardcover) 1.
Basques--Folklore. 2. Mythology, Basque. 3. Basques--Social life and cus­
toms. I. Altuna, Jesus. II. University of Nevada, Reno. Center for Basque
Studies. III. Title. IV. Series.

GR137.7.B36313 2008
398.o89’992--dc22

2008014798
The Center for Basque Studies wishes to gratefully acknowledge the
generous financial support of the Bizkaiko Foru Aldundia / Provincial
Government of Bizkaia for the publication of this book.

Center for
M L Basque Studies
0 ^ L J H I V B t t l T r OF NEVADA, REMO
 Selected Writings of
José Miguel de Barandiaran

• •
Basque Prehistory and
Ethnography
 Table of Contents

A cknowledgm ents..................................................................................... 11

IN T R O D U C T IO N by Jesus Altuna

The Beginnings: Birth of a V o catio n .............................................. 15

M aturity and Lines of Investigation (1916-1938).......................... 21
Investigations Conducted during E xile........................................... 25
Return from E x ile ................................................................................ 28
Plan of the Present W o rk ................................................................... 30
Basque M ythology................................................................................ 32
Prehistoric Man in the Basque Country......................................... 39
A n Ethnographic Sketch o f Sara...................................................... 45
Epilogue.................................................................................................. 48
N o tes........................................................................................................ 51
Bibliography........................................................................................... 53

SELEC TE D W R IT IN G S OF JO S É M IG U E L D E B A R A N D IA R Â N

Basque Mythology..................................................................................... 57
To the R e a d e r....................................................................................... 59
Introduction by José Miguel de Barandiaran............................... 61
M a g ic ...................................................................................................... 69
The M yths.............................................................................................. 79
Epilogue: Kixm i, or The Twilight of the G o d s............................. 117
N o tes........................................................................................................ 119

Selections from Prehistoric Man in the Basque Country............... 135

M esolithic.............................................................................................. 137
N eo lith ic................................................................................................ 147
Eneolithic................................................................................................ 153
 The Bronze A g e ................................................................................... 171
The Iron A g e ......................................................................................... 181
N o tes........................................................................................................ 187

Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of S a ra ............................ 189

Human Establishments and the Rural H o u se.............................. 191
The H ousehold..................................................................................... 211
H u n tin g .................................................................................................. 257
N o tes........................................................................................................ 271

Bibliography................................................................................................ 273

Index................................................................................................. 27?
 Acknowledgments

To my wife, Koro M ariezkurrena, with whom I visited several times

at the home of D. José M iguel de Barandiarân. For this work, as with
many other projects, she assisted with careful research of the biblio­
graphical citations included in the introduction.
 Introduction
by Jesus Altuna

N .B . It w as only during the late twentieth century that the Basque Academy
developed a standard orthography for the language designed to substitute Euskara
Batua (Unified Basque) for its several dialects. Prior to then it w as common practice
for Basque writers to employ Spanish for place and personal names (including their
own). Such w as the case with José M iguel de Barandiaran (Barandiarango Jose
M igel).
In this w ork, we have utilized modern Basque orthography for the names of
Basque provinces: Araba (Alava), Bizkaia (Vizcaya), and Gipuzkoa (Guipuzcoa),
while employing the commonly used English variants of N avarre (Navarra) and
Low er N avarre (Basse N avarre). For cities and towns, we retained Barandiaran’s
usage, which w as in m any cases the Spanish form, but have added modern Basque
orthography in parentheses after the names.
The Beginnings: Birth of a Vocation

José M iguel de Barandiaran is an exceptional witness to an entire cen­

tury of the history of the Basque Country. He was born on December
31, 1889, and remained active until one year before his death, for in 1990
he was still writing a prologue to a book on ethnography. He died on
December 21, 1991, ten days before his 102nd birthday.
Barandiaran was the youngest of nine children born to Francisco
Antonio de Barandiaran and M arfa Antonia de Ayerbe. They were
farmers and lived on the farmstead called Perunezarra located in the
neighborhood of M urkondoa in the town of Ataun, a rural village in
Gipuzkoa. M urkondoa consisted of a dozen houses, and together with
three other analogous neighborhoods formed the parish of San Grego­
rio, one of three in the town of Ataun. There were scarcely a thousand
inhabitants in the parish of San Gregorio when José Miguel was born
(photo 1).

Photo I. San Gregorio de Ataun.

 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiarân

Photo 2. Perunezarra. Birthplace of José M iguel de Barandiarân.

The birth took place in the house called Perunezarra (photo 2).
In and around it, during his childhood and adolescence, Barandiarân
acquired intimate knowledge of lifestyles, traditions, customs, and
myths that have since completely disappeared. His maternal language
was Basque, or Euskara, and he began to learn Spanish (Castilian) only
after attending the local school. Despite the students’ complete igno­
rance of Spanish, the courses were taught in it as official policy. H ow ­
ever, Barandiarân recalled that the teacher, who was an Euskaldun (that
is, a fluent speaker of the Basque language), would frequently help them
understand certain subjects with explanations in Euskara. He himself
wrote that during those years in Ataun only the priests and a few rich
people knew Spanish, and for that reason “ it was considered by every­
one to be a language for the rich and learned.” 1 Basque, in contrast, was
considered a language of the villagers.
The writer of these lines experienced this phenomenon, though
under even worse circumstances. I refer to the years of the military
uprising by General Franco when, as we will see later, Barandiarân had
to flee into exile in Iparralde, or the Northern Basque Country in the
French state. M y first schooling took place in Berastegi, a town situated
thirty-five kilometers from Ataun. The teacher who ran our school was
sent away and another, completely ignorant of Euskara, was brought
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 17

in from outside. As was the custom, we learned the four functions of

arithmetic by singing, but the difficulties began when we attempted to
solve mathematical problems.
In the text, which we did not understand, we would see two num­
bers. First we would add them together. We would then approach the
teacher’s desk, and he would pronounce our answer “ good” or “ bad.”
If the former, we would return to our places happy, as if we had
accomplished something greater than a mere correct answer. If he said
“ bad” we retreated, saying, “ Erresta in beharko y u ” (We will have to
subtract). We would subtract the smaller number from the larger and
try the problem again. A second “ bad,” if that were his judgment, was
more emphatic: “ M ul-ti-pli-car izango d ek ” (It must be multiplication)
and I remember that we would say the word “ multiply” slowly, since
it was new to us and we had to pronounce it carefully. If that was not
the solution, we would return unhappily, saying “ M aixu onekin etzeok
asmatzeik. D ibidir d ek ” (With this teacher there’s no getting it right. It’s
division). At times we were right the first time, sometimes on the second
try, but maybe not until the fourth.
José M iguel, who lived in gentler times in this regard, had the good
fortune that his teacher, though obliged by law to only use Spanish in
his classroom, helped the students in Euskara, as needed.
In 1904 Barandiaran moved to Baliarrain, a small town of 216
inhabitants, near Ataun, where there was a preceptory or preseminary
for students to begin their preparation for the priesthood. A priest,
who was also the parish priest of the small town, would help them
to learn Castilian Spanish, Latin, and other subjects related to their
future studies. The exams were held in the greater Seminary of V ito ­
ria, the diocesan see. When the Latin exams were given at the end of
the first year, the chief examiner, who was scoring Barandiaran’s test,
said to him: “ Y ou know more Latin than Castilian. But you have to
learn Castilian as w ell.” Hearing this, the young lad, who was fifteen
at the time, thought that they would fail him. He was greatly sur­
prised on learning that, to the contrary, he had passed both courses in
the same year. “ It was one of the happiest days of my life,” he would
frequently say.
His joy was so great that he bought two rockets on his w ay home
and fired them off on the road near his house. His mother saw him do
this and thought he had become arrogant over his success. She took
him to the orchard near his house, where there was an apple tree with
branches sagging from the weight of the fruit. She showed him the tree
and told him, “ Son, you should be like that apple tree. The more apples
its branches produce, the more humbly they hang dow n.” 2
 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

The follow ing term he moved into the Seminary of V itoria. On

returning home to spend Christmas vacation, just three days before
Christm as, his mother died of pulmonary tuberculosis at fifty-six
years of age. Her death caused the boy, who was not yet sixteen, one
of the saddest days of his life. I heard him state this on numerous
occasions during the long talks we had while conducting archeologi­
cal excavations, often alone. I realized that that event w as frequently
on his mind, even though it had happened more than sixty years
earlier. His biographer and nephew Luis Barandiaran recalls in his
biography the tremendous effect that his m other’s death caused José
M iguel, quoting his uncle’s exact words: “ M any years passed without
my mentioning my deceased mother. I did not want to acknowledge
that she had died. Her memory was so vivid that I couldn’t accept
the idea of her absence. To say she had died seemed to me the same
as killing her.” 3
For three years Barandiaran continued taking courses in philosophy
and theology, but shortly before concluding his study for the priest­
hood, he suffered a crisis of faith and decided he must resolve his doubts
before proceeding. He took an interest in other religions and came up
with the idea of studying their history. At this point he read the book
Problèmes et conclusions de l’histoire des religions by Paul de Broglie
(Paris: Putois-Cretté, 1904), which helped him greatly in resolving his
doubts, as he was accustomed to say. Barandiaran found the topic
pleasing and decided to explore it more deeply. It so interested him that
in 1913, a year and a half before professing his vows, he took a course in
Leipzig offered by Professor Wilhelm M ax Wundt, one of the founders
of scientific psychology, a specialist in ethnography and author of the
massive work Völkerpsychologie (Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1900-1920).
Prof. Wundt greatly influenced Barandiaran, mainly regarding meth­
odology and in particular the importance of belonging to the people
one wanted to study. Whatever the case, Barandiaran later writes that
although his stay in Leipzig was helpful, his poor knowledge of German
prevented him from making the most of it. And he decided to study this
language further since it was fundamental for his education in ethno­
logical investigation.4
Barandiaran was ordained a priest at the end of 1914 in Vitoria,
performing his first mass in the parish of San Gregorio de Ataun on
January 1, 1915. That same year he graduated with a degree in theology
from the University of Burgos and in 1916 was appointed professor at
the Seminary of Vitoria, where among other disciplines (mathematics,
physics, and geology) he taught prehistory and the history of religions.
By this time he had already decided to study this last subject. Rather
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 19

than being merely a student of it, he decided that he could make his
own modest contribution by investigating the vestiges, memories, and
traces of the religion of his fellow Basques that pre-dated the arrival of
Christianity. Wundt encouraged him in this. Moreover, the topic was
of interest to him in general terms, and he worked to have it offered as
a course in the seminary, believing that those who were preparing for
the priesthood should have knowledge of the subject. Acceptance of this
idea was a long time coming.
Regarding this, a 1923 entry in his diary is of interest:

After my visits to the museums and my classes in Germany, I

became very enthused about participating in the Seminary, feeling
that I was more qualified than before. But in Vitoria they were in no
hurry to make use of my services. What happened taught me that I
should not trust too much in the success of my plans, although it’s
important to make them and to prepare to put them into practice;
they may be of some use eventually. H ere’s what happened: in the
Seminary they installed a washing machine in October of this year.
Subsequently, I was assigned to wash the clothing of everyone in the
Seminary for three weeks . . . and for another two weeks at a later
date, until the servant in charge of this chore had learned to operate
the machine. During that time they excused me from my teaching
duties, and I would wear a peasant’s shirt when I was working in
the laundry, during the most important time of the term, i.e., from
early October until December.5

Turning to Barandiaran’s archeological activities, the name Jentil-

baratza (Orchard of Gentiles), which they use to designate a steep rocky
hill in Ataun, led him to inspect the place and to initiate an excavation
of it, helped by a peasant from the area who served as his assistant.
There are some ruins of an ancient castle there. This was Barandiaran’s
first archeological expedition.
His assistant told Barandiaran that he knew where the last Gen-
tiles6 were buried, giving him directions to the place in Aralar where
the tomb was located. They agreed to meet and go there on the follow­
ing morning, but the peasant did not show up. Barandiaran decided to
proceed alone, and when he arrived at Aralar he sat down on a pile of
stones to rest and eat his sandwich. He began to poke around with his
staff in the dirt of a molehill, and observed a human tooth in it. Then
he looked at the pile of stones he had been sitting on and realized that
it was actually a tomb at the center of which there were some large
gravestones forming a kind of chamber.
20 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Barandiaran saw a young shepherd nearby and asked him if he

knew what those structures were. The young man answered in the affir­
mative and told him that it was a grave in which were buried the last
Gentiles. After Barandiaran did further investigation, the boy told him a
precious legend, that of Kixm i, which explains how the Gentiles disap­
peared with the arrival of Christianity, a legend collected by Barandi-
aran later in many other places and with different variations throughout
the Basque Country.
It is quite interesting, from our current perspective, including that
of these last fifty years, that it was a young shepherd and not an old
man who narrated this legend. In effect, only the elderly remembered
such legends a few years ago. But in the early twentieth century the
young people still remembered them, at least in isolated parts of our
country.
Barandiaran made a more thorough examination of the monument,
which turned out to be a dolmen (photo 3). He drew a diagram of it
and published the results, along with those of his investigation of others
found nearby.7

Photo 3. Dolmen of Jentillarri, one of the dolmens discovered in A ralar in 1916. The
cover w as restored in 1960.
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 21

In response to this discovery he received a letter from Telesforo de

Aranzadi,8 who was excavating dolmens in the Navarre region of the
mountains of Aralar, inviting him to join him in excavating the dolmens
he had discovered. Enrique de Eguren would join them.9

Maturity and Lines of Investigation (1916- 1938)

Following these discoveries and contacts with Aranzadi and Eguren,

Barandiarân’s investigative activity developed in two areas. In col­
laboration with the above-mentioned professors, he initiated a series of
archeological excavations in caves and megaliths in the Basque Country,
publishing the results of the investigations punctually. In addition, he
began to collect a series of legends and popular beliefs, whose publica­
tion, starting in 1918, attracted the attention of important investigators
in this field, as we will see below.
In the first instance, the three investigators came together primarily
to undertake summer archeological excavations. In these projects, Aran-
zadi focused on the study of the human remains, Barandiarân on the
artifacts, and Eguren on the fossils of mollusks, which were abundant
in some of the prehistoric cave sites near the coast. The one dimension
they lacked was a paleontologist to study the animal bones, which were
so numerous in prehistoric sites.
In 1917, Barandiarân gave the inaugural address on Basque pre­
history for the new academic course at the Vitoria Seminary.10 The
publication of this address is well-known and highly regarded by the
Abbé H. Breuil, the famous French prehistorian, who wrote a letter to
Barandiarân letting him know that he had read the address with genu­
ine interest and telling him about some explorations he had made on
a visit to the Basque Country.11 Breuil advised him to contact the G er­
man prehistorian Hugo Obermaier (1877-1946), who was a professor of
prehistory at the University of M adrid. Their relationship developed
quickly.
That same year the Aranzadi-Barandiarân-Eguren team initiated
excavations of several Gipuzkoan dolmens, activity that would lead
them to broaden their investigations to all the dolmen sites of the
Basque Country. The following year, in 1918, they also began another
series of excavations in various caves, especially in Gipuzkoa and Biz-
kaia, among which the most significant are that of Santimamine and
those of Urtiaga and Ermittia in Gipuzkoa. These caves hold important
strata from the Upper Paleolithic, in addition to some later prehistoric
22 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Photo 4. Santimamine. Bisons of the Cam ar m, or sanctuary.

strata with ceramics. In the cave of Santimamine there is also a sanctu­

ary with cave art, which they also studied (photo 4).
The cave of Urtiaga also produced a collection of human remains,
the most significant being several complete prehistoric crania, used by
Aranzadi as the basis for important studies. We will comment on these
remains later.
The excavation of some caves in Carranza in the westernmost part
of Bizkaia dates from this same period, including the sites of Bortal and
Venta Laperra. Participating in these excavations was the young Julio
Caro Baroja, who recalls this experience as follows:

While Don Telesforo was absorbed in his own thoughts, Don José
Miguel [Barandiaran] spoke about Basque folklore, archeology, or
general ethnography to me and a nephew of his from the Seminary
who was working as his assistant. Whereas at the University I had
to put up with the nuisance and boring analysis of Fernando de
Herrera and other similar abominations, Barandiaran gave us very
clear and precise ideas about the historical-cultural method, the
latest investigations of M alinowski, the idea of God among the
primitives, the thinking of Durkheim and Wundt . . . In short, I
got a more thorough university education from a Paleolithic cave
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 23

in Bizkaia and the mouth of a Basque Catholic priest than from the
halls of academe in M adrid.12

At the same time, they continued with the excavation of numer­

ous dolmens, funerary monuments that span the period from the N eo­
lithic to the Bronze Age. First, Barandiarân surveyed the high sierra
and smaller mountain ranges where such monuments are found. He
discovered numerous dolmens in the Gipuzkoan mountains of Aralar,
Ataun-Burunda, Elosua-Placencia, Urbia and its environs, Pelabieta,
Igoin-Akola, as well as other ranges in Bizkaia, Araba, and Navarre.
The team participated in the excavation of some of these dolmens
during the summer (photo 5). They published all of these studies in
journals subsidized principally by the provincial councils overseeing the
excavations.

Photo 5. Dolmen of Sasgastietako Lepua in the M egalithic site of Igoin-Akola.

We have indicated above that such projects continued until 1936.

That was the year when the military uprising of General Franco inter­
rupted Aranzadi and Barandiarân’s excavation in the Gipuzkoan cave
of Urtiaga. The military rebellion took place on Ju ly 18, but they kept
working until the 24th, the date when they began to fear the conse­
quences of the uprising. Aranzadi left for Barcelona, where his family
lived, and Barandiarân fled to the northern Basque Country, in French
territory, in September of that year as Franco’s army advanced from
24 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Navarre and Gipuzkoa toward Bizkaia. Eguren did not participate in

the Urtiaga project. The members of the team never saw each other
again. Eguren died in Vitoria in 1944, Aranzadi in Barcelona in 1945.
Barandiaran describes his flight as follows:

M any people who were waiting to embark were crowded into the
port.13 The place is swarming with people, and is a good example
of disorganization. A small boat labors to carry as many as it holds
to the small steamships which, because of the low tide, await us
beyond the wharf. Finally some forty-five of us fugitives embark on
the steamship E l Angel de la Guarda (Guardian Angel). Four or five
Mendigoizales14 armed with rifles board with us, in case it becomes
necessary to defend us against those who wish to keep us from
crossing. The stars maintain their silent course . . . We go for a long
distance into the high sea, then turn right, toward St. Jean de Luz.
We go without lights, to keep from being seen. Irigoyen scratches
a flintstone to light his cigarette: he is showered with protests from
all sides of the ship. On the w ay we do not meet any other ship.
We arrive in Socoa at five in the morning. A sad voyage: with us
go many young men from M otrico [Mutriku in Basque] who are
fleeing the w ar and have no idea what they will do, where they will
find shelter, nor where they should go once they arrive in St. Jean
de Luz. Beside me is a lady who cries bitterly from time to time.
Everyone is lamenting their own misfortune.15

Below, we will discuss Barandiaran’s prehistory projects in the

northern Basque Country (1936-1953) and subsequent ones in the south,
once he returned there in 1953.
Barandiaran’s second area of study during this period, his ethno­
graphic projects, were more personal. In 1918, the Society of Basque
Studies (Eusko Ikaskuntza) was founded, and Barandiaran appeared
as a founding member, playing an extensive role within it. Among the
important milestones in this field, in addition to his active presence
at international conferences, are (in chronological order) the publica­
tion of an essay, “ Contribucion al estudio paletnografico del Pueblo
Vasco. El magismo” 16 (1920), that aroused the interest of the famous
ethnologist, Wilhelm Schmidt, founder of the journal Anthropos and
distinguished member of the Historical-Cultural School in Vienna,
with whom Barandiaran subsequently maintained a long and extensive
relationship. As a result of this publication, in 1921 Schmidt invited him
to participate in the International Week of Religious Ethnology held in
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna

Tilburg (Holland) in 1922. Barandiarân presented a paper on the religion

of the ancient Basques.17
He was also instrumental to two further milestones in the develop­
ment of Basque ethnology: the founding and publication of the monthly
review Eusko-folklore: Materiales y cuestionarios (Eusko-Folklore:
M aterials and Questionnaires), which we will discuss below, and the
founding and publication of Anuario de Eusko-folklore (photo 6),
which after a number of interruptions is still being published today.
Both publications were inaugurated in 1921. The first ceased publication
in 1975-

Photo 6 . Anuario de E u sko-folklore (Basque Folklore Annual), V ol. 6, 1926.

Investigations Conducted during Exile

It is understandable that the pace of Barandiaran’s investigations tapered
off because of the military coup by General Franco and the world war
that followed, leading to the German occupation of France. This dimin­
ished pace was particularly evident in the field of prehistory.
However, he soon renewed his investigations in ethnography in
various places in Iparralde such as Doniztiri (called Saint-Esteben in
 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

French), Heleta, Iholdi, and Liginaga, among others, under the patron­
age of M anuel de Ynchausti.18 In addition, Barandiarân’s international
connections expanded through his participation in conferences and
collaborations in journals. This was the case, for example, with Profes­
sors Bronislaw M alinowski, Raffaele Pettazzoni, Karl Bouda, Adolph
Friedrich, and others. This last relationship led to his nomination in
1941 as a member of the Forschungsinstitut für Kulturmorphologie of
the University of Frankfurt. Shortly before that, in 1938, he had been
nominated as a member of the Commission Internationale des Arts et
Traditions Populaires of Geneva.
In 1938, after two years of exile, he received an offer of a scholar­
ship to study comparative ethnology in Great Britain, but he did not
accept it, arguing that for the moment he preferred to continue studying
the ethnology of the Basques, a topic that seemed urgent to him since
their traditional culture, especially in its spiritual aspects of beliefs and
myths, was rapidly disappearing, lending a sense of urgency to its docu­
mentation. M oreover, his stay in Iparralde allowed him to extend his
investigations there, since until then Barandiarân had only conducted
investigations in the peninsular parts of the Basque Country.

Photo 7. In the foreground, Bidartea House, in Sara, where Barandiaran lived

between 1940 and 1953.
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 27

It is interesting to note that, once Barandiarân had established him­

self in Sara19 in 1940 (photo 7), the year in which the Germans entered
the northern Basque Country, the German military authority of the
occupied zone gave him a safe-conduct pass so he could move freely
in order to carry out archeological and ethnographic investigations.
Barandiarân sent an emissary to Vitoria to bring back the archives that
he had there in the seminary, since he needed them to carry out his pres­
ent project. However, when this emissary crossed the French-Spanish
border, the police confiscated these materials. Barandiarân informed the
German military authority (Feldkommandant of Biarritz) of what had
happened, and the next day he was in possession of the archives.
His search for prehistoric items led to his discovery of numerous
megaliths (dolmens, tombs, and cromlechs) in Iparralde, which he
reported in a publication.20
In 1946 he founded the Institut Basque de Recherche and the jour­
nal Ikuska and became the editor of another journal, Gernika Eusko-
jakintza: Revue des études basques (Basque Studies Journal; Gernika
was later dropped from the title) in which distinguished Bascologists
from different countries collaborated. He also renewed publication of
the Eusko-folklore. Materiales y cuestionarios mentioned above, which
he humbly called “ Hojas de Eusko-folklore” (Basque Folklore Leaflets).
Ikuska continued to be published until 1951 and Eusko-jakintza con­
tinued until 1957. With all of this activity, he vigorously stimulated the
cultural life of Iparralde.
During these years, especially the earliest ones of exile, he was
intensely preoccupied with the political situation of the southern Basque
Country, and with the Basque church in particular. He wrote impor­
tant letters and commentaries such as those of 1937 with respect to the
actions of the primate of Spain, Cardinal Gomâ, who called Franco’s
military uprising a “ Crusade,” or the one concerning his own ecclesias­
tical hierarchy; or another, written in 1945, to Bishop D. Mateo Mugica,
who was also removed from his diocese of Vitoria, which led the bishop
to write his famous letter, “ Imperatives of my conscience: an open letter
to D. José M iguel de Barandiarân,” concerning the consequences of the
military uprising.
In connection with this, one of Barandiarân’s first activities during
the years in exile, at the request of Manuel de Ynchausti, cited above,
was to gather personal accounts from many of the fugitives who fled
from the southern Basque Country to Iparralde. From them he collected
extensive information about the atrocities they had witnessed before
fleeing. With these testimonies, presented with the rigor and method
typical of Barandiarân in his ethnographic research, he produced a
28 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

series of reports that have been preserved in Intxausti Baita, the house of
Ynchausti and his descendants in Ustaritze. When the Germans entered
Iparralde during the Second World W ar, to keep these testimonies from
falling into their hands they were carefully buried in the chicken coop
of a nearby house. They remained there until 1944, when they were
recovered by Barandiaran himself once the Germans had withdrawn
following the landing of the Allies in Normandy. Subsequently, they
have been jealously preserved in the house of Intxausti Baita by Miren
Ynchausti, daughter of Manuel Ynchausti. One hundred and thirty-six
of these were recently published in L a Guerra C ivil en Euzkadi (2005).

Return from Exile

Barandiaran returned from exile in 1953, and inaugurated the Larra-
mendi Chair at the University of Salamanca with the presentation of a
short course on “ The Current State of Basque Studies.” He was offered
the position and invited to present the course by the rector of that
university, Antonio Tovar, who was interested in (among other things)
researching Euskara.
In the neighborhood of his birth, Barandiaran built a new house,
constructed according to the plans of the house Bidartea in Sara, where
he had lived during most of the period of exile. He called this new house
Sara (photo 8).

Photo 8. Sara House, constructed by Barandiaran in Ataun-San Gregorio on his

return from exile.
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 29

In 1955, he renewed his archeological excavations in the cave of

Urtiaga at the very point where he had abandoned them in 1936, but
this time accompanied by different persons given that his co-investigator
Telesforo de Aranzadi had died in 1945.
This is the period of important excavations carried out in numer­
ous archeological sites such as the caves of Lezetxiki, Aitzbitarte IV,
M arizulo, Ekain, Solacueva, Montico de Txarratu, Atxeta, and Axtor,
among others, as well as studies of the Paleolithic sanctuaries of cave
art in Altxerri and Ekain.

Photo 9. At the entrance to the Paleolithic site of Lezetxiki, with Jesus Altuna
(1965).

These excavations, especially those of Lezetxiki (photo 9) and

Aitzbitarte IV, were transformed immediately into field schools, where
young students of prehistory who were finishing their university careers
(Juan M . Apellâniz, Ignacio Barandiarân,21 and the author of these
lines, among others) were learning field techniques under the direction
of Don José Miguel.
The field school experience had a multiplying effect. These young
men shortly thereafter initiated archeological excavations on their own
account and, upon assuming teaching positions, began to develop their
own students, assuring and greatly expanding prehistoric research in the
Basque Country into the future.
30 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Barandiaran gave up archeological fieldwork in 1974 after turn­

ing eighty-four, devoting himself thereafter to ethnographic activities.
These had taken on a new luster after 1964, due to his appointment
to the Chair of “ Ethnology of the Basque People” at the University of
N avarre, a position he held until 1980. This position carried with it the
creation, in 1968, of the Etniker research groups (Etniker Euskalerria),
primarily in Navarre and then in Gipuzkoa (1972) and Bizkaia (1973).
The groups of Araba and Iparralde would be formed later. These groups
continue working and publishing research connected to different aspects
of traditional life throughout the Basque Country, using questionnaires
originally elaborated by Barandiaran. From these groups, extensive
studies of domestic diet (1990), games and children’s songs (1993), funeral
rites (1995), rites of birth and marriage (1998), cattle and sheep raising
(2001), and popular medicine (2004) have been written and published. In
this way, an ethnographic atlas of the Basque Country (Atlas Etnogra­
fico de Vasconia, a series published in Bilbao by Eusko Jaurlaritza) is
gradually being composed, one of Barandiaran’s greatest dreams.
In 1972, the publishing house La Gran Enciclopedia Vasca began
publishing the complete works of Barandiaran, with the issuing of the
first volume. This project was completed in 1984, when volume 22, the
last of the series, was published. The first volume includes an unpub­
lished w ork titled Diccionario ilustrado de mitolog^a vasca (Illustrated
Dictionary of Basque M ythology), in addition to other works on mythol­
ogy published between 1922 and i960. The term “ illustrated,” introduced
by the editor and with the illustrations also provided by him, did not
please Barandiaran at all because of their popular (in the worst sense of
the term) overtone. This first volume concludes with the legend of the
disappearance of the last Gentiles, under the title “ Kixm i, or the Sunset
of the Gods,” and is the same one he was told by the young shepherd
of Aralar in 1916, at the beginning of his investigations.
The final years of Barandiaran’s life were ones of homages, awards,
medals, and honorary doctoral degrees from several universities. He
remained lucid until his death, which came a few days before he turned
102 years of age (photo 10).

Plan of the Present W ork

To select a handful of writings representative of Barandiaran’s work

from a total production of twenty-two volumes is no easy task. Inevita­
bly, many interesting texts will have to be omitted. In any case, we offer
here our selection, based on clear criteria.
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 31

Photo 10. Barandiaran at one hundred years of age, dedicating his last published
w ork, Euskal herriko m itoak (Myths of the Basque People), to the Altuna family.

At the outset we should say that these are works written fifty or
sixty years ago, and should be judged by the values prevailing in their
time. I say this because many contemporaries are prone to be overly
critical of past scholarship, alternatively treating it as either anachro­
nistic or dismissing its value for not having been evaluated with today’s
methods and criteria. With this caveat, I have selected the following as
particularly representative of Barandiaran’s interests and thought:
1. Mitolog^a vasca (Basque M ythology). M adrid: Editorial M ino­
tauro, i960. 162 pages. This w ork was published as the fifth volume
of a series titled Biblioteca Vasca (Basque Library).
2. Several chapters of E l hom bre prehistórico en el Pa^s Vasco (Pre­
historic M an in the Basque Country). Buenos Aires: Editorial Vasca
Ekin, 1953. 257 pages. The chapters selected are 5 to 9, from the
Mesolithic to the Iron Age.
3. Fragments of Bosquejo etnografico de Sara (Ethnographic Sketch
of Sara). Anuario de Eusko-folklore, published in seven parts (Vol­
umes 17 to 24) between 1957 and 1972.
32 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Basque Mythology
We chose Basque M ythology because it constitutes Barandiaran’s own
summary of his extensive investigations in that field over a period of
forty-five years. Although it is a w ork published in i960, and thus thirty
years before the death of its author, it should be noted that it is a synthe­
sis written when Barandiaran was already seventy years old, and hence
a w ork of genuine maturity.
The book is dedicated to Telesforo de Aranzadi. The dedication
ends with the words “ Happy N ew Y ear.” The editor added on his own
account, “ and until I hear from you,” unaware of the meaning of the
dedication. The phrase had, in effect, an eschatological sense, as Baran-
diaran pointed out to me when it was published, “ because Aranzadi,
who w asn’t very pious, was, however, profoundly spiritual and we
spoke on more than one occasion of life after death.”
In a few words which the author himself addresses to the reader at
the beginning of his work, Barandiaran humbly says that he is present­
ing “ only a sampling” of the material collected. However, the book is
far more than that. It is a systematic summary, which he divides into
an extensive introduction, a thematic categorization which he includes
under the epigraphs “ M agic” and “ M yths.”
In order to achieve this synthesis of mythology in the work we are
discussing, an indispensable step was the inauguration, in 1921, of the
periodical Eusko-folklore. Materiales y cuestionarios, cited above, a
work much beloved by the author. There were several interruptions in
its publication due mainly to the Spanish Civil W ar and the subsequent
exile which Barandiaran had to endure. Even so, despite the interrup­
tions, it continued to be published until 1975.
It started out as a modest monthly publication, which Barandiaran
edited from his Chair at the seminary in Vitoria. He called it “ Hojas de
Eusko-folklore” (Basque Folklore Leaflets) because of their brevity.
Here is the “ Preliminary N ote” introducing these “ leaflets” in the
first issue:

Spontaneous products of the Basque spirit, in particular those that

refer to early cultural conditions, evanescent remains of a past whose
memory has come down to us in the form of legends, traditions,
beliefs, customs and religious and magical practices; the mutual
relations of these elements and their systematic categorization
constitute the primary and immediate object of Eusko-folklore—
this in regard to the descriptive part of the science, which must
precede any scientific generalizations and the comparative study of
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 33

the materials. To investigate and collect such data is the first task
to be undertaken. Such is the purpose of these leaflets, God willing
and with the collaboration of all lovers of Basque folklore.22

These “ H ojas” are published in three series. The first includes

numbers 1-179, except for 146, which was lost while in press because of
the war. This series is the one that was published in the aforementioned
seminary between 1921 and 1936, with the interruption of the years 1931 to
1935, and it continued to appear with greater irregularity during Baran-
diaran’s exile in Iparralde. There were even some numbers that could
not be published for lack of funds, and which remained unpublished
until 1966, when they were released in volume 4 of the Coleccion Auna-
mendi of Donostia-San Sebastian under the title E l mundo en la mente
popular vasca: creencias, cuentos y leyendas (The World in the M ind of
the Basque People: Beliefs, Tales and Legends).
The second series consists of seven numbers and was published
between 1947 and 1949 (during the exile in France) under the title Eusko-
folklore. Documents et questionnaires (Basque Folklore: Documents
and Questionnaires). The first four appear in the journal Herria (1947)
and the following three in the journal Ikuska (1948-49).
Finally, the third series, numbered 1-25, was published between 1954
and 1975 in the journal Munibe of the Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi in
Donostia-San Sebastian. These “ Hojas” provide the fundamental material
for the work we are discussing here. In addition, they subsequently provided
the material for the Diccionario ilustrado de mitolog^a vasca (Illustrated
Dictionary of Basque Mythology) mentioned above (Barandiaran, 1972).
Caro Baroja commented on these “ H ojas” : “ If their scientific value
is incalculable, their poetic value is no less so. In those monthly leaflets
of Eusko-folklore so modestly titled M aterials and Questionnaires,
there is more genuine poetry than in many books of poetry, which are
poetic more for form and intent than for depth and consequence. The
poetic life of the Basque is expressed in them. Through it we see how he
has lived poetically in this or that corner of this land during generations
that have been at times hard and difficult.” 23
Barandiaran, on the other hand, in his collection of myths, legends,
and tales in different parts of the Basque Country, beginning with
those from near his family home and those of his region and town,
was immediately aware of the multiple versions of a single legend. He
collected these variants in the different places he visited throughout
the length and breadth of the Basque Country during his archeological
excavations, initially in the territories of Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, Araba, and
Navarre. Subsequently, exile allowed him to extend his investigations
34 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

into the northern part of the Basque Country: Lapurdi (Labourde),

Lower Navarre, and Zuberoa (Soule).
Nevertheless, Barandiaran was perfectly aware that he alone could
not collect all of the different versions of each myth extant throughout
the entire Basque Country, nor assess its distribution and importance
within the different regions. He felt it was critical to create an atlas of
such legends and myths in order to be able to assess their extent, rela­
tive chronology, etc. On the other hand, it was urgent to collect them
quickly, since the transformation of the ways of life in Basque society,
to which he was an exceptional witness, was erasing these traces of
the past from the minds of his compatriots. They were no longer being
passed from generation to generation, as previously, during long winter
nights by the warmth of the hearth. The industrialization of many rural
areas, the migration from country to city, and the diffusion of com­
munications media were interrupting this process. Children nowadays,
unlike those of yesteryear, prefer to turn on the television rather than
listen to grandfather’s “ stories.”
For this reason, the Basque Folklore Leaflets were subtitled “ M ate­
rials and Questionnaires.” Barandiaran’s goal was for his students
and collaborators, scattered throughout the Basque Country, to col­
lect variants of the “ materials” that he had gathered in a determined
number of places. He provided a common methodology for such work
to his collaborators, so that the data would be collected correctly and
comparably. Furthermore, in each of the first issues he included a brief
questionnaire by means of which he sought to persuade the readers of
these leaflets to provide data from their own parts of the country. In any
event, his collaborators were limited in number, and it was Barandiaran
who collected the vast majority of myths.
In this regard it is worthwhile to say a few words about the ease
or difficulty of collecting such information in a land that is a labyrinth
of mountains and valleys, and in which the people are more reserved
and circumspect than in the lowlands. It is easy to contact people on
the Castilian plains, even without knowing Castilian well, as in the case
of some American ethnologists, who have had no difficulty in doing
so. But these same investigators encountered difficulty in the Valley of
Pas (Cantabria), where the inhabitants are reluctant to tell their stories
even to those who speak their language. In this respect it is useful to
remember what we indicated earlier about Wilhelm Wundt, who spoke
to Barandiaran about the importance of belonging to the people one
wanted to study.
I myself have frequently tried the following experiment: on ascend­
ing some mountain in the Basque-speaking part of our country, at the
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 35

most remote house on the mountainside I ask in Castilian how to get to

a particular place in the area. The woman or man of the house comes
to the upstairs window and without silencing the barking dog gives a
curt direction with a slight motion and a couple of words. But if I ask
in Euskara, she or he comes down to the front door, orders the dog to
be quiet, and points the w ay with a panoply of gestures. It is easy after
that to strike up a conversation.
Caro Baroja says in his portrayal of Aranzadi and Barandiaran
that the latter enjoyed certain advantages over him in collecting ethno­
graphic data: he spoke Euskara well and wore a clerical tunic. C aro’s
own command of Euskara was inadequate and, besides, he wore a suit
and tie.
I would say to my dear friend Caro Baroja that he is correct in what
he says about Euskara. That is in fact precisely what I have been saying,
but with regard to clothing I disagree with him. In the first place the
tunic might have been an advantage in the past, in some circumstances,
but in others it was an obstacle. As for the suit and tie, nothing could
be easier than dispensing with them and wearing good cotton trousers
instead.
I often would go with Barandiaran to houses in the area where
we were conducting excavations during the sixties, a period in which,
at least among us, the use of tape recorders had not become common.
We would do this on Sundays, our day of rest from work in the caves.
Barandiaran would chat at length, aimlessly and in a friendly manner,
with the elders of the household on topics that concerned them, such as
the weather, crops, and hard domestic chores, establishing a climate of
complete trust. Little by little he would lead the conversation to topics
that were of interest to him, asking about their customs or beliefs about
lightning, caves, or many other aspects of their world of representation.
I would observe how easily information about beliefs and myths would
begin to come out, along with ancient knowledge and sayings.
After this lengthy conversation, Barandiaran would take out his
field journal and begin to take notes, in order not to rely on memory
for so much material. Y ou would then see an expression of unease in
the informant, as Barandiaran urged them to repeat a particular legend.
You could tell that they wanted to amend it, to dress it up in some
manner, since it was now being written down. But as Barandiaran had
already heard it, he would frequently say, “ Y ou told me earlier . . .,” by
w ay of getting them back on track.
The book Mitolog^a vasca (Basque Mythology) is a brief, system­
atic summary put together by Barandiaran from the wealth of material
about spiritual culture salvaged by him from an entire world of rep­
36 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

resentations. It was one that he knew vividly from his childhood, but
which he saw dying and disappearing forever from the imagination of
his people.
The reader will note that among the many images of different
spirits collected by Barandiaran, that of M ari stands out, a feminine
spirit, known also by other names and appearing in different forms,
with her family, her symbols, her dwellings and the w ay those who go
to her for advice should behave when visiting her there, her attributes,
her functions, the cult she professes, her rules, and the punishments she
can inflict. Barandiaran considers that “ this spirit constitutes a thematic
nucleus or point of convergence of numerous mythic themes of different
origins: some Indo-European, others of ancestral background. But if we
consider some of its attributes (the control of terrestrial forces and of
subterranean spirits, its identification with various telluric phenomena,
etc.) we are inclined to consider it as a symbol— perhaps a personifica­
tion— of the Earth.” 24
Another fundamental element of this w ork is the house (etxe), not
only as a dwelling but as material support, as temple and cemetery, as
a common focus for the living and dead members of the family, which
implies a cult, with its functionaries, the main one being the etxekoan-
dre or lady of the house.
Thus, the reader will gradually become familiar with the mythology
of an ancient people that has jealously preserved its personality until
recent times. The very latest period, with the entire complex of mental
changes it entails, has had a significant effect on that personality.
At this point, we must mention an element that has not followed
this path to extinction: the Basque language. It has come down to us
intact. Let us consider it.
O f our European prehistory, except for a single element, a single
witness, we are left with nothing but ruins. Some of these are quite
beautiful and have come down to us well preserved— for instance, the
sanctuary of Ekain. But even in this case the context is missing. Why,
in effect, did the Paleolithic painters go so far into the cavern to make
their paintings? What were they seeking? What was their image of the
universe? What were their sorrows, fears, and joys? The bones of those
people, their instruments, and even their paintings were fossilized and
remain accessible to us, but not their thoughts and beliefs. We are left
only with those beautiful ruins.
But I mentioned that there is one exception. We are left, in effect,
with a unique and still vibrant witness of European prehistory. It is still
alive in this corner of the G ulf of Bizkaia. I am referring to Euskara;
call it proto-Basque or whatever you like. When, at the beginning of
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 37

the first millennium before Christ, the Indo-European languages spread

westward, all of the prehistoric languages of this continent disappeared,
with this one exception.
One of the potent branches derived from Indo-European, Latin,
with all the weight of the Roman Empire behind it, surrounded Euska-
ra’s territory. Spanish and French, Latin’s progeny, made deep incur­
sions into it, but, surprisingly, the Basque language lived on. We have
abundant reasons to continue preserving it, but for those who do not
acknowledge them, the following might suffice: Euskara, as I have said,
is the only cultural legacy of European prehistory. If we are making
efforts to maintain the broken remains of a dolmen, a cromlech, or a
menhir, and we should indeed do so, how can we not work to preserve
this unique patrimonial linguistic legacy? Europe as a whole should
preserve Basque as the only living treasure of its millenary past.
At the present time, despite all of the language’s many deaths and
rebirths, the ikastolak or Basque schools and the vital sentiments of
the people have led to the recovery of the language in certain areas
and its intensification in others. Euskara’s entry into the university has
eliminated the perception throughout the Basque Country that it is
considered the language of villagers, as we said at the beginning of this
presentation.
Concerning the appeal by UN ESCO (United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization) during the 1960s to save the trea­
sures of Nubia, a rescue operation in which I had the honor to partici­
pate, André M alraux said, “ There is only one act over which neither the
indifference of the constellations nor the eternal murmur of the rivers
prevails. This is the act whereby man rescues something from death.” 25
Barandiaran is a man who has rescued many things from death. His col­
lection of Basque M ythology is the best testimony to that.
Some had commented, during his old age and then after his death,
that Barandiaran did little more than collect data without elaborating
on it— that he did not interpret his materials. He heard this criticism
during his final years and said, “ If we don’t collect this data today it will
slip through our hands, it will never be collected and much less inter­
preted, for you cannot interpret what doesn’t exist. There will be time
later for interpretations.” 26 We have before us the grand patrimony of
materials he rescued. Here is the quarry in which contemporary anthro­
pologists can act, analyze, investigate, organize, interpret, and compare
Basque culture with that of other peoples. Oddly enough, those critics
demanding such interpretations from the man who collected the materi­
als are nowhere to be found working in that quarry.
38 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

It is indeed true that Barandiaran is often too laconic, that we would

have welcomed more extensive commentary from him concerning such
materials, but there is a large gap between this and the antiquarian that
he has been accused of being.
Mitolog^a vasca brings to a close an analytical index undertaken by
Julio Caro Baroja and published in a series of editions by Txertoa of
Donostia-San Sebastian, along with a prologue by Caro Baroja himself.
To complete the presentation of this work I want to quote a few para­
graphs from this prologue:

We have before us the complete Mitolog^avasca [Basque Mythology].

Our guide is the most qualified man who exists, who ever did
exist and who will probably ever exist (given the decline of the
Basque people) to speak to us on this topic, which he presents in a
systematic, organized fashion that the dictionaries of the language
fail to reflect . . .
This book is an admirable model for approaching what is or,
more accurately, what was the Basque world of myth up until the
epoch in which its author, still a child, first encountered it in the
land of his family: late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
Ataun. Later the vision broadened as Barandiaran, after delving
into the study of the history of comparative religions and cultural
anthropology, went about traversing his country, step by step . . .
Barandiaran, like no one else, has taught us about the cardinal
ideas that dominate the minds which accept such myths as something
real. Chief among these, in my judgment, is the idea that “ all things
that have names exist.” That is, that the mythical beings are not
symbols or allegories, as the ancient and more or less symbolist
mythologists and philosophers believed, nor are they the products
of verbal confusions that lend themselves to equivocal concepts,
which then take on a profile conforming to what others believe. No.
They are products of the known and physically knowable world.
Not only the sun, or the moon, or the stars, as animated entities,
but also others that do not have that same corporality but which
are described with particular forms: Tartalo, the basojaun, the
lamiak, the “ Lad y,” whether she be from some other mountain or
from a familiar place, and countless others.27
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 39

Prehistoric Man in the Basque Country

Barandiaran’s other activity, as a prehistorian, also occupied a large
part of his life. After 1917, when he embarked on his first archeological
excavations with Telesforo de Aranzadi and Enrique de Eguren in the
Gipuzkoan dolmens of Aralar, which he discovered, he devoted every
summer until 1936 to working on excavations, preferably on dolmens
and caves in which Paleolithic strata were most pronounced. During his
seventeen-year exile, this activity tapered off significantly and, although
the prospecting expeditions in the northern part of the Basque Country
were numerous, leading to the discovery of many sites, he worked only
occasionally in that region.
But after his return from exile, every year until 1974 he initiated
new excavations, especially in Paleolithic caves. His excavations in the
Mousterian strata of Lezetxiki, Aitzbitarte IV, and Ekain date from this
epoch. Barandiaran also worked on Mesolithic sites and the Neolithic
ones with ceramics such as Marizulo and Solacueva, as well as some
dolmens. These summer projects entailed for Barandiaran long hours of
w ork at other times of the year documenting and publishing the results
of his investigations.
Barandiaran would write several overviews of Basque prehistory.
The first of these, E l hom bre prim itivo en el Pa^s Vasco (Primitive M an
in the Basque Country), was published in the Coleccion Zabalkundea
by Ediciones Vascas of Donostia-San Sebastian in 1934. It appeared in
two editions, one in Castilian and the other in Euskara. It has 112 pages
followed by eleven photographs.
The work begins by explaining what little is known about the
Lower Paleolithic in the Basque Country. Rather than isolating the
Mousterian period as a separate stage of the Middle Paleolithic, he
includes it with the Lower Paleolithic. He then deals extensively with
the Upper Paleolithic, for which more evidence is available, proceeding
on to the Neolithic, the Calcolithic, and the Bronze and Iron Ages. He
concludes the work with a chapter dedicated to the period of Romaniza-
tion of the area.
In this work, he frequently correlates his ethnographic data with
specific archeological discoveries. He often said that certain contempo­
rary prehistorians resort to the culture of so-called “ primitive peoples”
of Africa to explain specific prehistoric findings, establishing ethno­
graphic parallels between peoples far removed in space and time, while
failing to probe deeply into their own people, that is, those living very
close to the site of the discoveries, where they might also find such paral­
lels and without having to invoke remote cultures.
40 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Later on, in 1953, he published another synthesis entitled E l hombre

prehistorico en el Pais Vasco (Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country)
with Editorial Ekin, the Basque publishing house in Buenos Aires. This
work is much more extensive (267 pages), but in a format similar to
the earlier collection. This major expansion is the result of the passage
of almost twenty years between the two editions, during the course of
which, naturally enough, much more information became available.
Thus, for example, it includes more information about geography,
orography, and climate changes during the Quaternary, the glaciations
and the alluvial deposits, as well as the Isturitz site and the introduction
of the parietal art of the Lower Paleolithic, discovered in the interim
between the two editions.
In this work he clearly defines the Lower Paleolithic, about which
little was known at the time, but which extends into the Middle Paleo­
lithic, including the Mousterian period of the cave of Isturitz (Isturitze)
and the shelter found in Olha.
O f course, it includes no information about the great cave art sanc­
tuaries, such as Altxerri and Ekain in Gipuzkoa and other minor finds in
Iparralde, since they had yet to be discovered. He continues introducing
ethnographic data that he had collected by relating it to the prehistoric
discoveries. Finally, this w ork includes an extensive appendix with a
catalog of the prehistoric sites known in the Basque Country at the time.
He organizes the living sites by province and the Megalithic monuments
by mountain chain.
Later, in 1972, he published one further synthesis, this time only in
Euskara, titled Lehen euskal gizona (Early Basque Man) with Editorial
Lur in Donostia-San Sebastian. This is a smaller work, with only 120
pages. Although it contains far more information, with the inclusion of
the excavations made from 1955 to 1970 and the important discoveries
of the sanctuaries of Altxerri and Ekain with Paleolithic cave art, it is
much more parsimonious with respect to both reflection and interpre­
tation. It is as if, over the long course of the years, Barandiaran had
seen how ideas, theories, and interpretations had come and gone and
consequently decided that such treatment was less important than the
presentation of the raw data.
He does not, in fact, reproduce the series of reflections and inter­
pretations of his earlier works. At forty-four years of age he had had the
audacity to make claims that he no longer ventured to defend at sixty-
three. Thus, in the two earlier works, among other things, he draws
specific conclusions about matters such as hunting methods employing
instruments still used by Basques in his day, such as ropes (bizto or
lakio), the sling, and the malota, a kind of catapult, and naturally the
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 41

usategieta netting system for hunting doves in Etxalar or Sara. In this

later w ork such ethnographic parallels disappear. On the other hand,
he is even more reluctant to posit general interpretations. He is more
cautious in relating the prehistoric past to the ethnographic material he
collects in the present.
This procedure of simply presenting the data without attempting
to interpret it (which we mentioned earlier) contrasts with his highly
interpretive treatment of the traditional spiritual culture that was on
the verge of disappearing even as he was collecting and rescuing it
from extinction. Nevertheless, it remains true that his most recent
treatment and summary of Basque prehistory lacks a clear interpretive
dimension.
Whatever the case, the facile relationship he established in the 1934
and 1953 works between the mythical world underlying present real­
ity and what was revealed in the prehistoric discoveries was gradually
becoming blurred and open to skepticism. N ot only was Barandiaran
growing skeptical of his own previous acumen, he began questioning
many of the affirmations made by his famous contemporary prehistori­
ans. Thus, when he saw them distinguish between cultural levels, blithely
labeling them as Magdalenian V, Magdalenian VIa and VIb, connecting
the results of the Cantabrian to the stratification or schemata of the sites
in the French Dordogne, he would frequently say that if future investi­
gations were conducted that w ay in the Basque Country, serious errors
would result. In effect, if in their zeal to classify and stratify by geologi­
cal epoch one kind of instrument is used in Urbia, Urbasa, and Aralar;
another in Berastegi, Segura, and Abadiano (Abadino), and a third in
Getaria, Bermeo, and Elantxobe, prehistorians would reach conclusions
about the existence of three cultures which they have sought to catego­
rize according to different geological periods, but without realizing that
they are three different activities (the first pastoral, the second agricul­
tural, and the third piscatorial) of a single people.
For the reasons explained in the previous paragraphs, we have
chosen to present here certain sections from the 1953 work E l hombre
prehistorico en el Pais Vasco, rather than that of 1972, because it is in
the earlier edition that one can see more clearly how Barandiaran makes
frequent reference to data that have survived, according to him, until his
own time. Those sections are chapters 5 through 9 of the text that refer
to the Mesolithic, the Neolithic, and the Age of Metals.
We wish to remind the reader again, and especially here in this
work on prehistory, of what we said at the beginning of our presenta­
tion of the selected works: that they should be judged according to the
precepts of their own time. Since 1953 many advances have been made
42 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

in the field of prehistoric investigation, not only in our general knowl­

edge (it should suffice to recall that the great sanctuaries of cave art like
Ekain and Altxerri were discovered subsequently) but also in methods
and general perspectives concerning the prehistoric peoples of south­
western Europe.
In the chapter referring to the Mesolithic, Barandiaran also con­
siders the human being that could have inhabited the Basque Country
then, mentioning the craniums discovered in the cave of Urtiaga in the
Azilian strata. Already at the beginning of the long chapter preceding it,
which we omitted from this selection, he speaks at greater length about
this detail and presents the hypothesis offered by Aranzadi and later
accepted initially by others, including the author of these lines.
Aranzadi and Barandiaran had found a series of craniums in the
cave of Urtiaga, all well preserved, one of which they attributed (with
some uncertainty) to the Magdalenian, two others to the Azilian, and
one (of a child) to the Eneolithic. These craniums have been the object
of numerous anthropological studies, the first of which was done by
Aranzadi (1948). According to him, the oldest cranium (B;), probably
Magdalenian, had Cro-M agnonoid features. The Azilian craniums (A:
and A 2) were intermediary between Cro-M agnon and the present-day
Basque type. Finally, the cranium from the Eneolithic is of the Basque
type. Thus, the present-day Basque type probably derived from Cro-
Magnon man in this area of the western Pyrenees, just as in other
regions it produced the Alpine type and the Mediterranean type.
This stratigraphic and consequently chronological categorization,
combined with Aranzadi’s anthropological classification concerning the
origin of the Basque population, has been reiterated in many books and
published articles. However, the craniums appeared in a zone in which
the roof of the cave had collapsed onto the floor, causing, on the one
hand, problematic stratigraphy and, on the other, certain difficulties in
the course of the excavation, especially given the methods of the epoch
in which this took place (1935-36). Regarding this, Barandiaran later said
that, “ Both the study of the site of Urtiaga as well as that of the human
remains found in it should be completed by means of new investiga­
tions and methods, which can confirm or perhaps rectify our current
conjectures.
The suspicion that the craniums could have been buried subse­
quently was reasonable, given that during the Calcolithic the cave had a
sepulchral function. This being so, it was possible that they might have
been commingled with artifacts of the Magdalenian and Azilian epochs,
depending on the depth of the burial. It was also possible that the strata
could have been altered subsequently, given that in that area of the cave
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 43

we identified the remains of a badger, a burrowing animal that makes

dens, frequently inside caves, displacing strata. There were also remains
of a cat and domestic goat, clearly from a later period.
Our earlier speculation predated development of radiocarbon dat­
ing techniques. Then, for many years, the analysis of C14 required a large
quantity of bones, meaning the destruction of the craniums in question,
which was inadmissible. But when radiocarbon analysis with the mass
accelerator was invented, they could be dated with only a few tenths
of a gram of bone matter. This allowed us to send three samples taken
from the temporal bone of the ear. Two of them belonged to cranium B;
and the third from A r The result was 3,475 years plus or minus 120 for
one of the samples of B;, 3,445 plus or minus 110 for the second sample
of this cranium, and 3,430 plus or minus 100 for cranium A r Therefore,
the three craniums belonged to the Bronze Age. The morphological dif­
ferences between them could very well have been due to the individual
variability occurring within a population.
There are numerous examples regarding the relationship Baran-
diaran establishes between current observations and prehistoric data,
backdating them in some cases to prehistoric times. For instance, in
the chapter on the Neolithic he relates the domestication of bovines
with hunting techniques of semi-wild cows that he was familiar with in
his youth in mountainous zones of the Basque Pyrenees. Or when tak­
ing into account the climactic conditions of the Pyrenees, Barandiaran
extrapolates from the present to then posit transhumance in prehistoric
times. In this way, he explains the presence of certain new cultural ele­
ments in both lowland Aquitania and the valley of the Ebro as caused by
contacts with mountain dwellers in the course of lengthy transhumant
journeys, rather than by immigrations from without. He regards the
latter to be improbable, given the homogeneity in the physical anthro­
pology of populations in the zones near the Pyrenees.
He also links the distribution of recent shepherd dwellings in the
Pyrenees, as well as in many other mountain ranges in the Basque
Country (such as Aralar, Urbia, Urbasa, Abodi, and Gorbea (Gorbeia))
with the presence of dolmenic sites. He even notes such details as the
absence of dolmens in places with poor pasturage and, to the contrary,
the frequent construction of the shepherd’s hut right upon a dolmen or
a tomb.
Barandiaran dedicates an important chapter to language, in which
it is interesting to note the importance he gives to the names of specific
instruments used today— aizkora (axe), aiztzur (hoe), azkon (arrow),
aizto (knife), and zulakaitz (chisel), all of which contain in their root the
word (h)aitz (stone). This suggests to him that their names date from a
44 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

time when these instruments were made of stone. He repeats this obser­
vation in the 1972 book.
This is a truly suggestive idea to which linguists have returned time
and time again. M ost recently, Joaquin Gorrochategui (2001) has taken
up the topic. He believes that it proves that the ancestors of the Basques
knew the Neolithic culture in which these instruments were made of
stone. However, it is not exclusive to them as such terminology can also
be found in other languages. He offers the example of the German word
Messer (knife), which means etymologically “ knife for m eat,” as in the
Old English mete-seax. N ow this seax is related to the Latin saxum,
stone. What can be affirmed is that in Euskara the proportion of such
compounds is greater than in the surrounding languages.
Barandiaran also posits as evidence of the antiquity of the language
the names urraida (from urre, “ oro” (gold) and aide (similar)), and zir-
raida (silver and aide), corresponding to copper and tin, indicating that
their formation correctly follows the order of the historical appearance
of use of these metals. The source words urre and zillar would have
preceded the diffusion of copper (Eneolithic or Calcolithic) and of tin
(Bronze Age). In support of this he also offers the Basque names for
lightning (ozme) and thunder (ozminarri or ozkarri) with the names for
sky (ortz) and stone (am ).
Barandiaran dedicates important sections to religion both in the
chapter on the Eneolithic and the one on the Bronze Age. He draws
attention to the orientation of the dolmens, whose chambers are ori­
ented east to west, as is the placement of the cadavers deposited in
them, laid out in the direction of the sun star. He notes that “ they are
visible signs of a world of beliefs, ideas and intentions,” 29 which he
relates to a probable veneration of the sun. Additional evidence of this
are the words Ekhaina (month of the sun, June) and Eguberri (new sun,
Christmas).
Today we may think that the Eneolithic and the Bronze Age are
too many thousands of years removed for us to try to relate traditional
Basque culture with some of those beliefs using only the data collected
by Barandiaran in the Basque countryside. However, some of the paral­
lels beg explanation.
With respect to his activity in the field of prehistory, two aspects
stand out. First, Barandiaran’s collection of materials was significantly
better and more systematic than that of many of his colleagues who
were working at the same time in the Cantabrian region. We ourselves
have seen materials from caves in Asturias and Cantabria, scattered
among different museums, without stratigraphic references. We can
learn nothing from them. In contrast, during the late 1960s and early 70s,
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 45

three doctoral dissertations, and subsequently parts of others, have been

written using the materials excavated by Barandiaràn (in combination
with others). This was possible because his materials are preserved in
perfect chronological order by century and with stratigraphic references.
Those from Bizkaia are in the museums of Bilbao, those from Gipuzkoa
in museums of Donostia-San Sebastiàn. The three doctoral dissertations
are those of his disciples Ignacio Barandiaràn (1967), Juan M arfa Ape-
llàniz (1973 and 1974), and the author of this presentation (Altuna, 1972),
who approached Barandiaràn after his return from exile.
On the other hand, the publications of Aranzadi and Barandiaràn
do not possess the rigor and quality of those of today’s prehistorians.
When Barandiaràn was writing the memoirs of his excavations in
solitude, he kept track of each and every artifact appearing in the site,
including making drawings of them. However, his stratigraphic refer­
ences and attributions of particular strata to one of several cultures were
excessively spare. He failed to publish the analyses that his descriptive
reports should have generated.
In any event, within the historiography of prehistoric investigations
in the Basque Country, in contrast to the pioneer or initial period, the
Aranzadi-Barandiaràn-Eguren team initiated a second stage, that of
consolidation, which started with the excavations of dolmens in Aralar
in 1917 and lasted until 1937, that is, until the Spanish Civil W ar and
Barandiaràn’s subsequent exile. This work is of indisputably greater
maturity. In short, they elevated prehistoric investigation in the Basque
Country from the level of aficionados to a scientific one. It is the latter
to which contemporary investigations are heir.
In any case, to my mind, in light of future developments in the two
fields, Barandiaràn’s contribution to ethnography is of greater impor­
tance than his work in prehistory. In effect, had he not excavated the
numerous sites that he did, they would have remained intact and could
have been examined later. On the other hand, had he not collected the
legends and myths when he did, they would have been lost forever since
they have subsequently died out.

An Ethnographic Sketch o f Sara

Barandiaràn produced an ethnography worthy of note. It is entitled
Bosquejo etnografico de Sara (An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara). In
1937, after residing off and on for an entire year in different towns of
Iparralde (Doniztiri (Saint-Esteben in French), Iholdi, Uharte-Hiri, Ligi-
naga, etc.) where he was conducting ethnographic projects, Barandiaràn
46 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

settled in Biarritz. He resided with his niece Pilar, who had moved there
from Ataun. (With exquisite diligence she subsequently tended to the
three homes that her uncle would live in until his death.) Three years
later, toward the end of 1940 and five months after the Germans invaded
this part of Labourde, Barandiaran moved to Sara, where he established
his residence definitively for the next thirteen years.
In Sara, as he says at the beginning of his study, he conducted “ dif­
ferent investigations designed to learn the traditional ways of life of the
inhabitants of Xareta, especially the town of Sara.” 3° Xareta (a wooded
region) is a name that is given to the region around Sara in a legend.
Today, the region is made up of the towns of Ainhoa, Sara, Urdax, and
Zugarram urdi, the first two administered by the French state and the
other two by the Spanish, but it has no name.
The configuration of this region or valley, two of its towns belong­
ing to the Spanish state despite its location at the western end of the
Pyrenees range, is curious. This reality of a small valley of four towns,
two belonging to France and the other two to Spain, has been very
convenient for the inhabitants, who for many years dedicated them­
selves to smuggling. The anecdotes that Barandiaran told about it are
innumerable.
One of them refers to a homeowner from Sara who night after night
took calves from Sara to Zugarram urdi. He would gather together the
calves from other herders in Iparralde on a meadow in Sara at midnight
before driving them across the border. One night, a man bringing him
the calves arrived late, or just as dawn was beginning to break, and they
were surprised by French gendarmes. The smuggler from Sara began
to lament and cry out that those calves had wandered over from Spain
and were eating his grass, and he tried to shoo them toward the Span­
ish side of the border. The gendarmes pitched in. So that morning the
contraband crossed with the help of the police.
One day, many years later, when I was driving through that region
in my car, a man signaled for me to stop. He asked me if I would
take him to Zugarram urdi. He got in and I steered the conversation
to the topic of smuggling. He himself had been a smuggler years ago.
When I asked him how he did the smuggling, he answered, “ Gauez eta
eskuaraz” — “ At night and in Basque.”
Returning to the w ork we are discussing, this excellent and exem­
plary monograph, which Barandiaran modestly entitled Bosquejo
etnogràfico de Sara, was published in installments in the Anuario de
Eusko-folklore between the years 1957 and 1972 (volumes 17-24). Previ­
ously, in 1947, Barandiaran had published “ Le calendrier traditionnel de
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 47

Sare” in that journal and later, in 1981, the songs of love “ Amodiozko
kantak,” also in the Anuario de Eusko-folklore, vol. 30.
His ethnography of Sara starts out with a description of the natural
landscape: the soil, the hills, the caverns (with sketches), the climate, the
vegetation, and the fauna. It continues with an exhaustive toponymy,
including the names of houses, huts, orchards, properties, meadows,
pastures, woodlands, chestnut groves, streams, etc. He then discusses
the human landscape and economy, subdivided into agriculture, for­
estry, cattle herding, communication, and transportation.
Barandiarân also dedicates a long chapter to the different profes­
sions and industries, such as the production of lime to fertilize the
planted fields, the coal mines, shops for washing and weaving wool. He
dedicates a very important section to hunting and relates it to the prehis­
toric world. This chapter ends with the trades of blacksmith, carpenter,
quarry worker, mason, mechanic, tinsmith, painter, cobbler, ox-driver,
and others less common.
The following chapter he dedicates to human establishments and
the etxe, or rural household. This is followed by a chapter on work,
dealing with farm equipment, tools for cutting wood, for making bever­
ages, for the textile industry, for dairy farming, for measuring, instru­
ments for transportation and for hunting.
It is impossible to include the entire “ sketch” in the present work.
I have opted for three chapters that are particularly representative of
Barandiarân’s ethnographic work:)
1. “ Human Establishments and the Rural H ouse.” Anuario de Eusko-
folklore 20 (1963-64): 85-109.
2. “ The Household.” Anuario de Eusko-folklore 23 (1969-70): 77-128.
3. “ Hunting.” Anuario de Eusko-folklore 18 (1961): 157-71.

1. Human establishments. The house or etxe has been a favorite

topic of Barandiarân in his investigations, as we have indicated in our
discussion of Basque M ythology in which he dedicates a whole chapter
to it. In his ethnography of Sara, he begins by speaking of the structure
of the etxe, both exterior and interior, with its outbuildings, house
types, and floor plans. He gives the names of all the houses in Sara
(which we omit in this selection to save space and because they are
not that relevant in a work such as this), and the spiritual safeguards
against threats, both natural— inclement weather or snakes and toads—
and preternatural, especially against evil spirits. At times he speaks of
natural forces such as wind or lightning, but these are considered to be
preternatural.
48 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Once Barandiaran has described the main house in all of its aspects,
along with the outbuildings (granaries, fertilizer sheds, pigsties, folds,
chicken coops, lime bins, sheds, benches, and the family tomb in the
church or cemetery), he then speaks of the temporary shelters which the
household may have in the mountains, totally or partially dedicated to
the herding of sheep (both for the shepherd himself, who sleeps there at
night, and for the flock). Finally, he describes in detail the furnishings
and equipment in a rural house (also excluded from this selection).
2. The Household. In this chapter he covers blood relationships,
clothing, food, and rites of passage— birth and baptism, first commu­
nion, youth, courtship, marriage, and death. He concludes with the
neighborhood, describing the relationships among households within it.
3. Hunting. The hunt constitutes an activity of great interest in Sara,
as well as in the nearby Navarrese municipality of Etxalar. It is a pro­
fessional activity handed down from some remote period and practiced
with the same methods they might have used in the very distant past.
Barandiaran collected its artifacts with great care. He says of it that, “ It
is one of the testimonials of the solidarity between past and present.” 31
He begins by listing the quarry, animals to be eaten (different spe­
cies of birds, hare, rabbit, and wild boar) as well as those to be defended
against (badger, fox, marmot, wildcat, and weasel), and then discusses
the professional hunting that we mentioned above: dove hunting.
This form of dove hunting involves controlling the flight of the
birds toward a net by stationing people along the flanks of their pas­
sage through the mountains during their annual fall migration from the
more northern zones of Europe to lands further south in the Iberian
Peninsula. The doves are captured alive and sometimes entire flocks are
netted. Later, they are sold. Twelve houses in Sara form a society with
the right, since time immemorial, to conduct this hunt. The society pays
the municipality for the exclusive monopoly.
The dove hunt is famous throughout the Basque Country, notori­
ety that justifies selection for this book of the detailed description of it
which Barandiaran provides in his study of Sara.

Epilogue

To conclude the presentation of these works by Barandiaran, I want to

emphasize another of his contributions. He was a teacher who knew
how to form teams around him, both in the field of prehistory and in
that of ethnography. In the former, in Barandiaran’s very first year, the
Aranzadi-Barandiaran-Eguren team (who were referred to as “ los tres
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 49

tristes trogloditas” (the three sad troglodytes)) was constituted. Baran-

diaran agreed that they were indeed “ troglodytes,” since they went
from cave to cave, but that there was nothing “ sad” about them. This
team worked together for twenty years, until broken up by the war that
brought so many ills to the Basque Country.
After the end of his exile, Barandiaran did not lock himself up in
Ataun. He spent long periods of time in Donostia-San Sebastian and
Bilbao organizing and categorizing the materials from the excavations
done in Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia during the years before the war. As I said
earlier, I was among the several young men finishing university studies
during those years who came under his influence. Under his guidance
and encouragement we began to work in the caves, since the excava­
tions had suddenly started up again, especially in the three provinces of
Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, and Araba.
We have already indicated that this beginning had an exponential
influence, since those young students of his went on to occupy univer­
sity professorships and to educate the next generation. If, at that time,
three or four excavations were begun each year in the Basque Country,
without any possibility of working on them simultaneously given that
Barandiaran was the only principal investigator, today far more are
being conducted, and simultaneously. There is greater specialization
among the investigators, consequently current investigations are con­
ducted in interdisciplinary fashion and are producing results that are
more sophisticated and precise than those of that earlier period.
The same must be said in the field of ethnography. The previously
mentioned Etniker groups that developed under Barandiaran’s direc­
tion are now efficiently developing an ethnographic atlas of the Basque
Country, which was one of the dreams of the master. On the other
hand, a wealth of research material awaits the attention of today’s
anthropologists in the Hojas de Eusko-folklore, as we noted in our
discussion of them.
On balance, then, Barandiaran was not only a founding figure
within Basque anthropology; writ large his legacy lives on in both mani­
fest and latent forms.
 Notes

1. J. M . de Barandiaran, “ Nacimiento y expansión de los fenómenos sociales,”

A nuario de Eusko-folklore 4 (1924): 194.
2. José M iguel de Barandiaran, personal conversation with author.
3. L. Barandiaran, Barandiaran, patriarca de la cultura vasca, 34-35.
4. J. M . de Barandiaran, D iario personal (1917-1936). Vol. 2, 513.
5. Ibid., 531.
6. Nam e used to designate some extraordinary creatures from Basque mythology
from before the introduction of Christianity.
7. J. M . de Barandiaran, “ Prehistoria vasca. M onumentos del A ralar guipuzco-
an o,” in Euskalerriaren alde 6 (1916): 561-65.
8. Telesforo de Aranzadi (1860-1945) w as a native of Bergara, a small town located
in the same province of Gipuzkoa. When he met Barandiaran, he w as a professor
of anthropology at the University of Barcelona. Barandiaran always considered him
his mentor. L. Barandiaran, Cartas a Jo s é M iguel de Barandiaran (primera etapa,
1915-1936), 7.
9. Enrique de Eguren (1888-1944) w as a native of Vitoria and professor of geology
at the University of Oviedo.
10. J. M . de Barandiaran, “ Discurso leîdo en la solemne apertura del curso de 1917
a 1918 en el Seminario Conciliar de V itoria.”
11. L. Barandiaran, Cartas a Jo s é M iguel de Barandiaran, 101.
12. J. Caro Baroja, L os Baroja, 236-37.
13. The Port of M utriku, a small town on the eastern coast of Gipuzkoa.
14. M ountain people, of whom there have always been m any in the Basque Coun­
try.
15. J. M . de Barandiaran, D iario personal (1917-1936), Vol. 2, 731-32.
16. In Extractos de la Asociación Espahola, 39-73.
17. J. M . de Barandiaran, “ La religion des anciens Basques,” 156-68.
18. M anuel de Ynchausti w as a Basque lawyer and entrepreneur who patronized
m any Basque cultural activities. He was born in the Philippines and held U.S. citizen­
ship. He purchased a house called Intxausti Baita in Ustaritze (Lapurdi/Labourd).
19. A town on the French-Spanish border (known as Sare in French).
20. “ Catalogue des Stations préhistoriques des Pyrénées basques,” Ikuska 1 (1946):
24-40.
 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

21. Juan M aria Apellaniz w as a professor at the University of Deusto; Ignacio

Barandiaran is still a professor at the University of the Basque Country.
22. Eusko-folklore. Materiales y cuestionarios (Vitoria), nos. 1-12 (1921): 1.
23. J. Caro Baroja, “ D. José M iguel de Barandiaran. A ntropòlogo,” in Jo s é M iguel
Barandiaran-eri omenaldia, 22.
24. J. M . de Barandiaran, Mitolog^a vasca, 106-7.
25. André M alrau x, Culture, M a y i960.
26. Personal conversation with author.
27. J. Caro Baroja, “ Prologo,” Mitolog^a vasca, by J. M . de Barandiaran, 6, 9-10.
28. J. M . de Barandiaran, “ Antropologìa de la población vasca,” Ikuska 1 (1947):
210.
29. J. M . de Barandiaran, E l hom bre prehistórico en el Pa^s Vasco, 158.
30. J. M . de Barandiaran. B osquejo etnografico de Sara, in A nuario de Eusko-
folklore, 17 (1957-1960): 148.
31. J. M . de Barandiaran, E l hom bre prehistórico en el Pa^s Vasco, 55.
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Barandiaran, José M iguel de. “ Antropologìa de la población vasca.”
Ikuska i (1947): 193-210.
---------. Bosquejo etnogràfico de Sara. In Anuario de Eusko-folklore
17-24 (1957-1972).
---------. “ Catalogue des stations préhistoriques des Pyrénées Basques.”
Ikuska i (1946): 24-40.
---------. “ Contribución al estudio paletnografico del Pueblo Vasco. El
m agism o.” Extractos de la Asociación Espanola para el Progreso
de las Ciencias. Congreso de Bilbao, 1919. 6 (ia parte), 39-73. Bil­
bao, 1920.
---------. D iario personal (1917-1936). Desde los primeros trabajos cienti-
ficos hasta el exilio. 2 vols. Colección Sara 6. Astigarraga (Gipuz­
koa): Fundación Barandiaran, 2005.
---------. Diccionario de mitolog^a vasca. Donostia-San Sebastian: Edito­
rial Txertoa, [1984].
---------. Diccionario ilustrado de mitolog^a vasca. In Obras completas
de Jo sé M iguel de Barandiaràn, Volume 1, 9-258. Bilbao: La Gran
Enciclopedia Vasca, 1972.
54 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

---------. “ Discurso leido en la solemne apertura del curso de 1917 a 1918

en el Seminario Conciliar de V itoria.” Vitoria: Editorial Montepio
Diocesano, 1917.
---------. Euskal herriko mitoak / Mitos del pueblo vasco. [San Sebastian]:
C aja de Gipuzcoa, 1988.
---------. Eusko-folklore. Materiales y cuestionarios. Nos. 1-12, Vitoria:
Seminario Conciliar de Vitoria, 1921.
---------. “ Exploración de la cueva de Urtiaga,” Gernika, Eusko-jakintza
(Bayonne) 1 (1947): 13-28, 265-71, 437-56, 659-96.
---------. L a Guerra C ivil en Euzkadi. 136 testimonios inéditos recogidos
por Jo sé M iguel de Barandiaran. Presentation by José M aria Gam ­
boa and Jean-Claude Larronde. M ilafranga: Editorial Bidasoa,
2005.
---------. E l hom bre prehistórico en el Pa^s Vasco. Buenos Aires: Ekin,
1953.
---------. E l hom bre prim itivo en el Pa^s Vasco. Colección Zabalkundea
3. Donostia-San Sebastian: Benat Idaztiak, 1934.
---------. Lehen euskal gizona. San Sebastian: Editorial Lur, 1972.
---------. “ Leyendas de Goierri. Cómo se propagò en nuestro pais el cul-
tivo del trigo.” Euskalerriaren alde 8, no. 169 (1918): 10-11.
---------. Mitolog^a vasca. Colección Biblioteca Vasca 5. M adrid: Edito­
rial M inotauro, i960.
---------. “ Nacimiento y expansión de los fenómenos sociales.” Anuario
de Eusko-folklore 4 (1924): 153-229.
---------. “ Prehistoria vasca. Monumentos del Aralar guipuzcoano.”
Euskalerriaren alde 6 (1916): 561-65.
---------. “ La religion des anciens Basques.” In Compte-rendu analytique
de la IlIe session de la Semaine d ’Ethnologie Religieuse [held in
Tilburg (Netherlands)], 156-68. Enghien, 1923.
Barandiaran, Luis. Cartas a Jo sé M iguel de Barandiaran (primera etapa,
1915-1936). Donostia-San Sebastian: C aja de Ahorros Municipal de
San Sebastian, 1989.
---------. Barandiaran, patriarca de la cultura vasca. M adrid: Editorial
Sociedad de Educación Atenas, 1992.
Barandiaran Maeztu, Ignacio. E l PaleomesoMtico del Pirineo Occiden­
tal. Bases para una sistematización tipològica del instrumental
óseo paleoMtico. M onografias Arqueológicas 3. Zaragoza: Semi­
nario de Prehistoria y Protohistoria, Facultad de Filosofia y Letras,
Universidad de Zaragoza, 1967.
Barbier, Jean. Légendes du Pays Basque. Paris, 1931.
 Introduction by Jesus Altuna 55

Caro Baroja, Julio. Los Baroja. M adrid: Taurus, 1972.

---------. “ D. José Miguel de Barandiaran. Antropòlogo.” In Jo sé M iguel
Barandiaran-eri omenaldia, 19-25. Onati: Sociedad de Estudios
Vascos, 1979.
---------. “ Prologo.” In Mitolog^a vasca, by José M iguel de Barandiaran,
5—11. San Sebastian: Txertoa, 1979.
Gorrochategui, Joaqum . “ Planteamientos de la lingmstica histórica
en la datación del euskara.” X V Congreso de Estudios Vascos 1,
103—14. San Sebastian: Sociedad de Estudios Vascos, 2001.
 Basque Mythology

by José Miguel de Barandiaran

To Don Telesforo de Aranzadi, my former professor

and companion during twenty years of
investigations in the Basque Country.
Happy N ew Year and until I hear from you.
 T O T H E READ ER

In this little book we have collected some beliefs which, conforming

to magical and animistic concepts, manifest themselves in the lives of
the Basque people. We cannot be sure if in previous times they had the
same theoretical basis that they have today, since we frequently observe
that words, expressions, rituals, and objects lose their original mean­
ing and take on new significance in the service of other ideas and other
designs.
We have taken them just as they came to us and have arranged them
in groups according to the objects and their thematic affinities, and we
have described them succinctly with the greatest fidelity possible.
We offer, then, a handful of current phenomena that may give the
reader an image, albeit partial, of one of the least known aspects of the
Basque tradition.
It will be easy to discover in this sketch of our mythology certain
gaps due to the author’s limitations and the lack of adequate research.
Unfortunately, such research will come too late for many elements of
our traditional life which have already been lost or distorted.
In effect, no matter how strong our attachment to tradition, it is
not sufficiently powerful to prevent the propagation of many ideas,
beliefs, and customs, some of which are accepted without any resistance
at all and others are partially accepted or result in compromise and
distortion.
We have been witness to the reactions provoked in rural areas by
recent attempts to reach the moon through man-made machines. The
news of the successes of would-be moon travelers has spread to every
small town. Alongside those who accept the achievement as something
they always believed possible, there are others who believe that man
will not be able to remain on the lunar surface without the help of some
appropriate supporting structure; otherwise, he will inevitably fall to
earth from sheer weight. Only insects— a man from Albistur told me—
will be able to walk up there the w ay they do on the ceiling of a room.
Others, finally, doubt than man can ever reach our satellite, because
they believe the moon is a divine being that will not permit any mortal
to approach it.
6o Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Change, then, is fast and widespread. N ew ways of living, new

ideas and new ideals are replacing tradition. A civilization based on the
preponderance of technology and machinery, with its own elements and
its own problems and solutions, is developing here as elsewhere in the
world. For this reason it is urgent that we research all aspects of tra­
ditional life and record the data that manifest and describe them. This
task will provide data that will be directly useful to science. This will
lead to the determination of regional variances of the phenomena, the
demarcation of their respective areas and, finally, the indication of the
strata or phases of their historical development.
Reserving for later publications what science may eventually say,
given the current state of our research we focus here only on the first
task, that is, the presentation of a portion of the material we have
collected. If in doing this we succeed in awakening new interest and
intensifying the study into our ethnography, we will have satisfied one
of our goals.

Sara (Lower Pyrenees), December 12, 1959

 IN T R O D U C T IO N

Every myth seeks to explain one or several realities. It involves, natu­

rally, a representation or mental equivalent of phenomena and objects
in the same w ay— though not to the same degree— that the concepts and
definitions of contemporary science do.
The majority of myths represent objects and aspects of nature,
such as eguzkiamandre (sun), odei (thunder, storm cloud) and sugaar
(lightning). There are others that refer to human endeavors (cultural
mythology), such as the growing of wheat, the origin of certain tools,
and the operations of forges (ironworks). Finally, some myths respond
to purely subjective creations, such as inguma, gerixeti (ghosts of ances­
tors, soul), etc. . . . In all of them, the coefficient or element that imbues
them with life and significance is tradition, or interpretations conse­
crated by tradition.
In our case, this coefficient is characterized by an undercurrent of
animism in which phenomena and objects are explained through the
intervention of spirits and divinities. This varies from one community
to another and from one social class to another. For this reason it may
be useful for us to situate the myth within the context of our culture,
indicating the zones it occupies or the regions where it prevails.

Cultural Gradation

We should point out, first of all, that two categories of elements make
up this complex network of ideas and knowledge constituting “ our
world of representations” : elements from the external world proceed­
ing from the natural landscape and from human groups foreign to ours,
and internal elements which are our own mental traditions. The former
provide material and possibilities for action; the latter orient and condi­
tion our activity. In a house, on a funeral stele, or in a rural hollow it
is easy to identify traces of our forests and cliffs, but also traces of our
ancient traditions.
It is natural, therefore, for the same phenomenon to be seen or felt
and represented in a different w ay by different human groups and even
by different individuals from the same group. The world of representa­
 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

tions of an individual is always something personal, which does not

completely coincide with that of others. So it is not only within the
totality of human groups that different ethnicities can be identified,
but cultural gradations exist within a single group, so that individuals
occupy different levels of an environment. N arrowing our focus to our
Basque people, we can say that in some, mechanistic ideas predominate,
in others providential ideas, while many others are under the sway of
magical and animistic concepts that lend themselves to the perpetuation
of numerous forms of ancient cultures and mythologies.
Even within a single individual, alongside a system or world of rep­
resentations that generally occupy his center of vision, there exist other
worlds situated in peripheral zones, like spirits lurking and waiting for
the chance to come into play and usurp a fellow spirit whenever that
one seems inefficient and inadequate.
When the vicissitudes of life lead us into a situation that conflicts
with our customary w ay of thinking, without fail there appears one of
these marginalized systems into which that situation fits or within which
it may be easily and coherently justified.
Such systems are not all of equal value, of course. M agic, myths,
science, and the Christian complex are not equivalents, objectively
speaking. But in all of them generally we see the pulse of inspiration
and a tendency toward an ideal that surpasses us and whose defini­
tive realization we situate in the future. Thus, the future— let us say in
passing— serves us as a stimulus for human progress, that is, as a factor
of our conduct and, therefore, of our present moment.

Christianity and Paganism

Like all ethnic groups, the Basque people forged a culture, a w ay of life
that reflects the attitude of man when confronted with the fundamental
problems of his existence.
One of the aspects that must be considered in that attitude is reli­
gion. Above all, the Christian ideal has played a predominant role for
many centuries. But around it and sometimes filtered through it, or
apparently developing on the margins of every religion, other concepts
exist— magic, mythology, mechanistic notions— horizons of pagan­
ism ready to assume equal influence when circumstances favor their
ascendance.
Myth, like all forms of religion, surfaces as the expression and
vehicle of an ideal, born into a magical or animist environment despite
the materialistic character of the entity that frequently serves as its
 Basque Mythology 63

object. The representation of the serpent heren (herensuge or lerensuge)

consists of that of the spirit or divinity heren as an ideal of power.
Universally accepted as an explanation and expression of an idea,
in earlier times myth has served as inspiration for the most educated
men and the most respectable institutions.
M ythical beings act through enchantment and magic. Only through
magical procedures can we approach them or defend ourselves from
them. M aindi extracts from a hazelnut (urr) a garment made with
golden thread (urre). We defend ourselves from odei, “ storm spirit,”
through gestures and the presentation of uztaibedar, “ a celestial or
rainbow herb” ; from the projectile of urtzi or mari, “ thunderbolt,” by
holding up an axe or a sharp thorn.
Animism in particular is the propitious environment for myth. Ani­
mism posits a spirit or divinity in the face of every function, every phe­
nomenon, and behind every mystery: everything is pervaded by divinity,
things are divine, sacred, with no need for action by secondary causes.
But our idea of the gods is generally imprecise, lacking a clear
profile. Each of us suffuses it with content appropriate to our culture
and our level of education. Often in various representations of the same
divinity there is scarcely any common element except the name, which
is, however, sufficient for the formalism that satisfies the needs of the
ingenuous man.
The animist concept of the world was common among the ancients:
everything was sacred. Later, the profane enters the scene when natu­
ral phenomena begin to be given a new explanation, without direct
recourse to the gods. In this w ay a duality of beings and things is estab­
lished: some belong to the world of the spirits (aideko); others, to nature
(berezko)— two worlds into which we can only enter and act by using
their respective laws and techniques.
The influence of the profane, i.e., laicization, began to spread as
man began to rationalize, dominate, and transform the world.
Once men succeed in explaining many of the phenomena of nature
that were formerly regarded as mysteries or functions of the gods, they
begin to consider the latter as non-existent or purely imaginary entities:
mythical beings in the sense of being fictitious. So the sacred retreated
as science advanced, and the science/religion dualism was established as
a confrontation of incompatible opposites. In effect, the secular attitude
seemed justified if the divinities were merely a complement of our for­
mer insufficiency, something unrealizable; the recognition of the divine
proceeds fundamentally from another factor, to something implicit in
the question, “ What am I?” If the reference to God is not based on our
failure, but on the incessant activity of the world and on the very action
64 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaràn

which, under its influence, we continue to perform, then we would have

to conclude that the sacred had not actually retreated, but that we had
left it out of our calculations, offering premature solutions to the prob­
lem before posing it in all its dimensions.
The change introduced by the appearance and progressive expan­
sion of the profane in the animist world was not, however, as profound
as might have been thought. The notions of science that kept evolving
thanks to observation, intuition, and experimentation could only be
represented in scientific language (not in everyday, common language)
through the mediation of mathematical characters invented wholly by
man. Lucretius’ maxim, utilitas expressit nomina rerum (the names
of things express their utility) could be applied to science as well as
mythology, and the new spirits, projections of the human mind no less
than the old ones, obeyed laws similar to the laws of the old spirits: man
was present in both.

Levels of Knowledge

In seeking to describe the religion and mythology of a people, it is

important to ascertain, to the extent possible, the degree of adhesion
to those beliefs and myths in the consciousness of the members of the
group. In this respect, considering the mental attitude of the Basque
toward myths, it is important to recognize the popular mode of express­
ing them and the level of knowledge manifested in that mode.
According to a popular saying, the real is comprised of not only
everything perceived by the senses and concluded and affirmed by rea­
son, but also everything that has a name. People say, “Izena duen guztia
omen da, ” which means that if there is a name, there must be a thing.
There is this difference, however: what you perceive yourself is certain,
it is something personally known and, therefore, it can be expressed
categorically, as in these phrases: au ala da, “ this is so,” and au esan
dute, “ this is what they say” ; what is known through someone else’s tes­
timony, or through references, is not affirmed categorically and without
reservation, and the sentences expressing it are prefaced by omen or ei
(depending on the region), which refers them to their sources, as in the
following examples: au ala omen de, “ they say that this is so ,” and au
esan omen dute, “ we are told that they say this,” and so on . . . It is
important to keep in mind this difference in category of meaning so we
can better appreciate the value of the affirmations of Basque narratives,
mythical or not. M yths, of course, belong to the second category today,
even in the appreciation of the most innocent.
 Basque Mythology 65

Sources of Our Investigation

From what has been said, we can conclude that in order to completely
understand Basque mythology we will need to be familiar with the
magical and animistic concepts that constitute its base, its preamble and
its context.
There are very few documents or references from ancient authors
to take us back to the times when paganism was still a living religion
among Pyrenean populations. There are hardly any reliable documents
dealing with animism and the practice of magic prior to Christianity.
Allusions to the religion of the Basques by Strabo, Lampridius, and the
poet Prudentius contribute little to our investigation. M ore helpful are
inscriptions from the Roman period and even prehistoric monuments
and ruins. M any of the archeological materials are connected with reli­
gious beliefs and cults. Arranged chronologically, they can give us an
idea of some of the more salient features of the religious practices or
the religions practiced in the Basque Country before the introduction of
Christianity. That is the path I followed in an article entitled “ Huellas
de artes y religiones antiguas del Pirineo vasco” (Traces of Ancient Arts
and Religions of the Basque Pyrenees) (in Homenaje al M. I. Sr. Dr. D.
Eduardo de Escârzaga. Vitoria, 1935). In the present work, we will give
preference to ethnographic data, focusing especially on the popular tra­
ditions of the Basque people that can provide us with materials for the
study of magic and the attempt to reconstruct present-day mythology
which, if used wisely, can clarify many problems related to the religion
of the ancient people of the Pyrenees.
This is not the first time this subject has engaged my interest. In
1919, I presented to the Congress of the Asociacion Espanola para el Pro­
greso de las Ciencias (Spanish Association for Scientific Advancement)
held in Bilbao, a work entitled “ Contribucion al estudio paletnografico
del pueblo vasco. El magismo” (Contribution to the Paleoethnographic
Study of the Basque People. M agic), which was later published in the
Proceedings of that association. Two years later the same work, some­
what expanded, was published in the journal Euskalerriaren aide (San
Sebastian, 1921).
I investigated mythological topics even more thoroughly in a work
published in the book Homenaje a Fritz Krüger (Mendoza, 1952), the
text of which has served me greatly in composing the present essay.
Here is a list of publications related to our topic:

Barandiaran, José Miguel de: “ Contribucion al estudio paletnografico

del pueblo vasco. El M agism o,” in Actos del Congreso de la Aso-
66 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

ciaciôn Espanola para el Progreso de las Ciencias. Congreso de

Bilbao, ipip. Bilbao, 1920.
— . Fragmentos folklôricos. Paletnografia vasca, in Euskalerri-
aren alde (San Sebastian) 10 (1921): 182-90, 224-32, 396-402, 431-43,
452-70. (Also published as a booklet by San Sebastian: Imprenta de
M artin, M ena y Ca., 1921.)
— . Eusko-mitolog^a (Meetings of Euskaltzaindia during Basque
Culture Week in Durango). Bilbao, 1922.
— . “ La religion des anciens Basques.” In Compte-rendu analytique
de la III session de la Semaine d ’Ethnologie Religieuse, 156-68.
[Held in Tilburg (Netherlands), 1922]. Enghien, 1923.
— . “ M ari, o el genio de las m ontanas.” In Homenaje a don Car­
melo de Echegaray, 245-68. San Sebastian: Diputacion de Guipuz-
coa, 1928.
— . “ Huellas de artes y religiones antiguas del pueblo vasco.” In
Homenage a D. Eduardo de Escârzaga, 128-39. Vitoria, 1935.
— . “ Sur les anciennes religions des Basques.” In Congreso Interna-
cional de Ciencias Antropologicas y Etnologicas, Copenhagen, 1938.
Compte-rendu de la deuxièm e session, 368. Copenhagen, 1939.
— . “ Die prähistorischen Höhlen in der baskischen M ythologie.” In
Paideuma. Leipzig, 1941. (Later published in Spanish as “ Las caver-
nas prehistoricas en la mitologîa vasca,” in Cuadernos de historia
prim itiva (Madrid), Year 1, no. 2 (1946): 71-89.
— . “ Les recherches anthropologiques au Pays Basque,” address
presented at the Royal Anthropological Institute of London, April
11, 1946. (Later published in Obras completas de Jo sé M iguel de
Barandiarân, Volume 6, m -19. Bilbao: La Gran Enciclopedia
Vasca, 1974.
— . “ Croyances populaires basques,” address presented at the Cen­
tre International de Synthèse, in Paris, Ju ly 13, 1947.
— . “ Etat actuel des études ethnographiques basques.” Address
given at the session of the Commission Internationale des Arts et
Traditions Populaires. Paris, October 2, 1947.
— . “ Le Calendrier traditionnel de Sare.” In Ikuska, 1947, nos. 2 and
3, pp. 47- 57, 77 - 78.
— . “ M atériaux pour une étude du peuple basque: à Uhart-M ixe.”
In Ikuska i (1947): 107-25, 167-75 and 2 (1948): 135-51.
— . “ Les symboles magiques au Pays Basque.” Address presented in
the Congrès International d’Archéocivilisation. Paris, Ju ly 2, 1948.
 Basque Mythology 67

---------. “ Ele-zaar.” Various articles published under this heading in the

journal Eusko-jakintza (Bayonne) in 1 (1947): 487-90; 2 (1948): 345—
46, 385—88, 593—94; 3 (i949): 299—300, 393—98; and 4 (1950): 259—78.
--------- . “ De la vida tradicional vasca. Valores de algunos sîmbolos.” In
Homenaje a D. Luis de Hoyos Sainz, Vol. 2, 36—44. M adrid, 1950.
---------. “ Materiales para un estudio del pueblo vasco: in Liginaga
(Laguinge).” In Ikuska 1947, 1948, 1949, and 1950.
--------- . “ Contribución à l’étude de la préhistoire et de l’histoire anci­
enne des populations pyrénéennes. Etat actuel de cette étude en ce
qui concerne le peuple basque.” Address read at the IXe Congrès
International des Sciences Historiques. Paris, August 18, 1950.
--------- . “ Contribución al estudio de la mitologìa vasca.” In Homenaje
a Fritz Krüger, Vol. 1, 101—36. Mendoza: Universidad Nacional de
Cuyo, 1952.
--------- . “ Cuevas y simas en las creencias y mitos del pueblo vasco.” In
Homenaje a D. Joaqum Mendizâbal, 71—75. San Sebastian: Museo
de Telmo, 1956.
--------- . Eusko-folklore. Articles on Basque mythology published 1921—
1959. Vitoria, Bayonne, Sara, San Sebastian, 1921—1959.
--------- . “ Persistances culturelles rurales.” In Visages de l’homme.
Cahiers d ’histoire et de folklore. Dol-en-Bretagne, 1959.

Various Authors: Anuario de Eusko-folklore (16 volumes published

since 1921).
Azkue, Resurrección M aria de. Euskalerriaren yakintza. M adrid:
Espasa-Calpe, 1935—1945.
Webster, Wentworth. Basque Legends. London, 1879.
Cerquand, M . “ Légendes et récîts populaires du Pays Basque.” In B ul­
letin de la Société des Sciences, Lettres et Arts de Pau, 1874—1875.
Vinson, Julien. L e Folklore du Pays Basque. Paris: Maisonneuve, 1883.
Barbier, Jean. Légendes du Pays Basque, d ’après la tradition. Paris:
Delgrave, 1931.
Caro Baroja, Julio. Algunos mitos espanoles y otros ensayos. Madrid:
Editora Nacional, 1944.
--------- . “ Sobre la religión antigua y el calendario del pueblo vasco.” In
Trabajos del Instituto Bernardino de Sahagûn, Volume 6. M adrid,
1948.
Barriola, Ignacio M aria. L a medicina popular en el pa^s vasco. San
Sebastian: Biblioteca Vascongada de los Amigos del Paîs, 1952.
 M A G IC

The world of the sorcerers, like any other, consists of things and their
representations. But, according to them, the two are bound together by
a force called adur, so that whatever action we take in connection with
the latter, heeding certain conditions, must inevitably affect the former.
It could be said, then, that there exists a unique sympathy between the
object and its image or representation.
The following cases will give an idea of the different forms in which
this singular concept is manifested among the Basques.

Light as Symbol or Representation

For the sorcerer, the w ax candle represents the body; the light is an
image of the spirit that gives it life.
Consulted by a resident of Ataun who wished to know who had
stolen his cow, an azti, seer, from Tolosa advised him to light a w ax
candle, which would represent the thief. As the candle gradually burned
down, the thief would waste away. In this way, he would be exposed.1
Some peasants from Aldaba twisted a candle and lighted it, hoping
that this would twist the body and snuff out the life of an individual
they wished to harm or upon whom they wished to avenge themselves
for an insult.2
A farmer from Elduayen (Elduain), wishing to punish some young
men who stole a hoe from him and hung it from a cherry tree on Ain-
bialde mountain, took a candle to the church intending to burn it. The
village priest discouraged him from carrying out his plan.3
When a person suffers a long illness, in Berastegi (Berastegi) you
will hear them say: “ O rri bate batek argizarie piztu zook” (Someone lit
a candle against him).4
In Leiza (Leitza) when it was time to pick apples, it was the custom
for the owner of the apple orchard to ask his neighbors for help. This
usually happened in the afternoon, and the workers were treated to a
snack right there in the orchard. If the owner was rich, he would have
wine served on a silver tray called a barkillo. One day, the family from
the M axurrenea or M arikurrenea house went with their neighbors to
70 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

work in the orchard they owned in the place called Inguruarte. During
the snack one of the neighbor women served wine to the workers on a
barkillo. Afterwards, she placed the tray on the edge of a hollow spot
high up on the trunk of an old apple tree. But when she gathered up the
silverware and the tablecloths she forgot the barkillo. The M axurrenea
family noticed that it was missing and asked where it was, to no avail,
because the neighbor who had gathered up the valuable tray couldn’t
remember where she had left it. The owners, suspecting that the woman
had stolen their barkillo, twisted a candle and burned it before a saint,
expecting that the supposed perpetrator of the theft would thereby be
punished. But the neighbor lady suffered no mishap at all. Instead, in
the M axurrenea orchard an apple tree withered and died. It was cut
down and, to everyone’s surprise, the barkillo was found in the hollow
in the trunk of the tree. The magical force, they said, had acted on the
apple tree that concealed the barkillo and made it wither.5
In order to pay some debts he had incurred, a man from Leiza
(Leitza) sold a pig without telling his wife. She believed that the animal
had been stolen by one of her brothers-in-law, and to punish such an
outrage, she twisted a candle and burned it. Shortly thereafter her hus­
band died of a mysterious disease, which was attributed to the magical
effect (adur in Basque) that detected the true culprit.6
In Pasajes de San Juan (Pasai Donibane), the person who seeks to
discover who has done him harm kneels before a lighted candle in order
to assure the success of his investigation.7
In Sara, a girl who was having an affair with a young man from
her neighborhood threatened to light a candle (xirio) against him if he
didn’t keep his promise to m arry her.
In Oyarzun (Oiartzun) this procedure is also known. The sorcerer
offers a candle to a saint and then lights it. According to my informant,8
an individual from Iturralde died when he was a victim of this magical
operation carried out by his former girlfriend.
In Elduayen (Elduain) and in Ataun, it is believed that this magical
spell turns against its author if that person commits the same act for
which she is trying to punish someone else.9

The Coin as Image

The coin generally bears an effigy which, in popular belief, can represent
any person. It can be used, therefore, as an object of magical spells.
On a certain occasion, a resident of Ataun named José Antonio,
from the Semao farm, discovered that some items of his clothing were
 Basque Mythology 71

missing. Wishing to find out who the thief was so he could punish him,
he bent a five-cent coin and threw it into the Calvario hermitage located
in that town, hoping that the thief would become stooped the w ay the
coin was bent.10
In Aya (Aia) this form of magic is also practiced.11
According to my informant from Villafranca, this practice is also
known in that town and considered a serious curse.12
In Beasain this curse consists of throwing a bent coin into the fire­
place and simultaneously lighting a candle to St. Anthony. On one farm
a herd of pigs died. The deed was attributed to a woman from the same
town who habitually practiced that form of magic.13
In 1921, in the church of Santo Cristo de Lezo, the discovery of
several bent coins deposited in the alms dish was attributed to the same
kind of magic.
In Abadiano (Abadino), magical spells of this sort also occur at
times, repeated on nine consecutive days.14

Grains of Salt, W heat, and Ginger in the Practice of M agic

A remedy used in Tolosa, Urnieta, Andoain, and Oyarzun (Oiartzun)

for curing certain swellings or lesions on the neck, called gaingilla, also
belongs to the same circle of ideas as the preceding. It consists of the
fasting patient holding a grain of salt in his hand and making the sign
of the cross with it on the ailing body part while holding his breath and
repeating this spell [the + signs indicate the sign of the cross]:
Gaingillak dira + Bederatzi; Bederatziak + Zortzi; Zortziak +
Zazpi; Zazpiak + Sei; Seiak + Bost; Bostak + Lau; Lauak + Iru; Iruak
+ Bi; Biak + Bat; Gaingillak egin dezala zirt-zart (the lesions are + nine;
the nine + eight; the eight + seven; the seven + six; the six + five; the
five + four; the four + three; the three + two; the two + one: make the
lesion zirt-zart, “ destroy itself” ). With these last words the grain of salt
is thrown into the fire which immediately crackles, making the sound
zirt-zart. The patient should take another grain and repeat the opera­
tion, always accompanied by the same formula, until nine grains of salt
have been thrown into the fire. This must be done for nine consecutive
days.15
In Bedia and in Cortezubi (Kortezubi), they use grains of salt to
cure warts: you rub the latter with the former. The grains used in the
rubbing will be thrown into the fire, the patient making every effort to
stay far enough aw ay to keep from hearing the inevitable crackling. In
72 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaràn

this w ay the warts will vanish in the same w ay their images, that is to
say, the grains of salt, will have vanished.16
In Oyarzun (Oiartzun), the person who has warts and wants to heal
them takes the same number of grains of salt. After the usual rubbing,
he puts them in a handkerchief or a piece of clean cloth along with an
ardite (today it would be a different coin) and lays them at a crossroads.
The traveler who picks up that bundle and takes the coin that is inside
it will acquire the warts whose images were in there with it.17
“ If you have warts on your hands, as I did” — a farm worker from
Cortezubi (Kortezubi) said to me once— “ take as many grains of wheat
as there are warts, one for each wart, and rub them with their corre­
sponding grains. Afterwards you’ll place the wheat you used beneath
a stone, and as it gradually spoils, your warts will be healed without
fail.” 18
In Garayo (Garaio, Araba) and in G aray (Garai, Bizkaia) they use
the same procedure to cure warts.19
In Llodio (Laudio), the person with warts has to place underneath
a stone the same number of juniper berries, making every effort not to
look at them while putting them there. Then he should move aw ay from
the stone, saying: “ I’ve got warts, I’m selling warts, I’m leaving them
here and I’m running o ff.” As the juniper berries gradually decompose,
the warts are healed.20
In Cortezubi (Kortezubi), they also use raw apples to heal warts.
They cut the apple in four sections and rub the warts with them. Then
they place the sections at a crossroads. If a passerby picks them up and
eats them, the warts will move to his hands.21

Herbs, Shrubs, and Trees in M agic

In Elduayen (Elduain), they use the sap from reeds to cure warts. Then,
sprinkling a few grains of salt on the reeds, they place the mixture
underneath a pile of garbage. When the reeds have rotted away and the
salt has dissolved, the warts will disappear.22
In Bedia, they tie some reeds together in a bundle and place it
underneath a rock on a well-traveled road. They believe that when the
reeds rot, the warts will disappear.23
According to superstitions in Oyarzun (Oiartzun), a person who
has warts and wishes to cure them should pull up several reeds from the
ground with his hands crossed behind his back so he can’t see the plants
at the moment of uprooting them. Afterwards he must make the sign of
the cross with the reeds over the warts, then place them in the chimney
 Basque Mythology 73

of the fireplace where they will dry quickly. As the herbs dry out, the
warts will begin to shrink, then disappear.24
To cure the skin condition called herpes, the patient has to walk
around a rose bush every day for nine consecutive days, while repeating
this formula: Arrosa arrosakin— “ arrosa with roses.” This makes the
herpes disappear, according to the inhabitants of Andoain.25
It used to be the custom to take children suffering from arrosa to
visit the Virgin of the Rose who is worshipped in the parish church of
Santa Eufemia de Bermeo. M any of the sick who attended that church
would use a handkerchief to touch the part of the image that corre­
sponded to the afflicted limb and then touch the limb itself with the same
cloth. They would then place the cloth at the foot of the Virgin.26
In his work M edicina popular en el pais vasco, Ignacio M arfa
Barriola writes: “ In Goizueta we found this variation: at high noon,
three persons will stand around a rose bush with the sick child and,
beginning at the sound of the first bell marking twelve o ’clock, they
will pass the child from one to another while reciting: Arrosa arrosakin,
Arrosa arrosangana, Am a Santa Rosak eraman dezala beregana, ‘The
rose with the roses, the rose to the roses, may the mother Santa Rosa
take it aw ay with her.’ The event ends with the praying of the Creed,
an indispensable act of faith in so many similar rituals in which, truly,
faith is the principal ingredient.” 27
I have here a practice for curing hernias which can be observed in
Amorebieta (Zornotza) on the night of the 23rd to the 24th of June in a
grove situated beside the hermitage of San Juan. It must be performed
by two brothers born one after the other from the same womb. They
split the trunk of an oak tree with an ax and keep the two sides sepa­
rated by means of a chock. The split serves as the image of the hernia.
When the midnight bell begins to toll, one of the brothers takes the
person with the hernia in his arms and passes him through the opening
while saying “ Eutsi, Anaiye” (Take him, brother), and so delivers him
into the arms of the other. The latter receives him, saying, “ Ekatzu,
Anaiye” (Give him to me, brother), and immediately returns him to the
first brother around the outside of the trunk to the right (not through
the split) while saying “ Eutsi, Anaiye.” The first brother receives him,
answering, “ Ekatzu, A naiye.” This is performed three times as the bell
tolls midnight. They leave the shirt of the sick man hanging on the oak
tree and pull the two sides of the split trunk back together, tying them
with ropes. If the oak tree survives, the sick man will be cured, but if it
dies the hernia cannot be cured.28
In Sara, this ritual is performed by three individuals named Juan
Bautista. Meeting at a bent oak tree, they transfer the hernia victim
74 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

from hand to hand around the tree three times during the first and sec­
ond bells of the tolling of midnight on Saint Jo h n ’s Eve, saying: “ To,
Batista (Take him, Baptist); Ekar, Batista (Give him to me, Baptist); To,
Batista; Ekar, Batista.” This operation should be done without prior
notice so that the evil spirits who might interfere are not forewarned. A
son from the Arberua farmstead was the object of this operation in the
oak grove of Berrueta. M y informant from Ibarsoro-Behere swore that
a nephew of his was cured using this same procedure.
In Larraun, according to Azkue, two men named Juan participate.
The first says: “ Juanek uzten zaitu” (John leaves you). The other, receiv­
ing the herniated man, responds: “ Juanek artzen zaitu” (John receives
you). In Ulzama three men named Juan say the words “ To, Juan; Ar
Z ak , Ju an ” and “ Tori, Ju an ,” meaning “ Take him, Ju an .” In Ochandi-
ano (Otxandio), it is twin brothers named Juan and Pedro. This custom
is also known in Urbina (province of Araba), Aezcoa (Aezko), Roncal
(Erronkari), Donazaharre and in Barcus (Barkoxe). In this last region
the formula was “ To, Yohane; ekarrak, Y ohane” (Take him, Juan; give
him to me, Juan).29
These beliefs about the curative power attributed to the oak tree as
well as to Saint Joh n ’s Eve and to individuals named Juan, belongs to
the Indo-European thematic tradition, which attained wide currency in
the ancient world.30
The following practice observed in Sara belongs to the same circle
of ideas. When a wound becomes infected, they say this about it: “ ure ta
suak artua” (attacked by water and fire). In such a case, water is boiled
in a clay pot into which seven or nine pebbles have already been placed.
The pot is emptied by pouring its contents into a cauldron and placing
the pot upside down inside the cauldron so that it covers the pebbles.
Scissors open in the form of a cross are placed on top of the clay pot,
and two laurel branches also forming a cross are laid on the scissors;
a comb is placed on top of the laurel branches; the infected member is
placed on top of the comb. If the water retires, spontaneously entering
the pot, this means that the cause of the infection has been removed and
the infection will be cured.
In Oyarzun (Oiartzun), they use this procedure for infections and
for swellings that are caused, they say, by dizziness. They put five white
stones and five laurel leaves in the pot. The operation is repeated several
times, in uneven numbers.
In Lizarza (Lizartza) they practice the same procedure, but without
stones.
In a case from Donostia-San Sebastian cited by Don Ignacio M arfa
Barriola, the remedy for the “ dizziness” injury is carried out in an analo­
 Basque Mythology 75

gous manner, but using three laurel leaves and twelve white stones and
by placing scissors, a knife, and a comb crossed on top of the pot. The
injured member is held over the pot covered with a rag for ten minutes.
“ If the wound was caused by dizziness, the pot swallows the water from
the cauldron, and the steam attracts the inflammation.” 31

Animals in M agic

The male goat is considered a healthy animal that rarely becomes ill.
Because of this, in Ataun and in Sara it is said that his presence in the
stable guarantees the health of the livestock sheltered there.
In Ereno, there was an individual suffering from a heart condition.
A healer and seer (in Basque, astue) from M undaca was consulted, and
she ordered that two hens be killed. She tore the heart out of one of
them, and after sticking pins into it, she buried it, guaranteeing that the
man’s illness would fade aw ay as the hen’s heart putrified.32

Cranial Cavity and Teeth

In San Victor de Gauna, the skull of the saint has been preserved. The
pilgrims who climb up to the hermitage use it as a cup for drinking the
water they pour into it for the purpose of healing sicknesses of the head
or to prevent headaches. The same practice is observed in San Gregorio
de Sorlada.
The teething of children is encouraged, according to magical think­
ing, by wearing the teeth of a hedgehog (llodio) or wild cat (larrabezua)
or the tooth of a horse (bedia) around the neck.33

Sprinklings

According to magical thinking, a beneficial effect is attributed to cer­

tain symbolic operations. To make it rain in a time of drought, in some
towns they moisten the image of a saint by sprinkling it with water
or submerging it in a well. We have observed practices such as this in
Ataun, in Alsasua (Altsasu), in Astigarraga, etc.34

M agical A xe

To indicate where a lightning bolt (an imaginary Ceraunia or stone axe)

should strike and to keep it from striking a house during a storm, they
place an axe in the doorway with the blade pointing upward, accord­
76 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

ing to reports from M anaria, Llodio (Laudio), Urrialdo, Nafarrete

(Nafarrate), Elduayen (Elduain), Ataun, etc. This custom, which won
widespread acceptance among the Basque people in ancient times and
spread to many countries in Europe, is still practiced in some villages,
inspired by the spirit of magic.35

Simulated Sewing

The same spirit can easily be recognized in certain practices used in

cases of muscular distension. A rag is placed over the injured or afflicted
member. The rag represents that member. If it is a leg, a sock is placed
on it so that the imagery will be more perfect. Using a needle and thread
without a knot in the end, the person acting as magician perforates the
cloth several times as if he were sewing it. As he does this he prays the
“ Our Father” in reverse order. In M aruri-Jatabe they recite this for­
mula at the same time: “Z ain tiratu / Zain urratu / Zana bere tokian
sartu” (Damaged muscle, torn muscle, may the muscle be put back in
place). Gernika, Ajanguiz (Ajangiz), M aruri-Jatabe, Guerricaiz (Ger-
rikaitz), and Bedia form one of the focal points of this practice in our
country.36

Solstice Fires

On the night of June 23, Saint Joh n ’s Eve, in addition to the practice
noted above, a number of rituals also inspired by magical thinking can
be observed, for instance, the custom of burning sheaves of straw in cul­
tivated fields in the hope that such combustion will cause the burning of
the enemies of the crops planted there. In Larrabezua (Larrabetzu), they
carry a burning sheaf over the property, singing “ G ure soloan lapurrik
ez / Badago bere erre beitez / Pistiek, zapoak, sugeak erre, erre / Eta
peste txarrak erre, erre” (On our property no thieves / if there are any,
let them be burned / let the wild beasts, the toads, the snakes be burned,
burned / and the harmful pests be burned, burned). A similar custom
exists in Amorebieta (Zornotza) and in Oyarzun (Oiartzun).37
Finally, here we have a custom, considered to be a pantomime of
magical inspiration that I described in a work published in the year
1947 with the title of “ Calendrier traditionnel de Sare” (Ikuska, no. 3).
In Sara on St. Joh n ’s Eve they make a bonfire in front of each house or
at a crossroads. The inhabitants form a line and walk single file clock­
wise around the fire while praying the rosary. This custom, common
 Basque Mythology 77

throughout the Indo-European world, mobilizes the magical force that

keeps the sun on its annual course.38

Nam es and Things

Names are signs, generally the first signs or representations of things,

their audible images. According to Basque folklore, things are closely
connected to their names; everything has a name, it is commonly
thought. And vice versa— it is customary to say that every name is con­
nected to a thing: “ Izena duen guztia omen d a,” which means that there
isn’t any name that does not correspond to some reality, so that beyond
the world of our concepts and objects, nothing exists. The popular
phrase or saying regarding magical power and the attributes of witch­
craft, “ Direnik, ez da sinistu bear; ez direla, ez da esan bear” (One must
not believe they exist; one must not say they do not), is a compromise
between this belief and Christian faith.
It is natural that in an environment where the magical conception
of the world prevails, it is thought that by manipulating their names,
one can influence things themselves. Therefore, in our country it is com­
monly believed that a curse (in Basque, birao, birau) leveled against a
name affects the object it represents. In Sara they use the words birao
and otoitzgaxto to express this kind of anathema which, by virtue of
magical power or adur, brings sicknesses or misfortunes to the person
or animal named in the curse. Only the person who initiated the curse
can undo it. This is why they say that the person affected by a curse will
suffer for a long time and take a long time to die, because God cannot
receive the person until the one uttering the curse withdraws it.
Not long ago, a young man who came from Andoain got in an
argument with a laborer from Ataun. When he found out that the
laborer was suffering from lumbago, he told him: “ Y o u ’re suffering
this because of the curse I’ve leveled against you repeatedly over the
past few days.”
This form of magic is basically the same as that mentioned fre­
quently in medieval documents and which was commonly practiced
by the pagans before Christianity. Thus, M acrobius, in Saturnalia,
Book III, says that the Romans tried to keep secret the names of the
tutelary god of Rome and the Latin name of his city so that they could
not be evoked magically by their enemies. The same writer reveals the
formulae with which the Romans evoked the tutelary gods of the cities
they sought to conquer. Numerous examples acknowledging the magi­
cal power of names are documented in the book D ie magischen Heil-
78 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaràn

und-Schutzmittel aus der unbelebten Natur by S. Seligmann (Stuttgart,

1927).39

In the examples of magic described above, it is easy to discern the vari­

ous phases of a long cultural process. The ways of life in different pre­
historic periods have left their stamp. Indo-European culture has also
left its mark. Christianity and paganism are mixed together there, too.
Such examples permit us, on the other hand, to consider practices
of this kind as cases of social formalism, or rather, a regime in which
form prevails over substance. The person who simulates a cloudburst by
sprinkling water on the statue of a saint and then waiting for the saint
to bring the needed rain fulfills a formula, just as an initiate enacts a
formula— the delivery of a speech— to gain membership in a society, or
dons a uniform to demand a certain attitude from his fellow citizens.
One who preaches and recommends a behavior without practicing
it is content with the form. One who prays without focusing on the
words is merely satisfying the form. One who adjusts his conduct to
what has been sanctified by custom, behaving as others behave, is heed­
ing formulae in the clear expectation that they will produce their effect,
exactly as one utters a curse in the belief that the letter of his formula
will bring harm to his enemy. In social formalism we acknowledge the
truth of form a dat esse rei (form gives being to things). But with this
difference: in non-magical formalism, the quasi-mystical force that char­
acterizes magic— adur— is lacking; it is a laicization of magical rituals.
In both cases, however, there is an automatism comparable to that of a
mechanism of precision. In both cases man is seen entrusting his fate to
the form, to the formulae, fluctuating on the surface of social life. The
Basque calls this legea egin, fulfilling the law, keeping up appearances.
 TH E M YTH S

Beyond the conception of the physical universe or phenomena as some­

thing that obeys the normal interaction of natural agents, beyond magi­
cal concepts or fate, whose manifestations we have analyzed, a different
vision of the world is apparent in many beliefs and popular legends, a
world in which spirits or natural humanized forces play an important
part.

The W orld of Beliefs

The earth is known directly only in part, in the locale or region that
one has inhabited. Concerning the rest, in popular stories there are
only vague references, often legendary, which present it as something
immensely large, whose limitless surface forms a perceptibly horizontal
plane, with prominences of solid land formed by its mountains and with
the waters of the ocean.40
The surface of the earth is not immobile, for some regions rise, oth­
ers fall, and many mountains grow like living beings.41
Inside the earth there are vast spaces where rivers of milk run; but
these are inaccessible to man as long as he lives on the surface. There are
certain wells, pits, and caverns that connect with them, like the Urbion
well, the sinkholes of Okina and Albi and the Caves of Amboto, M uru,
and Txindoki. From subterranean regions such as these certain atmo­
spheric phenomena emerge, mainly storm clouds and hurricane-force
winds.42
The blue sky is called ostri. In it the stars move, sinking into the
“ scarlet seas” (itxasgorrieta) at sundown in order to resume their course
through the subterranean world. Thus, the sun, which during part of its
course lights the surface world, shines during the rest of its journey to
light the world beneath the earth.43 The Sun and the M oon are feminine
divinities, daughters of Earth, to whose womb they return every day
after their journey through the sky.44
The day is for the men who live on the surface of the earth. But at
night the earth belongs to the spirits and the souls of the dead for whom
the moon shines.
8o Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Folk wisdom distinguishes in man both natural (berezko) and

supernatural (aidetikako) attributes. Thus, there are sicknesses that
must be cured with natural remedies and others that can only be cured
by magic or through spells and prayers.
Ruperto Aurre, the sorcerer of Axanguiz (Ajangiz), who practiced
his art forty years ago in the region of Gernika, told me: “ There are phe­
nomena that can be affected by science: medicine, for example. There
are others that belong to the realm of the priest. And others fall within
my exclusive purview. I do not advertise my art; it is people who, when
the need arises, ask for my intervention; those who do not need me do
not call m e.”

The W orld and Its Destiny, the Cult of Etxe

According to the traditional conception still prevailing among the
people, a Basque person is bound to an etxe, “ house.”
Frequently the surname itself is the name of one’s place of origin.
The etxe is land and shelter, temple and cemetery, material sustenance,
symbol and common center of the living and the dead of a family. It
is also the community formed by those currently living in it and their
ancestors. Such are the attributes of the traditional Basque home that
now, with new ways of life, are being distorted and are vanishing.
Closely related to the etxe, the principal ways of life (which have
their expression in old laws and customs) and the entire mythological
and religious system that establishes and guarantees the communion of
the living and the dead were developed over centuries.45
The conceptual world of the historical Basque, then, revolves
around the etxe, which in turn pursues an ideal: to permit each indi­
vidual to live without sorrow and without pain in harmony with those
around him in communion with his ancestors in this life and the other.

The Etxe Is a Temple

It is of course a sacred place protected by the fire of the hearth— symbol
of a spirit called Andra-M ari— that has supernatural virtues: sacred
because of the laurel growing in the garden or kept inside the house;
because of various branches of hawthorn, ash, and flowers related to
the solstice; because of the flower of the wild thistle, symbol of the sun;
because of the axe and the hoe that are endowed with mystical powers;
because it is the dwelling of spirits of ancestors or a place frequented
by them; because of the perennial offering of light for the souls by
 Basque Mythology 8i

keeping the hearth fire lit according to a ritual prescription or require­

ment of providing light for the dead even if it is only a single straw;
because of the practice of placing pious offerings of food intended for
the dead members of the household on a shelf outside the windows;
because of the ancient custom of constructing the houses so that the
main entrance faces the rising sun; and, finally, because the house is the
family cemetery.
The sacred character of the house seems to be confirmed by the
yarleku or sacred space that each house maintains in the parish church
and which is considered an extension of the house and an integral and
inseparable part of it. In that space, a number of functions are per­
formed, such as the recitation and chanting of liturgical responses, the
offering of votive candles, food, and money in honor of the deceased
members of the household.46 There, just as in the home, souls are
invoked to help the living members of the family with their needs. Thus,
the yarleku seems to be a case of adaptation of an ancient indigenous
custom to the requirements of the Christian liturgy and vice versa, and
the cultural functions performed today in that space are a reflection of
those practiced in the house itself prior to the introduction of Christi­
anity into the country. Add to this the custom, still practiced in some
places, that when the male heir of a house marries, the new bride is
incorporated into the home of the husband, joining the community of
his ancestors and offering candles and loaves of bread in the yarleku of
her new house. In ancient times, apparently, this was done in the house
proper, as is evident in the custom observed in Soule where the servant
who comes to work in the house walks several times around the hearth
of the house so that she becomes acclimated to her new dwelling.47

The Etxe Is a Tom b

Each house has— or used to have— its burial ground beside the par­
ish church, or inside it, in which case the tombstone covering it is the
corresponding yarleku. In either case, it is an inseparable part of the
etxe. This is why in sepulchral inscriptions as well as in those of the
yarleku the house it belonged to was indicated. This is how it appears
in the following inscriptions from Sara: Lecabeako thombac, 1838,
“ burial grounds of the Lezabea house” ; Harizmendico yarleckhva, 1824,
“ belonging to the house of Arizmendi, 1824.”
But before the introduction of Christianity, the house itself had to
serve as the family tomb. And the offerings to the dead were celebrated
in it. There are still vestiges of this, as cited above, especially in the prac­
82 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaràn

tice still observed in our time of burying unbaptized children beneath

the eaves of the house or in the baratz, the “ garden beside the house” ;
the belief, stereotyped in popular refrains, that the person whose con­
duct strays from Christian norms should, at death, be buried under the
eaves of his own house; or the custom of lighting candles and depositing
offerings (food or money) for the deceased of the house on the window
frames, that is, on the baratz or supposed domestic cemetery, in the
belief that those candles watch over the dead, actually lighting their w ay
in their life underground and that those offerings— or the nutrition they
contain— are consumed by their souls; the belief that people should not
walk three times around the house, implying that this is equivalent to
the parish church and cemetery, which are subject to the same beliefs,
etc.48
The close relation between house, church, and parish cemetery is
confirmed through a similar mystic process by the sacred character of
the road connecting them, called elizbide, gorputzbide, ilbide, kutze-
bide, erribide, andabide, etc., depending on the town. Each house has its
own which may be shared in whole or in part with other houses. Along
this road— generally in a place where a crossroad is formed— they burn
the straw mattress49 of the death bed of the person whose funeral ser­
vices are being observed in the church at the same time; in this rite— in
front of the door of the deceased’s home— they construct the ritual fire
around which the funeral cortege gathers and prays on returning from
the burial service, a practice still common in many towns in Lower
N avarre.50
From the foregoing, we understand that the traditional Basque
house is an institution of economic, social, and religious character held
together by a family consisting of the current inhabitants in communion
with the souls of ancestors, an institution responsible for continuing a
tradition and carrying out indispensable religious functions. This has
led to the etxe or house being regarded as inviolable, endowed with
the inalienable right of sanctuary, to be passed on whole and undivided
within the fam ily.51
As the etxes are sacred enclosures and centers of convergence for
the living and the dead, they are all considered equal, which no doubt
contributed to the development of feelings of respect toward the houses
and their inhabitants. In effect, all of them are equal and equally
inviolable; and their inhabitants are also equally respectable, temporary
representatives of equal institutions, endowed with identical rights and
sacred duties in all of the houses. Anyone who violates such norms and
goes against such feelings can fear being afflicted by one of the terrible
diseases caused by the spirits.
 Basque Mythology 83

These characteristics, more or less distorted by the profound trans­

formation of life occurring in the twentieth century, which are still
apparent in Basque houses in rural areas, were even more noticeable
during the time of the fueros (old Basque laws). Thus, the sacred right
of sanctuary characteristic of temples in antiquity was acknowledged
for the home by Basque law. According to the Fuero of Bizkaia (third
law of Title 16), no Basque could be imprisoned for any debt that was
not directly or indirectly the result of a crime, nor could his house be
forfeited, nor his weapons and horse taken, even if by written agreement
he had renounced his noble status. And in the same Law it is forbidden
for “ any executor or arbiter to come within four arm’s lengths of the
house of a Basque against the will of its owner, except with a scribe and
without any weapon and for the sole purpose of making an inventory of
the executable property.” 52

The Cult of the Home

From the foregoing it should be clear that the personages to whom the
domestic cult is directed are the souls of ancestors. These are conceived
as lights and as gusts or blasts (Basque, indar) of wind. But in some
places, mainly in Bizkaia, they are considered to be ghosts. The word
designating this concept is gerixeti, used in that region. E rio , which is
the character that represents death, separates them from their bodies.
From that moment on their ordinary dwelling place is the underworld,
as suggested in the popular tales from the most ancient times. However,
they return frequently to the surface at night, especially to their etxe,
in order to help their living family members, to consume offerings, to
amuse themselves in their respective homes, and to settle accounts that
were left unresolved at the time of their death. The roads traveled by
the souls, if we go by certain legends, are certain mysterious galleries
that connect each home with the subterranean world. Certain pits and
caverns in the rural areas are considered passageways through which
the souls come and go. According to legend, such passageways surface
in hearths or kitchens, especially in the most ancient houses. Thus, it is
said that the houses of Gaztelu in San M artin de Arberua, Eiheraxaharre
or M olino in Ezpeleta, Jauregia in the same town, Ermintatxiki and
Sales in Elduayen (Elduain), Andralizeta in Ataun, Semeola in Alzola
(Altzola), Egana in Aizarna, Agorrosin in Vergara (Bergara), Salturri in
Mondragon (Arrasate), Aldabazar in Aldaba, etc., are in communica­
tion with pits and caves frequented by souls and spirits.53
84 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

When the souls rise to the surface to make some request or demand,
they make themselves known by appearing in the form of a light, a
cloud, a shadow, a black figure, or through strange noises. A soul
appearing in this w ay is called argi, “ light,” in Labourd and Navarre,
heotsegile, “ thunder,” in Soule, izugarri or izuargi, “ sacred light,” in
Ataun and gerixeti in a number of places in Bizkaia. There are places
where they are called arimaerratu, “ wandering soul.” 54
The foregoing data and observations reveal to us that among the
traditional concerns of the Basque people, concern for the souls of their
ancestors has high priority. It has inspired and continues to inspire
much of their religious life, affecting many aspects of their economic
and social life (the ownership of the house and its undivided transmis­
sion within the family) as well as their legal system.

Ministers of the Domestic Cult

The house, then, is endowed with a markedly religious significance; it is

both cemetery and temple, its cult administered by those living in it.
The etxekoandre, “ lady of the house,” is the primary minister of
this religion. It is she, in effect, who performs certain cult functions,
such as offering candles and food to the deceased members of the house,
blessing the members of her family once a year, indoctrinating all the
members of the family in their obligation to maintain a communion
with their ancestors, to respect their elders, and to carry out the duties
imposed by the neighborhood. She represents the house in the yarleku it
possesses in the parish church, as well as in the burial ground, presiding
over the functions and sacred rituals held there on various occasions.55
When the etxekoandre or some other woman of the family cannot
attend such ceremonies, she is replaced by the andereserora, a woman
whose primary function is to perform these ceremonies in the parish
church. The andereserora, then, is a kind of priestess who represents
and fills in at church for the etxekoandre or other ministers of the
domestic cult within the parish.
All of this has no doubt increased the appreciation and consid­
eration in which women have been held. For this reason a woman
has frequently been named heir to the house with preference over her
brothers.
Regarding the status of women during the time of the fueros, it
should be noted that in choosing the heir it was customary to follow the
order of nature, and it was the first-born— male or female— who suc­
ceeded the parents in running the house, though it was possible for the
 Basque Mythology 85

parents to alter this order.56 Here we have a situation contrary to the

privileges which feudal law, in accordance with Germanic law, granted
only to males in other European countries.
The esteem in which ancient Basques held women probably influ­
enced the preeminent role a woman played in several important aspects
of family life. She stayed at home, cultivated the fields, and guaranteed by
her presence and her labor the continuity of the home, while her husband
herded the flocks in the seasonal movement from mountains to plains, or
was away from home meeting the demands of his life as a sailor or fish­
erman. In these circumstances it was she who was able to carry out the
functions of the domestic cult, which elevated her dignity and prestige,
thereby enhancing the wom an’s social and political condition.

The W orld of the Gods

Alongside the souls of ancestors, a number of mythological figures are
in constant motion, more or less related to the former and almost all
linked to natural phenomena of the physical world. These are spirits,
numina, and names, points of convergence of images and themes. Some
themes are indigenous, and others— the majority— are derived from for­
eign cultures and mythologies that gradually became incorporated into
the tradition of the Basque people in different epochs of their histori­
cal development. Listed below are some names of spirits classified into
groups, depending on the qualities and functions generally attributed
to them.
Gauargi, Gaueko.
Iruztargi, Ieltxu, Iritxu, Idittu, Iditxu.
Inguma, Gaizkina, Gaixto, Aideko.
Mamarro, Galtxagorri.
Saindi-M aindi, Maide, Mairi, Intxixu.
Lam in, Lam in, Lam inaku, Lam i, Amilamia, Eilalamia.
Sorgin, Belagile, Sorsain.
Basajaun, Basandere.
Torto, Tartalo, A nxo, Alarabi.
Odei, Mikelats, Frakazar, Eate, Ereeta.
Erensuge, Edensuge, Iraunsuge.
Maju, Sugaar, Sugoi, Culebro.
Txaalgorri, Zezengorri, Beigorri, etc. (spirits in animal form).
Mari, Yona-Gorri, Lezeko-Andere.
Eguzki-Am andre; Illargi-Amandre and his mother Lur.
Ostri, Ortzi, Urtzi.
86 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Gaueko

Since the house is the family temple, one feels protected there, even dur­
ing the night, especially between midnight and the cock’s crow when
the spirits rule over the earth. During the night and outside the house
a person is not in his element; “ Eguna egunezkoarentzat; gaua gauez-
koarentzat,” “ the day for creatures of the day, the night for creatures of
the night” is a popular saying. “ The creature of the day” is man; “ the
creature of the night” is Gaueko. The latter, then, is the night spirit or
night personified, who does not allow men to perform certain actions
after the ringing of the Angelus. In particular, it punishes those who
pretend to be brave in the darkness of night, boasting that they are
not afraid of the lack of visibility, the solitude, and the silence of those
hours.
There are a number of legends related to this idea, leading to the
conclusion that it is foolhardy to challenge the Gaueko.57
Gaueko is thought to be the devil in some folk tales, and in others
to be a pagan or a pagan divinity. Sometimes it appears in the form of
a cow, and in one tale from M otrico (Mutriku) it is represented in the
form of a lion.58
Gauargi is the name used, in the region of Regil (Errezil), to
designate a spirit that appears at night in the form of a light shining
above prominent objects such as trees, cliffs, and houses. In its origin
it was probably the guardian of the night or night itself personified as
Gaueko.

Ieltxu

Ieltxu is the name given, in the region of Gernika, to a certain nocturnal

spirit appearing in human form, according to some, and in the form of a
bird shooting flame from its mouth, according to others. It is generally
identified in the dark of night as a burning flame. It appears suddenly
out of nowhere, inspiring fear. It is not evil, but takes pleasure in lead­
ing anyone who follows it out of curiosity through gullies, to the edge
of precipices and other dangerous places. The usual dwelling places of
this spirit are caves, chasms, and wells. The well in Busturia and a pit in
Nabarrizmendi are pointed out as dwelling places of Ieltxu.59
 Basque Mythology 87

Inguma

Inguma is an evil spirit that appears at night in houses when the inhab­
itants are asleep. It squeezes the throat of some of them, making it dif­
ficult for them to breathe, causing them unspeakable anguish.
In order to ward off attacks by this spirit, in the region of Ezpeleta
it is customary to chant this magic formula upon retiring for the night:

Inguma, enauk ire bildur,

Jincoa et A ndre Maria
Artzentiat Ingun;
Zeruan izar, lurrean belar, Kostan hare
Hek guziak Kondatu arte
Ehadiela nereganat ager.

I’m not afraid of you, Inguma,

I have God and Mother M ary
To protect me.
Stars in the sky, grasses on the ground, grains of sand on the shore,
Until you have counted them all,
Do not appear to me.

In Sara they chant this formula:

Ingumes erromes,
Ez niok ire beldurrez.
Jesus diat aita,
Am a Berjina Ama,
Zeruko Saindu ta A'mgeru guziak guarda.

G reedy Ingumes,
I ’m not afraid o f you.
I have Jesus as my father,
The Virgin M ary as my mother,
A ll the saints and angels in heaven as my guardians.

Similar to Inguma is Aideko, thought to be responsible for all ill­

nesses whose natural causes are unknown. Blamed also is Gaizkine
who, by forming the shapes of a rooster’s head with the feather from
the pillow, causes serious illness to the person sleeping on it. Only by
burning these figures can the illness be cured.
All along the Pyrenees there are beliefs related to this spirit.60
88 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaràn

M am arro

M am arro, Galtxagorri, and other names are used to designate one

or several tiny spirits in human form— in insect form, according to
some— who help certain men in their work. Four of them fit inside a
pincushion, and they live inside the one belonging to the person they
are protecting. People who work wonders or extraordinary deeds, like
the azti, “ sorcerers,” sorgin, “ w arlocks,” and some healers and sages,
are thought to have enlisted the help of M am arro or Galtzagorri, whom
they have invited to live inside their pincushion.61

Maide

Maide is also a nocturnal spirit that comes down the chimney into the
kitchen to receive offerings that have been left there at bedtime by those
who live in the house. In Mendive (Mendibe), they call it Saindi-Maindi,
“ Saint M aide.”
In Soule, they attribute the construction of cromlechs to this spirit;
in Mendive (Mendibe), the building of dolmens found in the region.
In the region of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (Donibane Garazi), they call a
dolmen M airi-Etxe, i.e., the house of M airi, which must be one of the
forms of the name M aide, or else M ari, the name of another spirit we
will discuss later.
Intxixu is the spirit to whom they attribute the making of crom­
lechs in the region of Oyarzun. It is, therefore, Maide himself under a
different name. The same function has been associated also with other
mythical names, such as Sorgin, Jentil, and Mairu.
Maide is a masculine entity. His feminine counterpart is the
lam ing1

Lamin

Lam in, Lam i, or Lam inaku is generally a spirit in the shape of a

woman, except that her legs are like those of a hen. In Ceanuri (Zea-
nuri), Orozco (Orozko), and Elanchove (Elantxobe), she is thought to
be like a tiny woman with just one eye in the middle of her forehead.
The name lamin is rarely used as the proper name of a specific
spirit; in most cases it is a common name applied to all the spirits of
a certain type whose characteristics are those already mentioned, such
as dwelling in caves, wells, and ancient castles that have now been
abandoned.
 Basque Mythology 89

They frequently busy themselves washing and combing their hair.

There are stories in which a lamina angrily demands the return of a
comb someone has stolen from her. A lamina and two young men who
were courting her appear on a tombstone in Ibernalo, as some residents
of Santa Cruz de Campezo (Santikurutze Kanpezu) told me when they
showed me that monument there around the year 1932.
They demand offerings. If a farmer leaves them some food on the
edge of his property, the laminas will eat it during the night and, in
return, plow the field or finish the w ork that had been left unfinished
on his property.
The legend of the lamina from Kobaundi (Mondragon/Arrasate) is
famous: how she falls in love with a young peasant; how he succeeds in
determining the age of the smitten numen; of the sorrow, sickness, and
death of the young man on discovering that his beloved is not a human
being; and of the sorrow of the lamina, and so on.63
The plow, drawn by oxen, made the laminas disappear. According
to others, the construction of rural hermitages was the cause of their
disappearance.

Sorguin

This is one of the names used to designate witches. Another name is

Belagile, very common in Soule. Another is Sorsain, which means protec­
tor of childbirth, no doubt because it is the spirit that presides over the
birth of children. It also keeps jealous watch to see that belief in its exis­
tence is preserved by the people, severely punishing those who deny it.
Sorguin is also the name of the persons who used to convene in
witches’ sabbaths or akelarres in ancient times. But this meaning seems
to be more recent.
In its primitive sense, Sorguin seems to be a nocturnal spirit that
frequently lives in caves. Its power in the world is effective between
midnight and first cock’s crow.
It belongs to the family of the goddess M ari and performs certain
functions under her orders, such as collecting tithes, taking them by
force from people who try to cover up their wealth through lies and
deception. It was they who built the most ancient bridges in the Basque
Provinces.
Their disappearance has been attributed to the construction of
Christian hermitages; but today it is more common to say that it was
Eibar that exterminated their race, alluding by this to the introduction
of firearms.64
Anthropomorphic stele from Saint-Michel.
Stele from Sorhapuru, on which the deceased appears to be represented.
92 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Baxajaun

Baxajaun, lord of the forest, is the spirit that dwells in the deepest part
of the forests or in caves situated in prominent places. It has a tall body
in human form, covered with hair. Its long hair falls forward down to
the knees, covering the face, chest, and stomach. It is the guardian spirit
of flocks. It cries out in the mountains when a storm approaches so that
the shepherds can move their flock into the fold. When Baxajaun is in
the vicinity of the fold, there is no danger of the w olf approaching. Its
presence is announced by the sheep with a simultaneous shaking and
jingling of their bells. Then the shepherds can fall asleep peacefully,
knowing that during that night or day the wolf, the great enemy of
flocks, will not come around to bother them.
Baxajaun is sometimes represented as a frightening creature, of evil
character, endowed with colossal strength and extraordinary agility. On
other occasions it is depicted for us as the first farmer from whom men
learned the cultivation of grains and as the first blacksmith and the first
miller from whom man stole the secret of the making of the saw, the
axle for the mill, and the forging of metals.65

Torto, Anxo

Torto, A nxo, and Alarabi are the names of a Cyclops or evil spirit with
a single eye in its forehead. It usually lives in caves.
Torto, whom they call Tartalo in the Cegama region, appears in the
most terrifying stories in Basque homes. It kidnaps some young person
or captures someone forced by a storm to take refuge in his cave, then
draws and quarters him, roasts him on the fire and eats him. There are
cases, however, in which the captive manages to destroy the eye of the
Cyclops or contrives a w ay to deceive it and escape from its control.
Because of the theme and the details of the myths related to Torto,
and even because of the name Tartalo, we cannot but compare this
spirit with Polyphemus, whom Homer describes in his Odyssey.66
The myth of Torto shows up in a number of places in the Basque
Country. In Ataun, for example, the cave of M uskia is said to be the
scenario of atrocities by the Cyclops. Another place mentioned in the
legend is Tartaloetxeeta, “ dwelling place of Tartalo,” located on Mount
Saadar (Cegama (Zegama)), where there is a dolmen, the supposed den
of the frightening spirit.
 Basque Mythology 93

Erensugue, Iraunsugue

In Basque mythology one of the most important spirits is Erensugue,

also called Iraunsugue, Edensugue, Ersugue, etc., depending on the
locale. It appears in the form of a serpent, as the second part of its name
suggests: sugue means “ snake, serpent.”
In some myths, this spirit is presented with seven heads; in others,
with only one.
Its most famous dwelling places are the cave of Azalegui or Ert-
zagania (on M ount Ahuski), the chasm of San Miguel de Excelsis (in
Aralar), Faardiko-harri (in Sara); Orduna Peak, the cave of Balzola and
Montecristo (Mondragon (Arrasate)).
It attracted the livestock of Ahuski and other mountains with its
breath and ate them, according to the legend of Alzay (Altzai).
When it lived in the chasm of Aralar, in that of Montecristo, and
on Orduna (Urduna) Peak, it fed on human beings.
In Espeleta (Ezpeleta), they say that when the seventh head forms,
it bursts into flames and flies swiftly toward the region of Itxasgorrieta,
or the red seas of the setting sun, where it sinks. It makes a frightening
noise when it passes through the air. In Alzay (Altzai), they say that a
son from Z aro Castle (now destroyed) poisoned it. Then the serpent
started to burn and, wrapped in flames, flew toward the ocean, using its
tail to cut off the tops of the beech trees in the forest of Itze, “ Arbailles,”
as it passed overhead.
In M ondragon (Arrasate), they claim that a resident of that village
killed it.
According to the legend of Orduna (Urduna), it was an angel
who cut off its head. The legend of Teodosio of Goni is more explicit,
describing in detail how the Archangel San Miguel finished off the ser­
pent of Aralar with his sword.67
Topics related to Erensugue led to the formation of several folk
tales that were echoed by some writers, for instance, Agustm Chao
[Chaho] in his description, “ Le serpent du Valdextre” (in Biarritz, entre
les Pyrénées et l’océan (Biarritz between the Pyrenees and the Ocean)
(Bayonne, 1855) p. 176) and Juan E. Delmas in his Gm a histôrica descrip­
tiva del viajero en el Senorio de Vizcaya (Descriptive Historical Guide
for the Traveler in the Seigniory of Bizkaia) (Bilbao, 1864).
94 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaràn

Sugaar

The name Sugaar means culebro, “ male serpent.” In the region of

Ataun, they say that Sugaar frequently crosses the firmament in the
shape of a fiery sickle. Its passage is the sign of an approaching storm.
It is believed that Sugaar lives underground, coming to the surface
of the earth through the opening of certain sinkholes, like those of Aga-
munda and Sugaarzulo of Kutzeberri, located in Ataun. It also lives in
the cave of Balzola (Dima), where it is known by the name of Sugoi.
Sugaar or other spirits that live in the sinkhole of Agamunda punish
children who disobey their parents.
In the region of Azcoitia (Azkoitia) they call this spirit M aju, and
say that it is the husband of the mythical character M ari, whom it joins
every Friday, or whose hair it must comb on Friday evenings, as they
believe in Zarauz (Zarautz).
In his Crònica de siete casas de Vizcaya y Castilla (Chronicle of
Seven Houses of Bizkaia and Castile) (1454), Lope G ard a de Salazar said
that this Sugaar or male snake is the creature that was a devil called
Culebro (snake) in Bizkaia. He was lord of the house and his union
with a princess from M undaca (Mundaka) produced the first prince of
Bizkaia, Jaun Z u ria.68

Beigorri

O f particular importance in Basque mythology are a number of spirits

that take on the form of animals, mainly the horse, the bull (Zezen-
gorri), the small red cow (Beigorri), the ram, the sheep, the male goat,
the female goat, the pig, and the dog. They usually live in caverns and
they have a limited function as guardians of such places.
They do not allow anyone to enter their dwelling place. In certain
cases they kidnap young people who have been the target of some curse
and hold them captive in their underground dens.
In the Roman period this underground mythology must have been
as widespread in our country as it is today, for in the caves of Isturitz,
Santimamine, Sagastigorri, and Covairada we have found Roman coins
that, in keeping with the custom of that time, had been thrown into such
places in order to win the protection of cave spirits.
It is useful to recall that the same figures that are situated by Basque
mythology in caverns also appear painted or engraved by men of the
Magdalenian period and earlier on the walls of some of the caves of our
country.69
 Basque Mythology 95

Lur

The earth (lur) is considered to be the mother of the sun and the moon.
It is also regarded as an immense receptacle, the habitual dwelling place
of souls and of most of the numina and other mythical characters.
The earth possesses the vital force that is the basis of the plant
kingdom. The human organism envigorates that vital force by means of
certain formulas or magical expressions and assures the conservation of
livestock if some animals are offered or sacrificed to the earth.
Additionally, the earth holds treasures, according to widespread
belief. Mountains and caves are identified in which a cowhide filled
with gold is guarded, but the coordinates of the exact place where such
a treasure can be found are never precise. H ow often have peasants
excavated in vain in Urrezulo in Ataun, or the cave of Mairuelegorreta,
or on M aruelexa peak (Navarniz (Nabarniz)) or the ravine of Larrune!
Or in the caves of Balzola (Dima), or Iruaxpe (Goronaeta (Goroeta))
and Putterri!
The treasure— a golden bell, a skein of gold, a chest of gold— is in
the Urbasa mountain range, in a place where the sheep graze every day.
Barely beneath the surface of the earth, the hoof of a sheep grazing there
touches it and will uncover it at any moment.
Gold was buried in Munoeta (a place also known as “ Caesar’s
C am p,” near Cambo (Kanbo)). There was a sword marking the spot,
but it disappeared and now the gold cannot be found.
There is also treasure buried on Mount Larte, facing the Berastegui
(Berastegi) church; at a spot on Mount Udalatx where the rays of the
sun strike directly at noon; on Mount Erenusarre, on Mount Goikogane
(Arrancudiaga (Arrankudiaga)), on Igozmendi (Aulestia (Aulesti)); on
Iruna hill (a Roman ruin); on Mount Aralar; on Mount Ariz (Leiza
(Leitza)); in a cave in the Oyarzun (Oiartzun) mountains, from whose
mouth can be heard the crowing of the rooster from the Berdabio farm;
at a place on M ount Saibei, near Urquiola (Urkiola), from which you
can see the light of the lamp from the sanctuary, etc.
The greed of those who hope to become rich digging up these
treasures will not prevail. This is because of a taboo whose observance
is enforced by the spirit of the earth, as occurred in the mountains of
Irukutzeta and Auza and in the fields of Arranzelai (Echalar (Etxalar)).
Without a doubt, the spirit of the earth was the intended recipient
of the prayers of many worshippers who in ancient times deposited
their offerings (mainly coins) in the caves in hopes of winning favors
from her. And apparently the origins of a number of hermitages either
built in caves or converted from caves were connected to this cult, as
96 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

was the practice of reciting prayers at the entrance to certain caverns

in this country. In the Sanctuary of San Miguel of Aralar, at the right
side of the altar, there is a hole that, according to legend, communicates
with the chasm over which that church is built. Pilgrims put their heads
inside it while reciting the Creed. They say this keeps them from hav­
ing headaches. A similar practice is observed in the hermitages of San
Esteban of Usurbil, Our Lady of Zukinaga (Hernani), San Juan Bautista
of Orio, and San Pedro of Cegama (Zegama).70

M ari

There is a spirit (of feminine gender, like most of those connected with
Basque mythology) that has managed to absorb many functions that
have been attributed to various mythical entities in other countries. She
is believed to hold sway over the other spirits. Among the components
of her current names, the most ancient seems to be M ari. This word,
which in some parts of the country means senora (lady) and in this sense,
apparently, is applied to the mythical character of which we speak, is
accompanied by the name of the mountain or cavern where, accord­
ing to the beliefs of each town, the spirit is accustomed to appear. In
Amezqueta (Amezketa), they call her T xin doki’ko M ari’e, “ the M ari of
Chindoqui” ; in Ataun, M ari-m unduko, “ M ari of M uru or M undu.” 71
We will simply refer to her as M ari, as did the shepherds of Urquiola
(Urkiola) in the meadow of Zabalundi at the foot of Mount Amboto
who told me, while pointing at one of the caves on that mountain: “Ara
or Marijen ko bia,” “ There’s the cave of M ari.”
It is possible that the word M ari owes its origin to the Christian
name M arfa (Mary), but we should not discard another possible origin.
It should be noted that another name for the same spirit is M aya, which
seems to be related to the name of her husband M aju. Judging by the
functions attributed to him, this spirit must be the same one that Lope
G ard a de Salazar called “ C ulebro” or Serpent (father of Jaun Zuria),
who is still called Sugaar, “ Serpent,” in Ataun, and Sugoi, which has the
same meaning in Dima. The name M ari may also be related to M airi,
M aide, and M aindi, names used to designate other mythical characters,
even though the themes linked to these spirits are different.
Forms of Mari — The legends attribute feminine gender to M ari.
She is frequently presented to us in the form of an elegantly attired lady,
as we are told in the stories from Durango, in which she appears, more­
over, holding a palace of gold in her hands. She is presented in similar
fashion in legends from Elosua, Bedona, Azpeitia, Cegama (Zegama),
 Basque Mythology 97

Renteria (Errenteria), Ascain (Azkaine), and Lescun. In this last place

they say she wears a red gown.
She also appears in the form of a lady seated in a carriage drawn
through the air by four horses (Amezqueta (Amezketa)).
In Zaldivia (Zaldibia) she has been seen in the form of a woman
shooting out flames.
As a woman engulfed in fire, stretched out horizontally in the air,
passing through space (Bedona).
In the form of a woman trailing a fiery wake, sometimes dragging a
broom, at other times chains, depending on the noise that accompanies
her passage (Regil (Errezil)).
As a lady riding a ram (Cegama (Zegama) and Onate (Onati)).
As a large woman whose head is haloed by a full moon (Azcoitia
(Azkoitia)).
As a woman with feet like a bird (Garagarza (Garagartza)).
As a woman with goat feet, according to the Livro dos Linhagens
by Count D. Pedro de Barcellos.
In the form of a male goat (Auza del Baztan).
In the shape of a horse (Arano). In the shape of a heifer (Onate
(Onati)).
M any people from Cegama (Zegama) have seen her in the form of
a raven in the cave of Aketegi.
She and her companions appear in the form of a vulture in the great
cave of Supelegor on Mount Itzine, according to legends of Orozco
(Orozko).
As a tree whose trunk resembles a woman, or a tree shooting out
flames on all sides (Onate (Onati)).
At times she reveals herself as a gust of wind (Escoriaza
(Eskoriatza)).
As a white cloud on other occasions (Durango, Ispaster (Ispsaster)).
Sometimes they have seen her in the form of a rainbow.
She has often been seen passing through the air in the form of a ball
of fire (Onate (Onati), Segura, Orozco (Orozko)).
She often adopts the form of a fiery sickle (Ataun, Cegama
(Zegama), and Zuazo de Gamboa).
In the grotto of Zelharburu (Bidarray (Bidarrai)) she is represented
by a stalagmite resembling a human torso.
Despite the variety of forms attributed to M ari in mythic accounts,
all agree that she is a woman.
M ari usually takes on zoomorphic forms in her underground dens,
and other forms on the surface of the earth and when she passes through
the sky.
98 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

The figures of animals, like the bull, the ram, the male goat, the
horse, the serpent, the vulture, etc., mentioned in mythical accounts
related to the subterranean world, thus represent M ari and her subordi­
nates, that is, the earthly spirits or terrestrial forces to which the people
attribute the phenomena of the world. The changes of form mentioned
in various myths confirm this idea.
Dwelling Places of Mari — The usual dwelling places of M ari are
regions situated in the interior of the earth. But these regions commu­
nicate with the terrestrial surface through various conduits, which are
certain caverns and chasms. This is why M ari makes her appearances
in such places more frequently than in others. In this regard, a number
of caverns have been identified where the numen has allowed herself
to be seen on occasions that people still remember. These are, among
others, the caves and chasms of Balzola (Dima), Supelaur or Supelegor
(Orozco (Orozko)), Amboto, A txorrotx (Escoriaza (Eskoriatza)), Zal-
diaran, Aketegui (Cegama (Zegama)), Agamunda (Ataun), Murumendi
(Beasain), M arizulo (Amezqueta (Amezketa)), Obantzun (Berastegui
(Berastegi)), Odabe (Alsasua (Altsasu)), Akelarre (Zugarramurdi), Lei-
zia (Sara), Zelbarburu (Bidarray (Bidarrai)), Azalegui (Alzay (Altzai))
and Otsibarre (Camou (Gamue)).72
It is commonly believed that the rooms where M ari lives are richly
adorned and that they are filled with gold and precious jewels. In the
cave of Aketegui the beds are made of gold (Cegama (Zegama)).
A legend from Cenarruza (Ziortza-Bolibar) tells how M ari gave one
of her captives a handful of coal and that, afterwards, it turned into pur­
est gold when it was taken out of the cave.
In the cave of Otsabio there is a young bull made of gold (Lizarza
(Lizartza)). And in Zarauz (Zarautz) they say that M ari unwinds thread
from a golden skein. In Amezqueta (Amezketa), too, they say that M ari
keeps a skein of gold in Aralar.
The lady (Mari) of the grotto of Arrobibeltz (Ascain (Azkaine)) sits
on a golden throne.
In front of the cave of Otsibarre (Camou (Gamue)), a golden comb
was found which was thought to belong to a red bull (Mari) that shel­
ters within the cave.
On the other hand, according to a legend in Zarauz (Zarautz) in
the cave of Amboto where M ari appears frequently, there are objects
that seem to be made of gold; but when taken outside they turn into
rotten sticks.
M ari moves from place to place (Manaria): she lives in Amboto
for seven years, then seven in Oiz and seven in M ugarra. In Amezqueta
 Basque Mythology 99

(Amezketa), they believe she lives for several seasons in Aralar, a few
more in Aizkorri and another few in Murumendi.
The Family of Mari — In many Basque myths M ari is regarded as
the leader or queen of all the spirits that inhabit the world.
In a legend from Azcoitia (Azkoitia) it is said that M ari has a hus­
band named M aju, who appears in a form similar to hers. When the two
come together, it causes a furious rain and hailstorm. M aju seems to be
the same spirit they call Sugaar, “ male snake,” in Goyerri (Goierri). He
is a character rarely encountered in present-day Basque mythology. In
a legend from Zum aya (Zumaia) they say he visits M ari on Fridays at
two in the afternoon.
Sugaar seems to be that devil from fifteenth-century Bizkaia who,
according to the account in the Crònica de siete casas de Vizcaya y Cas­
tilla (Chronicle of Seven Houses of Bizkaia and Castile) (1454), mated
with a princess from M undaca who gave birth to a child who became
the first lord of Bizkaia. In effect, G ard a de Salazar writes that a daugh­
ter of the King of Scotland came to M undaca with her servants and that
“ they established their home there and that while she was there, a devil
whom they call Culebro, or Lord of the House, in Bizkaia came and
slept with her in a dream and impregnated her and . . . the princess was
impregnated and gave birth to a son, who was a very beautiful man of
strong body and they named him Don Zuria, which in Castilian means
Don Blanco (White).” 73
Sugoi is the name of the serpent in the cave of Balzola (Dima),
whose legend incorporates one of the themes of the account about the
origins of the lords of Bizkaia.74
A number of legends originating in Ataun, in Villafranca de Oria, in
Arano, etc., allude to the marriage of M ari with a mortal. The version
from Ataun tells how, having married a young man from the farm of
Burugoena in Beasain, M ari had seven sons. As she was not a Christian,
she did not baptize them. But her husband tried to take her to the village
church along with her sons. Then, engulfed in flames, M ari flew to the
cliffs of Murumendi, saying: “ N e umek zeruako, ta ni oain M uruako,”
“ M y sons to the sky and now I to M uru,” and she entered her ancient
home through the cave in the side of that mountain.
In certain legends, two daughters of M ari are mentioned; in others,
only one lives with her in her dwelling. Finally, in other legends, two
sons are mentioned: Atarrabi and M ikelats— the former, good; the lat­
ter, evil.
The preceding account is a variation of a legend that was collected
at the beginning of the sixteenth century by the Count Don Pedro de
Barcellos, in his Livro dos Linhagens (Book of Genealogy, fourteenth
100 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaràn

century) about the origins of the lords of Bizkaia. Referring to Don

Diego Lopez de Haro, he writes the following:

Don Diego Lopez de H aro was an excellent mountain man, and

one day when he was in his blind waiting for the wild boar to
come, he heard a woman on a crag singing in a very loud voice;
and he went toward her and saw that she was very beautiful and
very well dressed, and he fell madly in love with her, and he asked
her who she was, and she told him that she was a woman of
very distinguished lineage, and he said to her that since she was a
woman of distinguished lineage he would marry her, if she wanted,
because he was the lord of that land; and she said she would, but
on the condition that he would promise never to make the sign of
the cross, and he agreed to that condition, and then she went with
him. This lady was very beautiful and her body was in every way
perfect except that she had one foot like that of a goat.
They lived together for a long time and had two children, a
male and a female, and the son was called Inigo Guerra.

Count Don Pedro then adds that one day Don Diego Lopez de
Haro made the sign of the cross when he was eating with his family and
that his wife immediately “ jumped out the window of the palace with
her daughter and went toward the mountains, so that they never saw
her or her daughter again.” 75
Certain stories present M ari, in her numerous appearances, as if she
were not a single numen or divinity, but one of several sister goddesses.
Thus, they say in M arquina (Markina) that M arije-Kobako, who makes
her appearances in the cave of Kanterazar and who has the same attri­
butes as the goddess of Amboto, is the sister of the latter and that the
two of them visit each other from time to time.
The trait of multiplying characters as a result of the plurality of
their dwelling places corresponds to an elemental tendency that also
appears in the case of the Virgin M ary in her various functions. Thus
some popular accounts present the Virgin of Aranzazu (Arantzazu),
the Virgin of Liernia, and the Virgin of Antigua of Zum arraga, etc., as
sisters and not as manifestations of the same Virgin. It is not unusual
to say that the Virgins are seven sisters: zazpi aizpatxo dira euskaldun
Birjinak (the Basque Virgins are seven sisters).
The foregoing beliefs and myths suggest that M ari and her mythical
husband M aju or Sugaar fall into the category of ancestors, since they
are thought to be the forebears of the house of the Lords of Bizkaia.
 Basque Mythology 101

Mari’ s Female Captive — In addition to the innumerable spirits

M ari has in her entourage, a female captive sometimes appears in her
cave. Some legends say she is the daughter of the Irabi farm (Amezqueta
(Amezketa)). Others say she is from the Iturriotz farm (Mutiloa), the
Palasio farm (Abadiano (Abadino)) or the Bixinaa farm (Aramayona
(Aramaio)).
This captive is also called M ari. She was reduced to such a condi­
tion or state for various reasons. In some accounts it was in fulfillment
of some promise or agreement made by her mother. Thus, a woman
from the Sarri region (Berriz) made a vow to give her daughter to M ari,
and to fulfill her promise she sent her to tend her cows in the meadow of
Sarrimendi, near the cavern of the local spirit. Then the spirit captured
her and took her to her den.
On other occasions she is captured because of a curse by her mother.
There was a young girl [named Mari] from the Irabi farm in Amezqueta
(Amezketa). One day a red calf went missing. M ari was charged by her
mother with the task of finding the calf, but she refused to do so. Then
her mother put a curse on her, saying: “ The devil take you, if you don’t
bring her back.” Then the young girl went out looking for the calf. A
red cow appeared before her in the countryside. M ari thought it was
hers, and went and grabbed it by the tail. And the supposed cow, which
was really the devil or M ari of M arizulo, took her to the cave of Txin-
doki up on Larrunarri peak (in the Aralar mountains).
A girl from a household in Cegama (Zegama) used to spend hours
combing her hair, which made her mother very angry. One day she
cursed the girl, saying: “ I hope a thousand lightning bolts carry you
aw ay!” The girl disappeared instantaneously. Later she appeared in the
form of a human skeleton to a shepherd near a cavern in Aizkorri and
explained to him how she had been captured because of her mother’s
curse.
In M utiloa they also tell how a young girl was kidnapped under
similar conditions. A shepherd subsequently saw a luminous gust of
wind enter a cave. It was the vanished girl.
In other legends there is no mention of the curse or the promise.
M ari simply overpowers a girl who comes near her cave. A girl was
taken in that manner to the cave of Gabaro located near M arquina
(Markina). M ari kept her there for several years, spinning thread. She
trained her with great care and then let her go, giving her a handful of
gold.
A young girl from Bidarray (Bidarrai) was grazing her herd of sheep
on Iduskimendi Mountain. One day she disappeared. Her relatives and
neighbors looked for her in vain for a long time; nothing was known
102 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaràn

about her. On numerous occasions at night, in the region of Iduski-

mendi, a voice was heard crying out: “ A go! A g o !” “ Wait! W ait!” The
people were afraid. One night a luminous gust of wind appeared in the
air, like a star, moving toward the cliffs of Zelharburu, and then it went
into a grotto located there. The next day the neighbors went to explore
the cave, and there, deep inside, they found the young girl, turned to
stone. Today it is known by the name of A rpeko Saindua, “ the saint of
the cave.”
Attributes and Functions of Mari — In Cegama (Zegama) they
say that M ari frequently lets herself be seen in the kitchen of her cave,
seated beside the fire, fixing her hair. In Onate (Onati), they’ve seen
her spinning thread. Others have seen her sitting at the entrance to her
cave, combing her hair. In Goyaz (Goiatz) they say she spends her time
unwinding thread by the door to her dwelling in Murumendi, especially
when the sun is shining and there are storm clouds in the sky. In Zuazo
in Gam boa they say that M ari makes balls of yarn with golden thread in
her cave of Amboto, winding it around the horns of a ram. In Aketegui
(Aketegi) she does her laundry on Wednesdays and bakes bread on Fri­
days; a small cloud of smoke at the mouth of that cave announces those
activities. The residents of Ipaster, when they see a cloud on Mount
Otoyo, say that M ari has lighted her oven.
According to accounts in Onate (Onati) and Arechavaleta (Aretxa-
baleta), when M ari is in Amboto, it always rains heavily; when she is in
Alona, there is a persistent drought. In Orozco (Orozko) they say that
when she is in Supalur, there is an abundant harvest.
M ari is the forger of storms. In Oyarzun (Oiartzun) they say that
she forms them on Aralar and on Trinidademendi. In Cegama (Zegama)
and other villages in Goyerri (Goierri) they say she hurls them forth,
either from Aketegui cavern or from Murumendi cavern. In Arano they
say she sends them forth from a chasm in M uguiro, and that on those
occasions she crosses the sky in the form of a horse. In Gorriti they
believe that M ari pulls storm clouds out of a cave in Aralar. She draws
forth storm winds from a well situated near the bridge of M ai-M ur,
according to legends from Leiza (Leitza). In many towns of Araba they
believe that such winds and clouds come from the chasm of Okina. In
Cuartango (Kuartango) they say they come from Lake Arreo. In villages
of the Rioja you frequently hear people say that they come out of the
Urbion well. In the region of Lescun they say that Yona-G orri— M ari—
who lives on Anie Peak (Aunamendi), hurls them forth from her cave.
In Tolosa they say that M ari crosses the sky seated on a horse-drawn
chariot during storms, directing the clouds. The mere appearance of this
spirit usually signals the next storm.
 Basque Mythology 103

M ari rewards the faith of those who believe in her. Some travelers
who wanted to cross the mountain of Atxorrotx, in Escoriaza (Eskori-
atza), found themselves instantaneously at the end of their journey, a
miracle that they attributed to their belief in that spirit.
M ari helps those who invoke her. If someone calls out her name
three times in a row, saying Aketegiko Dama, “ Lady of Aketegui,” she
perches on their head, as they say even today in the region of Cegama
(Zegama).
On a number of occasions, someone asked advice of M ari and her
predictions turned out to be accurate and beneficial. Thus, the iron­
monger of Iraeta saw that his foundry was not working and presented
himself to M ari in the cave of Amboto. She explained the cause and
the remedy for the malfunction, and the ironmonger was able to get his
factory working again. A similar case occurred in the foundry of Zubil-
laga, and thanks to the oracle of Amboto, production was able to start
up again.
In the fourteenth century she must have been consulted in difficult
times, as implied by an event related in the aforementioned L ivro dos
Linhagens by Pedro de Barcellos. In it, we read the following:

After some time this Don Diego Lopez went out to do battle
against the M oors, and they captured him and took him prisoner
to Toledo. And his son Inigo Guerra was very upset about his
imprisonment, and he went to consult with the earth spirits about
how they could get him out of prison. And they said that they did
not know of any w ay except to go into the mountains and find their
mother (the mysterious lady of the mountain whom Don Diego
Lopez de Haro had married) and ask for her advice. And he went
there alone, riding his horse, and he found her on top of a peak,
and she said to him: “ M y son Inigo Guerra, come to me, because I
know well why you have com e.” And he went to her and she said:
“ Y ou come to ask me how to get your father out of prison.” Then
she called to a horse that was running free on the mountain by its
name, saying to him Pardal, and she put on the bridle and told her
son not to use any force to unsaddle it or unbridle it, and not to
feed or give it water to drink or shoe it; and she told him that this
horse would last him for the rest of his life, and that he would never
ride it into any battle that he would not win, and that he should
mount it and that he would arrive that very day in Toledo in front
of the door of his father’s prison, and that he should dismount there
and, finding his father in a corral, he should take him by the hand,
and pretending as though he wanted to speak with him, he should
104 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

gradually lead him to the door where the horse was waiting, and
that when they got there they should both climb on and before
nightfall they would reach their home. And so it was.

The motif of the mysterious transporting of Don Diego Lopez de

Haro from the prison of Toledo to Bizkaia on M ari’s horse appears
today in the village of Dima (Bizkaia), where a soldier from the Iturrion-
dobeitia farmstead was transported instantaneously from the faraway
land of the M oors by the magic of Sugoi or Culebro that lived in the
cave of Balzola.76
The Cult of Mari — A person who makes an offering to M ari each
year will not see hail fall on his crops (Cortezubi (Kortezubi)). The best
offering that one could make to her was without a doubt to take a ram
to her cave. In many legends this animal appears to be M ari’s favorite.
In a legend from Aya (Aia) they speak of the ups and downs
that took place on a pilgrimage the shepherds made to M ari’s cave in
Amboto to keep hail or other storms from harming their flocks.
According to another legend, on M ay 3 the people of Muguiro
(Mugiro) would march in a procession to one of M ari’s caves located
not far from there, and the village priest would celebrate M ass at the
entrance. The legend adds that if M ari was in the cave during the cer­
emony, no hail would fall in the region during the following year.
It is also said that the priest of Isassondo (Itsasondo) would climb
up to Murumendi once every seven years to celebrate M ass in front of
the cavern where M ari appears.
In the grotto of Arpeko Saindua (Bidarray (Bidarrai)), every year
they celebrate a pilgrimage on the day of the Trinity. The petrified
young girl who is worshipped there is invoked in cases of skin and eye
diseases, and she effects her cures through the water that drips along the
surface of that stalagmite statue. Her devotees make offerings of candles
(which are burned in front of the supposed image of the saint), coins
and crosses, and even articles of clothing that were worn by the sick
person, which are placed in that same cave mentioned above.
The custom of depositing coins in the caves as offerings meant for
the spirit living there was widespread in pre-Christian times. As for the
Basque Country, Roman coins have been found in caves in Isturitz (Iztu-
ritze), Santimamine, Sagastigorri, and Covairada. What the worship­
pers do today in the grotto of Zelharburu (Arpeko Saindua), therefore,
seems to be a carry-over from pagan times.
In other places in the country as well, something similar is prac­
ticed, not in caves, however, but out in the open. Thus, in the Aralar
mountains, when a shepherd loses a sheep, he offers a gift of money to
 Basque Mythology 105

Saint Michael and puts it on top of the peak called Amabirjina Arri,
“ Stone of the Virgin M ary,” located near the meadow of Igaratza.
In the fourteenth century the lords of Bizkaia would deposit the
entrails of a cow on a peak in Busturia as an offering to their ancestor
M ari. The afore-mentioned Count Don Pedro de Barcellos attests to this
in his book, Livro des Linhagens, as follows:

In Bizkaia they said and still say today that the mother of Inigo
Guerra is the witch or caster of spells of Bizkaia. And as a sign of
sacrifice to this spirit, whenever the lord of Bizkaia is in a village
called Vusturio, all the entrails of the cows killed in his house are
placed outside the village on a peak, and the next morning nothing
is to be found, and they say that unless this was done harm would
come during that day and night to one of the squires of his house or
to something of his that would cause him great distress. And until
the death of Don Juan the One-Eyed, the lords of Bizkaia always
observed this practice, and some people tried to see what would
happen if this were not done, and bad things happened.

Proper Behavior in the Dwelling of Mari — A person wishing to

consult M ari or visit her must follow certain rules, these being:
1) Y ou must address her with the familiar pronoun tu (you).
2) Y ou must leave her cavern in the same w ay you entered, that is, if
you entered facing inside, you must also leave facing inside (walk­
ing backward). This rule is similar to that followed, traditionally,
when the soul of a dead person approaches you, to wit: always keep
it in front of you.
3) Y ou must not sit down while in the dwelling of M ari.

Commandments of Mari — This spirit condemns lying, theft, pride,

and boasting, failure to keep one’s word, failure to respect others, and
failure to help others. Those who disobey are punished by the depriva­
tion of loss of what they lied about, or stole, or boasted about, etc. It is
a common saying that M ari supplies her pantry at the expense of those
who deny what is and those who affirm what is not: ezagaz eta baiabaz,
“ with denial and with affirmation.”
A shepherd was pasturing his flock of sheep in Murumendi. He
got thirsty and started wandering around the mountain in search of
a spring. He approached the mouth of a cave and there he saw an
elegantly dressed young woman who asked him: “ What are you looking
for, good m an?”
 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaràn

“ I’m looking for something to quench my thirst, young m iss.”

“ Water? Y ou must mean cider.” Immediately, that young lady held
out a beautiful jug full of cider and gave it to the shepherd to drink. As
soon as he tasted it, he said:
“ Excellent cider. What kind of apples is it made from ?”
“ With the apples that Lord Montes of Ikasteguieta gave to n o,”
answered the young girl of the cave, implying by this that they were
apples whose existence their owner had denied.
There’s a proverb that says: Ezai emana ezak eaman, “ What is
given to no, no takes aw ay.” Ezai eman, “ to give to n o,” is to deny the
truth and fail to help others.
Sanctity of Mari’s Dwelling Place — Anyone who enters the cav­
erns of M ari without being invited or who improperly takes something
belonging to her is immediately punished or threatened with punish­
ment. A boy who stole a golden canteen that was lying beside the cave
of Amboto was taken from his house that same night, disappearing
forever.
Some hunters who threw stones into the chasm of Gaiztozulo,
which is one of the dwelling-places of M ari in the Onate (Onati) region,
were immediately carried aw ay by a gust of wind and a cloud that came
out of the chasm.
A woman stole a golden comb from the cave of Otsibarre (Camou
(Gamue)), and on that same night some property or a field belonging to
her was completely covered with stones.
Punishments and Spells — M ari frequently punishes disobedience
by causing the delinquents inner turmoil. She also punishes by taking
something that belongs to the guilty parties. If they are shepherds, M ari
takes one of their rams.
The most extravagant punishment that M ari sends to villages is
hail. She herself or her son M ikelats launches storm clouds from the
subterranean world, and she herself or some subordinate spirit, Odei
and Eate among them, directs them from valley to valley and from
mountain to mountain.
According to several legends, to avoid hailstorms and other disas­
ters, in ancient times people resorted to the celebration of masses and
casting spells beside the mouth of certain caverns.
If you cannot prevent the formation of the storm, there remains the
tactic of counteracting it through gestures and magical formulas. When
a man from Ipinizar (Ceanuri (Zeanuri)) saw a storm cloud approach­
ing, he rolled into the palm of his left hand an herb called uztai-bedar,
“ rainbow herb” or Rum ex Crispus, and with his right hand he signaled
to the storm the direction it should take. In this way, like others who
 Basque Mythology 107

practiced the same spell in other regions, he kept the hailstorm from
falling in his neighborhood.
There are some people who believe they are endowed with magical
powers and who use certain phrases consecrated by tradition to address
the storm spirit (Mari or her subordinates Odei and Eate), sometimes
using gestures to signal where rain should fall and where it should
hail.
Lightning and thunder are phenomena attributed to M ari or her
subordinates. To keep lightning from striking a house, it is customary
to place an axe in the doorway with the blade facing up. It is thought
that lightning is a polished stone (Neolithic axe) or a piece of flint hurled
by the storm spirit. The name oneztarri, “ lightning stone,” used to des­
ignate lightning in the Gernika region, is derived from this belief. This
stone or Neolithic axe is considered a symbol of lightning that protects
the house where it is found against the harmful effects of the fearsome
meteor. But since the Neolithic axe is not well known, today the steel
axe is used as an antidote against lightning.
The sickle is the symbol of M ari. It is known that M ari crosses the
sky in the form of a fiery sickle, according to certain legends and beliefs.
Therefore this instrument is considered a shield against lightning in
some regions of the Basque Country and is affixed to the end of a pole in
front of the house during storms, to keep lightning from striking there.
From everything we have said about M ari, it can be ascertained that
this spirit constitutes a thematic nucleus of or point of convergence for
numerous mythic themes of different origins: some of Indo-European
origin, others of pre-Indo-European origin. But if we consider some
of her attributes (the control of terrestrial forces and of subterranean
spirits, her identification with various terrestrial phenomena, etc.) we
are inclined to consider her as a symbol— perhaps a personification— of
the earth.77

Akerbeltz

Among the representatives or substitutes for the subterranean spirit

M ari, there exists a figure and a name who managed to concentrate
around himself a fairly important group of beliefs and practices. We
refer to the figure of the male goat and his name Aker.
In addition to his general characteristics which include living in
subterranean regions, having power over many spirits, causing storms,
etc., the numen called Akerbeltz has healing powers and a beneficial
 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

influence on animals commended to his care or protection, an influence

he exercises through his mortal symbol, the male goat.
Therefore in some houses, in an effort to prevent the livestock from
being stricken by some disease, they raise a male goat in the stable,
and it must be black, that is, akerbeltz, “ black male goat,” in order to
enhance its beneficial effect.
Basque witchcraft, which had such great resonance in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, endowed this ancient representation of the
subterranean numen with particular notoriety. Undoubtedly, within
the Basque mythological system, this was merely an episodic event,
blown out of proportion through the focus on witchcraft simmering in
every country at that time, more intensely in the minds of intellectuals,
inquisitors, trial judges, and judges of autos da fe than among the simple
village people of Sara and Zugarram urdi. But in the statements of those
accused of witchcraft, there are frequent allusions to Akerbeltz, a black
male goat, and to the Akelarre, where the goat presided over covens of
witches.78
Akerbeltz or a spirit in the form of a male goat was worshipped (or
thought to be worshipped) in the Akelarre by male and female witches
on M onday, Wednesday, and Friday nights. Those attending danced
and offered loaves of bread, eggs, and money to the numen. Judging by
the description of certain actions and beliefs attributed to them in autos
da fe, it could be said that they represented a clandestine movement con­
stituting a crystallization of the opposition against Christianity as well
as against the reigning social order officially recognized in the country,
though this may have been little more than an attitude planted in the
minds of the supposed witches by the questions of their judges.
A number of sites have been identified as places for the gathering
of witches: the Akelarre in Zugarram urdi, Larrune (Larrun), Jaizkibel,
Irantzi (Oyarzun (Oiartzun)), Pullegui (Pullegi) (Oyarzun (Oiartzun)),
the M airubaratza (cromlech) of Ameztoia (Oyarzun (Oiartzun)),
M andabiitta (Ataun), the Akelarre of M anaria, Garaigorta (Orozco
(Orozko)), Petralanda (Dima), Eperlanda (Mugica (Muxika)), Aker-
landa (Gauteguiz of Arteaga), Abadelaueta (Echaguen (Etxaguen)),
Urkiza (Penacerrada (Urizaharra)), etc.
The Akelarre of Zugarram urdi is a plain located in front of the
entrance of the cavern called Akelarren-Leze, “ cave of the meadow of
the male goat.” It is believed that in that site and in that cavern witches
gathered in ancient times. In the vestibule of the cave, slightly above
the level of the floor, there is a small opening in the wall like a window
which, according to legend, is the seat where, in the form of a male goat,
the devil received the male and female witches.
 Basque Mythology 109

The same cavern has on the eastern side another wider entrance
called Sorginen Leze, “ cave of the witches.” Here, each year on the
fourth day of the festival of the village’s patron saint (August 15) they
celebrate a traditional ceremony organized by the elders of the commu­
nity. For this ceremony, two of the elders buy one or two rams on the
morning of that day, slaughter them inside the cave, and roast them on
a bonfire which they light on the spot. At noon the old people of the
village gather in the cave and distribute the roast meat and eat it with
bread and wine. Each one pays for his fair share. Afterwards, linked
together by their hands or by handkerchiefs, they all form a long file and
leave the cavern. They continue in this w ay until they reach the home
of the priest, where they dance, and then they move to the town square
where they dance the sokadantza (a line dance).
The numen Akerbeltz, who appears mainly as a protector of cattle
and a leader of witches, may have an antecedent in the pre-Christian
Pyrenean spirit Aherbelste. Sacaze, in his w ork Inscriptions antiques des
Pyrénées, says of the latter: “ D ’après un linguiste, Aherbelste signifierait
bouc dans son radical, et noir dans sa terminaison” (According to a
linguist, Aherbelste would mean “ mouth” in its root, and “ black” in
its ending).79

Ekhi

In Basque, the sun is called by the names eguski (Tolosa), iguzki

(Sara), eguzku (Roncal), ekhi (Liguinaga (Liginaga)), and iki (Bardos
(Bardoze)).
In Ataun, they call the solar light euzki and the star euzkibegi, “ eye
of the sun.” In Berâstegui (Berastegi) they call the star Jainkoaren-Begi,
“ eye of G o d .”
In some villages they greet the sun by saying agur, “ goodbye,”
when she is in the West. In the region of Vergara (Bergara) they address
it, “ Eguzki amandrea badoia bere amangana,” “ Grandmother Sun
is going home to her mother,” implying that she is retiring into the
bosom of the earth. The sun is regarded, therefore, as the daughter of
the earth.
In the region of M anaria they say that the mother of the sun is
Andre M ari, meaning the Virgin M ary. But earlier in that region the
name Andre M ari may have been used to refer to the earth herself per­
sonified, that is, to the numen M ari, as is still the case in several villages
in Gipuzkoa and Navarre.
no Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

The epithets “ blessed” and “ holy” are applied to Grandmother

Sun. In Rigoitia (Errigoiti), when she is about to go down in the West
they say to her, “ Eguzki santa bedeinkatue, zoaz zeure am agana”
(Holy, blessed sun, go to your mother).
In addition to her natural attributes, the sun possesses the ability to
frighten aw ay evil spirits that exercise their power in the world at night.
Certain kinds of witches are frozen in place if they are surprised by the
sun before they put aw ay the tools of their trade. There are categories of
lamias that lose their power and their influence on men as soon as they
are touched by the rays of the sun. One lamia left her golden comb at
the entrance of the abyss of M ondarrain. A shepherd picked it up and
carried it away. The lamia followed him down the mountain, demand­
ing her comb. She almost had him in her hands when the first rays of
the sun peeking over the horizon touched the clothing of the shepherd.
Then the lamia said this to him: “ Eskerrak emaitzok Iuzkiari” (Give
thanks to the sun), and she withdrew into her cave.
Beliefs and Rituals of the Solstice — Given the sacred character
of the sun in the conceptual world of the Basques, it is not surprising
that many beliefs and customs of Indo-European solar mythology have
become associated with the idea and with the word used to refer to the
diurnal star in the Basque Country.
Thus, certain solstice festivals here have the characteristics of a
solar cult. It is said that the sun comes up dancing on Saint Joh n ’s morn­
ing; that baths taken on this morning and the morning dew on this day
keep you from getting sick during the year; that branches of hawthorn,
ash, hypericon, flowering fern, etc., placed in the doors and windows,
and flowers and herbs laid down as a carpet at the threshold of the
main door to the house on that day protect the home against lightning;
that flowers gathered for Saint John, used to make an infusion, serve
to cure certain illnesses, etc. Belonging to the same group of customs is
the practice of making bonfires in front of houses and at crossroads on
Saint Joh n ’s Eve; the practice of jumping through these fires to avoid
skin diseases; the practice of all the members of the family chanting
prayers together while circling the fire, always with the fire on their left;
the custom of taking handfuls of herbs lit in these fires to sown fields
in order to frighten aw ay evil spirits and avoid plagues and infestations
in crops; the practice of planting the so-called tree of Saint John in the
public square, a tree that must not be reclaimed by its owner even when
it has been dug up against his will; the wearing of crowns of evergreens
and herbs by pilgrims visiting certain hermitages of Saint John; the cus­
tom of passing people with hernias three times through a split formed
in an oak tree to heal the condition, etc.
 Basque Mythology Ill

Other rites are still practiced at the winter solstice by the Basque
people. Among these are the fires that are still lit at the end of the year
in some villages; the Gabonzuzi, or Yule log, the trunk that is burned in
the fireplace at Christmas; the purification of domestic animals by m ak­
ing them walk over that log; the ritual blessing of bread on Christmas
Eve by the father of the family; the gathering of the first moisture that
falls after midnight on N ew Y ear’s Eve.
Circles, Swastikas, Thistle Flowers, and Other Symbols — On
monuments of popular Basque art we frequently see certain signs that
seem to represent the sun and that probably had their origin in the solar
cult: signs in the form of a simple circle, concentric circles, wheels with
rectilinear and curved radii, pentagonal stars, swastikas, oviform signs,
rosettes, etc.
The most ancient of these monuments discovered so far date from
the Roman epoch. Examples are the funerary stone of Urbina in Basabe
on which is engraved a wheel with curved radii; those of Ibernalo
(Santa Cruz de Campezo (Santikurutze Kanpezu)) and of the Institute
of Vitoria with rosettes; the tetraskelion or lauburu [traditional Basque
symbol] in the Pamplona museum, the stone of Santa Cara, etc.
Although in historical periods these signs have been used frequently
as mere decorative elements, there are cases in which they have repre­
sented the sun in the consciousness of their sculptors, even in our day.
We could offer no other interpretation to the figures of wheels, rosettes,
circles, etc., associated with figures of the moon or which are paired
with the moon on various monuments from the Middle Ages as well as
from modern times.
Here it is reasonable to ask what is the value and precise meaning of
the solar symbol in the Basque cultural environment or traditional w ay
of thinking. In many cases it is a simple decorative motif; such is the lot
of all symbolic figures. But the fact that they are sometimes substituted
for the radiated circle of the monstrance (Iduski-Saindu, “ holy sun” ),
whose religious meaning cannot be questioned as it is the receptacle
used to expose the consecrated Host to veneration by the faithful, leads
us to attribute sacred meaning to the solar symbols in Basque art.
The character of the solar symbol that the Basque peasant of our
day places over the main door of the house may also contribute to our
understanding of the meaning of these emblems. We refer to the flower
of the wild thistle (Carlina acaulis). It is designated by several differ­
ent names, one of which is eguzkilore, which means sunflower, and it
represents this star in the mind of those who use it. Placed in the same
location occupied by the circle of the monstrance or the rosette or the
solar wheel in some ancient houses and regarded by the current inhabit-
112 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaràn

ants as a representation of the diurnal star, it performs the same mysti­

cal functions attributed to the sun. It is believed, for example, that the
sun frightens away evil spirits, and a certain kind of witches, a certain
category of lamias; the same power is attributed to its symbol, that is,
the flower of the wild thistle. That is why this flower is nailed above the
door: to prevent the intrusion of evil spirits, witches, and the numina of
disease, storm, and lightning.
Through what has been said, then, we can glimpse the sacred char­
acter and meaning of this symbol in its different forms of natural flower
(thistle), rosette, cross with petal-shaped arms, etc.
Considerations based on solar mythology must have influenced the
genesis of the custom, practiced even in our day, of orienting buildings
so that the principle façade faces east, a custom whose traces are still
seen in old houses in Sara, Ataun, and other regions. The huts of shep­
herds are oriented the same w ay in many sheepfolds, and in Ataun we
have heard it said that this is healthier for the shepherd.
In medieval tombs, the east-west orientation (head facing west and
feet facing east) is common. And in Neolithic dolmens we find the same
custom, which in this case must correspond to the same solar beliefs and
myths as in other countries.80

Ilazki

The moon is called illargi, iratargi, iretargi, idetargi, ilazki, argizai, and
g oiko, depending on the region.
It is possible that the name illargi, which according to some means
light of the dead (from il, “ dead,” and argi, “ light” ), is related to
the belief that the moon illumines the souls of the deceased. It is also
believed that w ax, whose name argizai coincides with one of the names
of the moon, provides light for the ancestors in the family sepulcher.
On the other hand, it is possible that the names iretargi and idetargi
are etymologically related to the names of the nocturnal spirits Ireltxu,
Iritxu, Iruztargi, and Idittu, whose apparitions are mentioned in several
legends of Bizkaia. But these linguistic speculations do not yet allow us
to reach firm conclusions in the area of our mythology.
According to popular belief, the fate of souls of the dead is related
to the moon. This seems to derive from the belief that dying during the
w axing moon is considered to be a good omen for the soul in the after­
life. But it is problematic whether the name argi, used to refer to the
souls of the dead, has any relation with the names of the moon.
 Basque Mythology ii3

The moon is of feminine gender and is referred to that w ay in

phrases addressed to her. She is called grandmother, as is the sun.
When she rises over the eastern mountains, they say: “ Illargi amandrea,
zeruan ze berri?” “ Grandmother M oon, what news from the sky?” In
M anaria, they told us that, according to popular belief in that region,
the mother of the moon is the earth.
She has, in a certain way, a sacred character, since in some places
they teach the children that the moon is the face of God, and in others
they pray a Salve Regina when they see her rise.
In Cerain, they greet the moon, saying: “ Illargi amandre santue,
Jain kok bedeinkautzala; nere begi ederrak gaitzik ez deiola; ikusten
duen guzik ala esan deiola,” “ H oly Grandmother M oon, may God bless
you; may my astonished eyes bring no harm to you; may all who see you
speak to you in the same w ay .”
It seems that one day a week— Friday— was consecrated to her:
Ostiral (from the root Irargi, “ m oon” ) which means Friday, pairs up
with Ostegun (from Egu, “ diurnal light” ) meaning Thursday. One of
the names for M onday— Ilen— seems to be also related to the name of
the moon, as is Sunday— Igande— which corresponds to the full moon.
The magical objects that may have belonged to bewitched persons
must be burned on Friday in the moonlight at a crossroads. Friday is the
day of choice for gatherings of male and female witches.
In certain villages, it was customary to go out into the moonlight to
dine on soups made from millet.
As in many other countries, here too they attribute to her an influ­
ence over plants and animals, different influences according to the
phases of the satellite. Thus, it is thought that the tree cut down when
the moon is waxing (especially at low tide) gives good combustible
wood, while one cut down in the waning moon gives off little heat; that
people or animals conceived when the moon is waxing are of the mas­
culine sex, and those conceived when the moon is waning turn out to be
female; that when the moon is waning you should cut trees whose wood
is to be used for constructions and the making of furniture and tools.
Regarding the effects of the cutting down of trees, Friday (on occa­
sion, also Wednesday) is equated with the waning of the moon. For
other cases it is equated with the waxing.
Wheat, corn, and potatoes should be planted while the moon is
waning. If these are planted when the moon is waxing, the plant grows
larger but the grain is smaller and less abundant. This drawback can
be avoided, however, by making sure that the planting is done at low
tide.
114 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Certain operations are contraindicated on Fridays as well as on

holidays. For example: starting an important job, taking the flock to the
mountain, extracting honey from the hives, hiring servants or persons
for permanent service and bringing them into the home, getting mar­
ried, cutting fingernails, going to mass or carrying out a purification
ceremony.81

Urtzi, In

Among the myriad of Basque names, beliefs, and myths there are
numerous elements from Indo-European mythology, for example, those
referring to the celestial divinity— that is, the deified firmament.
According to the itinerary of Aymeric Picaud, contained in a
twelfth-century codex from Santiago de Compostela, in that period the
Basques used the word Urcia to refer to God. It is possible that in this
case Picaud misinterpreted what the Basques said to him and that Urcia
no longer had the meaning he attributed to it. But that term seems to
be an element, as the name of a divinity, in several words that have
maintained their religious content down to the present day. I refer to
words used to express the light from the sky, the firmament, lightning,
thunder, and the dawn, such as urzondo, “ daw n,” orzondo, “ daw n,”
iurtziri, “ noise from the sky, thunder,” ortzi, “ brightness in the sky,”
ortziri, “ thunder,” ostiri, “ firmament,” ihuzturi, “ lightning, thunder,”
ozkar, “ thunder.” In these words, the roots urz, urtz, ortz, ost mean the
light from the sky or the deified firmament to which they dedicate a day
of the week— Thursday— as derived from its Basque name Ortzegun
(from ortz, “ sky” and egun, “ day” ). In this the Basques followed the
procedure of the ancient Indo-Europeans, not only because they too
came to identify the divinity Dyeus, “ sky,” with the spirit of thunder
and lightning, but also because they dedicated the day Thursday to the
sky or to the light from the sky, which was the supreme divinity.
From the above we can deduce that a divinity called Urte, Orte, or
Ost, the personification of the sky or celestial light, was worshipped by
the Basques. They attributed the formation of storms to that divinity,
as is seen from the Basque names for thunder, lightning, lightning-bolt,
and hail. Thus, several names come to mind, such as ortziri and ortzantz
(the sound of ortz); ozme, “ lightning,” ihuzturi, “ lightning-bolt, thun­
der,” ozti, osti, “ storm.”
It is possible that another name for this divinity was Egu, since in
several regions of the Basque Country, Thursday is called Eguen, which
seems to mean “ from celestial light” or “ from the sun.”
 Basque Mythology 115

From some of the names for lightning, thunder, and hail it can
be inferred that the sky was also referred to by the word in. Thus, the
word for “ thunder” in Ataun, inusturi, corresponds to ortziri; “ thun­
der” is ozkar in Arratia, ozkarri in Zum arraga, but mar in Esteribar,
while “ lightning-bolt” is inhar in Labourd and inhaza is “ lightning”
in Tardets (Atharratze). Belonging to this circle of names are inhazu,
“ lightning, lightning-bolt,” inetasi, “ hailstone,” inistue, inizitue, “ light­
ning bolt,” inatazi, “ hail,” inastura, “ lightning, lightning-bolt, rain of
stars,” indriska, “ cloudburst,” intz, inontz, “ dew.” In each of these the
root in occupies the place that the roots ortz, urtz, and ost, all of which
mean “ sky,” occupy in words with analogous meanings. It is possible
that this old root served to form the name Inko, which is used today in
some regions of the Basque Country for the name of God.
Probably the use of the name odai to express “ sky” is more recent,
as is the use of Odei to refer to the storm-spirit; these are words that did
not spread to many topics, but were only used to convey certain beliefs
that had previously belonged to to the circle of in and urtz.
The beneficent rains of springtime, called ostebi, “ rain from
heaven,” are attributed to this divinity. Collected at the top of Mount
Erenusarre, this rain is used to cure skin diseases.
Certain names for lightning, such as oneztarri, tximistarri, and ozpi-
narri (probably ozkar, ozkarri, and inhar, as well) which mean “ light­
ning stone,” correspond to an ancient myth known widely in European
countries in which lightning is a special stone (Neolithic axe, knife, or
point of flint) that sinks down to the depth of seven states or levels upon
falling to the earth. After seven years it slowly begins to rise one state
per year until after seven years it reaches the surface. From then on it
protects the house where it is found against evil spirits or A ide-G aizto,
which is lightning itself. This myth includes the Indo-European idea of
T hor’s hammer and Jupiter’s arrows.
In some places in the Basque Country, however, it is thought that
lightning is made of bronze; in others they say it is made of iron. The
current custom of placing steel axes with the sharp edge facing upward
on thresholds during storms in order to protect houses from lightning
derives from the veneration of the stone axe and belief in its supernatu­
ral powers. Before the discovery of steel axes, those made of bronze
must have served the same function: in the entrance to the cave of Zab-
alaitz (in the mountains of Aizkorri), an axe from the bronze age was
found stuck in the floor of the cave with the blade facing up.82
 EPILO GUE

K IX M I, O R T H E T W IL IG H T O F T H E G O D S

The myths and their characters respond to the demands of human logic
as it seeks to explain the world and its phenomena.
Basque myths can serve as data for anyone trying to reconstruct
the world of representations of the ancient people of the Pyrenees. But
our main purpose has been to describe a fraction of the contemporary
mentality.
In this brief treatise we have collected data, whether or not it has
been inspired by ancient Basque mythological conceptions, that has come
to us on the margins of Christian beliefs or joined with them through
historical congruence. But not all. For example, we have not taken the
time to consider certain numens, such as those grouped together with
Eate, Odei, and M ikelats, because many of the themes referring to them
fluctuate among one group of characters and another and overlap,
moreover, with thematic areas already described or sketched. Even these
are dispersed and found today in fragmented condition, as incoherent
elements of one or more systems dismembered over time. That is why it
is so difficult to achieve restorations that can be considered valid.
The data documented in the preceding chapters appears to be
endorsed by tradition and, furthermore, to be linked to the most wide­
spread thematic nuclei in the country.
The modern Basque speaks of these themes and characters as
belonging to a world that disappeared with the coming of Christianity,
although in certain backwaters untouched by the tide of the last few
centuries many vestiges of ancient times have survived.
In Zam akola (Dima, Bizkaia) they told me that the old spirits were
banished by the bells of Christian hermitages. M y informants from
Sara (Labourd) assured me that the dominant subterranean spirits of
the ancient world were exterminated when the churches and hermitages
were built.
The introduction of Christianity and the consequent disappearance
of the pagan myths form the central theme of a legend that is widespread
among the Basque people. According to one of its versions originating
 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

in Ataun, where I heard it many times during my childhood, the pagans

were enjoying themselves one day on Argaintxabaleta Hill in the Aralar
mountains, when they saw a luminous cloud moving toward them from
the east. Frightened by the phenomenon, they consulted a wise elder and
took him to that site so he could contemplate the mysterious cloud and
tell them what it meant. The old man told them, “ The K ixm i is born
and the end of our race has come; throw me over that precipice.” K ixm i,
which in their language meant monkey, was the name the pagans used
to refer to Christ. Then, followed by the miraculous cloud, they all ran
toward the west, and when they came to the small valley of Arraztaran,
they hurriedly entombed themselves beneath a huge gravestone, that has
been called Jentillarri (stone of the pagans) from that day forward, the
very dolmen of that name that I explored years later in the company of
Drs. Aranzadi and Eguren. Thus did paganism come to an end, accord­
ing to legend.
The introduction of Christianity was, undoubtedly, a slow process.
It did not destroy all the elements of the ancient religion. In some cases
it preserved the old forms, filling them with a new spirit, as we have had
occasion to observe in the preceding chapters. But later the new religion
was accepted and zealously practiced for centuries until the present day.
N ow that the Basques are being faced with new modes of economic,
social, and political life, they seem also to be disconnecting themselves
from the Christian ideal and elaborating a new world of representa­
tions, a new concept of life associated with these new ways, relegating
the old values to the marginal zones of their existence.
 Notes

1. José M iguel de Barandiaran, Fragmentos folklôricos. Paletnografia vasca, 12.

2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., 13.

4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., 57-58.

6. Ibid., 58.
7. Ibid., 13.

8. Ibid., 12.
9. Ibid., 13

10. Ibid., 13-14.

11. J. M . de Barandiaran, “ Creencias,” A nuario de Eu sko-folklore 1:86.

12. J. M . de Barandiaran, Fragmentos folklôricos, 14.

13. Ibid.

14. Ibid.
15. Ibid., 22-23.

16. Ibid., 26.

17. Ibid., 28.

18. Ibid., 25-26.

19. Ibid., 27.

20. Ibid., 26-27.

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid.
23. Ibid., 27

24. Ibid., 28.

25. Ibid., 31.

26. Ibid., 33.

27. Ignacio M aria Barriola, L a m edicina popular en el Pa^s Vasco, 82-83.

28. J. M . de Barandiaran, Fragmentos folklôricos, 39-40.

120 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaràn

29. Resurrección M . de Azkue, “ Los santos,” Euskalerriaren yakintza, I. M adrid,

1935, 299-301.
30. Leopold von Schroeder, Arische Religion, Vol. 1, 457. Alluding to the oak, he
says: “ Dem Donnergott gehört dieser Baum auch sonst bei den arischen Völkern; so
bei den Römen, so bei den Germanen, bei den Kelten, bei den alten Preussen und
w ohl auch bei Slaven. Es ist nicht unwahrscheinlich, dass dies schon in der Urzeit
der Fall w ar.”
31. Barriola, M edicina popular, 26-27.
32. J. M . de Barandiaran, Fragmentos folklóricos, 54-55.
33. Ibid., 40.
34. Ibid., 9-10.
35. Ibid., 42.
36. Ibid., 29-30.
37. Ibid., 53-54.
38. von Schroeder, Arische Religion, Vol. 2, 339.
39. See pages 54, 61, 62, 91, 130, 143, 165, 168, and 274 of Seligmann’s work.
40. Eusko-folklore (Vitoria) no. 1 (1921): 1-2. In traditional tales the earth is thought
to extend infinitely far in all directions. Legends are told in which the protagonists
attempt to reach the end of the world, a vain undertaking, according to popular
belief, which assumes the surface of the earth to be without limit. Because of this,
those who undertook such projects traveled over vast distances without achieving
their goals. Strange adventures or events bring such expeditions to an end, inevitably
awakening a feeling of sympathy and wonder in the audience.
N ot even the Sun touches the limits of the w orld when, at the end of its journey,
it reaches the western or “ scarlet” seas (itxasgorrieta) where it sinks down into the
wom b of its mother the Earth (according to an informant in Elosua), from which it
would rise in the morning.
The traveler who journeyed through the worlds (munduz-mundu) with his rooster,
whose crowing announced the dawn, did not get any farther than the country in
which men managed to make the Sun rise every morning by pounding on the rocks
with their sticks (Relato de Ataun (Story of Ataun)).
41. Eusko-folklore (Vitoria), no. 13 (1922): 1-2. According to beliefs we have com ­
piled in towns in Gipuzkoan Goyerri (Goierri) and in Abadiano (Abadino, province
of Bizkaia), the mountains are growing.
We have heard peasants from the Vitoria region say that the hill on which the
towns of Arechavaleta (Aretxabaleta) and Gardélegui (Gardelegi) are built has been
gradually growing even in our times, to such an extent that the elders have been able
to perceive the phenomenon. This seems additionally plausible to them because this
hill is crowned by an alluvial terrace similar to the one that appears at its foot, form ­
ing the bottom of the valley.
The geologist Ram ón Adan de Yarza, in his w ork Descripción fìsica y geològica
de la provincia de A lava (M adrid, 1885), says: “ The old men of Salvatierra [Agurain]
assure us that from their village today they can make out the bell towers of some
towns of the region, in particular that of Audicana [Audikana], which were formerly
 Basque Mythology 121

hidden by the intervening hills.” He adds that, according to references published

in the Acts of the Spanish Society of N atural History, in 1847 the citizens of Sal-
vatierra could barely see the tip of the weathervane of the belltower of Zalduendo
(Zalduondo), whereas twenty-three years later they could see the entire village.
There have been m any crags moved by giants, as can be seen in numbers 26 and
27 (1922) of Eu sko-folklore. Among these: Leziako-Aitza in Placencia (Soraluze);
Txoritekoa, in Cerain; Aitzorrotza, in Ursuaran; Arrabiola, in Segura; Sansonarri, in
Tolosa; the crags of Ondarraitz, in Hendaya (Hendaia); the mountain called Pena de
Aya, in Oyarzun, and Arraspia, in Ainhoa.
42. Eusko-folklore, no.1:2; Eu sko-folklore, no. 2: 6-7. Popular narratives indicate
different mountains as the origin of m any storm clouds. The most famous are: Gor-
bea, Am boto, Arreo, Urbion, Beriam, Aizkorri, M uru, Txindoki, Aralar, Apanize,
and Ori. In such places there are pits or wells from which the spirit of the storms
(Odei, Eate, or M ari) sends out storm clouds heavy with water and hail, accom pa­
nied by lightning and thunder.
Inside the earth, m any spirits of Basque m ythology have their dwelling, especially
those that take anthropomorphic and animal forms (E u sko-folklo re, 2nd and 3rd
series, Sare, 1947-1949; San Sebastian, 1954-1959). Hoping to make their w ay to Esco-
riaza (Eskoriatza), some shepherds tried to get past an anthropoid inhabiting the
mountain of A txorrotx. A strong gust of wind, which w as M ari (the principal figure
of subterranean mythology) blew them from one end of the cavern to the other
(E usko-folklo re, 3rd series, no. 3). In a legend of Amezqueta (Amezketa) it is said
that a furious storm always accompanies the spirit M ari when she emerges from the
subterranean regions or goes from one mountain to another (E u sk o-folk lo re, 3rd
series, no. 3).
We w ill return to this matter of M ari and the storms when w e discuss the functions
of this character.
43. J. M . de Barandiaran, “ Contribucion al estudio de la m itologia vasca,” in
H om enaje a Fritz Kruger, vol. 1 (Mendoza, 1952), 104-05. [See also] J. M . de Baran­
diaran, “ La religion des anciens Basques,” in Compte rendu analytique de la I lle
session de la Semaine d ’Ethnologie religieuse. Enghien, 1923.
44. When the Sun sets, they would say “ A g u r” (a form of greeting) in M anaria
when I visited that region in 1929 and 1930 to explore Silibranka, Atxuri, Salleunta,
and San M artin, caverns with archeological remains that are mentioned in a num­
ber of legends. And in addition they addressed a few words to it, calling it “ Santa
C la ra ,” which in Basque, according to the songs dedicated to Santa Clara in Ond-
arroa, means A rgi, “ light,” and affirming that it went to its rest in its mother. In
Elosua, they understood this to mean the earth; but in M anaria they said it w as the
Virgin M ary. In this regard, it should be pointed out that in some towns they use the
name Andra M ari, “ Lady M ary,” for the Virgin as well as for the other M ari, spirit
of the earth or simply earth personified (in Oyarzun (Oiartzun) and in Arano).
45. There are beliefs and legends that link the house to the temple and the cemetery.
In m any Basque communities they believe it is dangerous to w alk around a temple. A
wom an from Elorrio did so, carrying a child in her arms. Afterwards she heard these
words: “ Give thanks to the child you’re carrying in your arms; if not for that, you
would not have lived long.” A wom an from the Jaulei farmhouse (Berastegui/Ber-
astegi) w as turned into a witch because she walked around the church of that town
122 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

three times. In Onate (Onati) it is believed that if a person w alks around a church
three times, he w ill be taken aw ay by the devil. Or anyone who does this w ill see the
dead, as they say in Zarau z (Zarautz).
The same beliefs apply to cemeteries, according to w hat I w as told in G aray
(Garai). Concerning the act of walking around houses, similar beliefs prevail. The
act of walking three times around the cemetery or the church seems to be connected
with the souls of the deceased. It is they who object to this behavior. Now , the house,
or to put it more clearly, the yard around the house, is also regarded as a cemetery;
and this w as the case in an earlier time. In “ Pueblo de Cortezubi. Barrios de Basondo
y Terliz,” A nuario de E usko-folklore, vol. 5, 1925 (Vitoria), p. 62, I compiled the
following data from Cortézubi (Kortezubi, province of Bizkaia): “ Itxusuria is the
name of the gutter around the roof and the strip of soil onto which it empties. This
is where they bury children who die without being baptized: this is something all
informants have heard. Twenty-five years ago, one of these, Lorenzo de Bengoetxea,
witnessed the burial of a child in the itxusuria on the left side of the Andikoetzeta
house. Another informant, M arias de Aranaz, saw them bury two children in the
itxusuria of two homes in Rigoitia [Errigoiti], fifty-five years ago.
“ People believe that you should not w alk around the house three times after the
Arem etako (Angelus bell), that is, after the ringing of Animas, which is nine o’clock
at night in summer, eight o’clock in winter. They say that a man made a bet he could
w alk around the house three times, but it didn’t turn out w ell for him .” (Data from
Cortézubi [Kortezubi])
“ The custom of burying the unbaptized (children who are not Christian) beneath
the eaves of the roof must have been widespread in earlier times, because even in our
period we find it, though in a somewhat decadent state, in towns quite distant from
each other. In addition to the above-mentioned cases in Cortézubi [Kortezubi] and
Rigoitia [Errigoiti], we know of analogous ones in Oyarzun [Oiartzun] (Anuario de
E usko-Folklore, vol. V, p. 126), Berriatua, M otrico (Mutriku), M endaro, Arecha-
valeta [Aretxabaleta, province of Gipuzkoa], Sara, etc.
“ A resident of Santa Agueda (Arechavaleta) asked the priest of that parish if there
w as a place in the cemetery set aside for the cadavers of the unbaptized. He told him
there w as not. Then the man said that, following an ancient custom, he would bury
a child of his who had just died in the ittukihpean or tellapean beneath the gutter of
his house, and he did so.
“ They say in Abadiano that you cannot w alk around your house three times at
noon; but you can do so if there is a laurel bush planted beside one of the w alls of
the house. The second part of this superstition is undoubtedly related to another in
Oyarzun [Oiartzun], according to which if you don’t place a laurel branch on the
roof of a newly constructed house, some misfortune w ill befall the building. For this
reason in that same town when something bad happens to a house they say: Erra-
m urik gabea duk itxi au (This house has no laurel).
“ In Ataun it is said that you cannot w alk around a house at night; but you can if
you carry a laurel branch in your hand. Every night a group of spinners met in the
farmhouse next to the spa of Erremedio. One night, one of them, named Katalin, bet
the others she could w alk around the house three times. She actually walked around
it twice; but the third time she disappeared. After a while, on a bridge now named
Katalinzubi (Catalina Bridge) which is near the Ertzillegi farmhouse, they heard
these words: ‘Katalih deabruk eaman d in ’ (The devil took Catalina away). Nothing
 Basque Mythology 123

w as ever heard of her again.” (From Eusko-folklore (Vitoria), series 1, nos. 69 and
70, 1926.
46. A nuario de la Sociedad de Eusko-folklore (Vitoria) Vol. 3, 1923. In this book,
describing the funeral rites practiced during the first quarter of this century in differ­
ent Basque towns, the significance of the tomb each house has in the parish church
is frequently mentioned. Here is w hat we said therein describing the funeral rites
of Ataun: “ Each house in the parish has its tomb in the church, which is a sec­
tion of the pavement inside the church itself.” Although today there is a common
cemetery outside the church, the bodies belonging to the corresponding house or
household in an earlier time were buried in that section or area. For that reason each
fam ily lights votive candles on their tomb for their ancestors and chants prayers
to their souls and dedicates offerings to them. During some church functions they
burn candles wound in spiral patterns on the tombs, which is w hy they are called
eskubillo, “ w a x w heels.” At other times, especially when the candle is thick or long,
they roll it around a square tablet which is supported on four legs. In earlier times
the surface w as lengthened into a rectangle without legs and imprinted with shapes
which, viewed all together, represented a clearly anthropomorphic design: it was
called argizaiola, “ w a x board .”
47. Alain Fougères. Les droits de fam ille et les successions au Pays Basque et
en Béarn d ’après les anciens textes (Family Rights and Successions in the Basque
Country and in Béarn, According to Ancient Texts) (Bergerac, 1938), p. 89. [See also]
J . M . de Barandiaran, “ M ateriales para un estudio del pueblo vasco: en Liguinaga”
(M aterials for a Study of the Basque People: in Liguinaga (Liginaga)), Ikuska 1 (1947):
126-31 and 177-84; 2 (1948): 9-24 and 78-84; 3 (1949): 33-49; 4 (1950): 2-36.
In Ataun the wife, on moving into her husband’s house when she marries, carries
offerings and votive candles to the tomb corresponding to her new home on the first
Sunday after the wedding. Thus she takes possession of the house, associates herself
with its ancestors, and incorporates herself into the fam ily of her husband.
48. “ Contribucion al estudio de la casa rural y de los establecimientos humanos.
1,” A nuario de Eusko-folklore (Vitoria), Vol. 5, 1925: 25, 62, and 126; and E usko-
folklore (Vitoria), 1st series, no. 48 (1924): 47-48.
Concerning the lights and offerings that are placed on the tombs, there exists a
very vague belief that they are a tribute made to God in honor of the dead, as I noted
in “ Creencias y ritos funerarios: Cortezubi,” A nuario de Eu sko-folklore of 1923 (Vol.
3, p. 40). But alongside this belief there is another quite different, as can be observed
in the following occurrence that m y informant from Cortézubi (Kortezubi), M arias
de Aranaz, described to me in the year 1921. I copy it from my lecture, “ La religion
des anciens Basques,” read in session 3 of the Semaine d’Ethnologie Religieuse, cel­
ebrated in Tilburg (Holland) in September of 1922:
“ There are people who say that the souls of the dead need physical light just as
mortals living in the w orld do (Larrabezua). This is w hat I w as told in Cortézubi
(in Bizkaia). Once, the ro of of a mine tunnel collapsed in Som orrostro (Ezkerraldea)
near Bilbao. The miners were buried beneath the rubble. After a long time the rubble
w as removed and a miner from Axangiz (Ajangiz, in Bizkaia) w as found alive in a
hollow. Asked how he had survived for so m any years under the rubble, the miner
said that during his long existence in that prison, he had only been without light for
a single day. That was the day when his mother, blocked by a storm, had been unable
to go to the church and light a candle on the fam ily tom b.”
124 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

The following report from Berastegui (Berastegi) w as published In Eu sko-folklore

(ist Series, (1926): 42): “ In Berastegui, there are those who believe that the dead need
light in order to get to heaven. For this reason it is custom ary to place lighted candles
on the tombs in the church. Today, m ost people offer such lights only to the Lord .
Even so, one of the women questioned told the informant: ‘N ot long ago in a mine
tunnel (I think it w as in Bizkaia) a cave-in trapped a group of miners. The mother of
one of them lit the candle on the tomb in the church every day; only once did she fail
to light it. After a few days, her son w as brought out alive from beneath the earth
and he said that he had only gone without food, water, and light on a single day. It
w as the day when his mother had not lit the candle on the tom b.’ ”
In Ataun, the same belief exists.
I wrote the following about Liguinaga (Liginaga) in Ikuska 1949: 35: “ For funerals,
they no longer take offerings to the church; but until a few years ago, they took two
or three loaves of bread. They say that during the funeral service, the loaves lost all
their nutritional value, which according to popular belief had been eaten by the soul
of the deceased for whom the funeral rites were celebrated. It is also said that the
lights burning in the church on such occasions lighted the w ay for the deceased in
the other w o rld .”
According to reports from Oyarzun (Oiartzun), Andoain, and Axpe, in these
towns it is believed that the souls of the deceased actually eat part of the loaves
that are placed as an offering on the tombs during the funeral service and m ass. In
conformance with this belief, they say in Arachavaleta (Gipuzkoa) that the bread
of the offering, after having been left exposed on the tomb, weighs less than before
(.E usko-folklo re, ibid., 43).
49. This is hardly practiced at all now, because straw mattresses are rare.
As for the andabide or path that connects the tomb with the home, it is a sacred
object traditionally linked to the home, as is the tomb, even if the latter belongs to
only a single house whereas the form er can be common to several houses.
Regarding this matter, tradition, which is in a state of decay today, has been scru­
pulously observed throughout the country until very recently. On a certain occasion
when the body of a man from Basondo (Cortezubi (Kortezubi)) w as taken to the
parish church on the occasion of his funeral and to bury him, the poor condition
of the road obliged the funeral cortege to cross the property of another household.
The owner came out to meet the priest and those carrying the cross and the cof­
fin preceding it to stop them and make them return to the andabide. After a brief
struggle and argument between the two parties, the cross, the priest, the pallbearers
and the entire cortege had to give in and go back through the quagmire they had
gone around. According to tradition and belief, the passage of the corpse through a
private property creates servitude.
A case similar to this occurred in Ataun, as noted in Anuario de Eu sko-folklore
(Vitoria) 3 (1923): 117.
Bonifacio de Echegaray, “ Significacion de algunos ritos funerarios del pais vasco”
(The meaning of certain funeral rites of the Basque Country), Revista Internacional
de los Estudios Vascos 16 (1925): 94-118, 184-222.
50. After the funeral, it is the custom in m any towns for the group of people form ­
ing the mourning party to return to the house of death. So it w as in Uhart-M ixe, as I
w as able to verify in 1937 and published later in the follow ing words: “ The next-door
neighbor, the pallbearers, the children who accompanied the coffin with candles,
 Basque Mythology 125

the relatives who live far away, and finally, all those who took part in the different
activities and services occasioned by the death move on toward the house of death.
When they arrive at the door, a neighbor puts some straw on the ground and lights
the fire there. Everyone sits around it and recites the Our Father, the Ave M aria, and
a Requiem. Then they go in to eat.” (“ M atériaux pour une étude du peuple basque.
A U hart-M ixe,” Ikuska (Sare) nos. 6-7 (1947): 174-75).
51. Bonifacio de Echegaray, “ La vida civil y mercantil de los vascos a través de
sus instituciones jundicas” (Civil and M ercantile Life of the Basques through Their
Juridical Institutions), Revista Internacional de los Estudios Vascos 13 (1922): 582-613
and 14 (1923): 27-60. [See also] P. Luis Chalbaud, “ La familia como form a tîpica y
transcendental de la constitucion social vasca” (The Fam ily as the Typical and Tran­
scendental Form of the Basque Social System), I Congreso de Estudios Vascos, 43-64
(n.p., 1918); [and] N icolas Vicario y Pena, D erecho consuetudinario de Vizcaya, 3off
(M adrid, 1901).
52. Fuero N uevo de Vizcaya, article X V I, laws III and IV.
53. “ La Tierra,” E usko-folklore, 1st Series, no. 2:6-7.
In Ataun, it is believed that the cavern of Agam unda is connected to thekitchen
of the Andralizeta farm.
The M oors use a subterranean road to go back and forth between the kitchen of
the Erm intatxiki farmstead in Elduayen (Elduain) and another farm in Berastegui
(Berastegi), as it is customary to say in those towns.
A cat that w as thrown into the cave on M ount M alkorbe (in Elduayen (Elduain))
came out through the kitchen of the Sales farmstead (Eusko-folklore, ibid.).
A goat went into a cave in the region of Oyarzun (Oiartzun) and stuck his horns
through the kitchen w all of the Bainketa farmhouse (in Baringarate), according to
information sent to me by Don Jesus Elosegui.
They say in Ispoure (Izpura) that a subterranean road connectsthefortress of
Saint Jean Pied de Port (Donibane Garazi) and the Larrea house in that area.
In Ezpeleta they say that there exists a subterranean corridor that goes from the
Elizalde house to the mill called Elizaldeko-eyhara.
In the same town they say that between the Meatze pit on M ount M ondarram and
the old building or Juaregm fortress, there’s an underground passageway.
In Aizarna, they say that the Amalda cave extends as far as the stable of the Egana
farm.
N ot far from Alzola (Altzola) there is a chasm. They say that a sheep that fell into
it appeared in the kitchen of the Semeola farm.
It is a traditional saying in the region of Vergara (Bergara) that stones thrown into
the chasm of San M arcial fall into the kitchen of the Agorrosin farmhouse.
They told me in Albistur (Albiztur) that the kitchen of the A ldabazar farm is con­
nected with the cave of Arrobigan located in that town. A ldabazar is an old house
with five rooms, at the foot of Intxurre peak, where you can still see the ruins and
excavations of an ancient fortress or fortified campground.
We should add to these legendary cases that of the Salturri farm in M ondragon
(Arrasate), in the stable of which there is the entrance to a deep cavern.
54. Anuario de Eu sko-folklore (Vitoria) 3 (1923), passim.
55. J. M . de Barandiaran, “ M atériaux pour une étude du peuple basque: à Uhart-
M ix e ” (Materials for a study of the Basque people: U hart-M ixe), Ikuska, no. 4 ff.
126 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaràn

“ M ateriales para un estudio del pueblo vasco: en Linguinaga,” ibid. Anuaro de

Eu sko-folklore 3 (1928). In almost all the towns whose funerary rituals are described
in this book, women play an important role in the ceremonies related to the cult of
the ancestors.
56. M arcel N ussy Saint-Saëns, Contribution a un essai sur la coutume de Soule
(Contribution to an Essay on Customs in Soule), 69 (Bayonne, 1942).
57. Regarding the topic of the attributes and functions of Gaueko, here is w hat we
published in “ Las iglesias: Rodeo de las iglesias,” Eu sko-folklore, 1st series, no. 70,
1926, translated from Basque:
“ They say that in ancient times a large group of spinners would meet every night
in the Lauzpeltz farmhouse (now destroyed) in Ataun.
“ On one occasion the girl from the farm made a w ager with her companions that
she would bring water from the spring that exists on the mountain where the Itur-
riotz farm is located.
“ Indeed, the girl took a pitcher and set off toward the spring, while the other spin­
ners stood watching her from the Lauzpeltz doorw ay in the moonlight.
“ From time to time her companions would shout to her: ‘Where are you now ?’
“ ‘ In such and such a place,’ she w ould respond, naming the place where she was.
“ ‘Where are you now ?’ they would shout from the doorw ay over and over.
“ ‘ I’m in such and such a place,’ she w ould answer again; but her voice sounded
weaker and weaker as she moved away.
“ ‘Where are you now ?’ they repeated.
“ And the girl no longer answered.
“ The spinners became afraid at the thought that something bad w as happening
to their friend.
“ At that moment a gust of wind blew through the doorw ay of the Lauzpeltz
farmhouse and you could hear these words: G a u e G auekontzat eta eune eunezkont-
zat, ‘The night is for Gaueko (the night spirit) and the day is for the creature of the
day.’
“ And nothing w as ever heard from the girl from Lauzpeltz again.”

A legend from Berastegui (Berastegi) is somewhat similar to the last part of the
previous account. It goes like this:
“ They say that on M ount Akerkoi there is a chasm where pagans lived in previous
times. The people were very much afraid of them.
“ On the Elaunde farm lived a young girl whose name w as Kattalin. She had the
custom of spinning thread in the moonlight.
“ One night when the young girl w as working beside a w indow of her house, the
pagans came and kidnapped her, crying out these words: ‘N ight for Gaueko, the
night spirit, and the day for the creature of the day; Kattalin of Elaunde belongs to
us.’ In this w ay Gaueko used his pagans to punish the spinner.”

A young girl from a farm in Oyarzun (Oiartzun) made a w ager that, after the ring­
ing of the Angelus, she would bring water from the spring. And, in fact, she went;
but she didn’t come right back. Her fam ily members were apprehensive about her
 Basque Mythology 127

long delay. Later on, some drops of blood and the empty pitcher the girl had been
carrying fell down through the chimney. She w as never heard from again.

The sad adventure of the daughter of Inhurria in Beyrie is related in m any popular
stories of Low er N avarre, a devil carrying her aw ay in some versions, while in oth­
ers it w as the Basajaun, the representative of Gaueko who punishes those who make
wagers at night (J. M . de Barandiaran, “ M atériaux pour un étude du peuple basque:
à U hart-M ixe,” in Ikuska (Sare), nos. 10-13 (: 94^): 85-86).
58. “ Las iglesias: Rodeo de las iglesias,” Eusko-folklore, 1st series, no. 70:38; idem,
40; “ Tradiciones y leyendas. Lurpeko eremuetan: Genios en figura anim al,” E usko-
folklore, 3rd series, no. 2:12.
59. “ Las grutas: Animales y monstruos que habitan en las grutas,” Eu sko-folklore
(Vitoria) 1st series, no. 11, 1921.
In Bermeo they spoke of the nocturnal spirit called Iditxu or Iritxu who would
appear in the form of a small pig that seems to be just within reach of people who
travel at night. Anyone who follow s him w ill be fooled because Iditxu leads him
through forests, mountains, and caves and finally leaves him in the same place from
which they set out, without the traveler gaining anything but disappointment and a
w eary body.
60. J. Romeu Figueras, “ M itos tradicionales pirenaicos” (Traditional M yths of the
Pyrenees), Pireneos, nos. 16-17:171.
61. “ Brujeria y brujas,” and “ Prakagorri (genio fam iliar),” Eusko-folklore (Vito­
ria), 1st series, no. 24, 1922. “ The extraordinary powers attributed to witches are
thought to come either from the magical force of certain ointments and phrases or
from certain insects or tiny men who help and serve them in everything.
“ These mysterious beings, genuine fam iliars of the witches, are called fam erijelak
(in Cortézubi) [Kortezubi] . . ., m amarroak (Zarauz) [Zarautz] . . ., bestemutilak
(Gernika) . . ., galtxagorriak (Zarauz) [Zarautz] . . .” In Orozco they call them bear-
reztanak, in Albistur (Albiztur), m ozorroak and in Sara, aidetikako.
62. “ Los monumentos prehistoricos,” Eusko-folklore (Paris), 1st series, no. 42
(1924): 2lff.
63. Wentworth Webster, Basque Legends, 48 (London, 1879); Jean Barbier, Légen­
des du Pays Basque, 27 (Paris, 1931); Resurreccion M arfa de Azkue, “ Los santos,”
363; Julio Caro Baroja, Algunos mitos espaholes, 47 (M adrid, 1944); J . M . de Barandi­
aran, “ Genios de figura humana o semihumana. Lam in,” Eu sko-folklore, 3rd series,
56ff.
Lam i is a thematic nucleus in which numerous m otifs of Basque m ythology have
been concentrated. The representation of the lamia as a human figure, except for the
feet which are those of a bird, is the predominant one in the Basque Country.
The memory of the lamias has left numerous vestiges in the toponymy: Laminda-
nia (the Lacarry (Lakarri) mill), Laminenziluak (caverns of Cam ou-Cighi), Lamin-
osin (a well in Juxu ), Lam uxam or Lamusin (a ravine in Sara), Lamien-leze (cave of
Zugarram urdi), Lam iarri (a crag in Arizcun (Arizkun)), Lam iako (in Vera (Bera),
Lamiarrieta (stones in Arizcun (Arizkun)), Lamirain (a ravine in Arano), Lamiar-
riaga (a place in Endarlaza (Endarlatsa) where lamias keep their stones), Lamitegi
128 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

(a house and property in Bedayo), Lamiategi (a mill in Onate (Onati)), Laminosm

(a well in Ataun), Lamineneskatza (a grotto in M ondragon (Arrasate)), Laminategi
(a ravine in M otrico (Mutriku)), Lam ikiz (a household in M arquina (Markina)),
Lamindano (a section of Dima), Laminerreka (a river in Ceberio (Zeberio)), Lami-
napotsu (a well in Ceanuri (Zeanuri)), Laminazulo (a cavern in Amboto), Lamiaran
(a place in Usansolo), Lam iako (a neighborhood near Algorta), etc.
Belief in lamias has been common until our times in culturally backward zones or
levels of the population. The clash between the traditional and new trends produced
an attitude of compromise that appears in the following account:
“ M y father w as from M endive [Mendibe]. When he w as a boy, he would go early
in the morning to catechism. Once he saw lamias in the road, as he w as crossing a
river. He told the priest what he had witnessed, and the priest told him: ‘A ll creatures
that have a name exist; but keep the secret to yourself, it is not necessary to say that
they exist.’ ” (Eusko-folklore, 3rd series, p. 60).
Another attitude of compromise, similar to the former, appears in this other rec­
ommendation: “ D irenik ez da sinistu bear; ez direla ez da esan bear” (You should
not believe they exist; you should not say they do not exist).
Lam ias live in caves, like that of M altsoenborda (Urepel (Urepele)), Arriko-
lezia (Iriberri), Laminazilo (Saint-Martin d’Arberoue (Donamartiri)), M ondarrain
(Ezpeleta), O soloko-koba (M arquina (M arkina)), O arri (Guizaburuaga (Gizaburu-
aga)), Karkabeta (Ceanuri (Zeanuri)), Supelegor (Orozco (Orozko)), Santimamine
(Cortezubi (Kortezubi)), etc. They also lived in the rocks of Xeruenborda (Ascain
(Azkaine)). M ore frequently they appear living in the backwater of rivers, in springs
and pools, like Laminosine in Ju xu , the bridge of Utsalea (St. Pee (Senpere)), the
ravine of Irimategui (M arquina (M arkina)-Echevarria), called Altzibar, the pond
near the grotto of Lezao (in the Encia mountains), etc.
The m otif of the theft of the comb from lamias is frequent. Here is a formula col­
lected in Ataun, which they use to threaten the thief:
A ndra Geazi,
Ekatzu nere orrazi;
Bestela galduko ittut
Z u re ondorengo azkazi.
(Lady Engracia, give me my comb; if you don’t I’ ll destroy your future descen­
dants.)
The lamias went to houses to ask for or demand food, especially grease, the left­
overs from stews, flour, and crumbs from cornbread.
In their relations with human beings, the lamia often appears in love with some
young man from the neighborhood, a m otif that in some versions forms part of the
cycle of M ari.
A legend of the lamia in love and the young man who plan to get married but can’t
carry out their plan exists in several versions in different parts of our country. The
one set in the Kobaundi cave of Garagarza (Garagartza) (M ondragon (Arrasate)),
follows:
“ A young man from the Korrione farm went to Kobaundi. There he saw a lam ia:
a beautiful wom an, more beautiful than the Christian women on this earth. He fell
in love with her.
“ The lamia gave him her w ord that she would m arry him on the condition that he
could guess how old she w as.
 Basque Mythology 129

“ The boy explained the situation to a wom an from his neighborhood and she
promised to find out the age of the young wom an of the cave.
“ The neighbor went to Kobaundi. She stood at the mouth of the cave with her
back to the entrance. She bent over, lowering her head to the level of her knees and
stood looking back between her legs.
“ The lamia came out, and alarmed at seeing this spectacle, she said: ‘I’m one hun­
dred and five years old but I’ve never seen anything like this.’
“ Then the neighbor of Korrione went home and told the enamored young man
the age of the lamia.
“ The boy climbed up to the cave and said to the lamia: ‘Y ou’re a hundred and five
years old.’
“ The lamia agreed to m arry the boy from Korrione.
“ The young man declared his intention to his mother. Fearing that the bride was
not a human being, she told her son to go back and look at her feet.
“ The young man did so and saw that his fiancée had duck feet. This frightened
him and he got sick. Then he died.
“ The lamia attended the funeral of her fiancé, walking alone up to the door of the
Garagarza [Garagartza] church.”

The m otif of the lamia asking for a m an’s help seems to be an isolated element,
scarcely integrated into the body of legends related to these spirits. In the m ost fre­
quent case the lamias ask the men to send them a wom an to help them in childbirth,
as in the version from Y ab ar (Ihabar) collected by D. Resurreccion M aria de Azkue
(Euskalerriaren yakintza, 2:425), which follows:
“ A lamia solicited the service of a midwife. The latter agreed to help her and went
to the cave of the lamias. They told her she should take nothing aw ay from that
place and that, on returning home, she should not look back. Her w ork completed
successfully, the m idwife picked up a piece of bread; but she could not leave that
cave until she had put down w hat she had stolen. Then the lamias gave her an entire
loaf and presented her with m any precious objects from which she could choose the
one she wanted most. She chose a golden comb for carding w ool. On returning to
her house she had to cross a river, and the lamia who w as accompanying her made
it dry up by striking it with a branch from a tree. Then the midwife looked back to
see if the river w as still dry. Immediately half of her golden comb went back into the
den of the lam ias.”
The preceding legend appears in many places in Vasconia. Versions collected in
Esquiule (Eskiula), Lacarry (Lakarri), St. M artin-d’Arberoue (Donamartiri), St.-Pée
(Senpere), Zugarram urdi, Ituren, Abaurrea, Y abar (Ihabar), Guizaburuaga (Gizabu-
ruaga), Elanchove (Elantxobe), and Cortézubi (Kortezubi) have been published by a
number of ethnographers, as can be seen in E usko-folklore, 3rd series, no. 11, 1958.
Sometimes the lamia appears asking a man to rescue her from the cave where she
is held prisoner (Ibid., 104-5). In St.-Pée (Senpere) the lamias asked for a prayer for
one of her companions who w as dying (Ibid., pp. 115-16).
The peasants would make an offering of bread, milk, cider, corn, and bacon to the
lamias, who would show their gratitude by helping them in their w ork in the field, as
can be seen in accounts published in E usko-folklore, 3rd series, no. 11 (1958): 117-20,
and in “ M atériaux pour une étude du peuple basque: à U hart-M ixe,” Ikuska , nos.
10-13 (i947): 87.
130 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Lam ias also appear helping men in different w ays: giving them gold or building
bridges, like those in Bidarray (Bidarrai), in San M artin de Arrosa (Arrosa) and in
Licq (Ligi), or churches in San M artin de Arrosa, in Espes (Ezpeize) and in Arros
(Arroze), houses in Larram endi (Juxue) and in Latsa (Ostabat), castles in Gentein
(Ordiarp) and in Donamartiri (San M artin de Arberua), the palace of Laustania and
the dolmens of M endive (Mendibe) (Eusko-folklore, 3rd series, nos. 11-13).
It should be noted that in the westernmost regions of the country, the building of
old bridges is not attributed to lamias, but to devils (a change of numen or name
in the thematic cluster), and sometimes to pagans or M oors. So is the case in leg­
ends related to the bridges of Azalain (Andoain), of Torre-Auzo (Onate / Onati), of
Urkulu (Salinas de Leniz / Leintz Gatzaga) and Castrejana (Ibid.).
Another aspect of lamias is their struggle with men: the latter are at times kid­
napped and reduced to slavery by lamias, as lamias are by men. Finally, men suc­
ceed in exiling the lamias through religion, with prayers and litanies; the building
of Christian hermitages brings an end to the form er dominance of the lamias. N ow
it is more frequent to say that the lamias and other spirits of traditional mythology
were sent into exile by Eibar, that is, by firearms made in that industrial city (Eusko-
folklore, 1st series, nos. 63 and 64).
64. “ VII: Brujeria y brujas,” Eusko-folklore (Vitoria), 1st series, nos. 18-24, 1922.
“ Sorgin” [Sorguin] is rarely used as the proper name of a specific spirit; it is almost
always a generic name designating certain spirits, to which the people attribute dif­
ferent supernatural functions. By extension this name has also been applied to men
and women whose conduct seemed extravagant and mysterious to their neighbors.
In Ataun, they say that a conflict arose among some seamstresses about whether
or not sorgines existed in the w orld. All were inclined to believe that they did except
for one who expressed her incredulity on this matter. She w as returning to her house
at night, when suddenly some mysterious beings appeared before her, shouting: “ E z
geala, bano bagaittun; M aripetralin ez beste guztik emen gaittum ” [sic] (We don’t
exist, but we do; we are all here, except for M aripetralin). On saying this, each
sorgin pulled one hair from her head, so that the poor seamstress w as left completely
stripped bald.
The character of these spirits also appears in the following legend from Elorrio:
On a certain occasion a young wom an w as returning to her house when she heard
a cry or irrintzi. She answered with the same cry. Then she heard the irrintzi again.
She answered a second time. And she also replied to a third irrintzi. Then the sorgines
attacked her; nothing w as left of her but a few hairs and pieces of clothing.
65. Vinson, Julien, Folk-lore du Pays Basque, 43 (Paris, 1883); “ II. Los genios y los
gigantes,” Eusko-folklore (Vitoria), 1st series, no. 14 (1922).
In Ataun, they say that the baxajaun grew wheat on M uskia mountain, situated
in that town. A brave man— San M artinico— went to visit them in their cavern.
Arguing with those spirits, he deliberately fell onto a pile of wheat that w as there,
filling his albarcas or Basque shoes with grains of wheat. Thus, on returning to his
town, he carried in his shoes the seeds of the precious cereal. On discovering this, the
baxajaun threw his axe at San M artinico, but he missed and could not prevent the
growing of wheat from spreading throughout the w orld.
They tell the same legend in Albistur (Albiztur), in Cegama (Zegama), and in
Cortezubi (Kortezubi).
 Basque Mythology i3i

Thanks equally to the use of a trick, San M artinico managed to steal from the
baxajaun (from the devil according to other versions) the secret of the m aking of the
saw, the soldering of iron, and the axle of the mill wheel.
The baxajaun w as m aking the saw, according to a certain legend from the region
of Oyarzun (Oiartzun); San M artinico could not do it because he lacked a model for
it. Wanting to know the secret, he sent a servant to announce in the town that San
M artinico had constructed a saw. On hearing this, the baxajaun asked him, “ Has
your master seen the leaf of the chestnut tree?”
“ He hasn’t seen it but he w ill,” answered the servant, who later told San M arti-
nico w hat had happened.
This is how the technique for m aking the saw w as spread throughout the world.
With the same trick, San M artinico succeeded in learning how the baxajaun sol­
dered two pieces of iron together, according to a legend from Cortézubi (Kortezubi).
He ordered the herald to announce that he had discovered the process for soldering
iron. The baxajaun asked the herald, “ Did San M artinico sprinkle the pieces of iron
with water from potter’s clay?”
“ He didn’t, but he w ill,” w as the reply. And as a consequence of this new secret
stolen from Baxajaun or the devil, the technique of soldering iron w as spread
throughout the world.
A legend from Sara explains that the axle for St. M artin’s mill w as made of oak
and that when it w as used to turn the wheel it burned up. But the axle of the bax-
ajaun’s (or the devil’s) mill lasted for a long time. San M artin had it announced that
his mill now functioned without any interruption.
“ That means that he has used an axle made from an alder tree,” replied the bax-
ajaun.
“ He is going to use one,” replied the herald. And thus, thanks to San M artinico’s
trick, men were able to benefit from the use of the mill all over the world.
66. “ La Tierra: Tartalo,” Eu sko-folklore (Vitoria), ist series, no. 8 (1921): 29; M .
Cerquand, “ Légendes et récits populaires du Pays Basque,” Bulletin de la Société des
Sciences, Lettres et Arts de Pau, 1874-75, 252.
“ After supper, the cowherds of Esterenzuby [Ezterenzubi] would leave a piece
of bread for A nxo, who came every night after they had gone to sleep. One time,
however, only the youngest of them left his share; the others did not. A nxo made off
with the clothes of those who had not left their offering. They sent the young man to
A n xo ’s cave to ask for their clothes, promising to give him a calf for doing so. Anxo
returned the clothing and ordered the young cowherd to hit the calf ten times with a
stick. The cowherd did so, and the calf gave birth to 101 sheep.”
67. Agustm Chaho, Biarritz entre les Pyrénées et l’ Océan (Biarritz between the
Pyrenees and the Ocean), Vol. L176; J. Vinson, Basque Legends, 20-41; R . M . de
Azkue, Euskalerriaren yakintza 1:360; 2:131-35; Julio C aro Baroja, “ N otas de folklore
vasco” (Notes on Basque Folklore), Revista de Dialectolog^a y Tradiciones Popu-
lares, vol. 2 (1946), 3rd Notebook; J. M . de Barandiaran, “ Traditions et legendes.
Lurpeko eremuetan (Dans les régions souterraines): Serpent,” Eu sko-folklore (Sare),
2nd series, no. 7 (1949): 6ff; J . M . de Barandiaran, “ Ele-zaar: Herensuge,” E usko-
jakintza 4 (1950): 259; J. M . de Barandiaran, “ Contribucion al estudio de la mitologîa
vasca,” H om enaje a Fritz Krüger, vol. 1:126 (Mendoza, 1952).
132 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaràn

The names of this spirit that are m ost commonly known among the Basque people
are the following: Erensuge (in Sara and in Zugarram urdi), Herensuge and Leren-
suge (in Ezpeleta), Errensuge (Camou (Gamere)), Hensuge (Laguinge (Liginaga)),
Herainsuge (Ezpeleta), Edensuge (Sara), Edeinsuge (Saint-Esteben (Doniztiri)),
Edaansugue (Uhart-M ixe), Egansuge (Renteria (Errenteria)), Igensuge (Zaldivia
(Zaldibia)), Iraunsuge (Ataun), Ersuge (M anuscript of Otxandiano, according to the
D iccionario of R. M . de Azkue), Sierpe (Lequeitio (Lekeitio) and Zubiri) and Dragoi
(M ondragon (Arrasate)).
Some of the themes concentrated around this spirit have overlapped with those of
Sugaar or Sugoi, another spirit that takes on the form of a serpent. In certain cases,
it seems that the former have replaced the latter which have a more traditional air
in the country. In fact, the areas where Sugaar holds sway appear to be surrounded
by those where Erensuge is popular, fragmented and confined to the m ost scattered
locations, which is indicative of its greater antiquity in the country.
68. “ Traditions et legendes. Lurpeko eremuetan (Dans les régions souterraines):
Serpent,” Eu sko-folklore (Sare), 2nd series, no. 7 (1949): 3ff.
Sugaar usually appears in the form of a sickle or fiery half moon moving acoss
the firmament (Ataun). In Dima he is called Sugoi and lives in the cave of Balzola,
attended by the lamias (“ Las grutas: Animales y monstruos que habitan en las gru-
tas,” E usko-Folklore, 3rd series, no. 11:121).
Sugoi sometimes appears in the form of a serpent, at other times as a man. It is
one of the spirits closely linked to the cycle of M ari. There are characteristics that
assimilate him m ainly with Sugaar or M aju, M ari’s husband; other characteristics
assimilate him to M ikelats, M ari’s son.
Two brothers, neighbors of a farm in Bargondia (Dima) saw Sugoi in the form of
a serpent inside the cave of Balzola. The younger one threw a stone which cut off his
tail. The elder son, more compassionate, did not approve of this conduct. Later on,
when he w as far aw ay from home and feeling sad with nostalgia, the elder son was
transported instantaneously to the cave of Balzola by an unknown man. On bidding
him farewell at the mouth of the cave, the mysterious benefactor gave him a chest
full of gold for himself and a red sash for his brother. The latter did not w ant to put
on the sash, and they tied it to a walnut tree in front of their house. The tree burst
into flames, leaving nothing in its place but a deep pit. (Eusko-folklore (Vitoria), 1st
series, no. 11, 1921.
The last part of the preceding legend also appears in Sara, form ing part of the
cycle of Axular, in which Sugoi is replaced by M ikelats.
J. M . de Barandiaran, “ A xular’en itzala,” a lecture given at the Sorbonne on Sep­
tember 28, 1956, and published later in Gure H erria 29, no. 2.
69. “ Traditions et legendes. Lurpeko eremuetan (Dans les régions souterraines) . . .
[various topics],” Eusko-folklore (Sare), 2nd series, nos. 1-7, 1947-49.
In the oral literature of the Basque people there are frequent allusions to spirits
that inhabit caves. The cavern of Obantzun (Berastegui (Berastegi)) appears in the
following story:
“ On a farm in Berastegui (Berastegi), called Etsoinberri, every night the servant
and the maid of the property would stable a mare which they sent up to the m oun­
tain every day to graze. W hoever found the mare first would return home on her
back. One day when the maid w as the first to see the mare, she said to the servant:
“ Here’s our black mare b ack,” and she ran up to pet her and then mounted her.
 Basque Mythology 133

Immediately, the mare headed toward the chasm of Obantzun and entered it with
her rider. The servant approached the edge of the abyss, but didn’t see anything. He
said to himself: ‘W hat mare could that have been?’ He w as returning home terrified,
when he found his mare in a deep hole, the real Etsoinberri mare.
“ A long time passed after the Etsoinberri maid disappeared. Nothing w as known
about her until one day her ring and earrings were found in the Iturran fountain.”
(“ La tierra: Sima de Obantzun. La yegua de Etsoiberri,” E usko-folklore (Vitoria),
ist series, 1921: 7).
70. E usko-folklore, 1921, pp. 4 and 22; E u sko-folklore, 1923, pp. 13 and 14; Ibid.,
1924, pp. 29 and 30.
J . M . de Barandiaran, “ Ele-zaar, 4, M endiko urrea,” in Eusko-jakintza 2 (1948):
345.
Based on the popular belief regarding the existence of a golden bell buried at the
top of Irukutzeta, beside the boundary stone dividing the lands of Vergara (Bergara),
Azcoitia (Azkoitia), and Elgoibar, some men began to dig up the burial site of a dol­
men located there. But then they had to abandon their plan and leave because they
were threatened by a monster that came out of the ground. (Eusko-folklore, 1924:
29).
On Larrun peak there was a stone resembling a tombstone. It was near the chapel,
which is no longer there. There was an inscription on it: “ The person who turns
me over w o n ’t be sorry.” Some boys who climbed up there on the second day of
Pentecost for the festival or pilgrimage celebrated there on that date turned it over,
expecting to find the treasure of Larrun. And on the other side they saw this inscrip­
tion: “ I w as fine before; now I’m better.”
Cases like this one on M ount Larrun are repeated at Arano, Aizkorrondo (Cegama
(Zegama)), on Pinuri (Vergara (Bergara)) and on M ount Oiz (Eusko-Folklore (Vito­
ria), ist series, no. 28 (1933): 13.
71. J. M . de Barandiaran, “ M ari, o el genio de las m ontanas” (M ari, or the Spirit
of the M ountains), H om enaje a D . Carmelo de Echegaray, 5 (San Sebastian, 1923);
“ Resumen de la m itologia m ariana,” Eusko-Folklore (San Sebastian), 3rd series, nos.
5 and 6 (1955 and 1956): 46-47.
72. Ibid.
73. Lope G a rd a de Salazar, Crònica de siete casas de Vizcaya y Castilla (Chronicle
of Seven Houses of Bizkaia and Castile) (n.p., 1454).
74. Sugoi is one of the spirits closely linked to the cycle of M ari. He shares some
characteristics with Sugaar or M aju, M a ri’s husband, and others with M ikelats or
Atarrabi, M ari’s son and companion of A xu lar in Lezia, which is a cavern in Sara.
He is the master of the lamias and punishes with a magic sash, like M ikelats (“ Genios
de figura humana o sem ihum ana,” Eu sko-folklore (San Sebastian) 3rd series, no. 11
(1958): 121.
75. J. M . de Barandiaran, D ie prähistorischen H öhlen in der baskischen M ytholo­
gie. In Paideum a, vol. 2, notebooks 1-2. [See also] Don Pedro de Barcellos, L ivro dos
Linhagens; Carm elo de Echegaray, “ V izcaya,” G e o g ra fa del Pa^s Vasco-Navarro,
794-96.
76. “ Animales y monstrous que habitan en las grutas: Baltzolako sugoia,” E usko-
folklore (Vitoria), ist series, no. 11 (1921). See the legend above, in note 68.
134 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

77. In some villages, like Sara and Ayerre (Aiherra), it is customary to place a
scythe affixed to the end of a stick planted vertically in front of the house at or near
the doorway. It is thought to be a protection against lightning.
78. Pierre de Lancre, Tableau de l’Inconstance des M auves Anges et D ém ons, ou
il es am plem ent traité des sorciers et de la sorcellerie (Tableau of the Inconstancy of
the Bad Angels and Demons, with a Thorough Discussion of Sorcerers and Sorcery)
(Paris, 1612). An edition of the parts of this book that are m ost relevant to our case
appeared in Bulletin du M usée Basque (Bayonne), 2nd series, no. 15 (1938).
79. P. Gaston Sacaze, Inscriptions antiques des Pyrénées (Toulouse, 1892), 432.
80. J. M . de Barandiaran, “ De la vida tradicional vasca: Valores de algunos srn-
bolos” (Of Traditional Basque Life: the M eaning of Some Symbols), in H om enaje a
don Luis de H oyos, vol. 2, 41 (M adrid, 1950).
81. Julio C aro Baroja, “ Sobre la religión antigua y el calendario del pueblo vasco,”
in Trabajos del Instituto Bernardino de Sahagun, vol. 6, 47 (M adrid, 1948). (Reprinted
in Vasconiana 2. M adrid: Minotauro.)
82. J. M . de Barandiaran, “ Contribución al estudio de la m itologìa vasca,” 134-35.
 Selections from
Prehistoric Man in the Basque Country

by José Miguel de Barandiaran

Drawings are by José M . de Barandiaran, unless stated otherwise.

 M E S O L IT H IC

The end of the Paleolithic era coincides approxim ately with the end of
the last glacial period. Afterwards, the climate becomes more benign,
and this change leads to the extinction of some species of the glacial
fauna and obliges others (the reindeer, the blue fox, the seal, etc.) to
emigrate to distant countries. As a result, the means of subsistence that
had been common until then begin to grow scarce. M an has to adapt
to the new conditions of life, nourishing himself poorly on the spe­
cies that remain, and on mollusks especially in the coastal zones. This
apparently leads to the decline of industry and the disappearance of
M agdalenian art.
The w ay of life continues to be fundamentally the same as in the
previous period, that is, the trapping of animals and the gathering of
plants and fruits, and it continues in this manner until the beginning of
the third millennium before Christ. It is the Mesolithic period, which in
the Basque Pyrenees is comprised of two stages: the Aziliense and the
Asturiense.

A z il ie n s e — In almost all the Basque prehistoric strata in which levels of

the Upper Paleolithic have been discovered there is a layer whose con­
tent is similar to the Aziliense strata of other countries. This occurs in
Isturitz (Izturitze), in Berroberia, in Urtiaga, in Ermittia, in Lumentxa,
in Bolinkoba, in Balzola, and in Santimamine. Only in Silibranka
(Manaria) and in Laminen-eskatza (Mondragon (Arrasate)) does it
appear isolated, without the presence of more ancient archeological
strata.
Man — The human remains of the Aziliense period discovered so
far in the Basque Pyrenees are those from the cave of Urtiaga that are
now preserved in the Museum of San Telmo in Donostia-San Sebastian.
O f these, two craniums have been studied. The two are identical or
coincide almost completely with the present-day Basque type in a
number of indices, leading us to conclude on another occasion1 that, in
light of these coincidences, these craniums can be considered the first
examples of the Pyrenean or Basque type.
138 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaràn

If, as seems likely, the man from Urtiaga is the result of a local
evolution of the Cro-M agnon with whom he is identical in a number of
traits and characteristics, the question about the origin of the Basques
as a people who emigrated from another country is meaningless. The
question to ask would be, from where did Cro-M agnon man come?
Food — The remains of horses, less abundant in Aziliense dwellings
than in preceding ones, reveal that this species was still hunted, as were
ruminants, mountain goats, deer, and wild boar.
There are also bones of bear, fox, mountain lion, and badger,
although their presence in this period can be due to causes other than
the hunt and the need for nourishment.
There are also remains of birds, particularly pheasant, geese, thrush,
falcon, mockingbird, and mountain dove (Colum ba livia).
There are vertebrate fish of different sizes, both circular and ellipti­
cal, which leads us to think that fishing was practiced.
Among the shellfish there are limpet, Mytilus, Nassa reticulata,
Turbo, Dentalium and M onodonta (Trochus), this latter a species that
comes to replace the periwinkles in Lumentxa during the final stage of
this period.
The change of climate, the disappearance of several species of ani­
mals that had been the choice for hunting during the Paleolithic and
the emigration of others to Nordic regions, the increased number of
shellfish, fish, and birds used for food, and a considerable abundance
of vegetable nourishment oblige us to imagine that Aziliense man ate a
diet that was quite different from that of the hunters of the Magdalenian
period.
Industry — M an in this period used stone and bone tools similar
to those of the preceding period, sometimes differing only in minor
details.
Thus, in many of his dwellings he left us stone instruments such as
stone disks with carvings, stone tips with different shapes, engravings
and points with smooth backs, others with smoothed edges, disk-shaped
scrapers with chipped edges, chisels with half-point and lateral point,
triangular punches and tips, whose forms, as well as their small size,
make it impossible to mistake their use. Alongside this industry, mostly
microlithic, he also fabricated large stone instruments such as a stone
hammer with a slot in the center for a handle, and he used numerous
cylinders of different sizes (figs. 1 and 2).
From bone he fashioned points, compressors, spatulas, chisels, and
flattened harpoons provided with an orifice and a row of teeth (fig. 3).
Art — Already at the end of the Magdalenian period there is an
obvious decline in art. Its manifestations are cruder than in the preced-
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country 139

Fig. 1.— Aziliense stone w ork from Urtiaga. The objects in the bottom row are from
Ermittia.

Fig. 2.— Pounder or hammer, or a weight for a fishing line, from Urtiaga.

ing stages and stylization tends to replace naturalistic art. This process
is further accentuated during the Aziliense period. We find no parietal
figures [cave drawings] in this period in the Basque Country, and the
bone carvings consist of indecipherable incisions that may be merely
decorative. Beads made of jet, perforated deer teeth and small shells of
the type Nassa reticulata found in the Aziliense period may have been
used for bodily decoration, though it is likely that they were also used
as amulets for magical beliefs (fig. 4).
140 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiaran

Fig. 3.— Aziliense bone artifacts: a) tip of a harpoon from Lum entxa; b) harpoon
from Ermittia; c) harpoon from Urtiaga; d, f) punches from Ermittia; e) tip from
Urtiaga.

Fig. 4.— Aziliense pendants from Urtiaga: a) deer teeth; b) nassa; c) jet.

Also, ochre and hematite rouges were probably used for body
painting.
W ay of Life — The remains of food items that we mentioned
above, and the tools of stone, bone, and horn conserved in the strata
of this period, lead us to speculate that Aziliense man lived primarily
from hunting, like his Paleolithic ancestors. Apparently, then, man was
adapting his preferences and the orientation of his economy to the new
situation created by the change of climate, the disappearance of some
game animals, and the increase of vegetation.
His spiritual concerns continued, in part, as before. The same amu­
lets were still used. But other manifestations disappear from the scene;
he is no longer interested, for example, in the representation of animals;
the artist’s interest has shifted to other areas. M ost likely, there have
been changes in the spiritual structure and in the conceptual world that
parallel the transformation that has taken place in his economic w ay
of life. We do not know the full meaning and extent of these changes,
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque C ountry 141

although there are those who speculate that the decline in hunting as
the dominant form of economy determined the disappearance of certain
aspects of upper Paleolithic magic with the resulting abandonment of
the former depiction of animals as art on walls and domestic objects,
giving w ay to the predominance of animist concepts and the cult of
the dead. This is possible; but we should not dismiss the idea of a
fundamental continuity of the Paleolithic religion and magic expressed
through symbols more fleeting in material and form than those of the
previous period.

A s t u r i e n s e — In the diggings explored so far in the Basque Country,

typically Asturiense remains are rare. But after the Aziliense age, a
lengthy period with specific fauna and industry still elapses before the
first manifestations of the Neolithic.
The fauna indicates a moderate climate. Undoubtedly, the flora was
being enriched by new species that offered man more advantageous pos­
sibilities than in former periods.
The Basque site in which this age is best represented is that of San-
timamine, where there is an extensive deposit of shells. An Asturiense
strata with industry typical of that era has been discovered near Biarritz,
on the M ouligna beach, beneath carbonaceous strata with Neolithic
ceramics.
Outside our country the Asturiense period is represented in differ­
ent locations in Santander, in Asturias, in Galicia north of Portugal, and
in the area northwest of Catalonia.
Fauna — In general, Asturiense sites are characterized by the
extraordinary abundance of shellfish, especially in those sites situated
in coastal regions. In Santimamine, 94 percent of the food remains are
made up of shellfish, 5.5 percent of game animals, and the rest of other
species, including fish, represented by numerous vertebra. Wild boar,
deer, roe deer, kid, mountain goat, bull (rare), and horse (even more
rare) were hunted. Keeping in mind that most of the bones of each
example of these hunted species are missing, probably because the car­
cass was dressed outside the cave, it can be affirmed that the edible vol­
ume of flesh from game animals was no less than that from shellfish.
Among the latter, 76 percent are oysters (Ostrea edulis, especially);
17 percent, baby clams (Tapes), 2 percent, Scrobicularia plana; 0.8
percent mussels (Mytilus edulis and M. minimus); 0.6 percent other
mollusks (Helix nemoralis, H. adspersa and H. quimperiana); 0.4
percent limpets (Patella vulgata, P. aspera and P. lusitanica); 0.3 per­
cent M onodonta lineata, M. sagittifera, and M. reticulata. There were
142 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

also periwinkles (Littorina littorea) in small numbers, Cardium edule,

M urex erinaceus, Nassa reticulata, Triton nodifer, etc.
There are several species of birds: doves (Columba palumbus and
C. oenas), partridges, thrush, blackbirds, water hens, ducks, geese,
eagles, kites, mockingbirds, owls, etc.
M an — We do not yet have documents sufficiently explicit to
inform us about the type of man that inhabited our country during the
Asturiense. The human remains found in the Santimamine shell bed
could not tell us much in this regard, even if they were contemporane­
ous with that deposit of shellfish, because their fragmentary condition
does not permit us to make useful measurements for a serious study. It
can be assumed, however, that the characteristics of the man who lived
at the time in this part of the Pyrenees would not be incompatible with
those of the preceding population that already exhibited a number of
traits common to the historical Basque.
Industry — Hard stone picks considered typical of this period were
found in the strata beneath the lignite of M ouligna, near Biarritz. Three
similar picks were also found in Lumentxa, at a level situated between
the upper part of the Aziliense and the base of the Neolithic. In the
layer beneath the shell deposit of Santimamine some flint artifacts also
appeared that were similar to those very instruments, though, despite
such pieces, it is difficult to justify the attribution of the strata of shell­
fish of that deposit to the typical Asturiense period (fig. 5).

Fig. 5.— a) Asturiense pick from M ouligna; b) from Santimamine.

There are also other types of instruments, mainly flint, such as

knives, flat stones with notches, adzes, disk-shaped or keel-shaped
scrapers, tips and leaves with filed backs, small triangular stones, etc.
(fig. 6).
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country 143

Fig. 6.— Asturiense stone-work from Santimamine: a, b, c), scrapers; d, g) notched

flat stones; r) finished stone plate; s, u, v, x) stone punches; t) point with back filed
down; w) triangular and trapezoidal points; y) chisels; z) engraver’ s chisel.
144 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiaran

Fig. 7.— Asturiense bone-work from Santimamine: a) bone scraper or spatula; b, c)

boar-fang knives; d) small fork or perforated piece of a cane; e) bone spatula; f, g)
bone awls; h) carved bone; i) scraper.

Fig. 8.— Asturiense pendants from Santimamine: Cardium, Nassa shell, and stone
ring.

There are instruments made of bone, such as tips, gouges, and chis­
els, surfaces with a sharp edge carved from the tooth of a wild boar,
and lamps or perforated horns (fig. 7 ). A stone ring, quartz crystals,
perforated Nassa and Cardium from Santimamine must have been used
as jewelry (fig. 8).
W ay of Life — The hunt continued to be an important occupa­
tion of the man of our country, even in regions near the coast, as can
be deduced from the quantitative and qualitative analyses of strata
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country 145

that contain remains of food in shelters or human settlements of that

period.
The wild boar, which until the end of the last century lived in the
wooded mountains around Santimamine, must have been trapped with
great frequency.2 After wild boar, the most frequently hunted animal
was the deer, followed by the mountain goat; then the roebuck; then
the goat.
Since hunting parties consisted of many individuals working
together, the spoils must have been divided up in the camp, each hunter
taking the portion of meat due him with the fewest possible bones. This
explains why many bones, especially those without m arrow, are missing
from the diggings.
The presence of bones of doves, partridges, and other birds in San-
timamine suggests that these birds were also hunted at that time.
Because success in hunting was uncertain, the gathering of shellfish
in certain periods provided a reliable source of food for the people living
in areas close to the sea. In dwellings of the Asturiense period we find
remains not only of species that are eaten today on the Basque coast,
such as oysters, baby clams, sea mussels, M onodonta, limpets, and
cockles (Cardium), but also those eaten in other places on the Canta­
brian coast, such as jackknife clams (Solen), sand gapers (Scrobicularia),
small scallops (Chlamys), M ya, bay scallops (Pecten) and periwinkles
(Littorina).
Fishing was also practiced in the coastal regions, as evidenced by
the bones of fish that were relatively abundant in Santimamine and in
Lumentxa.
We do not know what method was used for fishing, nets, hooks,
or something else.
As for the procedure used in the gathering of shellfish, we do not
believe that picks from the Asturiense period were used much on our
coasts; for catching oysters, mollusks, etc., bone chisels, and wedges
made from boar’s teeth were more suitable, as we can see from those
who currently engage in that work.
The collection of fruits and plants provided another source of food;
but we have no direct evidence, nor do we know of objects that presup­
pose the existence of this w ay of life.
Stone jewelry and sea shells no doubt were involved in magical or
religious beliefs; but we lack specific evidence revealing anything about
the conceptual world of the Asturiense man of our country.
Much of what we observe in the w ay of life of this second M eso­
lithic Basque period comes to us from preceding periods. But not every­
thing: their stone work (quartz picks and small flint objects) coincides
146 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

with Asturiense and Tardenoisiense work from other countries and

shows that the inhabitants of Santimamine, Lumentxa, and Mouligna
did not live in isolation, but maintained relations with different peoples,
particularly with the people of northeastern Cantabria and Asturia.
They also maintained local Paleolithic tradition, and had relationships
with people from the South and East whose Mediterranean cultures
demonstrated Tardenoisiense traits.
 N E O L IT H IC

The age of polished stone has not been studied in the Basque Pyrenees
as a distinct stage of the Eneolithic, even though some of the diggings
explored in this country allow us to recognize it as a cultural complex
situated in the strata between the Mesolithic and the age of metals. In
Santimamine, for example, the strata comprised of the first ceramic
forms and the first traces of copper with types of vessels similar to those
of the Basque dolmens is nearly one meter thick over a great expanse
of that dig. Therefore, it will be useful to describe below some of the
features of this period.
The climate was still the same as in the Asturiense, as can be ascer­
tained by the fauna living in the region at that time. The preponderance
of M onodonta over periwinkles and the abundance of mussels along the
Basque coasts are perhaps a sign of an average temperature higher than
during the preceding epochs.
The Neolithic sites discovered so far in the Basque Pyrenees are
those of Santimamine, Lumentxa, Bolinkoba, Urtiaga, Ermittia, Urio-
gaina, Isturitz, and M ouligna (fig. 9).

Fig. 9.— A drawing of M ount Lum entxa of Lequeitio, seen from the highway of
M endexa. At the foot, a stream. The arrow marks the entrance to the famous
cave.
148 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Fauna — Among the species that inhabited the Basque Country

during the Neolithic were cows, horses, deer, mountain goat, roebuck,
chamois, wild boar, fox, mountain lion, the weasel, and the martin.
Deer and especially wild boar were the animals most hunted by man.
Sheep already existed in Bizkaia, as we know from their remains in
Santimamine; this is an indication that the practice of domesticating and
using them had already reached this part of the Pyrenees.
Among the birds that, in one w ay or another, ended up in the dig­
gings of this epoch, we find goose, pheasant, thrush, white partridge,
falcon, crow, mockingbird, and owl.
There are abundant shellfish: M onodonta, oysters, baby clams,
limpets, and mussels; less abundant are Scrobicularia, Solen, Cardium,
Dentalium vulgare, Pecten, Unio, Nassa reticulata, etc.
The remains of different fish— hake, Belone vulgaris, Labrus and
others— also appear in Neolithic diggings.
Man — In the Neolithic strata of Lumentxa, human remains were
found that, like others found in different prehistoric Basque sites,
showed no sign of having been buried when they were deposited in the
cavern. They must have been simply placed on the ground. Therefore,
they should not be considered to be more recent than the Neolithic
strata in which they lie.
Through such remains we were able to reconstruct almost com­
pletely the cranium of an infant, which, compared to the recent Basque
type, scarcely differs at all from the average Basque of today.
Industry — M an made a number of artifacts in stone, some of
which copy older forms, such as flint points and disks with smoothed
backs, tips from Gravette, disks with notched stone leaves, saws, scrap­
ers and knives; others are new, such as the axes of polished ophite
from Santimamine, polished hammers, picks, mallets, files, and arrows
(fig. 10).
In the Neolithic layer of Lumentxa there was a grinder, that is, a
pair of stones the larger of which has a smooth concave surface, the
other slightly rounded for rolling easily over the first (fig. 11).
There are also a number of round stones with orifices which must
have been used in necklaces, perhaps as amulets (fig. 10), like rock crys­
tals. As in previous periods, ochre dyes were used.
Hole punches and needles were made from bone and horn (fig.
12).
Ceramics appear during the final stage of the Santimamine shell
bed, associated with new kinds of arrows (foliaceous), polished axes,
and sheep bones.
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country 149

Fig. 10.— Stone-work of the Santimamine Neolithic: a, b, c, d, e) points with finished

backs and sides; f, g, h) flat stones with notches; i, j) scrapers; k, l, m) chisels; n, o,
p) points with designs on the face; q) hammer of polished ophite; r) axe of polished
ophite; s) pendant of fired clay; t) stone pendant.

Fig. 11.— Neolithic grindstone from Fig. 12.— Hole punch of bone and needle of
Lumentxa. horn from Santimamine.
150 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiaran

Fig. 13.— Neolithic ceramics from Santimamine: a) ceramic with circles, furrows,
and surface incisions; b) ceramic with digital impressions; c) shard from a vessel
with a hole for hanging; d) the base of a pot with the imprint of weaving.

The first of these are crude clay vessels with grooves on the surface
left by fingers. There are also some with crater-shaped decorations, oth­
ers with rolls of clay in relief, with furrows and impressions from the
woven surface on which they were made (fig. 13).
W ay of Life — The remains of food and industry of the Neolithic
Basque man lead us to think that he was dedicated mainly to hunting,
an occupation that he alternated with those of fishing and gathering
shellfish along the coast. But the grindstone from Lumentxa and the
appearance of the sheep in Santimamine reveal the beginning of new
economic forms: the herding of sheep and the probable use of grains.
Undoubtedly, bovids were the first animals to be domesticated in
the Basque Country. The bovine species that has traditionally been
exploited in the Pyrenees is identical to that which lived in a wild state
in ancient times in this country, indicating that the Basque domesticated
the very type of cow that he had previously hunted.3 The same was true
with the goat and the horse.
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country

The domestication must have been very incomplete at first. It con­

sisted of a kind of appropriation of the offspring of animals which were
then set free on the mountain where they grazed during all seasons.
When the flesh of one of these animals was needed, the owner would
capture it, hunting it as had been done in former times. Probably the
animal was divided up among several individuals or families, just as
in former times when it was hunted by organized parties during the
Paleothic.4
We do not know which cereals man ate; but the mill of Lumentxa
leads us to consider the milling of edible grains, a probable indication
that farming was being practiced in the country, limited no doubt to
small parcels or gardens.
The remains of fish found in Neolithic sites indicated that fish­
ing was practiced at the time. They probably sailed in small one-piece
canoes (trunks of trees hollowed out), similar to those found in the
lake sites in Switzerland, like the small canoe discovered in the dig of
Adur (depicted in the Museum of the Sea in Biarritz in 1937), a probable
example of the survival of Neolithic models of our country, used even
today in the Nive River.
We know of no basketwork from this period in the Basque territory;
but the ceramics of Santimamine, the kind molded on wicker mats, reveal
that this type of vessel was in use, woven with reeds or strips of ash.
Social life within the confines of each valley, according to the
requirements of the rudimentary development of herding bovids, goats,
and pigs, was affected mainly by the demands of the herding life in the
mountainous regions. In the lower regions and on the plains, agricul­
ture and sheep herding had already taken their first steps and their first
battles had begun as well.
Without any doubt, the Neolithic population practiced some kind
of religion. The use of ochre as a rouge and pendants of stone and
quartz crystal could have been intended for decoration of the body; but
it is more likely that they served some magical or religious function.
There was also the belief in a future life. The clay vessel found beside the
infant bones in Lumentxa must have been placed there with offerings
for the deceased. M ost likely, their former beliefs and rituals regarding
religion and magic remained the same, since later in recorded history
they still formed the background of the conceptual and mystical world
of the people of the Pyrenees, though their most characteristic expression
from earlier times— the naturalistic figures of the Paleolithic— had been
replaced by simple signs and by symbolic objects and expressions.
The Neolithic, then, was a period of great transformations in our
country as it was in others.
Ï 52 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

The introduction of the sheep and the domestication of other ani­

mals constituted events of extreme importance. On the other hand, geo­
graphic conditions of the Pyrenees imposed a regimen of transhumance
on those initiating the development of livestock here. This must have led
to the periodic practice of great displacements of the shepherds of the
Pyrenees who, establishing regular contact with different populations,
became the conduits of different practices, such as ceramics, leaf-shaped
arrows, polished axes and hammers, hand mills, etc. Such displacements
continued until the present, though today they represent only a fraction
of what they were in the past (fig. 14).
Although these transformations do not necessarily require the
migration of peoples, we cannot preclude the possibility that groups of
shepherds from outside the Pyrenees might have come this far in their
back-and-forth movement of transhumant life, bringing new cultural
elements with them. But their presence in this part of the mountains
has not been definitively established by anthropology; rather, it seems
that there were no significant changes in the composition of the people,
because the same traits of the men who lived in these regions during the
Mesolithic period continue to characterize those of later periods.

Fig. 14.— The area of winter transhumance in the Pyrenees. The arrows m ark the
outermost limits of herd movements.
 E N E O L IT H IC

After the Neolithic period, which properly speaking ends around two
thousand years before Christ, the natural landscape of the Basque Pyr­
enees continued largely unchanged. In addition to cows, goats, sheep,
horses, pigs, and dogs, all of them domesticated by then, the fauna con­
sisted of the same wild species as in the preceding period. N or are we
aware of any important alterations in the flora.
On the other hand, the human occupation of the Pyrenees land­
scape was greatly intensified and extended. M any zones, scarcely inhab­
ited earlier, were occupied by man. The high mountains, especially,
were inhabited by a relatively large population and were now traversed
by flocks of sheep, goats, and cows. This was so in the mountains of
Gibijo, Arrato, Gorbea, Oiz, Aizkorri, Entzia-Urbasa, Ataun-Burunda,
Elosua-Polpol, Aralar, Orin, Belabieta, Larrun-Atxuri, Artzamendi-
Iuskadi, Urrixka-Berdaritz, Sorogain-Astakarri, Lindus-Atalosti, Irati
Abodi, and Ahuski, where the sites of numerous dolmens exist. These
are generally found in pastures and on the hills and in the passes leading
to them (fig. 15).
As would be expected, human settlements also existed in lower
regions; proof of this lies in the dolmens of Anes, la Rioja, the valley
of Cuartango, la Llanada of Vitoria, Elgea, Altzania, Kalam ua, Gorriti,
Belate, Landarbaso, Jaizkibel, Ibardin, Abarratei, etc. and the Eneo-
lithic digs of M airuelegorreta, Surbi, Santimamine, Lumentxa, Urtiaga,
Jentiletxeta, El Castellar, Isturitz, and others.
The climate is similar to that of today, and the diversity of zones at
all altitudes complement each other to assure pasture during all seasons
of the year. This forced the herbivores to migrate often, resulting in the
transhumance of flocks, which would constitute one of the most origi­
nal features of the economy of the Pyrenees from that time on.
Clearly, then, the animals and, with them, the men exploiting
them, were spread throughout the country, depending on the abun­
dance of pasture in its valleys and mountains. The placement of their
sites provides a guide to indicate the roads that crossed our land at the
time (fig. 15).
154 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiaran

fcWOHA
, JjUl '*«% k h tr ih /far/s h t
mÇaxeArfa ^ ^
°Ê0HQÎTU ^ ieskóe/ì
i'A dbarrafe/’"
" ~
»WAD ¥’
A/ks flya/iokaA ô o jf jja é tQ /a ÿ sa.
K
•fit * Qry

6 tb ij£ \Ârraéo / A
*_! J / furl»** _ 1Ç \ ,
Urbcco \ / _
* y rfafoâc^ 717c '* **>^ PAKPIÜHA
PAhP
^ —■ - f7
* fatata* 1 >C-J— . J
tfrrita/p

Dolmen site.
Cave with Eneolithic deposit.
UJûfcOrtO Eneolithic burial cave (sepulcher).
Site of Eneolithic findings.
Pass between two valleys.
Possible roads.

Fig. 15.

Taking into account the number of dolmens we know about and

those we can estimate from the toponymy and from the tradition in the
regions of the country that have been studied thus far, as well as the
burial grottos and the average number of dead deposited in them and
in the dolmens, we estimate the approximate number of individuals
making up the shepherd population of the Basque territory to be five
thousand.
In and around the pasturage and by virtue of contacts with different
peoples brought about by transhumance, a relatively prominent culture
developed in the Pyrenees and bordering areas that had no parallel since
the good times of the Magdalenian epoch.
M an — Our Eneolithic population presented anthropological
features congruent with those of the present-day Basque. This fact has
been revealed to us by the human cranium discovered in the Eneolithic
layer of Santimamine, by the one from Urtiaga (infantile) and, above
all, by the craniums found in the dolmens in the elevated pasture lands,
that is, in those of Aralar, Aizkorri, and Urbasa.5 This means that the
prehistoric transhumant shepherds of our mountains were of the same
physical type as their successors, the historical Basques. The characteris­
tics of their race, denominated “ Western Pyrenean race” by the Belgian
anthropologist Vfctor Jacques, are the following: predominantly meso-
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country 155

cephalic; bulging temples; occipital orifice with the surface very inset
or sunken, causing the chin to recede slightly when the neck is held
erect; lower jaw narrow and chin protruding; nose somewhat long and
pointed, etc.
In the countries around the Pyrenees, where in former times the
Cro-M agnon type predominated in the higher Paleolithic (craniums
from Cam argo in Santander, from Parpallo in Valencia, from Duruthy
in Les Lhandes), there were now different types of men, such as
this one from the Basque Pyrenees (Western Pyrenean race) situated
between the Acro-cephalic from Catalonia and the Brachicephalic
from western Cantabria. Professor Alcobe, who recognized it in the
valley of Aran, says that the discovery of the Western Pyrenean type
in Aran, naturally more or less altered by interbreeding, is a new argu­
ment in support of the ancient geographic dispersion of the type far
more extensive than the current residence of its most characteristic
representatives.6
Dwellings and Sepulchers — Caves were still being used as dwell­
ings and as sepulchers. In those of Santimamine, Lumentxa, Bolinkoba,
M airuelegorreta, Arratandi, Jentiletxeeta, Urtiaga, Ermittia, Urio, and
Isturitz their inhabitants occupied the entrances with hearths on the
inside a short distance from the entrance. The hearth had the form of an
open shallow circular pit dug into the ground and surrounded by stones,
as has been observed in Santimamine, in Lumentxa, and in Urtiaga.
In addition to the caves there were dwelling places out in the open,
rustic constructions without doubt; but we have no knowledge about
them or their form. It can be assumed, however, that in the pasturages
such generally temporary dwellings would have been similar to present-
day shepherds’ huts.
The only type of construction from this period that we know about
in our country is the dolmen. This is a sepulchral monument large
enough to hold some or many cadavers. It is formed with several unfin­
ished stone blocks arranged vertically on the ground so that they form
a flat enclosure frequently rectangular in shape, and on other occasions
with more than four sides. On top of these blocks is the roof; one or
more large, flat stones. The stone that closes the enclosure on the East
is usually lower than the others, so that there’s a space between it and
the roof: this is the entrance to the dolmen. The major axis of the floor
of the dolmen is oriented approximately from east to west, with the
entrance stone on the east side. The whole structure is almost always
surrounded and at times covered by a catafalque or mound of earth and
irregular stones (fig. 16).
ï56 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

Fig. 17.— Dolmen of M okua.

There are dolmens whose catafalque is surrounded by a circle of

stones placed on the ground, to form a cromlech, as can be seen in
figure 17.
Those of M okua, Iragorri, Iuskadi, and Atalosti are of this type.
The simplest dolmen has a single chamber shaped in a rectangle: it
is the most common type in the country. There are some that have two
contiguous chambers, like that of Jentillarri, Arzabal, Berdaritz (with
covered galleries); others have a corridor in front of the entrance, like
that of Aizkomendi, the “ W itch’s H ut,” of Elvillar (figs. 18 and 19), the
one in western Igartza, and that of Artekosaro. In addition to the cham­
ber, this last one has an antechamber and a corridor, and its catafalque
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country 157

Fig. 18.— Above: sketch of the floorplan of the dolmens of M iruatza (a), in Ataun
and Ausukoi; (b), in Aralar. Below: Sketch of the floorplan of the covered gallery
of Jentillarri (Aralar).

Fig. 19.— “ W itch’ s H u t,” dolmen with corridor situated on the Lanagunilla end of
Elvillar (Araba): a) vertical cut N E-SW of the catafalque in tw o concentric levels
and of the chamber; b) sketch of the floorplan of the chamber, the antechamber,
and the corridor. Only the ro of over the part corresponding to the chamber is
preserved.

is formed in two concentric laddered levels, an example unique so far

in the country.
Dolmens are usually found in pastures, on hills, and in passes lead­
ing to such places. In other places the types described so far are rare.
The theories that attribute different origins to these dolmens, based
on the different types observed in the Pyrenean region, do not seem well
i 58 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

founded to us. Such differences do not exceed probable variations in the

manifestations of one element within a cultural cycle.
Clothing — We know little or nothing specific about the clothing
of the Eneolithic Basque. He probably wore garments made of materi­
als close at hand. As cattle and sheep herding were the most important
occupations of a large part of the population, we can say that sheepskin,
goatskin, and cowhide must have been used as elements for clothing,
as they have been until recent times among the shepherds. The discov­
ery of items among Eneolithic household furnishings that seem to be
adapted for the sewing of animal skins (awls, needles, scrapers, chisels)
confirms our hypothesis. Skins were also used to make footwear, that
is, the albarkas (leather sandals), a practice that has continued through
the present day.
W ool and also certain vegetable fibers were probably used for
making thread and weaving items of clothing. Although we have not
found clear evidence of this in our territory, contacts with other coun­
tries where vestiges of such craft have been found undoubtedly made
it possible for the transhumant population of the Pyrenees to acquire
this skill.
We do not know if painting played an important role in bodily
adornment. The ochre found in Jentiletxeeta and in the dolmens of
Askorrigana, Artekosaro, etc., could have been used for this purpose.

Fig. 20.— Eneolithic industry: a) polished stone axe from A podaka; b) small stone
hoe from the dolmen of Bidarte; c) stone axe from the dolmen of Balenkaleku.
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country 159

Industry — In the inventory of artifacts from this period, the forms

inherited from the previous period constitute the highest percentage.
Beside them appear new objects which, if not the most important in the
repertory of the period, do characterize the complete array of Eneolithic
crafts.
M ost of the instruments that have come down to us are made of
stone. A number of pieces were carved in flint, such as knives, files,
scrapers, drills, planes or plates with notches, points from La Gravette,
and arrowheads with leaves or wings. Polished axes were made of
ophite and other hard materials; sometimes, from limestone. Drills and
grinders were made from sandstone or quartz. There were also pendants
of sandstone, quartz crystal, jet, alabaster, slate, and fired clay (figs. 20
and 21 A, B, and C).

Fig. 21 a .— Stone craft from the Eneolithic: a) plate from Lum entxa; b, c, d) plates
with designs and notches from Santimamine; e, f) scraper and chisel from Urtiaga;
g, h) scraper and point with marginal designs from Santimamine; i, j, k) plates with
smoothed back and trapezoid from Lum entxa; l, n, o, q) arrowheads from Santima-
mine; m, r) arrowheads from Lum entxa; p) same, from Urtiaga; s) plate with side
notches from Santimamine; t) same, from Urtiaga; u, v) trapezoid and point from
Bolinkoba.
 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

Fig. 21 b .— Different kinds of flint arrowheads of the Eneolithic: a) arrowhead from

the dolmen of Ueloguena (Aralar); b) same, from Ermittia; c) same, from Jentil-
etxeeta; d) same, from the dolmen of Pagobakoitza (Aizkorri); e) same, from the
dolmen of Oiduegi (Aralar); f) same, from Jentiletxeeta; g) knife from Gorostiaran
(Aizkorri).

Fig. 21 c.— Eneolithic pendants and amulets: a, b) cardium and nassa from Jentil­
etxeeta; c, d) human incisors carved in V-shape from the dolmen of Argarbi; e, f)
amulets of jet; g) slate plaques from the dolmen of Balenkaleku; h) a small votive
torch from the dolmen of Keixetako-egiya; i, j) bone rings from the dolmen of
Igaratza.

The first metal (copper) objects appear, such as awls, arrowheads,

chisels, axes, rings, and bracelets (fig. 22).
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country

Fig. 22.— Eneolithic industry: copper objects: a) copper chisel with deer horn handle
from Santimamine; b) bracelet from the dolmen of Debata (Aralar); c) ring from the
dolmen of Argarbi; d) awl from Santimamine; e) axe from Iruzubieta; f) awl from
the dolmen of La Canada (Urbasa).

The ceramics copy old forms, but also include novelties that place
them in particular relationship with forms situated in other countries.
There are vessels with smooth, lustrous surfaces and others that
have incisions made with fingernails or with bivalves of mollusks; paral­
lel grooves, circular and oval depressions, plain nipples, and others with
an orifice or several tubes (Urio).
In Santimamine, in the layer characterized by the presence of cop­
per objects (chisel, punch, and other shapeless artifacts) and Eneolithic
arrows made of silica, the oldest ceramic pieces seem to be made of
ordinary mud with series of hemispherical holes on the perimeter and
with leaf and flower shapes on the edges, associated with vases with
smooth surfaces with or without nipples on the top. These are followed
by ceramic pieces with parallel grooves, incisions made with fingernails,
and bands that resemble the ornamentation found on bell-shaped vases.
Finally there are examples of ceramics with lines cut in the shape of
parallel crowns, or with lines in a zigzag shape. But this sequence needs
to be confirmed before it can be accepted as the norm.
 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

In dolmens we frequently find the type of ceramic made of mud

with a smooth surface, vases with S-shaped profiles, some decorated
with incisions or protruding dimples, some unadorned, and occasionally
(in Urbia) bell-shaped vases (figs. 23 and 24).

Fig. 23.— Detail of the Eneolithic ceramics of Santimamine.

Fig. 24.— Bell-shaped vase from the Pagobakoitza dolmen (Aizkorri).

 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country

M any of the elements that constitute the production of artifacts

by Basque Eneolithic man that differentiate him from the preceding
period, such as megaliths, arrow types, axes of stone and copper, slate
pendants, and the new forms of ceramic craft came, apparently, from
countries where they originated during different stages of this period.
This and the stratification of the ceramics of Santimamine, even if we
know little about it, have allowed us to attempt a chronological order­
ing in the process of Basque Eneolithic culture.
Thus, the first stage, that of crudely made ceramics, either smooth
or with crater-shaped holes and crudely decorated edges found in
Santimamine, seems to correspond to dolmens with the same ceramic
associated with microliths of geometric form from the hill of Ataguren,
from Santa Engracia, from Askorrigana, and from Lindus. They were
probably contemporary with the first style of bell-shaped vase from
other countries.
Ceramic pieces with series of parallel grooves, with the marks of
fingernails and with bands of incisions similar to those of the bell­
shaped vase, correspond to the second stage, represented by the exam­
ples of the second Eneolithic strata of Santimamine, as do the foliated
arrowheads of the funereal grottos of Jentiletxeeta and of the dolmens
of Artekosaro, L a Canada, and Pamplonagane. They were probably
contemporary with the second style of the bell-shaped vase.
To the third stage we assign ceramics of the final Eneolithic period
of Santimamine, decorated with lines cut in zigzag shape and in the
form of parallel crowns, and the dolmens of Pagobakoitza and Goros-
tiaran with bell-shaped vases of the third style, those from Debata,
Zurgaina, and Ueloguena with arrowheads with barbs or tongues in the
style evolved in Alm ena, and the one from Balenkaleku with its axe of
hollowed ophite and an interior furrow which has parallels in northern
Europe.
But this classification or chronological ordering based on compari­
sons of counted objects and on stratigraphic considerations that have
not yet been confirmed is of little proven value and may not reflect the
true process of Eneolithic culture.
Ways of Life — If we compare the area of recent pastoral communi­
ties of the Pyrenees with that of the sites of dolmens in the same region,
it will be easy for us to appreciate the coincidence of the two in their
general configuration and even in details such as the absence of dolmens
in those places with insufficient pasture for cattle and the fact that the
contemporary shepherd’s hut has sometimes been built over a dolmen
or Eneolithic catafalque. This suggests that at least part of the Basque
164 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Eneolithic population extended throughout the territory and adapted to

it as if in response to the demands of the lives of the shepherds.
Indeed, almost all the Basque dolmens, for example, are found in
pasturages and in ports and on hills that have access to them. Thus, the
dolmens of Gibijo, Arrato, Gorbea, Entzia, Urbasa, Aizkorri, Aralar,
Lindus, Abodi, and others occupy the high pastoral regions known by
those names. And those of Ataguren, Arane, San Roman, Berjalarân,
Zudaire, Bakedano, Baiarrate, Belate, Pittarre, Bordaundi, Urateka,
Ibaineta, Otsondo, Iuskadi, Berdaritz, Abarratei, Arrizabala, and
M urenxillo are found on hills and passes contiguous to such regions
(fig. 15, p. 154).
We can, then, affirm that the herding of sheep, which had already
begun to appear in the Neolithic period in our country, succeeded in
occupying a large part of it during the following period. And since the
high pastures to which the dolmen culture extended could not have been
used for grazing or inhabited except during the summer, the population
must have practiced transhumance, which was, as we know, quite com­
mon in the zone around the Pyrenees, between the Dordogne and the
Ebro, between the Ariège and the Gallic region.
The most significant fact in the lives of the Eneolithic population of
the Pyrenees was this transhumance of sheep. It obliged man to displace
himself periodically with his flocks from one region to another and to
establish his temporary dwellings and burial grounds in those regions,
bringing men and peoples of different races and cultures into contact
with each other. This transhumant movement was, no doubt, what
caused the unification of the bovine species and of the ovine species that
has been observed in the southwestern part of Aquitaine and the north­
ern part of Spain as far south as Portugal.7 And along with this came
also the currents of cultural unification of the entire Pyrenean region
with the introduction of different customs and techniques mentioned
above. The shepherds who herded their flocks through different coun­
tries in autumn to their winter camps and who traveled back through
them in the spring to their summer sheepfolds were the sustainers and
conduits of a culture that featured new elements from different origins
built on a traditional foundation.
There are those who, basing their conclusions on such novelties,
have thought that a foreign people had come to occupy our country at
the beginning of the Eneolithic. This opinion has not been confirmed by
anthropology; rather, it seems that there were no significant changes in
population, as we noted above in discussing the Neolithic, since impor­
tant characteristics of the man who inhabited these regions during the
Mesolithic still characterize the man of the following epochs.
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country

On the other hand, not all of the population was transhumant. Nor
were all of them shepherds. Household items found in the Eneolithic
strata of Santimamine, Lumentxa, and Urtiaga, and the remains of food
accumulated in them, prove that hunting was practiced and that fish­
ing provided some food for the coastal population. O f all the bones of
mammals that we extracted from the Eneolithic layer in Santimamine,
more than 60 percent are from wild animals. The remainder belong to
species (cow, horse, sheep, goat, dog) that might have been domesti­
cated or semi-domesticated. O f the wild animals, 28 percent are deer and
30 percent wild boar. Following these, in very small percentages, are the
roebuck, the mountain goat, and the fox. Although the significance of
these figures must be considered provisional (a rigorous and meticulous
study of the material from Santimamine documented in the Archeologi­
cal Museum of Bilbao has not yet been undertaken), it can be affirmed
that hunting continued to be the common and most important source
of food for most of the population.
Without a doubt, the land was cultivated, though in small sections
of our plains. The small hoe from the dolmen of Bidarte is perhaps
proof of this. But the role of agriculture must not have been of great
importance yet in the economy of the country, judging by the rarity of
its vestiges.
The sites of this non-transhumant or sedentary sector of the popu­
lation were located in the lower regions and in the intermediate zones
between the high pastures and the plains of the sub-Pyrenean regions
(Santimamine, Jentiletxeeta, Aizkomendi, Elvillar, Urio, Isturitz, El
Castillar). It was this sector especially that practiced hunting and the
use of wild cattle, cultivated the land, and used ceramics, and despite
the importance of herding sheep, it can be said that their w ay of life
constituted the important center of Eneolithic culture in the Basque
Pyrenees.
The Basque Eneolithic is somewhat enigmatic, unless studied in
connection with the cultures that flourished in neighboring countries at
the time. Contact with these and the suitability of the natural Pyrenean
landscape itself were sufficient cause for the propagation of the pastoral
life all along the sierra, the populating of the elevated pasturages, tran­
shumance, the megalithic constructions, the new ceramic forms (bell­
shaped), new weapons (northern axes and southern arrows) and metals.
These facts were not confined to present-day Vasconia, but formed
part of a wider cultural circle that covered a vast territory, including
all of the Pyrenees and extensive lower zones, both in the valley of the
Ebro and in the Aquitaine region— a territory whose coincidence with
the area of Pyrenean pastoral transhumance and, in large part, with
1 66 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

Fig. 25 a . — Rivers; Dolmens.

 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country 167

Fig. 25 b . — Area of the present-day Basque language; area of the Basque language
at the beginning of the Rom an occupation; area of Basque and Basque-sounding
toponymy.

Basque toponymy, constitutes a phenomenon of particular importance

in Basque archeology and linguistics (figs. 14 (p. 152) and 25 A and B).
The Pyrenean zone, then, was the center of convergence for tech­
niques and customs that, originating in different adjoining countries,
were grafted onto the traditional indigenous life. In this way, a culture
was formed in a very natural landscape consisting of the mountains and
their complementary regions.
Language — The Basque names for certain instruments reflect the
materials from which they were made during the Neolithic and Eneo-
lithic: for instance, aizkora “ axe,” aitzur “ hoe,” aizto “ knife,” and
zulakaitz “ chisel,” in which the component aitz means “ stone.” This
is an indication that the Basque language preserves elements from the
vocabulary of the Stone Age.
The fact that urraida (from urre, “ gold” and aide “ similar” ) and
zirraida (from zillar “ silver” and aide “ similar” ) are the Basque names
i68 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

for copper and tin and that their formation accurately reflects the order
of the historical appearance of these metals was probably also an indi­
cation that the Basque vocabulary preserves words— urre and zillar—
that existed before the diffusion of copper (Eneolithic) and tin (Bronze
A ge).
Another indication of the same phenomenon are the names ozme
“ lightning, thunder,” (from oz, ortz “ sky” and me, “ stone” or “ min­
eral” ), ozminarri “ thunder,” ozkarri “ thunder” (from ortz “ sky” and
arri “ stone” ), tximistarri “ lightning bolt,” and oneztarri “ lightning
bolt,” which express mythological ideas widely diffused throughout
Europe during the expansion of the Indo-Europeans (late Neolithic).
On the other hand, the coincidence of the area of Basque-sounding
toponymy with that of culminating events of the Pyrenean Eneolithic
reveals a probable connection of these with the Basque language. It is
therefore likely that it was spoken during the Eneolithic period by the
population that occupied the Pyrenean valleys and some of the neigh­
boring countries.
The relationship that several contemporary linguists (Trombetti,
M arr, Dumézil, Uhlenbeck, Lafon, Bouda) find between the Basque
language and the languages of the Caucasus could be explained by their
derivation from a primitive Basque-Caucasian culture and language.
Since the latter was apparently related to the primitive Indo-European
language spoken during the final Neolithic in the regions to the east
of the Ural mountains, and with the Fino-Ugrian languages spoken
in the region of the middle Volga, it would be reasonable to place the
cradle and center from which the languages of the Basque-Caucasian
family radiated within the confines of Europe and Asia. This probably
occurred around the third millennium before our era. If such hypoth­
eses were confirmed, the Basque language, Asiatic in origin, would have
been imported some four thousand years ago by a migrating people or
would have been associated with a cultural movement that introduced
new ways of life into the Pyrenean population at the beginning of the
Eneolithic. But it is still too early to formulate a categorical solution to
this question, which is undoubtedly reserved for future research in pre­
historic anthropology and archeology and in comparative linguistics.
Religion — There are reasons to believe that the old religion,
characterized by the cult of spirits in animal form, and by magical
rites connected to the ancient ways of life still evident— dominated
by the hunt— continued to weigh upon the man of this age. We have
already seen that the hunt continued to be an important occupation
of a large part of the population. The changes in primary materials
and the appearance of some new techniques may not have profoundly
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country 169

Fig. 26.— R o o f of the dolmen of Ezkiregi (Ardaitz-Navarre) with a groove carved

into the surface.

altered their spiritual orientation. It is likely, then, that the old religious-
magical background continued, though stripped of the naturalistic art
of earlier times. But a new element entered into it with the movement
of shepherds and the contacts they made.
The megalithic burial stones that began to appear in all the sites in
the Pyrenees where the sheep were pastured, in an area ultimately cov­
ering the entire Basque Country, are the material documents or visible
signs of a world of beliefs, concepts, and purposes.
The same east-west orientation of the dolmen and the placement of
the corpses within it, laid out in the direction of the sun’s path, seem to
be inspired by a cult dedicated to that star. It could be said, then, that
the sun, or the solar divinity, was the object of religious veneration.
Abundant remains of bonfires have been found beside certain dol­
mens (Intxusburu, Beotegi, and Igartza), suggesting offerings of fire,
sacrifices, and offerings of food at funerals.
The grooves found on the roofs of the dolmens of Olaberta and
Ezkiregi (fig. 26) also seem to be related to funeral sacrifices, serving to
channel the blood from the animals that were sacrificed on top of the
dolmens.
Pieces of animal flesh were deposited near the corpses of humans,
probable offerings made to the deceased.
In most of the dolmens that have been explored, we have also
found ceramics, pieces of pots in which libations were offered to the
deceased.
Other items found in the dolmens are weapons and instruments of
stone (axes, arrows, knives) and metal (copper arrows, punches or awls,
bracelets, necklaces), amulets and pendants (rock crystal, beads made of
170 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

jet, alabaster, jadeite, and the fangs of boar and bear, bone earrings and
slate plaques, rings made of horn and bone, fish vertebrae).
There are also tiny stone votive axes, sacred instruments whose
character has been preserved until our times.
Dyes, such as hematite and ochre, have been found in the dolmens
of Askorrigana and Artekosaro.
O f particular interest for their rarity are two fork-shaped human
incisors found in the dolmen of Argarbi, but the current state of our
knowledge of the Eneolithic does not allow us to interpret them.
The orientation of the bodies and of the megalithic sepulchers,
the offerings deposited in them, the amulets and utensils provided for
the dead, the solidity of the dolmenic constructions which have come
down to us through centuries and millennia, the sacrificial offerings
suggested by certain remains, the surviving residue of bonfires, and the
very placement of the dolmens in sites probably occupied by shepherds’
huts or folds, provide clear indications of the existence of a religion and
domestic cult in which ancient elements appear in association with new
forms and beliefs.
 T H E B R O N Z E A G E (1200-600 B.C.)

Following the formation of the Pyrenean culture of the Eneolithic, espe­

cially considering the techniques and ways of life of the population, it is
important to acknowledge a period in the Basque Country characterized
by the use of certain bronze weapons (axes, arrowheads, daggers) and
tools. On the other hand, neither the natural landscape, nor the fauna,
nor the human type (“ western Pyrenean” ) experienced any appreciable
differences.
The vestiges of man and human culture of this age are found in a
number of sites, such as those of Santimamine, Goikolaua, Oyalkoba,
Lezetxe, Lamikela, and Esterlocq, and in dolmens such as Obioneta
(Aralar). Isolated objects have been found in Iruzubieta, Kutxinobaso
(Cenarruza), Arceniega, Faardiko-harri (Sara), Zabalaitz (Aizkorri),
Orkatzategi (Onate (Onati)), etc.
Industry — Almost all of the instruments that have come down to
us are made of stone. But we are not yet in possession of sufficient mate­
rial to allow us to identify their particular character and style.
There are also objects of bronze: axes, tips for arrows and spears,
awls and bracelets. Among the axes, some, like those of Arechabala
(Aretxabala) (in Iruzubieta) and Castellar, which are flat, prob­
ably belong to the first period of this age. Those from Zabalaitz and
Faardiko-harri, with decorated edges, seem to be from the second
period. From the third period, perhaps, are the twisted bracelet and the
slotted axes found in Kutxinobaso. The tubular axe, from Arceniega, is
from the fourth period (fig. 27 A).
As for ceramics, we know of only a few funeral urns, all hand­
made. Urns from Obioneta and from Lamikela: some with a flat base,
others convex; some saucer-shaped, some bi-conic; with or without
nipples; some with a smooth surface, others with bands of vertical inci­
sions. Their style and form, generally crude, are reminiscent of more
ancient ceramic types that survived in the Basque Pyrenees until the
Bronze Age (fig. 27 B).
Dwellings — Some natural caves were inhabited by man; in San­
timamine, Lumentxa, and H arixtoi, ceramics and stone artifacts from
this time were found.
172 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiaran

Fig. 27 a.— Bronze-age industry: a) bracelet and arrowhead from the necropolis of
Lamikela (Contrasta); b, c) arrowheads from the dolmen of Obioneta; d) awl from
the dolmen of Ueloguena; e) lance tip from the dolmen of Obioneta; f) axe from
Zabalaitz (Aizgorri).

c*

Fig. 27 b.— Ceramics from the dolmen of Obioneta: a) based on the M em oir
published by Aranzadi and Barandiaran; b, c, d) from reconstructions done by J.
Elosegui (Ikuska, 3, 1).

Probably many of the man-made caves in the south-southwest

region of Araba were also inhabited during the Bronze Age; some,
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country 173

even earlier. On June 28, 1928, we excavated the earth that covered the
floor of an artificial shelter located on the right side of the grottos on
the hill called “ El M ontico” (in Albaina). We examined four superim­
posed layers. The top two contained varnished ceramics and unshaped
slivers of flint; the next layer produced very crude black ceramics along
with slivers and small finished chips of flint and a stone for pounding;
the fourth layer held no ceramic remains, only some small flint pieces
with carvings on the edges that resembled craft from the Mesolithic.
Since the shelter had been carved in the rock before it began to fill in,
that is, before the layers into which we were digging had formed, it
would be safe to attribute it to an epoch prior to the Bronze Age, per­
haps Neolithic or M esolithic. Although the other shelters and artificial
grottos of the region have produced no objects that could help us date
them with certainty, the result of the excavation of “ El M ontico” and
the similarity of these structures with other analogous ones in other
countries that have been attributed to the Eneolithic or the Bronze Age
lead us to think that they must have been inhabited at least since the
latter period (figs. 28 A and 28 B).

Fig. 28 a .— The cliffs of U riatxa beside the plain called Busturia (county of Trevino).
On the cliff to the right, a black m ark indicates the entrance to an artificial grotto
several meters above the base of the cliff.
174 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

Fig. 28 b .— Entrances to three artificial grottos of Santorcaria (Lano).

We have not discovered any remains of dwellings out in the open,

but it can be assumed that they outnumbered those in caves. The arti­
facts discovered in Salbatierrabide (near Vitoria-Gasteiz) reveal that
there was a prehistoric site there, probably inhabited by humans since
the Bronze Age.
Sepulchers — One part of the population followed the old cus­
tom of depositing corpses inside natural caves. Human remains have
been found alongside ceramics and beads or pendants from that age in
O yalkoba, Lezetxe, Isturitz, Harixtoi, and Goikolaua. In this last cave,
a cadaver had been placed above the stalagmite level of the floor. Since
it had not been moved during subsequent periods, the skeletal remains,
though quite scattered and broken, had remained in the same place
alongside broken pieces of pots and tiny pierced disks of white stone
when we visited the cave on September 12, 1935. Several bodies were also
buried in the shelter of Lamikela (Contrasta).
Another part of the population deposited corpses in dolmens. The
southern dolmen of Obioneta can be assumed to have belonged to this
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country 175

Fig. 28 c.— Floor plans of four artificial grottos in Araba: A) one of the burial grottos
of El M ontico (Albaina); B) burial grotto on the western slope of Kanas (Urarte); C)
one of the grottos of Txarronda (Marqumez); D) one of those found on the western
slope of Engua Hill (Marqumez). Sepulchres opened on the floor are marked with
the letter E). At (M) (sketch A) there is a podium, possibly a pedestal or altar. On
the w all marked with an X , there is the engraving shown in figure 31 A. On the wall
marked with a P (sketch B), above the tombs, there is another engraving, shown in
figure 31 C.

age because of the items found inside. It is unusual in that the floor is
paved with stones, like the dolmens of Portuzargana and one in Lan-
darbaso that may be contemporary with it.
Finally, the artificial grottos of Araba may have served also as cem­
eteries, since in many of them there are tombs dug into the rock of the
floor. But the fact that these are completely empty deprives us of data
that might have given us information about their period.
 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

It is possible that the custom of incinerating corpses may have

been introduced in some parts of the country. In 1918, in the sand pit
of Salbatierrabide (near Vitoria-Gasteiz) I discovered a site formed by
a stratum with human remains that covered another thicker layer with
objects from the Iron and Bronze Ages. Underneath the latter there
were several burial pits for incineration: hemispherical holes one meter
in diameter and 0.65 meters deep dug into the gravel bed of the recent
Pleistocene terrace. The only one I was able to explore completely was
formed from top to bottom by three layers of blackish soil separated by
other layers of yellowish soil, made of sand and gravel. In addition to
soil, the blackish layers contained ash, carbon, segments of burnt bones,
broken pieces of crude ceramic vases (pots with nipples and orifices
for hanging), knives made of flint, arrowheads of flint and ophite and
tiny axes of polished stone. The alternating layers were archeologically
sterile8 (fig. 29).

Fig. 29.— Incineration urn from Salbatierrabide: T) gravel layer beneath soil with
vegetation; A) blackish clay with stones, coal, pieces of burnt bone, shards of clay
pots, flint, spear point, polished arrow, boar fang. 16 centimeters thick. At the bot­
tom, a limestone urn measuring 40 centimeters in length and width and 6 centime­
ters thick. B) sandy yellow soil with no archeological remains. 9 centimeters thick.
C) loose blackish soil with shards from clay pots, pieces of unformed flint, two silex
knives, an arrow point, two polished stone axes, coal, ash, and pieces of charred
bone. 20 centimeters thick. D) a gravel layer, with no archeological remains. 10 cen­
timeters thick. E) compact blackish soil with shards from clay pots (rough, blackish
substance similar to the ceramics of the upper level), coal, bits of flint, and a quartz
scraper. 10 centimeters thick.
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country 177

Religion — Only in tombs do we find archeological data related to

the religion of the Bronze Age. But these do not reveal any significant
change after the Eneolithic, except for the cremation of cadavers which
to date has only been acknowledged at one site. This ritual is connected
to specific ideas about the destiny of man after death and probably to
a new religion. It constitutes a novelty in the later periods of this age
which subsequently, during the Iron Age, attained considerable exten­
sion throughout our country.
The artifacts found in burial sites consist of weapons of stone, cop­
per, and bronze, amulets of stone and bone, perforated fangs of wild
boar and bear, bracelets of bronze, bi-conic and saucer-shaped ceramic
vases.
Perhaps we should also attribute to this age the figures carved
deeply into the rock beside the door of one of the artificial grottos of
Santorkaria (in Lano), which seem to represent three axes with handles.
The engraving that I discovered on the face of a wall in 1917 in a sepul­
chral grotto of Urarte may also be from that period (figs. 30 and 31).9
We can say the same about the vase or urn engraved with the figure of
a star from Goikolaua.
Such customs or rites, objects and images that have paradigms in
the Eneolithic culture and in the Bronze Age of other countries of West-

Fig. 30.— a) Entrance to a cave in Santorkaria (in Lano); b) engravings on the inside
of the same cave.
178 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

Fig. 31.— a) an engraving from El M ontico (a cave in Albaina); b) a sculpture in the

cave of Santa Leocadia (Marqumez); c) an engraving in the artificial cave of Kanas
(Urarte).

ern Europe are proof of the influences that continued to arrive in the
Pyrenees from different directions.
These archeological facts naturally confirm the persistence of the
Pyrenean culture of the Eneolithic and also reveal the influences of a
nature-based religion that constitute a religious stratum in which we
can discern the cult of a celestial divinity, linked to the cult of the axe
(votive axes from the dolmens and images of axes from Santorkaria),
and the solar cult brought to mind by the east-west orientation of the
dolmens and the radiated images on the ceramics from Goikolaua and
Ermittia. These cults must have existed in connection with the cult of
the ancestors.
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country 179

In the environment of this naturist religion, certain beliefs and rites

must have evolved relative to the phenomena and forces of nature that
traditional Basque culture and the vocabulary of Euskara have pre­
served until today. Such are the beliefs in a celestial divinity denoted by
the names ortzi, urzi (sky, thunder, God); ortzegun (day of the sky, of
the celestial divinity); eguen (day of the sun or celestial light, Thursday);
the veneration of the sun and its symbols (circles, swastika, pentagonal
star, ostensorium or iguzkisaindu “ holy sun” and the flower of the
wild thistle, called eguzkilore “ sunflower” ; the greetings to the sun
and moon; the custom of building houses and shepherds’ huts so that
the main façade faces east; the festivals of the solstice and the names
Ekhaina (month of the sun, June) and Eguberri (new sun, Christmas);
the belief in the spirit of storms, called Odei, and in the spirit of the fire
of the hearth; the attribution of a mystical power to the axe, the hoe,
and to solar symbols, as agents that protect the house during storms;
the custom of placing candles and food in tombs as offerings to the dead
and the belief that they use them and eat them in the afterlife, etc. This
entire religious complex, in accordance with the archeological sugges­
tions mentioned above, the elements and names of which apparently
pre-date the Celtic and Roman influences of our proto-history, must
have its origin in the Eneolithic and Bronze Ages of the people of the
Pyrenees.
 T H E IR O N A G E

After the end of the Bronze Age, numerous movements of populations

are recorded in Western Europe, making it possible for the people of the
Pyrenees to establish contact with different people and cultural currents.
One of these, probably of Celtic origin, imported or diffused by an
immigrant people, spread over a large part of the Pyrenees, especially in
the northern pasturages. Another current, also Celtic, was propagated
in the regions to the south, forming small groups and fortified settle­
ments at different points in the Basque Country.
Monuments of the first wave are the baratz (one of the names by
which they are known to the people) or circles of stones like cromlechs,
that in many cases circumscribe small tombs with incineration urns
with an area that extends the full length of the mountain range from
the Ariege to the borders of Navarre and Gipuzkoa. Their principal sites
in the Basque Country are the baratz or groups of baratz of Elorta (in
Askonobi), Irati, Ocabe, Lindus and Atalosti, Zaho, Baigura, Iuskadi,
Artzamendi, Ezurreta, M ailarreta and Goizamendi, Ibaineta, Gorostiar-
ria, M andale, Pittare, Lerate, Oyarzun (Oiartzun), Elazmuno and Olegi,
Aram o, Unamuno, Etzela and Oentzun (in Berastegui (Berastegi)), and
Altxista (above Urnieta) (figs. 32 and 33).
We are speaking of a modality of Celtic culture that some believe
to have originated in Bohemia and in Bavaria. It spread to the Pyrenean
regions by moving through Switzerland and Northern Italy, where it
was propagated mainly in the Ariege, Upper Garona, Upper and Lower
Pyrenees, and in an extensive zone of the Basque Country, especially on
its oceanic slope.
The landmarks of the Celtic wave from the south, known even
today, are found in Castejon (near Arguedas), in Etxauri, La Hoya
(Laguardia), Iruna, Kutzemendi, Salbatierrabide, Oro, and Arrola.
Vestiges of this age have been found also in caves such as Harixtoi,
Urio, Goikolaua, and El Bortal (Carranza).
Very few serious excavations have been carried out yet in the prin­
cipal sites of the Iron Age in the Basque Country. For that reason and,
in part, due to the lack of material contained in the excavations that
Fig. 32.— Area of the baratz or Pyrenean cromlechs.
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque Country 183

Fig. 33.— Cromlech of Ataloste (Mount Lindus).

have been explored, it is not possible to arrive at clear chronological

conclusions.
Dwellings and Sepulchers — The caves must have been less inhab­
ited than in preceding periods; but in some, ceramic remains have been
found, revealing that they were occupied during the Iron Age. The
cave of Harixtoi (in Donamartiri) contains, apparently, a stratum with
ceramics of the Hallstattic type. The ceramics found on the surface at
Goikolaua (in Berriatua) are analogous.
However, most of the dwellings must have been out in the open,
located in sites more convenient to the transhumance and pastoral life of
one part of the population and to the agricultural life of the inhabitants
of the lowlands. Dwellings with rectangular floors and walls of adobe
and interlocking strips of wood have been discovered in the Castejon
excavation. In Iruna there were dwellings with rectangular floors, with
walls made of stone without mortar. In Kutzemendi and Salbatierrabide
as well, remains of walls of the same kind were found that could have
been for dwellings. In the last-named site there was also a circular pit
one-and-a-half meters deep and one meter in diameter, similar to those
that have been recognized in other communities of this period.
At the very least, tombs for cremation were generally used in one
sector of the population. The baratz in the eastern parts of their area of
the Pyrenees contained vases with ashes and offerings. The corpses were
placed on the fire with their adornments and personal items. Their ashes
and charred bones were then enclosed in pots, which were covered by
a mound of earth and irregular stones surrounded by a circumference
of stones partially buried in the ground. At times the ashes were depos­
ited in the tomb without any receptacle. The few excavations that have
been undertaken in these monuments in the country have produced no
184 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

archeological material, except for those at Okabe, where several broken

pieces of pottery have been found.
Another funeral custom was, undoubtedly, that of depositing the
ashes of cadavers in large urns in caves. This is the purpose of the pots
found in the cave of Bortal (Molinar de Carranza), Uriogaina (Sara),
and those that were found in a secondary gallery of the cave of Harixtoi
(fig. 34). The one in Uriogaina must have been sealed with a sandstone
lid that lay over the broken pieces of the pot when it was found. The
pot had been broken open and its contents spilled out.

Fig. 34.— Vases from H arixtoi.

Industry — In Salbatierrabide, in the stratum beneath the one con­

taining crafts of the Roman epoch, saucers and pots of the Hallstattic
type were found, as well as pins and needles made of bone and bronze,
a ring, a brooch, a belt buckle, etc.
In Kutzemendi, at the very top of the hill commonly called “ Castillo
de Oralizu” today, situated in Mendiola to the south of Vitoria, there
are the remains of an ancient community with an abundance of clay
vessels with ornamentation engraved on them and in relief, similar to
ornamentation from the Iron Age. The clay weights found there reveal
that the craft of weaving was practiced there (fig. 35).

Fig. 35.— a, b, c) buckles from Salbatierrabide, La H oya (Laguardia), and Iruna; d)

weight for a loom from Kutzemendi.
 Selections from Prehistoric M an in the Basque C ountry 185

At the top of the mountain where the sanctuary of Our Lady of

Oro sits, there are also remains from an ancient community, whose
area includes the hills of Atxabal, Santa M arina de Gitabe, Losobraus,
Arriaga, Eskotilla, and the hill of Uribiarte and its northern and north­
eastern slopes. Judging by the ceramics and hand mills that were taken
from a thick blackish stratum at the site, an Iron Age community existed
there.
In La H oya, which is a low hill located near Laguardia, I also col­
lected ceramic pieces from all along the crest. Their existence convinced
me that there was a community there at the end of the Iron Age.
But it is in Etxauri, especially, where a necropolis from the second
Iron Age was discovered, with an antenna-like sword, a bridle for a
horse, a sickle, and a bar from a plow providing a good sample of the
contents of the site (fig. 36).

Fig. 36.— Iron objects (Celtic) from the necropolis of Etxauri.

The scarcity of the remains of crafts does not preclude us from con­
sidering that the Iron Age was well represented in the Basque Country.
The considerable number of sepulchers, communities, and sites with
strata from this age proves that different movements of peoples and
cultures intersected here and that a systematic exploration would reveal
abundant material to describe the life of the Basque population of those
periods.
Ways of Life — The location of the baratz or incineration sepul­
chers in the Basque territory— generally in high pasturages— is a fairly
i8 6 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

certain indication that a large sector of the population herded sheep,

practicing transhumance. The shepherd of the Iron Age followed the
tracks of his Eneolithic ancestor, exploiting the possibilities of the natu­
ral landscape. For this reason, the sites of both Ages frequently coincide
in the same places.
But in the western region of the Basque Country— Araba, Bizkaia,
and most of Gipuzkoa— no baratz have been discovered; they have been
found only in the eastern part, their area of diffusion extending as far
as the Ariege.
In Araba and southern Navarre, the settlements of Oro, Kutze-
mendi, Iruna, Salbatierrabide, La H oya, Castejon, Arguedas, etc., reveal
another culture and probably other ways of life based on agriculture
and cattle, as can be concluded from their locations themselves, an opin­
ion that seems to be confirmed by the discoveries— plow and sickle— in
Echauri (Etzauri).
 Notes

1. José M iguel de Barandiaran, “ Exploración de la cueva de U rtiaga,” E usko-

jakintza (Bayonne), vol. i (1947): 686.
2. On August 12 of 1919, as I w as going from Santimamine to the cavern called
Kobaederra, less than a kilometer from there I saw alongside the path on which I
w as climbing, a deep open pit in the ground; it w as a trap for catching wild boar,
according to my guide.
3. A dolf Staffe, “ Beiträge zur M onographie des Baskenrindes,” Revista Internacio-
nal de los Estudios Vascos 17 (1926): 34.
4. This conclusion seems reasonable, since the existence of such rudimentary live­
stock development in use down through the ages in the mountainous zone of the
Basque Pyrenees cannot be explained unless it proceeded from primitive herders or
is considered a carryover of their method. Also, the division of an animal among sev­
eral individuals or families, allotting each a share (right half, left thigh, etc.), appears
to be a vestige of the ancient sharing of the hunted animal.
5. T. de Aranzadi, J . M . de Bandiaran, and E. de Eguren, Exploraciones de la
cueva de Santimamine (Explorations of the Cave of Santimamine), 2nd memoir, 33
(Bilbao, 1931). Aranzadi and Barandiaran, “ Exploración de la cueva de Urtiaga, II,”
Eusko-jakintza, Vol. 2 (1948): 321. Aranzadi and Ansoleaga, E xploración de cinco
dólm enes del Aralar (Exploration of Five Dolmens from the Aralar) (Pamplona,
1915); Exploración de catorce [fourteen] dólmenes del Aralar (Pamplona, 1918). A ran­
zadi, Barandiaran, and Eguren, E xploración de nueve dólmenes del Aralar guipuz-
coano (Exploration of Nine Dolmens from the Gipuzkoan Aralar) (San Sebastian,
1919); Exploración de seis [six] dólm enes de A izkorri (San Sebastian, 1919); E x p lo ­
ración de seis dólmenes de Urbasa (San Sebastian, 1922). Aranzadi and Barandiaran.
Exploración de ocho [eight] dólmenes de la sierra de Aralar (San Sebastian, 1924).
6. Alcobé, “ Antropologìa de la población actual de las comarcas pirenaicas”
(Anthropology of the Present-Day Population of the Pyrenean Region), Pirineos
1:114.
7. Henri Cavaillès, L a Transhumance Pyrénéenne et la circulation des troupeaux
dans les plaines de Gascogne (Pyrenean Transhumance and the Circulation of Flocks
on the Plains of Gascogne), 11-12 (Paris: Colin, 1931).
8. Workers who were extracting the sand in the area caused all of these pits and a
large part of the site to disappear in a few days.
9. J. M . de Barandiaran, “ El arte rupestre en A la va ” (Cave A rt in Araba), in
Boletm de la Sociedad Ibèrica de Ciencias Naturales (Zaragoza), M arch -A pril 1920.
T. de Aranzadi, J. M . de Barandiaran, and E. de Eguren, Grutas artificiales de Alava
(Artificial Caves of Araba), San Sebastian, 1923.
 Selections from
An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara

by José Miguel de Barandiaran

H U M A N E S T A B L IS H M E N T S A N D T H E R U R A L H O U SE

Tem porary Dwellings

The rural houses located in valleys and in the zones below the mountain
ridges, whether they are farmhouses or not, are generally permanent
family dwellings. But when they are devoted entirely or partially to
sheepherding, these houses possess one or more temporary shelters
deeper in the mountains where the family member in charge of watch­
ing the sheep dwells for days or entire seasons. Such shelters are called
etxola (hut) or artzain-etxola (shepherd’s hut) (see fig. i).
The etxola is generally a square or rectangular structure with dry
walls of unworked stones and a pitched flagstone roof (in Basque,
gaina) supported by wooden trestles. Beneath the ridge of the roof and
facing east is the principal façade and in it the doorway. Sometimes the
side walls protrude a few decimeters past the façade, as does the roof,
thus forming a shelter like the open portal of houses. In some huts there
is a window in one wall, or an open space in the interior parameter
of the w all, where the wooden vessel that holds milk (kaiku) is placed
after milking until it is used or transported to another location (fig. i:
i and 4).
In etxolas built for sleeping overnight, there is a ramshackle bed
where the shepherd sleeps across from the entrance. It consists of a
platform of poles placed horizontally on two parallel beams laid on the
ground a meter and a half apart. This holds the platform twenty centi­
meters above the ground. On top of this platform tree branches are laid
and over them a thick layer of ferns serving as a mattress. A blanket is
the final addition (fig. 1: 3).
In some cases the shepherd’s hut is adjoined to the side of a barn
or stable (fig. 1: 2); there are others built inside the barn in one of the
corners close to the entrance.
The old shepherd’s huts were larger than those built today and had
two compartments: in the first were the fireplace and the bed, and in the
second different kinds of equipment and shelves for cheese. In these the
192 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

2—Hut adjoined to a cliff to the

south o f Urkiselai (Urkizelai) (floor
plan). a a: two erect stones measuring
1.2 meters in height and 0.6 meters in
width, which serve as the door jambs.

i— Sketch o f floor plan o f an ancient

shepherd’s hut on Mount Debalde. To the
right, the living space; to the left (J) the
milking area made with large stones sunken I**
in the ground.

-0

[4

,1m*

3—Sketch o f floor plan o f a 4—A hut from Morey. e e: niches cut

hut from Fague: O marks the into the walls (esneleku), meant for
location o f the crude bed (ohe). the vessel storing the milk.

Fig. 1.

shepherd remained on the mountain during the entire season of summer

pasturage.
There are shepherd’s huts in M uy, Altsaan, Erkaizti, Fage, Urkize­
lai, and on the slopes of Ibantelli, Saiberry, Atxuri, etc.
Ardiborda — This is the word for the rustic fold where the shepherd
keeps the flock while it is pasturing on mountains far removed from
populated areas. It is a structure made with stone walls and a pitched
roof covered with warped tiles or slate. Some of these ardibordas or
sheepfolds have an upper level for storing hay (fig. 2).
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 193

There are also sheepfolds under rock shelters in places where

an overhanging cliff extends out far enough to provide a roof.
O lan da’ko arpia, “ the grotto of O lan da,” is one of these, located on
the northern slope of Urkizelai (fig. 2: 1). Beneath the rock hollow
called Atekaleun (on the eastern flank of Larrune) there is another
shelter formed by two inclined cliffs joined at the top, which is used
as a shelter for pottokas (ponies) and sheep. On the western slope
of Urkizelai there exists a similar small shelter for the mares put to
pasture on that mountain.
Here is a list of the sheepfolds or ardiborda of Sara: M axinakin-
borda (in Ortolopitzbeherea), Landaburuko-ardiborda, Iturriagako-

\
-Ţ*0
-t
..t
-■I
1.— Grotto or ardiborda to the north of - Jt

Urkizelaiko-harria, in a rocky overhang

j = j
or grotto formed by a cave-in, measuring
9 meters in width, 5.5 meters in depth, E.
and 1.5 meters in height. The front part is
2—Ardiborda on the Olain hill.
enclosed by a stone wall and the roof is
Its name: Mailuenborda-zaharra.
finished with a slate cover.
Constructed with dry stones and
a slate roof. s s: niches.

4—Ardiborda o f the - Al _
S
Altzuortea farm,
o r
located on the eastern
slope o f Baztarreko-
harria. To the right w r
o f the entrance it
has an enclosed a r

corner (Etx.) which

is the shelter for t¥t — h
3.—Floor plan of the shepherd with
the ardiborda o f the an entrance A that
Jomildegikoborda farm on can be closed with a
stone slab. pp: poles.
□ 4 v—
Mount Olain. es: partition of
interwoven sticks. s: niche

Fig. 2.
194 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

ardiborda (in ruins), Yaiberriko-ardiborda, Aniotzko-ardiborda (in

ruins), Argaitzeko-ardiborda, Haldunbehereko-ardiborda (in ruins),
Kukulluen-ardiborda (in ruins), Larraldeko-ardiborda, Uhaideko-
ardiborda, Xantakoneko-ardiborda, Iratzeburuko-ardiborda, Leza-
beko-ardiborda, Irlandako-borda (today, ardiborda of Uhaidea),
Uhaideko-ardiborda (near Txillardiko-borda), Olalandako-ardiborda,
Betrieneko-arpia (grotto of Betrienea), Etxargaraiko-ardiborda,
Betrieneko-a., Aldagaraiko-a., Arburuko-a., Aranburuko-ardiborda,
Jom ildegiko-a., Etxegoyengo-a., Mikeletegiko-bordako-a., Xuitegiko-
bordako-a., Kattienbordako-a., Teileriako-a., Ttakoinen-bordako-a.
(in Faardiko-harri), Sabateneko-bordako-a. (to the right of Tombako-
erreka, or the arroyo of the tomb), Uzkinaineko-a., (to the right of the
arroyo Ukumeleko-erreka), Ithurbideko-bordako-a. (on the road to
Saiberri), M utilain-a. (near Munoenborda), Dendaldegiko-bordako-a.,
Arotzaeneko-bordako-a., Arrosagaraiko-bordako-a., Juanaenbordako-a.
(today it is called Iguzkiagerreko-borda), Bordatxarreko-bordako-a.,
Bordaberriko-bordako-a., Arrosako-bordako-a., Iriburuko-a., Axain-a.,
Olabideko-a., Zimiztaineko-a., Zulobiako-a., Goxaingo-a., Hariste-
giko-a., Elhordiko-a., Elhordiko-borda (today converted into an ardi­
borda), Uharteko-a., Hiitiko-a., Leureko-a., Beherekoetxeko-a. (these
are two folds in Ortolopitzbehere), Gaineko-etxeko-a. (of Ortolopitz-
gaine), Uhaldeko-a.
Jeiztei, D eiztei — Beside the shepherd’s hut or beside the sheepfold
there are often one or two flat rectangular areas enclosed by low stone
walls one meter in height, like the ones near the hut of Argaitzea on
M ount Altsaan; or by large, upright slabs, placed in a closed row, as
in Iturriadarreta and in Debalde. These are milking stalls, called jeiztei
(from jeitzi, “ to m ilk” ). When the milking area comprises two sections,
like those at Argaitzea and Saiberri, one is used to hold the sheep that
are to be milked, the other for milking the ewes one at a time (fig. 3).
Espil, K orralia — N ext to these ancient shepherd’s huts, in some
sites we still find large, circular level areas surrounded by dry walls (in
Basque, arresi) or stone slabs placed vertically on the ground like crom­
lechs. These are shelters where the shepherds gathered their flocks, espe­
cially at night, to protect them from attacks by wolves. They are called
espil, arrespil, korralia. One of these corrals still exists beside the ruins
of a hut and its jeiztei in Iturriadarreta in the town of Ascam (fig. 3: 1).
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 195

o o q o o o o

E tx o fc

gzz71/mmia
qooood
Je iz k i X
0 0 0 « a o«£
1 1—Floor plan o f an old shepherd’s
hut (etxola) in Iturriadarreta,
made with dry walls. At the side,
the milking pen (jeiztei) and corral,
made with slabs o f stone sunk
vertically in the ground.

d: deiztei or enclosure for holding sheep that

will be milked. Also called jeiztei.
D: deiztei ttiki, small enclosure entered by
each sheep when its turn comes to be milked.
h: wall formed by the cliff
aes: arresi or railing o f rough stone 80
centimeters high.
A: stone shorter than
the railing: door

2—Overhead plan o f the hut

(etxola) and sheep enclosure
(deiztei) o f the Argaitzea farm
on Mount Altsaan.

Fig. 3-

Structures Attached to the House

In the chapter referring to the community and the population system of
Sara, we said that the rural house of Sara “ is not generally an isolated,
separate structure, but rather it includes other structures in addition
to the main building, some contiguous or near to it, others scattered
throughout the land belonging to it.” It is, then, a group or constellation
of structures, such as the aldatei (granary), ongarritei (fertilizer bin),
labetei (shed for the oven for baking bread), zerritei, or zerrizola (pig
sty), arditei (corral), oilotei, ollotei (chicken coop), mastietxola (shelter
196 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiarân

for those who w ork in the vineyard), kisulabe (lime pit), gaztain-espil
(circular area surrounded by a stone wall, used for storing chestnuts),
yarleku (site in the parish church) and ehortzeleku or tomba or ilharri
(family sepulcher inside the church or in the cemetery). See figures 4, 5,
6, 7, and 8, drawings of several types of houses made by don Julio Caro
Baroja in 1949.

Fig. 4. Ainesenea (Sara).

Fig. 5. Kapetenea (Sara).

Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 197

Fig. 7 . A ldabea (Sara).

198 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Fig. 8. Angonea (Sara).

Y arleku — Each house possesses on the floor of the parish

church a reserved space that is an extension o f its property. This
is called the yarleku (seat). This is where a wom an from the house
sits to attend a ceremony or religious event. The cloth called sayal
is spread over it, and when it is time for her to sing the response,
she lights the torch (in Basque, xirio) and the small spiral-shaped
candles (ezko) follow ing a requiem mass which she requested in
honor o f her ancestors. If it is not a requiem m ass, the ceremony
comes first.
The yarleku and adjacent areas are in m any cases identified
by inscriptions overlaid or carved into the sandstone slabs that
form the floor o f the church. In figure 9 we indicate some of these
inscriptions.
Ilh a rri, E h ortzeleku , T om ba — Each house has its tomb in the
cemetery, which, like the yarleku, is considered to be an extension
of the home to which it is assigned. The names used to refer to these
are ilharri, “ stone for the d ead,” ehortzeleku, “ burial groun d ,” o b i,
and tom ba. The cemetery where the tombs are located is called
ilarguieta or ilharrieta, “ place for sepulchers,” and surrounds the
parish church.
The sepulcher is, then, incorporated into the house. It is a part
of it. When the house is sold or bequeathed to heirs, the sepulcher is
also assumed to be sold or inherited. This consists o f a rectangular
parcel of ground, covered by one, two, or three slabs of sandstone.
A stone cross or an upright iron cross stands at the head. O nly once
did we see a disk-shaped stele (fig. 10), which disappeared in the
year 1952.
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 199

ME<2@ T £ 2@ M ®A
lA & lt B A S S A SP
(Clswn dz /Irn'a^a) e$ fa ttmia
(fsfa
S1©1 d&Moscorrando)
(Asierito*k ZaJtir
(Seat of Arriaga) Uk&rz ftoi) (This is the tomb of
M oscorrondo)
(Seat of Zuelbehere
1707)

{cX-iicnto cti Haitoza-

tent eJta.lant (AiîientodejBa,roLchirtt
m s)
pieoUocfom&af, iìQ l)
(Seat of Harozarene of
(Seat of Baracharte and
Ihalarre 1723)
tombstone, 1707)

E T A 2<2AKTSBff

(Aliente efeÂnrtiaqaiai
m i) r IfS&WTATWA
(•**2 ic frf cp&,Ju&tm
(Seat of Arrosagarai
YJTl) OLtlrfU&ela,)

'. . . and of those occupying

a seat and adopted tomb)

(AiUitfi JbtZuiid*)

(Seat of Zubieta)
TESLELE

RhEKW ?
BW M UC A
(/junto ât

(AsUnto <&. (Seat of Teileria)

£èhe*J>****<)
(Seat of Lehenburu)

Fig. 9-
200 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

Fig. 10.

M ost of the sepulchers, especially the ancient ones, are oriented

from east to west. The cadaver is deposited in the grave that is dug
beneath the slabs— which are removed for this purpose— so that the
head is placed at the west end and the feet to the east.
Today sepulchers are made in the form of vaults.
On the slabs that cover the sepulcher, an inscription indicating
ownership is frequently visible. On ancient sepulchers, the name of the
house to which it belongs is inscribed; on those from this century, the
name of the family. This change corresponds to the change that has
occurred in the conception of the house, its functions and those of the
domestic pantheon. See examples of such inscriptions in figure 11.
A rditei — M any houses have a lean-to abutting one side of the
building. It consists of three stone walls and a straw roof, with a door
connecting to the inside of the house and another to the outside at the
front. This is the shed or stable where the sheep are sheltered, especially
during winter nights when the flock is not pasturing on the high moun­
tains. It is called the arditei.
The zerritei (pigpen), also called zerrizola, is a shed or lean-to made
of dry stones or stone slabs, with a roof of the same material, usually
built against the wall of the house. It has a wooden door to allow clos­
ing off the small enclosure.
Zerrietxola, “ pig hut,” is the shelter built on the mountain by each
inhabitant who takes his pigs there during acorn and chestnut season.
This is where the animals stay at night. It is a rustic structure built on two
vertical wooden posts that are forked at the top. On these, a thin beam (in
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 201

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1 H/4R0ZTE<j1uico thomJ b a c J
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* • i* *» •• *t

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T H O »MBAcj I79J
Tom bs o f LA H E T E , H A R O Z T E G U I,
Tom bs o f the Lezabia house 1838 M U SK E T E N E , A R R O SS A G A R A I.

M E N P I O N
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■ TOMBA { ! ? I r !
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[wKTt/eoJHOB IAJ |h I N I> A r |t£ C O a J pRRICAJflURUJcOACJ

: : * • : î : : ; :
* •- * * *
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JELI Ì Z A L D£ |haran|bek |ria J Jbaxa |tcear|tea| |çull<biaJ

JUMMfCA RAYA
I E I N A
■ • : î *’ : : : ? •
That o f Elizalde-Landagaraya.

S E V E R A L O T H E R TO M BS W ITH BASQ U E N A M E S IN SC R IB E D

..jWvlMt
tieeo
P
e W s U iI JCh«5T«al J |r*iuiuttrj f«W*
VHANRCHE
. { jit h u r b iie J 1 : I FA
famlMLUKÇM
. MO»IA :
• l( * l* *

Fig. II.
202 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

Basque, bizkar) is laid to form the trestle. Two rows of sticks are placed
along the sides of this. A covering of ferns is spread over it and on both
sides. Only in the front is there an opening, which is the entrance.
Oilotei — This is the name for the chicken coop that some houses
have outside their enclosures. It is a structure of stone walls and a roof cov­
ered with curled tiles. On the front wall, facing east, there is a door, and
on one side, fairly high up, a small window through which the hens come
and go, climbing and descending to the floor by a small stick ladder.
Mastietxola (vineyard hut).— In some vineyards there are small
shelters or rectangular huts built like the oilotei, but without windows.
They do have a round hole above the door for light and air to enter
from outside. These serve as shelters for workers in the vineyard as well
as storage space for the tools they use.
There are also huts where men who work in the apple orchards take
shelter. There is one of these a hundred meters north of the Larraburuko-
borda farm, made with four large sandstone slabs: three forming the sides
and one for a roof (fig. 12). It resembles the chamber in a dolmen.
A ldatei — This is another rustic structure formed by stone walls and
a pitched roof covered with tile. It consists of the ground level section,
open on one side, where carts and work tools are kept. Above this, there
is another level that serves as a grain loft. It is, then, a structure used as
a granary or Bizkaian garaixe or Navarrese gare. Granaries like these
are to be found on a number of farmsteads in Sara, as in Etxegaraia,
Dundurienea, and Arantxipiko-borda.
Ongarritei, “ fertilizer bin.” — This is a shed with a pitched roof, sim­
ilar to the aldatei, but without an upper level, and open on one or two
sides. It is used to store manure from the stables. It stands near the main
house, or abuts it, in which case it has a roof that is merely slanted.
Labatei, “ place for the oven.” — A structure like the one just
described, though smaller, containing the oven for baking bread. Some­
times it abuts the house, on one side of the lorio or open portal; at other

Fig. 12.— Floor plan of the etxola of Larraburuko-borda.

Height of the roof: 1.30 meters.
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 203

times, it is some distance away from the house, as in the Andoitzen-

borda farmstead. M ore frequently, however, the oven is integrated into
the kitchen or has its opening facing into it (fig. 13).
G aztain E sp il — From gaztain, “ chestnut,” and espil, “ enclosure”
or “ round preserve.” This is a structure found in chestnut orchards,
made with a dry wall 80 centimeters high and 50 centimeters thick. It
forms a level space that is usually circular, whose diameter ranges from
1.5 to 3.0 meters. On rare occasions it has an opening for an entrance; in
such cases, it has a stone slab over a meter and a half high placed side­
ways that serves as a door (fig. 13: 3). The workers beat the trees, collect
the chestnuts, and place them in these walled enclosures. Afterwards, in
winter, when other chores let up, they take them out and transport them
to their houses in carts.
K isulabe (Lime Pit) — The lime pit is a structure usually made
against an earthen outcrop or dug into it. Its drum or tubular oven,
which measures three or four meters in diameter, is formed on one side
by the earthen bank lined with a thin wall of stone, and on the outside
by a thick wall two meters thick and six meters high.
The base of the lime pit is a cask, smaller in diameter than the
cylindrical oven, shaped so that its upper edge forms a rim (in Basque,
xapalda or erlaxa) supporting the limestone vault or first layer of the
material to be loaded into the oven. The cask, or firebox, is called eltze
in Basque: it communicates with the outside by a tunnel that comes
from the bottom. The air for fanning the combustion of the wood in the
firebox comes through this tunnel. The ash formed there is also removed

Fig. 13-
204 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

through the tunnel. The fuel is introduced through the oven door (in
Basque, ate, ao), the threshold of which is level with the upper rim of
the firebox. The lime is taken out through this door when it has cooked
(in Basque, erre)— see figure 14.
During the cooking, the door is closed with slabs called kaikuarri,
but a small window (in Basque, agoxume), through which fuel is con­
tinuously fed into the firebox, is left open.
Once the vault (in Basque, giltzadura), or the first layer of lime­
stone, is finished, the oven is heaped with stones until a small mound
is formed at the top of the oven. One oven receives a load capable of
producing 100 carts each carrying 1,400 pounds of lime.
On the highest part of the limestone heap crowning the oven, a
branch of white hawthorn (in Basque, elorrixuri) is planted. If this is not
done, the key (giltza in Basque) to the arch, or first level of material on
which the entire load of limestone for the oven rests, breaks; so said the
ancients, that is, those who are the elders today (1942).
Furze, or gorse, is the fuel (in Basque, erraki) of choice. Since it is
necessary to feed the firebox day and night, this job requires the partici­
pation of many people. The neighbors are the ones who collaborate in
this work. The operation lasts five days and nights. The month of April
is the best time for making lime. The burning of the hawthorn branch
that crowns the oven is the sign that the lime-making process will be
good and have good results.

Fig. 14.
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 205

Tools and Equipment of the Rural House

In the Kitchen — For banking the fire and keeping the coals burning
there are two andirons (in Basque, suburdin) and a crossbar (in Basque,
subarra) made of iron. They call the charred wood ileti, the coals ikatz.
The most commonly used fuels are oak, beech, and furze (fig. 15: 1).
Beside the firebox are iron tongs (pintzetak), which in some houses
are shaped like pincers, and a bellows (ausko). When they used to be
made of wood, the tongs were and still are called sardaka, or matxarda
in other communities. (Fig. 15: 2, 3)

Fig. 15.
20 6 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

The pot hook (in Basque, laatz) hangs from a wooden crossbar
located in the upper part of the bell of the chimney. This is formed by a
thick iron bar bent at both ends into a double hook, and passed through
the links of an iron chain from which it hangs. From the lower bend
or hook, which is open, they hang the stew pots in which the food is
cooked (fig. 15: 4).
The pot hook, like the hearth, is in some cases a symbol represent­
ing the house: the coals deposited beneath the boundary stones of a plot
of land represent the limit of the property belonging to the house; when
a cat is brought to the house as a purchase or gift, they walk it around
the pothook in the kitchen three times so it won’t run away to look for
a different place to live. Servants do this as well when they first come to
work in the house, according to a custom in Liguinaga.1
Austegui is the name of the ash pit or depository, a hole or entrance
in the kitchen wall beneath one of the windows. On top of this deposi­
tory, it is common to find a pair of small ovens which complement the
hearth when the cooks need them. The façade of the ash pit is some­
times formed by a stone slab. In some communities, it has been the
custom to decorate these with curious sculptures or bas-reliefs, like the
one in Heleta (fig. 15: 5).
Decorative work similar to that on the façade of the ash pit is found
on the large stone slab that serves as the back of the firebox in many
kitchens in Lower Navarre. In Sara today, such stones are rare and have
been replaced by sheets of iron. The few that still exist (in Ortolopitz-
gainea and in Lezabia) have very simple decorations (fig. 15: 6, 7).
In many houses there is a zizailu in front of the fireplace. This is a
high-backed wooden bench that can seat five or six persons. It is a useful
piece of furniture because of this and because it helps keep the kitchen
warm by reflecting the warmth from the fireplace.
Maira is a large wooden trough found in kitchens for kneading
dough for loaves of wheat or cornbread. Some of these are called maira-
maina.
Balutra is the sieve used to sift wheat flour, and one with a larger
mesh for sifting corn flour is called zetabi. A wooden frame called an
idinpasatzeko, laid across the trough, serves as a base over which the
sieve is drawn when sifting the flour (fig. 15: 8).
Maina is the wooden table where meals are served. It has a drawer
(tireta) for storing everyday utensils.
Kadira is the chair, with a seat called kadiraiia, made of reed (in
Basque, iia).
A lki is the name used to designate the small wooden benches.
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 207

M anka is a cupboard made of wooden planks that abuts one of the

kitchen walls. In it are kept pots and pans frequently used for cooking.
Alasi is the sideboard on top of the cupboard or manka. It is fitted
with latches (in Basque, maila) and wooden bars or strips (alasiko-fara)
where plates are supported at an incline. The two pieces of furniture
together are called mankalasi.
Tupin is the name of a large stewpot of enameled metal used to
cook vegetables; eltze, the stewpot of fired clay; kokela, a clay pot with
a long handle used for frying.
Kaiku is a one-piece wooden vessel in the shape of an oblique cylin­
der with a protrusion on the back with a groove cut into the upper edge
and extending inward to the center. This extension of the kaiku serves
as a handle, perfectly suited for the principal use of this vessel, which is
used in the milking of cows and ewes (fig. 16: i).
Abatz is another wooden vessel, shaped like a truncated cone,
large enough to hold 15 or 20 liters. It is used to curdle milk for cheese-
making. It has two handles on opposite sides (fig. 16: 2).
Terrina is a clay vessel similar in form to the abatz, which is almost
extinct, and used in place of it (fig. 16: 3).
O por is a wooden glass or cup, cylindrical in form, with a handle
on one side (fig. 16: 4).
Gatilu is the name of the clay or porcelain cup most commonly
used today.
Asieta is the name of the china plate common in houses today.
Wooden plates (txali) like those found in other communities are no
longer used (fig. 16: 5).
Today they use metal spoons (kulier) and forks (furtxeta). In former
times (about fifty years ago) the use of wooden spoons with an oval cav­
ity and straight handle was frequent. M ore recently, we have observed
the use of wooden spoons in other regions of the Basque Country; but
also long, curved spoons without a handle, made of horn or mussel
shells (in Bizkaia) have been used (fig. 16: 6, 7).
Burdinarri is the ophite stone used to boil milk for curdling and for
boiling whey (fig. 16: 8) [This process is explained on p. 227 .]
Ferreria is a frame that hangs on a wall, formed by several bars or
strips of wood fitted with pegs from which they hang different metal
objects such as a padera or iron pan with a long handle and two feet
to keep the pan level; kaxo or large pot with a handle; erraki-untzi or
iron pan used to roast or fry different foods; burruntzali or a small
pan with a long handle used to dip stews, milk, etc.; zimitz (strainer);
arrapo-kentzeko (slotted spoon or skimmer), esneuntzi or cooking pot
for carrying milk; xokolatier (vessel for making chocolate); imitu (fun-
2 o8 Selected Writings o f José Miguel de Barandiarân

Fig. 16.

nel), artoxiortzeko (iron apparatus with a handle used for toasting corn
cakes); opilburdin (long iron paddle for cooking corncakes); iruxango
(iron trivet), etc. (fig. 16: 9-14). In the mankalasi, or built into a wall,
you will find a small wooden box, which is the salt bin (in Basque,
gatzontzi).
Pitxar is what they call the pitcher made of clay.
Pegarra, a large clay jug for carrying and storing drinking water
(fig. l7: ^).
Kafe-errota is the coffee grinder.
Xokolat-makila, the wooden whisk for beating chocolate (fig. 16: 15).
Lisa-burdin is the iron for smoothing and polishing clothing.
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 209

Fig. 17-

Lukainka-aga is a horizontal stick hung from the ceiling of the

kitchen by two chains or zumiak (willow cords). They use it for hanging
sausages made every year when the pig is slaughtered.
In the drawer of the kitchen table or on the ledge at the base
(ximini-uztarri) of the bell of the chimney, eighty years ago you would
find the following objects: a chain link (in Basque, ferreta) forged in
210 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

one of the local forges (fig. 15: 10); a flint stone (in Basque, suarri); a half
burned or charred piece of rag (drunda) or tinder (kardo). These were
used to light the fire. The drunda was kept in a tubular metallic box
called a drundabarril.
To light the fire (when my informant Piarrezume Camino was
young— now in 1944 he is nearly ninety-three years old) they were
already using matches like the ones they call alumetak today but sub-
rametxa then; but these were more expensive than the old system for
lighting a fire and were not practical when the wind was blowing.
Today they use electricity for lights, except in a few households,
where they still use coal lamps (karburu-lampa). Before that, they used
oil lamps (petrolampa).
Previously, there were candles of resin (arroxina) and w ax (ezkox-
igor) for lighting the kitchen, placed on vertical wooden holders that
ended in a fork. The name of this holder is argimutil (fig. 17: 7, 8). A
horizontal stick partially embedded in the kitchen wall was also used to
support these candles.
It has been almost a century since they last used oil candles called
lampion or krisailu (fig. 17: 9).
They use different types of electric lanterns for walking outdoors at
night; but they also still use glass lanterns with a candle, called lanterna,
and sheaves of wheat straw or a kind of light or torch called lastoargi.
In some kitchens that have an oven for baking bread in the same
room, two kinds of wooden paddles are generally used for that opera­
tion: abaro and a paddle called endai or labendai in other places; the
latter for putting loaves into the oven, the former for taking them out.
 T H E H O U SE H O L D

Consanguineous Relationships

Fam ilial Relationships: N otions and V ocabulary.— Relationships

between people and objects are expressed by words that originally
stood for commonly used material things. The following are some
of the most frequent names and phrases used for such relationships:
Esku, eskubide, “ right” (from esku, “ hand,” and bide, “ path” ); esku
guztiak eman, “ to confer upon him all rights” ; Gizonak badu lur bat,
berain bizitzeko eta berain ehortzeko, “ A man has a piece of land
(has a right to a piece of land) for himself to live on and to be buried
in” ; eginbide, “ obligation” (from egin, “ to m ake,” and bide, “ path” );
zuzenbide, “ justice” (from zuzen, “ straight” and bide “ path” ); gizabide,
“ justice” (from gizon, “ m an,” and bide, “ path” ); ikuskizun, “ respon­
sibility” (from ikusi, “ to see” and the suffix kizun, “ material” ); jaun,
“ gentleman” ; andre, “ lady” ; nausi, “ master” ; jabe, “ owner” ; etxaldun,
“ (male) householder” ; etxekoandre, “ lady of the house” ; etxe, “ house,
fam ily” ; ondorio, “ heir, descendant” ; ondoko, “ heir, descendant” ; sehi,
“ servant” ; mutil, “ male servant” ; neskato, “ female servant.”
The closest familial ties of all are those linking spouses. Then fol­
lows the relationship between parents and children, between grandpar­
ents and grandchildren, between siblings, between uncles and aunts and
their nephews and nieces, between cousins (the children of siblings),
between second cousins (the children of cousins), and between third
cousins, with whom family relationships are considered to end. One’s
relatives (adreria in Basque) thus include all consanguineous relations in
a direct vertical line, consanguineous relations in a lateral line through
the fourth generation, and their spouses. Consanguineous relatives to
any further degree are termed aidekutsu, “ vestigial relatives” (literally
“ relics of family relationships” ).
The order and degree of relationships is respected, for example, in
funeral processions. When accompanying a deceased family member’s
coffin to the church and cemetery, relatives form a line based on their
respective degrees of relationship to the deceased, and this order is
212 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiarân

maintained on the w ay back to the house as well. In first place walks the
spouse, followed by the father; then the son, the brother, the brother-in-
law, the uncle, the nephew, the cousin, etc. If several brothers are pres­
ent the eldest precedes the rest, and the same order of age is observed
when there are several uncles, nephews, and cousins in attendance. The
same applies in funeral processions if the deceased is a woman.
Nouns expressing the various degrees of family relationship are:
aideak, jendakiak, “ relatives.” If these are paternal relatives they are
called aitain aldekoak, and when maternal amain aldekoak. Others are
jaun-andreak (Mr. and M rs.), “ spouses,” “ husband and w ife,” “ mar­
ried couple;” nee jauna, “ my husband” , nee andrea, “ my w ife” ; aita,
“ father” ; ama, “ mother” ; buraso, “ father” or “ mother” ; burasoak, “ par­
ents” ; arbasoak, “ great-grandparents” or earlier ancestors; seme, “ son” ;
alaba, “ daughter” ; anaya, “ brother” ; arreba, “ sister” (in relationship to
a brother); aizpa, “ sister” (in relationship to another sister); aitatxi,
“ grandfather,” “ godfather” ; amatxi, “ grandmother,” “ godmother” ;
osaba, “ uncle” ; matanta, “ aunt” ; iloba, “ grandson,” “ granddaughter,”
“ nephew,” “ niece” ; semeautsi, “ godson” ; alautsi, “ goddaughter” ;
aitaginarreba, “ father-in-law” ; amaginarreba, “ mother-in-law” ; sui,
“ son-in-law” ; errain, “ daughter-in-law” ; koinata, “ brother-in-law,”
“ sister-in-law” ; aurride, “ brother” or “ sister” ; aurrideak, “ siblings” ;
kusina, “ cousin” (to any degree); leenkusina, “ first cousin” (the son or
daughter of an uncle or aunt); bigarrenkusina, “ second cousin” (the son
or daughter of a first cousin); irugarren kusina, “ third cousin” (the son
or daughter of a second cousin).

House and Family — As etxe means “ house” and also “ fam ily,” rela­
tives refer to themselves as etxekoak (people of the house), and in many
cases their surname or family name is the same as that of the house in
which the family originally lived. One hundred and fifty of the surnames
inscribed in the L iber baptismalis of Axular (for 1609-1624) are names
that the same number of Sara households have preserved to the present
day. Nowadays only the father’s surname is passed on to the children,
but in the past it was not unusual for the name of the house to be passed
on to children as a surname whether or not it coincided with the father’s
surname. This occurred in the eighteenth century with the names Olha,
Haranburua, and Lahet, and must have been the general rule even
before that. It was not unusual, therefore, that the mother’s surname,
rather than the father’s, was passed on to their descendants if it was she
who had inherited the house. Thus in the L iber baptismalis of Axular,
the certificate of baptism dated January 31, 1610 refers to Joannis de Ald-
abe filius Joannis de Urdax (Juan de Aldabe, son of Juan de Urdax).
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 213

When used in reference to a person, the actual surname is employed

only in letters, in military barracks, and in official functions and cer­
emonies. It is very rare for an individual to be called or known by his or
her official surname. The manner of referring to an individual nowadays
is the name of that person’s house, probably the same manner used in
the time before his or her paternal surname began to be employed as
the only valid one. So the head of the family of the Altzuarte house is
commonly known as Altzuarte, although his official surname might be
Etxegoyen, and the rest of his family are called by their given names
or by their state or profession, followed by the name of the house:
Altzuarte’ko etxekoandrea (Altzuarte’s wife), Altzuarte’ko Mariana
(M ariana of Altzuarte), etc.
A wife adopts her husband’s surname, but this custom is recent,
having originated in the twentieth century. Previously, a married
woman would have used her father’s surname or the name of her fam­
ily’s house of origin during her entire lifetime, and this would be true
for almost all women except among the bourgeoisie, who were always
more open to outside influences.
The name of their house of origin serves to refer to the members of
a particular family; so Ibarsoro’koak refers to the members of a family
living in Ibarsoro; A rgaine’koak names the family inhabiting the house
called Argaine, etc. Sometimes this other mode is used: Ibarsoro’tarrak,
A rgain’darrak, etc.
Some individuals are addressed by nicknames, but this is rarely the
case with entire families.
Given names are chosen from the official list of Roman Catholic
saints. The most common are Ganes (John); G anixon (John); Piarres,
Pello, Piarrezume (Peter); Joset, Kose (Joseph); Mizel, M ixel (Michael);
Xem artin, Mattin (Martin); M ayi (Mary); Kattalin, Katrin (Catherine);
Jeane (Joan); Mai-Luis, Mariana, Mari-Jeane, Josefina, Ana-M ari, etc.
In the baptismal certificates found in the A xular L iber baptismalis
of 1609 and 1610, 593 individuals are named, of whom 302 are males
and 291 females. There appear twenty different given names for males
and seventeen for females. The male names are: Juanes (130 times),
Joangoche (2 times), Jehanmartin (2), M artin (60), Pedro and Pierres
(42), M iguel (25), Martisanz (6), Sancho (4), Gabriel (1), Christobal (5),
Adrian (3), Sanzin (1), Esteben (8), Antonio (2), Salvat (2), Bernardo (2),
Bertrand (2), Lorentz (2), Marfas (2), and Joseph (1).
The women’s names are: M arfa (147), Joana (58), Joanetta (2),
Catalina (23), Sabadina (10), Garagina and Garagena (10), Extebene,
Estebaneta (9), Magdalen (6), Laurencina (5), Ana (4), Agnes and Aynes
214 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

(4), Graciana (4), Gratena (2), Dominga (2), Domindina (2), Salbata (2),
and M arijans (1).
As can be seen from the above, the most common names for men
were Juanes, M artm , Pierres, and Miguel; and for women, M aria,
Joana, and Catalina.
Today’s given names are not the same as in the seventeenth cen­
tury, but the differences do not appear to be very great. For the sixty
Sara men whose names were inscribed in the town’s registry of mar­
riages from 1922-1931, the correlation is as follows: Pedro (10), Juan (9),
Juan Bautista (7), Juan-Pedro (4), M iguel (7), M artm (4), Francisco (4),
Domingo (3), José (3), St.-Martm (3), Tiburcio (2), Bonifacio (1), Renato
(1), Félix (1), M auricio (1), Gabriel (1), José-M anuel (1), Bernardo (1),
Juan-M auricio (1), Salvador (1), Nicolas (1), Carlos (1), M arri-Jose (1),
and Alfonso (1).
For the 126 women who were born in Sara and who married there
during the same period, the correlation is as follows: M aria (31), Juana
(9), M aria-Juana (8), M aria-Ana (4), M aria-Luisa (4), Juana-M aria (2),
M aria-Dominica (2), Catalina (8), Josefina (10), Francisca (8), Engra-
cia (4), Alicia (1), Angeles (1), Antonieta (1), Caticha (1), Cecilia (1),
Celestina-Adela (1), Dominica (1), Isabel (1), Estefama (1), Emilia (1),
Enriqueta (1), Fabiana (1), Juanita (1), Josefina-Sabina (1), Laurentina (1),
Leonia (1), Luisa (1), M agdalena (1), Maria-Angeles (1), M aria-Luisa (1),
M aria-M argarita (1), M aria-Rosa (1), Nicanora (1), Sabina (1), Silveria
(1), Teresa (1), Verònica (1).
The most common names in the seventeenth century are the
same as today, but several new ones have appeared. Also, Francisco,
Domingo, and José are fairly frequent today but were not common
before. Another recent occurrence is that there are now many composite
names, which was a rare occurrence in the seventeenth century.
Given names are passed on from godfather to godson and from
godmother to goddaughter. This custom, according to A xu lar’s L ib er
baptismalis, was strictly followed in the early seventeenth century.
Reciprocal Relationships — Parents addressing their children gen­
erally use the pronoun zu (Castilian usted or French vous) until the
children reach the age of reason, after which they are addressed in the
familiar mode. Everyone else addresses children this w ay also.
Siblings and friends address each other in the familiar mode.
Spouses address each other as zu after their marriage, even when previ­
ously they had addressed each other in the informal mode. The more
formal zu is employed by children addressing their parents, nephews
and nieces addressing their aunts and uncles, and, in general, by any
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 215

individual addressing a superior. Addressing superiors in the familiar

mode is considered disrespectful.
Parents address their children by their given (baptismal) names.
Children address their fathers as aita (father) and their mothers as ama
(mother). Uncles and aunts call their nieces and nephews by their given
names, while nephews and nieces address their uncles and aunts as
osaba (uncle) or matanta (aunt) respectively. Spouses call each other by
their given names, as do siblings among themselves.
Except on rare occasions, families are not concerned with geneal­
ogy. However, in certain houses a coat-of-arms or an inscription show­
ing the construction or renovation date is prominently displayed, at
times with the names of those who built or inhabited the house in times
gone by. The house is a symbol of the family, which is why its name fig­
ures in the old inscriptions on its tomb and its yarleku, the place in the
parish church corresponding to that house and where certain religious
functions take place for the souls of inhabitants now deceased. The fol­
lowing are examples of such inscriptions:
JO A N N E S D E EC H E G A R A I - M A R IA D E H A R IZ M E N D I - 1791
(inscription found on a stone in the wall of the main façade of the
Ixpilteguia house.)
LEÇ A BEK O T H O M B A C 1838 (Tombs of Lezabea 1838).
A R R O SSA G A R A IC O IA R LE K H U A 1791 (Seat of Arrosagarai
1791).
As a consequence of w ork carried out on the floor of the parish
church half a century ago, and as can be seen from their inscriptions,
yarleku stones are now to be found outside their original sites.
Furthermore, the name of the family (rather than that of the house,
as before) is now being engraved on tombs, but until the present the
tomb was considered an extension of the house or an integral part of it,
regardless of the family inhabiting it.
A fam ily’s ancestors are called arbasoak. The household is always
considered to have certain obligations toward them, and in some cases
arranges for a sung mass to be held for the souls of all those who may
have died in the house. A few days before a wedding is to take place,
the families of the bride and groom arrange for a mass to be sung in the
parish church for the deceased of both their houses. Such a mass is said
to be obligazionentzat, meaning that it is being celebrated in fulfillment
of the obligations of both families toward their respective ancestors.
When a family prays the rosary together, something that is done on
a daily basis in many houses, they say a final Paternoster dedicated as
follows: “ E txe huntaik atea dien arimentzat” (for the souls who have
216 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

departed this house), or “Etxe huntako arima ganentzat” (for the souls
gone from this house).
Descendants consider themselves to have similar obligations
toward their paternal and maternal ancestors, although they feel closer
and more duty bound to the ancestors of the house in which they live.
Tradition and legend have in some cases perpetuated certain memo­
ries of ancestors or of events that have occurred in a particular house.
M y informant Ganixon Larzabal of the farmhouse Ibarsoro-beherea
tells the story of two enormously strong and robust sisters from this
ancient house of the rural aristocracy, who used to pull the wooden
trunku or roller, drawn today only by cows or bullocks.
Ganixon Larzabal also relates that the Ibarsoro-beherea house was
the first to be built in the town of Sara (others say that the first was
Haranburua), and that a hunter from Vera (Navarre) who was passing
by during its construction told his father upon his return home what
he had seen in Xareta (the old name for the valley where Sara, Ain-
hoa, Urdax, and Zugarram urdi are located). The hunter’s father then
expressed his dismay at the fact that the new house, which was twenty
kilometers away, would be too nearby for there to be any peace between
neighbors.
Family honor is shown in different ways, especially when one mem­
ber of the family has been accused of wrongdoing or a crime. When an
individual is accused of breaking his word given in contractual matters,
the entire family rushes to a vehement defense of its name. The same
occurs with regard to an allegation of insincerity, unethical business
practices, the reporting of crimes to the authorities, insolvency, poor
judgment, or theft. Expressions such as “ G ure etxean ez da olakoik
sekulan izen” (Such a thing has never occurred in our house); “ Oi in
duena ez da gure etxekoa” (Whoever did this is not a member of our
family) are often employed by Sara residents against accusations and
insults directed at their relatives. The same collective sentiment is shown
on happy occasions with expressions such as “ Ohore da olako gauza
gure jendakian gertatzea” (We are honored that such a thing should
happen among our relatives).
Relationships among family members are sometimes very close,
especially among relatives who were born and have lived within the
same house. Having been born in the same house notably reinforces
blood ties and those of origin and lineage. N ot only does an individual
receive special treatment in life from those born in the same house, but
he or she— if single— will also be buried in the tomb of that house and
will be remembered in prayers and masses by its inhabitants.
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 217

One is on a more intimate footing with relatives than with other

people. A relative also enjoys greater authority when giving advice or
when a reproach is felt to be in order.
Parents and single children reside in the same house, together with
the son or daughter who is heir to the house and that person’s spouse
and family. Etxekoak (household members) are therefore often com­
posed of two married couples and their respective children.
Younger sons and daughters (who are not heirs to the house) form
a separate family once they are married, and they live in another house,
not with their parents. But while single they may continue to live with
the inheriting sibling even after the parents have died. And although life
may have caused them to move elsewhere, they always consider them­
selves members of the etxe with the right to live there while unmarried.
As mentioned earlier, they also have the right to be buried in the tomb
belonging to the house of their birth and to benefit from any masses and
prayers that may be said in it and in its yarleku, situated in the parish
church.
Siblings living aw ay from their parents’ house for reasons of employ­
ment or marital status gather in the house with the rest of the family for
Omia-Saindu (All Saints Day). Family gatherings occur mainly for the
festivities honoring their town’s patron saint, a family christening, a first
communion, a wedding, or a death. At christenings the person hosting
the festivity is a member of the newborn’s family; at first communions
the host is the person whose first communion it is; at a wedding either
the bride or the groom is the host, and in the case of a death the leenate
(the first neighbor to the right along the road to the church) is the host.
In each case the family members celebrate by dining together.
Relatives are the first to come to a fam ily’s aid whether for an ill­
ness or if there is work to be done. If any children should be orphaned
and members of the household are unable to raise or educate them,
other relatives (in most cases an uncle and aunt of the children) will
take them in.
The parents have authority over the fulfillment of obligations
regarding the raising, instruction, and education of their offspring. But
as their children’s judgment matures, or they attain a lifestyle that does
not require supervision, parents gradually respect their initiatives.
To some degree, children are considered subject to their parents’
authority as long as they live in the parental home, even in cases (now
rather frequent) in which the children do not participate in the house­
hold economy or share the same tasks as their parents.
The heir (or heiress) and his or her spouse who reside with the
parents invariably recognize the authority of the latter as regards shared
2l8 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiarân

tasks and the administration and use of goods, although when it comes
to the use of goods the parents comply with the younger couple’s pre­
nuptial agreement. Other children, as mentioned above, live with their
parents until they marry, either working alongside their parents (or
with the heir if the parents are deceased) or contributing some money to
the family budget to compensate for the cost of their stay, if they earn
enough at their jobs to do so.
It is often the case that emancipated offspring send their parents
substantial amounts of money to help out in unfavorable economic
situations. Cases also occur in which a married son, given possession
all of his parents’ goods, turns his parents out of the house to which
they have made him heir. This conduct is considered monstrous in the
community.
The elderly and the infirm are generally taken care of at home.
There are some very rare cases in which they are admitted on a per­
manent basis to the town hospital, where services related to nutrition,
medication, etc. are in fact very good.
The House and Household — In cases of hereditary succession, it
has long been the custom to maintain the integrity of the house. The
house is to remain undivided and always in the hands of the same
family.
It is not considered a good thing to sell a house that has tradition­
ally been linked to a certain family. I once asked a neighbor of the
Xomindinia house, himself the owner of the Aldabea residence, if he
would sell his house. His answer was, “ I cannot sell the house because
it is the family home of my parents.”
When the owner of the Kapetenia house was asked if she were w ill­
ing to sell it she answered that she had inherited it from her father and
could not sell it without giving grave offense to his memory.
Dividing or splitting up a house is also ill-considered. In 1933 Mateo
de Salaberrieta, a resident of Bidartia, told me about an incident show­
ing what people think about such cases:
“ It is not seen as a good thing to divide up a house, even if there
are many children.”
“ In Pikasarria [a Sara farmstead], the late Andres designated his
daughter the owner of the house.”
“ One son was given Sanxoinia [a house in Sara]; the second,
another house; the rest received 200,000 francs each at the expense of
the daughter of the house.”
“ In many other cases, if the parents die without making their
wishes clear, two neighbors are usually invited to determine what the
sons and daughters of the deceased will inherit. They always decide
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 219

that the house will go undivided to one of the children; the others are
apportioned other goods or money from the estate.”
Parents may bequeath their property as they will, choosing one of
their children as heir regardless of age or sex. For the most part the one
chosen is the eldest. If this is a male he is named premu; if a woman,
andregaya. Unless the parents have determined otherwise, the premu or
the andregaya will inherit the house.
When there are no children, a nephew, niece, or other relative is
generally designated heir; only very rarely is he or she not a family
member.
An heir is officially designated in the last will and testament of his
or her parents or in the stipulations of his or her prenuptial agreement.
In this second case, the bride and groom and their parents appear before
the notary public of Ezpeleta to write up the legal document transferring
to the bride or groom (as the case may be) a quarter of the family estate
and the obligations now owing to his or her parents and ancestors. That
day the bride and groom and their relatives have a celebratory meal at
the heir’s house.
Even if the parents are not the owners of the house, they choose as
their successor the son or daughter that they consider the most suitable
for the position. The owners respect their choice.
If the father dies before choosing an heir, the mother will assume
this responsibility. If there are no children, the widow cannot dispose
of the assets brought to the marriage by her deceased husband, but she
has the right to live in his house. If there are children, the widow has the
right to the use of those assets, and also to select an heir from among
the children; this heir will inherit both the land and the assets acquired
during her marriage.
Should the husband and wife be separated the assets acquired after
their marriage are divided equally between them.
The heir is awarded a quarter of the house and its accoutrements.
The rest goes to endow his or her siblings equally. The heir undertakes
this particular function, endowing his siblings in kind or in money such
that the house and its territory are not divided. He is responsible for the
upkeep of the parents.
Upon the marriage of an heir while his parents are alive, both mar­
ried couples commonly reside in the same house, or bi andanak, as they
say here.
The family estate does not always pass to the heir while the par­
ents are alive, but this does happen on occasion, as was previously
mentioned.
220 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

A dowry consists of that part of the inheritance determined by the

parents to be bequeathed to their children without reduction in landed
property, to be taken from the assets earned by them after marriage and
other assets to be contributed by the heir to the house. The delivery of
the dowry takes place when the prenuptial agreement is drawn up for a
son or daughter about to become emancipated through marriage. The
dowry consists of money, and, in the case of a daughter, other assets to
make up the amount stipulated, such as beds and other furniture, bed
linen, etc. A son receives a bed, a cow, corn, w ork tools, etc.
Some childless couples adopt a nephew, niece, or other relative and
designate that person heir to their assets. Sometimes an orphan who is
not a relative is adopted.
After the religious wedding ceremony the bride and groom pay a
visit to their ancestors’ tombs to pray for a few moments; this is a w ay
for the most recent member to become a part of his or her new home,
or for the newlyweds to feel linked to each other’s families.
If the newlyweds take up residence in the groom ’s house, the new
wife assumes the duty of presiding over the religious functions desig­
nated by the family to be performed from time to time at the tomb or
yarleku corresponding to that family in the parish church. These may
include various prayers, masses, the illumination of the yarleku, and so
on. Here the integrity of the house and its protection from alienation
appear in the form of the demand for continuity in its domestic religious
practices.
The husband is the head of the household, although the wife exer­
cises a decisive influence in most family matters. The spouses address
each other in the formal mode using zu (Castilian usted) after marriage,
as has been mentioned earlier, no longer addressing each other in the
familiar mode.
The despotic treatment of a wife by her husband and vice versa
is generally frowned upon and harshly censured. Equal treatment and
rights are considered to be the most just w ay to proceed and are in keep­
ing with tradition.
Parents, and particularly the mother, have a powerful influence
upon the conduct of the young couple, especially if they all live in the
same house.
When a young couple does not live with their parents they partici­
pate to a lesser degree in the life of the house. However, they try to keep
its memory alive through frequent visits, especially at Omia-saindu (All
Saints’ Day), the festival of the town’s patron saint, or at important
family occasions.
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 221

If a married couple is taking a long time becoming parents they visit

Our Lady of Lourdes to pray for children.
Only the men work in the mountains (larre) and in the woods
(oyan), sawing, carrying ferns and brush, chopping and carrying fire­
wood, etc.
Both men and women cultivate plots of land, except for the man­
agement of the cow- or ox-driven plow, a task that is undertaken by
men.
Within the house the men’s duties consist of the care, feeding, and
milking of the larger livestock (cows, horses, sheep, and goats), and the
cleaning of their stables. They are also in charge of the animals’ tack
and of leading them to work, of their sale and their blessing with holy
water and w ax on St. Blaise’s Day. The maintenance of the house and
tasks generally related to carpentry and stone masonry are also done
by men.
W ork done by women relates to cooking, house cleaning, the laun­
dry, sewing, shopping for food and clothes, the care of the pigs and
chickens, and their purchase and sale. Above all, it is a wom an’s job to
raise and educate her children, and, as was mentioned in Chapter 3 of
this Sketch, to bless the house and its related buildings at Candlemas
(February 2) with holy w ax, as well as her husband, her children, and
the other family members and animals in their care. It is chiefly the
woman who supervises the religious functions, both in the home (bless­
ings, prayers, sacrifices, and offerings) and at the tomb and yarleku
belonging to her house in the parish church. She represents the house on
many occasions when neighbors require aid, such as during an illness,
upon a death, when offerings to the dead of the neighborhood or town
need to be made, etc.
M en and women generally employ the same kinds of tools for
common tasks, although each sex has its own hoes (the women’s are
lighter), rake, and scythe. When knitting, men use two hooked needles,
while women use four straight ones. When spinning yarn from sheep’s
w ool men would use the xabila, a small mill with two wooden cones
joined at the top, whereas women used a koka (distaff) and ardatz
(spindle).
Sehi means “ servant.” In the case of a man he is referred to as
mutil; if a woman, neskato. M ale servants are more common in rural
houses than are female ones.
Servants working in farmhouses and in those associated with sheep-
herding undertake all the various types of work done in those houses.
They eat the same meals and at the same table as the family of the
222 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

house, they generally sleep in beds and bedrooms of the same quality,
and are considered members of the householder’s family.
Hired hands are now earning (in 1941) 200 and 300 francs per month;
forty years ago they earned 20 francs. They are hired subject to monthly
contracts; previously their contracts covered years, although they were
paid monthly, as they are today. Contracts were never formally writ­
ten, a verbal agreement between the two parties being respected and
fulfilled.
If work has been contracted at so much per year and the hired
hand leaves before the year is up, he is not paid for the period he has
been working at the house until the year has transpired. If the head of
the house breaks the contract by dismissing the servant before the time
stipulated in the contract, he is obligated to pay him the entire salary
of that month.
In some houses the custom is to give the hired hands a pair of trou­
sers, rope-soled sandals, shirts, and other clothing as gifts.
There is a common saying to the effect that hired help should not
start work at a house on a Wednesday or a Friday, or he will not get
used to its ways.

Clothing

Clothing is referred to as soneko. It is worn to protect the body and to

hide it from view, but also, according to data provided by my infor­
mants, as a sign of gender, age, profession, social status, festivities,
certain public functions, travel, work, weather, season, etc.
In Sara it is believed that in ancient times men wore a single, rough,
sack-like garment that covered them from the neck to the feet.
When my informants, who are now in their seventies or older, were
children, adult males wore an atorra (shirt) made of linen, barneko
(jacket) with blue sleeves, blue galtzak (trousers) (or white ones made
of fine cloth), a guerriko (belt) or cummerbund of any color, a black
gapelu (beret), woolen zapinak (socks) in the winter, and a pair of elon­
gated wooden eskalapoinak (clogs) ending in an upturned point. As an
overcoat sheepherders wore an ardillaru, a garment made of two sheep­
skins that hung from the neck. For harvesting fern and herding in the
mountains, men would wear woolen galtzoinak (gaiters) from the knee
down over their trousers. M ost country people went barefoot around
the house and its environs.
Women wore an atorra (shirt), azpiko-soina (underskirt), gaineko-
soina (skirt), bazkina (bodice), lepokua or a large kerchief around the
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 223

neck (or a lace shawl), tauliera (apron), motto or a cotton covering for
her chignon, kalotxak or wooden clogs, and cotton galtzerdiak (stock­
ings) to wear to church.
Nowadays (1941) there is more variety in what people wear and,
generally speaking, clothes are more expensive. M en’s apparel consists
of a larruarraseko (undershirt, usually made of cotton or flannel), atorra
(a shirt), trikota or sweater (in winter only), barneko (a vest), paltu (a
jacket or raincoat), galtzak (trousers), galtzonak (underpants), gapelu
(a black woolen beret); zeintura (a rubber belt), eskalapoinak (wooden
clogs), espartinak (rope-soled sandals covered with thick cloth),
zapata-murritxak (leather shoes), zapatabotinak (boots), galtzerdiak
(socks, which when made of wool are called galtzerdi-ilariak). Items
of women’s clothing are: atorra (a shirt), barnekotrikota (an under­
sweater), trousers, soinazpiko or kotilunazpiko (an underskirt), tauliera
(an apron) or housecoat, trikota (a sweater), galtzerdiak (stockings),
espartinak (rope-soled sandals), kalotxak (galoshes) or wooden-soled
clogs, and zapatak (shoes). Boys start to wear trousers at three years of
age, and girls wear long skirts at fourteen.
Linen was spun at home at the close of the nineteenth century, and
it was woven into cloth on looms that existed in several houses in the
area. Each family would spin woolen yarn from which one or more of
its members would then crochet socks for themselves and the family.
In those days many of the people who lived nearby would make clogs
and galoshes out of alder wood for domestic use, as they do to this
day. The women made many clothes at home, such as shirts, trousers,
housecoats, and aprons, but this is rare today. Women now prefer to
buy these items in stores or have them made by professionals. When
someone wears a new article of clothing for the first time his friends give
him a zimiko (pinch) on the arm, saying zimiko berri.
Motto is the word for a wom an’s hair. H alf a century ago it was the
custom to braid it and wear it in a twist at the back of the head. Young
girls would wear their hair in one or two braids that hung down the
back. At fifteen years of age they would roll it into a chignon, covering
the top part with a piece of colored cotton or silk called motto. Married
women wore a large headscarf, also called motto or buruko. This could
be of any color the woman wished, but those worn by elderly women
and widows were black. Nowadays it is only very elderly women who
wear their hair the old w ay with a black buruko. Other women have
their hair curled and styled at a hairdresser’s.
At the beginning of the twentieth century men wore their hair
extremely close-cropped. N owadays (1941) they allow a little bit of
muniko (toupe) to grow on their foreheads, and, unless they are farm
224 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

workers, let a little hair grow on the top of the head. Farm workers
wear berets, but all other men go hatless.
The same kind of clothing is worn on working days as on holidays,
although on holidays it tends to be newer or in better condition. While
working in the countryside in summertime or in good weather, men
wear undershirts, shirts, trousers, a cummerbund or belt, rope-soled
sandals, and a beret; when it rains they put on a jacket and clogs.
Women— though not all nowadays— wear metal petentak (ear­
rings). It is said that gold earrings help to protect the eyesight of the
wearer.
Rings were hardly ever worn by country women at the beginning
of the twentieth century, but today they are seen more often. Young
women wear them on the ring finger of the right hand, married women
on the left hand.
Religious medallions are often worn around the neck, and ones rep­
resenting the Virgin M ary or Saint Benedict were particularly popular.
Saint Benedict medallions were believed to protect the wearer against
lightning strikes.
Scapulars (abituak) representing the Virgin of the Immaculate Con­
ception, the Virgin of M ount Carmel, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus are
also commonly worn.
Men carry a makila (a walking-stick to help them as they travel
through the mountains). Previously it was also used to go to market.
They often carry a paisola (umbrella) hanging down their backs from
their jacket collars; in days gone by they would tuck them under their
arms. The walking-sticks are made at home from lengths of holly or
some other resistant material. In Larresoro there is a specialist who
makes nicely decorated makilas fitted with handles and metal points.
Early in the twentieth century, as mentioned above, yarn was made
at home.
According to my oldest informant, Piarrezume Camino, around
1880 euntegiak (looms) were to be found in several houses in Sara, but
they began to disappear as a result of the invasion of new kinds of
fabrics favored for their low cost and novelty. Even so, during the early
decades of the twentieth century many women continued to make their
own linen thread, which they would then take to Saint-Pee Castle where
there was still a working loom and where an eaile (weaver) would make
oialhari (cloth), also known as etxeoial. This weaver was still working
until his death in approximately 1925. In every household, shirts, trou­
sers, and sheets were made of linen cloth. Today these items are made
from fabric bought in local stores, in San Juan de Luz, or in Bayonne.
O f course the working clothes that country people wear on the job are
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 225

made at home as was mentioned above, although some of the fabric is

store-bought.
In times past women made winter socks and stockings at home with
ilhari or wool yarn. Today they use store-bought cotton thread or wool
yarn to make them.
Old tobacco leaves are placed among clothes to keep moths (pipi)
away. Piper-beltz (powdered mustard) and pinuburu (pine cones) are
also used for this.
Footwear is not made at home from animal skins: boots, shoes, and
sandals are purchased in stores. Only very young children wear rope-
soled sandals, which are imported from Navarre.
A bed (oe) consisted of the following: oekuxeta (the bed frame),
generally made of wood; laistara (a mattress), a large bag filled with
corn husk or wheat straw; a woolen matalaz (quilt); m ihixi (sheet);
koltxoin or small bedspread with a white lining called oelarru which
covered the bed as a mattress pad; buhurdi (a bolster or pillow); a
lumatxa (down comforter), and zaloin (bedspread). That was what the
bed was like at the beginning of the twentieth century. N owadays the
straw mattress is replaced by a zumierra (metal bed base), and in place
of a koltxoin one finds a sheet over which are placed some blankets.
Spinning and other domestic tasks that have now disappeared were
an occasion for neighbors (particularly women) to gather during the
winter months around one of the neighborhood hearths. There they
would discuss all the problems and happenings of the area, relate leg­
ends, sing songs, etc., all of which kept alive the connection between the
local people and the traditional knowledge of the community.

Food
The general word for food is otruntza. There are three main meals of
the day. The first is called gosari (breakfast) and is taken at eight or nine
o’clock in the morning, depending on whether it is summer or winter.
The second meal is bazkari (lunch), eaten at noon, and the third is afari
(dinner), taken at nine o ’clock at night in the summer and at eight in
winter. These were the rural families’ only meals at the beginning of the
twentieth century.
Nowadays people generally have gosaritxiki (a “ little breakfast” )
before starting w ork in the morning.
When laborers are employed they are given free amaiketako (“ elev­
enses,” a late morning snack). In summer it is now customary to have a
krakada (snack) at five o ’clock in the evening.
226 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

J. M . Hiribarren wrote the following about Sara:

Aza ilharrak dire Kale and beans are

Saran aiphatuak, Celebrated in Sara,
Hetan dire egiten That’s why the people
Gorphutz hanpatuak. Become pleasantly plump.

Dutenean hetarik When they have

Beretzat sobera, Enough to spare,
O ihu egiten dute They loudly and generously
Lainhoki hauzora.2 Inform the neighborhood.

Bazkaria (lunch) is the main meal of the day. When one is invited
to a meal it is understood that it will be bazkaria.
M eals are prepared in the kitchen. When family members and hired
help are working at some distance from the house, it is customary for
their meals (with the exception of dinner) to be brought to them.
Meals are better than usual during the wheat harvest or in the
threshing season, or when other important work is being done. In sum­
mer, workers have a mid-afternoon snack and more wine is consumed
at mealtimes.
Early in the twentieth century, meals were generally simpler or
more frugal than they are today.
Gosaria (breakfast) consisted of arto t’esne (cornbread and milk)
or arto-opil t’esne (corn cakes and milk). Cornbread thicker than a cen­
timeter is referred to as arto; thinner cornbread in disc-shaped pancake
form is called arto-opil. Sometimes breakfast consisted only of ai (pap)
made from wheat flour and milk. This pap was in some cases replaced
by another kind made from corn flour and whey from sheep’s milk, or
else by orreboroaska, made from corn flour and milk.
Bazkaria (lunch) comprises two courses: eltzekaria and jakia. Eltze-
karia is a stew made from beans, potatoes, or kale together with stock
and leeks, onions, garlic, and sometimes carrots. It is served with oil or
lard as condiments.
Jakia consists of xingar (bacon), or cheese, or meat.
Afaria (dinner) consisted of eltzekaria as at midday, and some
milk.
Even today these same meals are commonly eaten in most rural
houses. G osaritxiki (the “ little breakfast” ) is also usual, in the form
of sweetened coffee. Bread, cheese, and sometimes a little wine make
up the krakada or early evening snack. The amaiketako, which is only
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 227

eaten when there are hired hands present or when working the wheat
harvest, is like the krakada.
N owadays milk is boiled in a metal cauldron set over the flame
in the kitchen hearth. This operation is called esnia egosi or “ boiling
the m ilk.” To make gaztambera (curds), the milk is not boiled in its
cauldron over the fire but by having white-hot stones placed into the
cauldron. This operation is called esnia erre or “ burning the m ilk.”
Whey is also boiled through the addition of white-hot stones, a process
called arritan egosi, “ boiling in stones.” It is said of whey that “ Erretzen
delarik, egosten da, irakiten d u ” (When it burns, it boils, it bubbles).
Edan means to drink. All ingestion of liquids is referred to as edan,
or irentsi, which is literally “ to sw allow .” But if milk is consumed with
bread sops, this is called esnia jan or “ eating m ilk.”
Drinks are uncommon except for a variety of light cider known as
pitarra which frequently accompanies the midday meal. Wine is rarely
used.
The household all eats together at the same table, men and women,
children and hired help alike. M y informant says that, “ Seiak eta
nausiak berdinak dire laborari-etxetan, laneko eta jateko: denak main
berean” (Servants and masters are on an equal footing in farm-houses,
whether at w ork or eating: all at the same table).
Each person at the table eats from his own plate, but the family uses
a common glass for wine and cider.
Today people use china dishes. Previously, double-handled pots
were used, made from somewhat less refined earthenware glazed on the
inner surface; these were called kaxola. Also employed was a terracotta
cup with the edge bent inward; this was called opor, and was used for
milk with bread sops. The only wooden kitchen vessels used today are
kaiku, or the bowl used in sheep milking, abatz, opor (bowls similar to
the earthenware version), the zimitz (cheese press), and the suilla (pail).
(See Fig. 16 in the previous segment, page 208.)
A cup is katillu, but the large china version is known as a bola.
A spoon is referred to as kullira. It is used for taking up and eating
any liquid or semi-liquid food.
Bacon is eaten entirely with the fingers. In the nineteenth century
and even a little beyond, everything referred to as jaki (bacon, meat,
cheese, tomato) was eaten in this manner. Fruit is also eaten with one’s
fingers. Older people today have heard their parents comment that stew
used to be eaten with the hands: ahurka (from agur, the cupped hand).
People use spoons made of metal rather than wood. M y informants
have seen wooden spoons in Zugarram urdi. One of my informants,
who lived there for a time, carves them out of boxwood.
228 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

A knife is kanieta; a pocket-knife, naala. These are not used during

family meals except for slicing bread. Knives are used for cutting meat
and fruit only when visitors are present.
M aking the sign of the cross before meals is customary. In some
households a grace is also offered, such as the following: “Jauna,
benedika gaitzazu gu eta artzera goazin janaria eta edaria” (Lord, bless
us and the food and drink that we are about to receive). Few people
pray after a meal. The sign of the cross is also made when eating the
first fruit of the year.
M e egin (fasting) is observed on days indicated by ecclesiastical
law. On such days the traditional foods are potatoes, beans, cheese,
tomatoes, and milk.
Special and more costly meals are only served on those days hon­
oring the patron saint of the town. On Easter Sunday lamb is a fairly
common meal, and at Carnival people make kruxpeta (beignets) from
wheat flour and egg boiled in water.
Home-baked bread is made either from wheat or corn flour. If
wheat flour is used the bread is called etxeogi; if corn flour, arto. Each
house was equipped with its own oven for this purpose, but nowadays
(1941) not every household bakes bread.
Generally, leavening made with corn flour is used in bread-making.
It is said that the dough ferments better with this leavening than with
one made from wheat flour. The Basque name for this leavening agent
is orrantz (or artozezen in the Itxasu region).
Bread dough is called orre. Kneading is referred to as orratu.
Flour is kneaded by hand once warm water is poured into a well
made in the center of the pile of flour in the wooden maira (knead­
ing trough). At the same time, the leavening is gradually added to the
dough.
Home-baked wheat bread is given a rounded, rather flat shape and
weighs around nine pounds (four kilograms); cornbread is less flat and
weighs about eleven to thirteen pounds, or five or six kilograms.
Corn cakes (arto-opil) are made from corn flour, and also wheat
flour in some cases. When the arto-opil have been half-toasted on a long
iron paddle (opil-burdin) placed over the fire, they are set in front of
the embers in the hearth, supported by a kind of iron easel called opil-
mantenu. There they are left to rise, and the process comes to an end.
Cornbread is generally eaten in slices toasted before the embers on a
device called an artoxigortzeko. (See Fig. 16, no. 14 in the previous seg­
ment, on page 208.)
In almost all rural households it is customary to kill a pig every year
for family consumption.
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 229

When the pig is killed— sometime between December and the end
of M arch is the appropriate period for this— slender odolkiak (blood
sausages), andoilak (thick blood sausages), and lukainkak (in Castilian
chorizos, or garlic-and-paprika-flavored pork sausages) are made. The
first kind of blood sausages are made from a mixture of blood, onion,
meat from the pig’s head, pepper, and parsley, placed in casings made
from the small intestine. Once the basic sausage is made and its ends
tied with string, it is rolled into twists which are tied off with wicker.
The sausage is then put into a cauldron of water over the fire and boiled
for ten minutes, after which it is taken out of the pot and placed by
the fire to darken. It is then boiled for another ten minutes. Each twist
makes one blood sausage.
Andoila is made in the pig’s large intestine from trinpoila (stom­
ach), lung, garlic, and bell pepper finely chopped with an ax or some
other instrument. It is boiled in a cauldron and dried by the fire.
Lukainka is a sausage with a casing of large intestine; it is made
from ginarra (lean pork), garlic, salt, and sometimes mustard. It is
boiled in the same way as blood sausages. It is hung over a horizontal
paddle, which in turn is suspended from the kitchen ceiling, where it
is smoked and dried for some days; it is then put into a jar containing
melted lard, after which a little oil is added.
It is customary to give blood sausages (a couple of twists) as gifts
to each of the families in the neighborhood and to friends and relatives.
Generally the children are given the task of distributing these sausages,
receiving a prize of two or three francs in return.
The man responsible for the pig’s slaughter is given his daily wage
plus the pig’s tail.
Like chorizos, pork steaks are preserved in a jar with lard and oil.
In many households a sheep is generally slaughtered for the celebra­
tions in honor of Sara’s patron saint (August 15) and during the thresh­
ing period or that of another important task. This is when sausages
called arditripak are made from chopped tripe, lung, onion, and bell
pepper and stuffed into the gatxagi (maw) and into the small intestines.
They are cooked in the same w ay as blood sausage, but for longer. Then
they are eaten.
During Fat Thursday and Carnival a gift of pork (bacon, blood
sausage, chorizo) is traditionally given to children and adults who come
asking for treats. When they arrive at a house they shout “ Iaute, iaute,
zingar t’arrautze” (Carnival, carnival, bacon and egg). And they skewer
the pieces of bacon, chorizo, and blood sausage on a wooden lance
called a gerren.
230 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

The fruits and nuts consumed by each household have mainly been
grown on the land belonging to it. These foods are chestnuts (nowadays
rather scarce); apples and pears picked before they are completely ripe
and spread out on straw where they mature and take on a yellowish
color (goritu); cherries, figs, and (rarely) grapes, harvested after a fall
frost and placed on hay to ripen (usteldu, to rot); also hazelnuts and
walnuts left on the tree until they are ripe and about to fall. Quinces are
used to make a sweet concoction.
There is a great deal of coffee consumed nowadays, mainly with
breakfast. At the beginning of the twentieth century it was only served
during the festivities in honor of the town’s patron saint or on an impor­
tant family occasion.
A complementary food that sometimes puts in an appearance in
the kitchen is fish from local rivers: amorrain (trout), aingira (eel), xipa
(bitterling), and zarbo (barbel).
As a rule, the native population does not eat snails, although some
people may eat them on rare occasions. This is a custom brought in
from abroad by guards and other individuals.
At the beginning of the twentieth century no mushrooms or fungi
of any kind were consumed. Even now, spring mushrooms or Agaricus
tricolom are not eaten, but other mushrooms and certain other species
of fungi such as gibelurdin (Russula virescens) are consumed.
In many households cheese (gasna) was made from sheep’s or cow ’s
milk, and sometimes from a mixture of goat’s and cow ’s milk. During
milking the milk was collected in a wooden container (today zinc ones
are also available) called a kaiku.
A small piece of lamb’s rennet, wrapped in a rag, is left in a little
milk until it is soaked through. Then it is taken out and squeezed inside
its rag until the milk— now infused with rennet— is strained into the
terrine containing the warm milk that is to be turned into curds. These
days artificial rennet is also used, such as the La Presure Fabre brand,
which is called gatzagi-ezpiritu (spirit of rennet). The milk turns to
curds in a few minutes. Hartzen du (“ it takes it” ) is the expression used
to signify that this process has taken place. Matoin is the term for milk
curds.
The cheese-maker then stirs the mass of milk curds with his hands,
gathering it together and squeezing it against the sides and bottom of
the terrine. He then places a wooden frame called kartola across the top
of the terrine. On top of this he places a cheese press (zimitz), into which
he inserts part of the matoin, squeezing it with his hands until all the
whey has been wrung out. He sprinkles a little salt onto it and leaves it
for a few hours. Then he takes it out of the press and adds salt to the
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 231

other side. The cheese thus formed is placed on a square presser frame
called a xareta, which is made of hazel sticks and is suspended from the
ceiling in one of the rooms in the house.
The cheeses are rounded, often slightly cylindrical, and frequently
somewhat flat.
Dry cheese is called gasna-zahar (old cheese). Sometimes it becomes
wormy, and is then referred to as gasna-galdua and considered to be of
the highest quality.
Junket (gaztambera) is made from milk, generally sheep’s milk. It
is boiled using white-hot stones. This process is called esnea erre (burn­
ing the milk). A rounded ophite pebble no bigger than eight centimeters
in diameter is placed in the hearth until it is incandescent. Then it is
inserted into the pot of milk and in a few seconds will cause a liter of
milk to boil. When the milk cools down a little rennet is added, and in
a while the junket is ready.
Whey (gazur) is consumed in some families. In some cases it is sold
in bottles as a laxative, and some people give it to the pigs to drink. Oth­
ers heat it up to make cottage cheese (zenberen). This was previously
done with white-hot stones. As the whey heats up it gradually causes a
white substance to rise to the surface, where it is skimmed off using an
iazki (strainer) and deposited into a bowl. Cottage cheese is eaten as a
dessert at mealtimes. The leftover whey is given to the pigs.
Soured milk is called esnemindua; if it is extremely rancid it is
known as esne-galdua.
Burra, or in other places gurin, is the term for butter. It is made
from esnegaina, the cream taken from unboiled milk. The cream is
scooped out in a strainer and placed into an earthenware pot or bowl,
where it is stirred with the hands or a spoon until it solidifies into butter.
It is then taken from the pot and placed into a bath of cool, frequently-
changed water, and the butter is squeezed by hand until no more whey
remains and the water no longer turns white. The whey left over from
butter-making is either boiled and drunk, or given to the pigs.
On some farms with vineyards, wine is made for household use.
The following are some common terms relating to this process: maats
(grape, vine); maats-bihi (grape seed); m urko, maats-murko (bunch);
maasti (vineyard); arno (wine).
Wine-making includes the following operations: the bunches of
grapes are placed into a large barrel called kuela, which is stood on
end and open at the top; the bunches of grapes are then stripped by
several people stamping on them in their bare feet. The stems (zurtoin,
txurtoin, or girtoin) are separated from the grapes, although sometimes
this process is omitted. The solid part that lies at the bottom of the
232 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

barrel is thrown into the wine press, where it is pressed. The resulting
liquid passes into a recipient (tina). From there it is placed into several
medium-sized or one large barrel called gupela or pipa, where it is left to
ferment. Water is poured onto the grape residue remaining in the press,
from which, after a few days, a drink called minatxa is obtained.
Tobacco is called belar or pipa-belar. Nowadays it is smoked in
cigarette form, but in the past, pipes made of wood or plaster were used.
Some people use arraspa (snuff, powdered tobacco), especially women.
Women from rural farms do not smoke tobacco.
Instead of tobacco, some people at the beginning of the twentieth
century smoked the dried leaves of a plant called kukubelar (digitalis).
Boys are generally allowed to start smoking at about eighteen years
of age.
The following item regarding food is taken from my notes written
on November 24, 1942, during the German occupation:

Food supplies are extremely difficult to come by for those who do

not own land or livestock. M ilk is scarce, and costs 3.20 francs a
liter if available at all; bread (200 grams a day per person) costs
3.80 francs per kilogram; beans (when available, as they are very
scarce) cost 30 francs per kilogram; corn, 20 francs; potatoes, 10
francs; a kilogram of cheese costs 35, 55, or 60 francs; a dozen eggs,
80 francs; frying beef, 50 francs per kilogram; chicken, 100 francs
per kilogram. Feed for livestock is very costly: 100 kilograms of
hay costs 400 francs. Because of this the Argainborda farmers have
been forced to sell their cows, and their employer has become a
journeyman. The Germans pay the young men they transport to
Socoa to dig trenches 7 francs per hour per person, although the
workers have to pay their own fares (20 francs). Owing to this
general rise in prices, all sense of fairness in the measurement and
worth of foodstuffs has been lost. For example, two days ago I sent
7 kilograms of corn to be ground at one of the mills in Sara, and
I was given back only 3.700 kilograms of flour; that is to say, the
miller’s fee consisted of almost half the corn delivered to be milled.
The town’s other millers are proceeding in the same fashion.

Rites of Passage
Birth and Christening — Children believe that newborn babies are
brought from Paris by the emain (midwife). These are women of the
neighborhood who are practiced in the delivery of babies. If a baby is
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 233

born with an elongated head, they press it between their hands to make
it round. They also stretch the nose a little bit so the baby will not be
snub-nosed. They swaddle the baby’s legs with white troxa (bandages)
to keep them straight. These bandages are kept on until the child is two
or three months old.
A baby’s birth is not celebrated with a special festivity. A member
of the family or a neighbor announces the birth to those going to be
godparents at the christening. As established by custom, these individu­
als have usually been invited beforehand to render this service. Altxatu
(lifting up) means to stand as godparents at a christening.
If the child to be christened is a couple’s firstborn, the mother of the
spouse who is heir to the house will be its godmother; its godfather will
be the father of the spouse that has married into that household. For
the second child, the godfather is the heir’s father, and the godmother
is the mother of the spouse that has married in. For the christenings of
any subsequent children the godparents are siblings of both spouses,
beginning with the eldest; the godfather comes from one side of the
family and the godmother from the other, and so on in descending order
of age.
It is commonly said that if someone who has been invited to stand
as a godparent declines the invitation, he must perform this function for
seven children without being invited to do so. “ Z o r izain du zazpi haur
altxatzea berak galdatuz” (One should act as a godparent for seven
children at one’s own behest).
The Basque term for godfather is aitatxi; for godmother, amatxi;
for godson, semeautxi, and for goddaughter, alautxi.
The christening takes place in the Sara parish church, generally
two or three days after the baby is born. The emain carries the baby to
the church; custom dictates that she be the eremaile or “ bearer.” She is
accompanied by the child’s godparents.
During the christening the child is held in the erem aile’s arms with
the godfather holding its legs and the godmother its head. In this cer­
emony the child is given its name. If the child being christened is a boy,
the godfather proposes the name, which is generally his own; in the case
of a girl the name is proposed by her godmother.
In Sara it is very common for children to be named Kose, Joset
(Joseph); Ganes, G anixon, Jean (John); Ganaurra, Ganttipi (Joan);
Pedro, Pello, Piarrezume, Piarres, Pier (Peter); Pol (Paul); Frantxisko,
Franzua, Patxiko (Francis); Inazio (Ignatius); Mizel, M itxu (Michael);
Anton (Anthony); Luis (Louis); Janmattitt (Jean Batiste); and Mari
(Mary).
234 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

After the ceremony the godparents and the eremaile host a meal or
other refreshments— depending on whether the christening takes place
in the morning or the afternoon— in one of the town’s inns. Chicken is
the traditional food for this celebration. The godparents pay the bill.
It is the custom for aideak (relatives) and auzokoak (female neigh­
bors) to visit the mother of the newborn shortly after the birth and to
take her presents. These gifts (bixita) consist of a pound of chocolate
and a dozen cakes or a kilogram of sugar. The visitors are treated to
refreshments consisting of hot chocolate and bread with jam or cheese.
After giving birth a woman must not leave the house until, duly
healed, she goes to church to fulfill the rite known as elizan-sartze (entry
into the church, or “ churching” ), which consists of attending church
with her newborn child to receive the postpartum blessing from the
priest. She then leaves a candle in the church and gives the priest two
and a half francs. If at any point between the birth and the churching
ceremony the woman should need to leave the house, she must do so
with a shingle on her head. “ Am a Berjinak berrogei egunez ebili zuela
teila buruan errateute elizan sartu artean” (They say that the Virgin
M ary carried a shingle on her head for forty days before she set foot in
the church).
The mother’s healing is not celebrated with a festival or banquet
in Sara; in Zugarram urdi, however, female relatives and neighbors are
usually invited to a banquet.
Stillborn children and those who die unbaptized are buried in an
orchard beside the house.
From time to time before children reach the age when they make
their first communion, their godparents present them with a gift of
clothing. They are also given the large candle used in the first commu­
nion ceremony, a prayer-book, or another appropriate gift. On the day
of the ceremony the children making their first communion visit their
godparents and invite them to a celebratory meal at their home. Presents
given on this and other occasions are known as ikustate. Ikustategabea
(one who has no gifts) is an expression used to signify an ungrateful
person.
A newborn child remains in its seaska (cradle) for two or three
months, although it is taken out to be breastfed, washed, and to have
its bedding changed. Later on the child is taken out for a daily walk in
a relative’s arms. The cradle is a kind of rectangular wooden box on
two transversal beams forming inverted arcs which rest on the floor and
allow the cradle to be rocked.
At three months of age they begin to give the child pap made of
sweetened milk and wheat flour.
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 235

Newborns have a little bag tied around their necks by w ay of an

amulet; this contains the first words of the Gospels written on a piece of
paper. This amulet is said to protect them against xarmazionea, that is,
any kind of illness supposedly brought about by the begizko or evil eye.
Such an illness is cured by having the child blessed by a priest within
nine days of falling ill. These and other amulets are sometimes also
used by adults suffering from an illness. The son of my Ibarsoro-berria
informant wears a stone brought from Santa Luda.
First Communion — A child’s first communion (at ten or eleven
years of age) marks another stage in his or her life and is accompanied
by a great deal of ceremony. Children making their first communion are
dressed in white and are presented with numerous treats and gifts by
their parents and godparents. The religious ceremony takes place in the
church with much singing and a large attendance of the congregation.
The child renews aloud the promises that were made in his name by his
godparents at his christening, and he leaves a candle in the church as an
offering. At home a banquet, attended by relatives and family friends,
is given in his honor.
Youth — There exists no permanent, official association of unmar­
ried people in the town other than the congregation of the Daughters
of M ary. The gazteri (youth) lack any particular social organization
but are nevertheless subject to various vague trends that influence the
behavior of each particular young person and induce him or her to
adopt attitudes or follow paths that are sometimes in conflict with
family tradition. This behavior translates into frequent battles between
young people and their parents.
Single people in the Elbarrun neighborhood belong to a kind of
brotherhood and sponsor a mass every N ew Y ear’s Day. They also
sponsor masses for the souls of any comrades who have passed away.
Young people get together before the festivities of the town’s patron
saint (the Nativity of Our Lady, September 8) to organize a collection to
pay the musicians who will be playing dance tunes for the three days of
the festivities. These dances are lotuak (modern slow dances), since the
traditional individual dances are hardly ever done these days.
The young people of Sara hold a public dance every Sunday. H ow ­
ever, many go to the tavern at Lizuniaga (south of M ainharria), where
they dance every Sunday to the sound of the accordion. Before this cur­
rent war people were also beginning to organize Sunday dances at the
taverns at San Ignacio and Aimainea, but these were later abandoned.
Older single people are not unusual in Sara. An older unmarried
man is called a donadu, and an older unmarried woman a mutxurdin.
236 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Both groups are considered to be missing something and to be ill-tem­

pered and unpleasant to deal with.
Courtship and Marriage — In the nineteenth century it was still
common for parents to play a part in the marriage of their children,
even when it came to their choice of a spouse. Today young people may
m arry whomever they please.
It is usually the man who takes the initiative at the beginning of a
courtship, although there are some cases in which the first indication of
interest comes from the woman.
Once the young couple has agreed to marry, the girl begins to
prepare her trousseau, which consists mainly of clothing and house­
hold linens such as bedclothes and kitchen towels, etc. The pair meets
frequently, especially on holidays, and go about together. Sometimes a
couple has a child before the wedding, or the wedding is brought for­
ward because of an imminent birth. This is not well looked upon, but it
is becoming more and more tolerated.
Yoaiketa is the term given to the trip the engaged couple makes
(sometimes accompanied by close relatives or friends) to a commercial
town to purchase certain clothing for the wedding. This clothing is
called yoiak. Some brides buy small items that they present as oroit-
zapen (souvenirs) to their parents and siblings.
A kontratua (marriage settlement) is formally drawn up before the
Ezpeleta notary. As was noted above, this is the moment when the heir
to a household is chosen and his or her duties and rights are stipulated,
as well as the conditions regulating that individual’s relationship with
parents, siblings, etc. On this occasion the spouse who is marrying the
heir presents his or her cash dowry. Later there is a banquet at the heir’s
house for the engaged couple and their relatives.
Once the wedding date is set the parish priest is informed and he
announces the kridak (banns of marriage) one, two, or three Sundays
before the wedding. When the last banns have been announced the
couple and their relatives have a celebratory meal at the heir’s house or
at an inn.
Aitatxi (the godfather, “ best m an” ) and amatxi (the godmother,
“ matron of honor” ) are present at the wedding ceremony. The groom
arrives at the church on the arm of his amatxi, who is usually his
mother, or— in her absence— his grandmother or an aunt (preferably his
baptismal godmother), or else another elderly female relative. The bride
arrives on the arm of her aitaxi, generally her father, grandfather, or an
uncle (her baptismal godfather). Previously it was not customary for the
bride and groom to arrive at the church on their sponsors’ arms.
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 237

The bride and groom are each accompanied by two witnesses called
esposlagun (wedding companions). The groom ’s are two unmarried
young men, one from the leenate, the “ first door” or first house on the
right on the w ay to the parish church from the groom ’s house, and the
other is a person of the groom ’s choice. The bride’s witnesses are two
single women, one of whom is from her leenate and the other a woman
of her choice.
In years past the best man would present the bride with a zikiru
(ram); today he gives a monetary gift. The matron of honor would give
the groom an article of clothing and a pair of hens; nowadays she gives
him money. On the eve of the wedding these presents were taken to the
house where the couple would establish their home.
Each of the groom ’s witnesses gave him half a dozen bottles of
etxearno, “ homemade w ine.” Two days before the wedding, a young
woman would carry the bottles to the house where the wedding was
being celebrated in a saski (basket) on her head. The basket was covered
in a londdera, a white cloth tied to the basket with colored ribbons that
hung behind and around the sides of the girl carrying it.
The bride’s witnesses presented her with two kolineta or bars of
marzipan, which would be taken to the bridal house in decorated bas­
kets like those used for the bottles of wine.
Some of the groom’s gaztelagunak (childhood friends) also gave him
a cash gift or a gift in kind; others paid for the music at the wedding.
The bride’s gaztelagunak also presented her with gifts in round,
handleless wicker baskets made to be carried on the head.
The saskigaileak (basket bearers), laden with gifts, gathered at a
specified location and set out all together for the house, where they
had to unpack their baskets. Along the route one or two young men
would fire off guns, as if trying to prevent the group from advancing.
When they arrived at their destination the gift bearers were immediately
treated to a snack.
Nowadays wedding presents consist of cash gifts, coffee sets, flat­
ware, mirrors, or other objects.
A few days before the wedding, the bride or groom visits the place
where the couple will live. This visit is called the etxesartzea.
If the wedding is to be celebrated with a banquet and other fes­
tivities, the engaged couple invite the following people to the church
ceremony: their respective families, their leenateak (the adult neighbors
who live in the first house on the right on the w ay to the parish church),
the young people from that house who are over fifteen years of age, the
couple’s aunts, uncles, and cousins. All these guests then go on to attend
the wedding banquet. If there is to be just the wedding ceremony, only
238 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

the relatives, the godparents, and the witnesses will attend. The groom
presents the bride with an erreztun (ring).
The day before the wedding the families of the bride and groom
have a mass said in the parish church for the souls of both families’
ancestors.
It was previously the custom to marry on a Wednesday or a Satur­
day; nowadays a Thursday is generally chosen for weddings. The wed­
ding day is called esposegun.
Just before the wedding the bride and groom and all the guests form
two retinues, one composed of people from the bride’s side and one
from the groom ’s. These groups then meet on the w ay to the church,
or the groom and his group will set out to meet the bride’s party and
everyone, with the bride and groom at the head, will proceed to the
Tow n Hall (where the civil part of the wedding takes place) and then
to the parish church.
The bride and groom are dressed in black, though it is becoming
customary for a bride to wear a white cloak over a black dress. She also
wears an urrexena (necklace) of the same material as her earrings and
wedding ring, and a pair of eskularruak (gloves).
After the wedding party enters the church, the bride, the groom,
and their witnesses sit on the six chairs placed especially for them
next to the presbytery. The other members of the wedding party stand
behind the bride and groom, and the wedding and the nuptial mass are
held at that spot. When the ceremony is over the newlyweds and their
entire retinue go to the sepulcher belonging to the family of the inherit­
ing spouse and pray there for the souls of his or her ancestors. If it is
located in the same cemetery, they also go to the sepulcher of the family
of the other spouse, and offer prayers there too.
From their wedding onward, spouses will no longer use the familiar
pronoun when they address each other, as that would now be consid­
ered undignified. They will instead address each other using the formal
pronoun zu.
A wedding carriage is not customary, but at some point before the
wedding the household goods will be moved by cart to the house where
the newlyweds will take up residence.
The main door to the newlyweds’ house, where the banquet and
other festivities are to take place, is decorated with flowers and green
branches before the couple gets back from the wedding ceremony.
When she gets home, the bride shows the female guests the furni­
ture, household linen, etc. that have been acquired for the occasion and
takes them to the esposgambara or “ wedding chamber.”
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 239

After the wedding feast the young people and the newlyweds dance
to accordion music throughout the evening and into the night. An
accordion player from the town is hired for this purpose by the young
people attending the wedding.
It used to be the custom for newlyweds to invite their closest rela­
tives to a special lunch on the Sunday after the wedding.
In order to avoid being seen and subjected to ridicule and the mock­
ing blasts of the tuta (horn cornet), widows and widowers get married
in the pre-dawn hours. This blowing of the tuta is known as turrutak
jo (making chaotic noises) or toberak jo (giving a serenade). For one
night or more before the wedding of a widowed person, young people
take up positions near the couple’s homes and stage these noisy sessions.
Sometimes they set up pairs of dolls representing a man and a woman
near their houses. When the w idow ’s or w idow er’s wedding date and
planned route to the church become known, trees, branches, and other
obstacles are placed along the w ay to block their path. But the bride and
groom sometimes manage to avoid this by treating the young people in
their neighborhood to some wine.
Old people attempting to get married are subjected to the same
pranks as the widowed.
The wedding of Ignacio Perugorria and M arta Arburua that I am
about to describe illustrates what happens nowadays.
This is how, on the 10th of January of 1943, the parish priest of Sara
announced the banns of marriage for this young pair:
“Ezkontzako Sakramenduaren errezibitzeko xedetan d ire.” (The
following persons intend to enter into the Sacrament of Marriage):
“Inazio Perugorria, Sara-Aimaenean sortua eta dagona. Xanpier
Perugorria zenaren eta Bernardina Lam othe’n seme lejitimoa, alde
batetik.” (Inazio Perugorria, a native and resident of the Aiemaenea
farm in Sara, legitimate son of the deceased Xanpier Perugorria and of
Bernardina Lamothe, on the one hand)
“ Eta bertzetik Marta Arburua, Sara-Ibarsorogainean sortua eta
dagona, Antonio Arburua eta Teresa Anzizar’en alaba lejitim oa.” (And
on the other hand M arta Arburua, native and resident of the Ibarsoro-
gaina farm in Sara, legitimate daughter of Antonio Arburua and Teresa
Anzizar.)
“ Lenengo eta azken agertzea.” (First and last announcement.)
The day before the wedding the ezkongai (engaged couple) sponsor
a mass for the souls of the deceased members of both their families. This
is attended by the couple themselves and some of their relatives, and as
is the custom, they receive H oly Communion.
240 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

This mass and communion are considered ceremonies through

which the spouses become part of each other’s family.
A month before the wedding the bride and groom invite their
respective uncles and aunts to the ceremony and to the luncheon and
dinner that will be held on that day. One member of the offspring of
each uncle or aunt will also be invited. Also invited are a young bachelor
from the groom ’s leenate (first neighbor), that is, from the first house
to the right along the road to the parish church, and a single girl from
the bride’s leenate.
The bride and groom invite their closest friends as well.
Since the bride’s family from the Ibarsorogaina farm are tenants,
the etxekoandre (lady of the house) or owner and her son have also
been invited.
Very early on the 16th of January— the wedding day— a bus leaves
for the Etxegaraia farm to pick up the bride’s uncle, aunt, and a female
cousin. It then goes to the Arrosa farm to pick up one of the groom ’s
male cousins. From there it makes its w ay to Ihartzebeherea to take on
board an uncle and a female cousin of the bride, then on to Aiemae-
nea for the groom, his mother (his father is deceased), his two sisters,
an uncle, and two friends. It drives all of the above to Ibarsorogaina,
the bride’s farmhouse. Here the groom, one of his sisters and one of
the bride’s cousins alight from the bus and go into the bride’s house.
Inside the house, ready to go, are the bride’s family and three of her
female cousins, the young woman from her leenate, and the family from
Xantakonea— the farm where the groom was raised. Everybody gets
into the bus, which then sets off for the town square. The unmarried
girls wear flowers, as does the groom, who has had them pinned on by
one of his sisters.
In the bus the groom sits in one of the front seats, the bride in the
back. During the ride everyone is told who their appointed partner will
be during the ceremony.
When the bus arrives at the town square, everyone gets out and
the single girls pin flowers on the lapels of their respective bachelor
escorts.
The bride’s sister lines up the wedding party in the usual order for
weddings: (i) the bride and her father; (2) the groom and his mother; (3)
the esposlagun or bride’s witness with the young man from Arrosa (the
groom ’s second witness); (4) the man who shared the same wet-nurse
as the groom and who is the groom ’s witness, with the young woman
from Etxegaraia, who in turn is the bride’s second witness; (5) a female
cousin of the bride (from Oleta) and one of the groom ’s friends; (6) one
of the groom ’s sisters and one of the bride’s male cousins; (7) a female
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 241

cousin of the bride (from Ihatzebeherea) and one of the bride’s broth­
ers; (8) a female cousin of the bride (from Zugarram urdij and one of
the groom ’s friends; (9) the girl from the bride’s leenate with one of
the brothers from Xantakonea; (10) the girl from Xantakonea with one
of the groom ’s friends; (11) one of the bride’s friends with the son of
the owner of Ibarsorogaina; (12) one of the groom ’s sisters with one of
his friends; (13) one of the bride’s sisters was unaccompanied because
her fiancé was unexpectedly called away; (14) the married women in a
group, and (15) the married men, also in a group.
In this order everyone enters the Erriko-etxea or Town Hall where
the legal ceremony of civil marriage is carried out before the judge. The
party is then transported in the same order to the parish church, where
six chairs have been set out near the presbytery. In the first two sit the
bride and groom (the groom on the right and the bride on the left); the
other chairs are occupied by the witnesses. The father of the bride and
the mother of the groom, who came in on the arms of their respec­
tive offspring, have now taken seats further back. All the other guests
occupy the chairs designated for the public, with the men seated on the
right and the women on the left.
The priest immediately presents himself and asks the questions
dictated by the ritual. The marriage takes place, followed by esposmeza
(the nuptial mass). Then the newlyweds, with the members of the wed­
ding party and guests closest to them, enter the vestry through the right-
hand door and there they sign their marriage certificate, followed by
their witnesses. The bride presents the priest with a bouquet of flowers
to place before the statue of the Virgin M ary.
The newlyweds take each other’s arm and leave through the other
door of the vestry. They are followed by the rest of the party, paired off
in the same order in which they entered the church. They then exit the
church through the main door. A woman offers them holy water, and
everyone makes the sign of the cross with it. They proceed to the ilarri-
eta (cemetery) and to the sepulcher belonging to the Ibarsorogaina farm,
where the bride leaves a bouquet and everyone recites a short prayer (a
Paternoster or two). Afterwards they proceed to the Aiemaenea sepul­
cher, where they also stop to pray. This is one more act through which
bride and groom each affirm having joined the family of their spouse.
Following this everyone goes to the Munddurienea house, where
the new husband and wife will take up residence. They all get out of
the bus, and paired in the same order in which they left the church, they
w alk toward the house. The women who are going to be the couple’s
new neighbors have set up two archways made of yew branches and
flowers, one between the road and the house, the other at the front
 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

door. Tw o mandarin oranges hang from each arch, one for each of the
newlyweds. As they pass under the arches they pick off the mandarins.
The entire wedding party then goes up to the attic, which has been
tidied up and converted into a dining-room for the occasion. Two long
tables have been set up. The newlyweds are seated at one table with the
other unmarried couples and with their witnesses seated on either side;
the married people are seated at the other table.
When the wedding party arrives they are served specially aged
wine and cookies by young women who have been placed in charge
of the menu. Then comes the luncheon: chicken noodle soup; boiled
beef with carrots and leeks; chicken and minced beef with rice and red
peppers; lamb and gravy; roast chicken and salad; flan and cake with
champagne; ordinary wine (served throughout the meal), and, finally,
coffee with liqueurs and cigars. Between courses the guests sing with
great gusto songs such as “ M aritxu nora zoaz,” “ Gazte-gaztetandikan,”
the Saint Ignatius M arch, etc. When the lamb is about to be served the
bride and groom kiss, the groom then turning to kiss the female witness
to his right; she in turn kisses the young man to her right and the kiss
then goes around the table.
After the roast chicken is served, one of the girls in charge of the
table presents the female witness on the right with a dish containing a
doll covered by another, inverted dish, all wrapped up and tied with red
ribbon. The witness then hands it with a kiss to the young man on her
right; he then passes it to the young woman on his right, also with a
kiss. The plates are then passed around the singles table in this w ay until
they reach the bride, who finally passes it to her husband with a kiss.
While he holds the plates, the bride unties the red ribbon and uncovers
the doll, which she holds up for everyone to see.
The feast lasts from one o’clock in the afternoon to six in the eve­
ning. Several young couples dance (traditional dances) to the music of
the txistu. Later on they all— both single and married people— have a
good time dancing intermittently throughout the night. They have a late
supper there. At daybreak they have coffee and go to church to hear
Sunday mass. Later on the young people have breakfast at the Hôtel de
la Poste. And this brings the wedding festivities to a close.
Death — M . A. Arçuby published an article on the funeral rites of
Sara in the Bulletin du Musée Basque (Bayonne, 1927, nos. 3-4). There
have been very few changes in funeral customs since then, and any
variations from Arçuby’s observations will be noted as they arise.
When speaking of beliefs associated with death it is worth mention­
ing the signs that announce it. Thus, when a dog howls people say “ Erio
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 243

urbil d a ” (the erio, or spirit of death, is nearby). It is believed that at

that moment the dog can see the spirit of death.
People often say “ Erioa, animaen bilaria” (the erio, seeker of
souls).
It is also a commonly stated belief that if the ringing of the bell
announcing the raising of the host at Sunday mass coincides with the
church bell chiming eleven o’clock (or, according to Ar^uby, with any
hour at all), someone in the town will die the following week.
If an ailing old man shows a desire to leave the house and spend a
few days in someone else’s it is said that he is looking for Erio, or is in
danger of dying.
When someone falls gravely ill, the leenate or auzo (the neighbor
living in the first house to the right on the w ay to the parish church)
has the responsibility of calling for the doctor and the priest. It is also
this leenate who accompanies the Sakramendu (Viaticum; eucharist for
a dying person) by walking behind the priest who is carrying it. Today
it is frequently a young female first neighbor who performs this service,
or else a female from another neighboring house if there is no female
first neighbor.
When the Viaticum approaches the sick person’s house, the buru
(head of the family) (man or woman), equipped with two lighted
candles, goes out to meet it and accompanies the Viaticum by preceding
the priest into the sickroom; there he or she places both the candles on
the table or aldare (altar) prepared for this purpose. The priest sets the
Viaticum on this table, which is covered with a white cloth and upon
which a cross and an image of the Virgin M ary have been placed. After
the sick person has made his confession and the ritual prayers have been
offered, the Viaticum is administered to him. If the patient is near death,
the priest will also administer Anonzio (Extreme Unction).
A woman from the first neighbor household and some family mem­
bers are present during these rites. According to Ar^uby, one of these
relatives repeatedly makes the sign of the cross over the patient, each
time circling the patient’s head with a lighted candle.
From that night onward— if they have not begun already— people
from the neighborhood (usually two) begin the gaubeila (night vigil) for
the sick person.
As a person is dying, those present recite the litanies of the Virgin
M ary and the prayers specified by the Roman Catholic Church for these
occasions. A candle is lit (the one blessed in the church at Candlemas)
and placed beside the dying person. Using that candle, one of those
attending the deathbed makes the sign of the cross on the dying person
244 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

and sprinkles him with holy water. The room is also sprinkled to keep
evil spirits away.
The leenate announces the impending death to the ezkilayoile (bell-
ringer), so that the bell-ringer may toll the bell in the usual manner for
these occasions, although this custom has now been abandoned.
In the past, according to Ar^uby, nuns whose vocation it is to care
for the sick, together with a group of children, would recite the prayers
with the priest at the head of the dying man’s bed. This is also no longer
done.
It is said that those who have the habit of cursing people usually
have a long, difficult death, especially if they have not first been forgiven
by the people they have injured with their curses. Madarizione (a curse)
is effective, according to popular belief. If someone wishes another
person dead and expresses that wish, especially at a certain time of day
known as oren gaixto (the evil hour), the wish will come true.
If the dying person has been cursed, one must cut off the kukurusta
(comb) of the household rooster in order to shorten the death throes.
Those who are thought to be witches take much longer to die,
according to a generalized belief, because they first have to bequeath
their inheritance— that is, their mysterious powers— to anyone who is
willing to receive it. They say that a witch who was dying repeatedly
asked “ Ekatzu esku” (Give me your hand), but nobody would oblige
her. Finally someone held out an itsas-gider (broom handle), and the
witch transferred her powers to the broom and was able to die.
According to Ar^uby, the lady of the Goyetchea house was taking a
long time to die, having been in the throes of death for eight days. While
her attendants had gone to the kitchen for a few moments, she got out
of bed and appeared in the kitchen where they were. Then her husband,
realizing what was happening, helped his wife back to bed and went up
to the attic and took a shingle off the roof. By the time he had returned
to his w ife’s bedside she was dead.
If an adult in the town dies and his death is followed by that of
a child, people say, “ Aingerua ereman du beraiki” (He has taken the
angel with him). And if after the death of a child an old person in the
town suddenly dies, it is said that the angel took him away.
Certain unknown, incurable illnesses are attributed to Aideko or
Aireko. The following is said of those who suffer from them: “Aire-
tikako zerbeit izain d u ” (He must be suffering from something that came
from Aireko). The cure is usually a blessing from the priest; if this is not
given, the patient— whether a person or an animal— will certainly die.
Death is called eriotze.
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 245

It is said that it is a sign of salvation to die during Easter Week, on

Ascension D ay, or on a rainy day.
When a person dies the windows and doors of the house are closed
or left only partially ajar. This is a sign of mourning that continues until
the deceased has been buried. M irrors are covered with cloths. Accord­
ing to Ar^uby (cited above), the windows of the room in which the
person has died are opened and, shortly afterwards, closed; any pictures
and, especially, mirrors are covered with cloth, as visitors should not see
their own reflections or those of anyone else at this time.
The deceased’s family do not leave the house until after the burial.
The leenate and other people in the neighborhood take care of the live­
stock and other chores.
It is the leenate who announces the death to the priest, the bell-
ringer, the relatives, and the other neighbors. He is also the person who,
together with another neighbor, goes to the church to bring the parish
cross and place it in the room where the dead person lies.
In the past, according to Ar^uby, a female neighbor would under­
take this task.
The bell is tolled in accordance with whether the deceased is a man
or a woman. For a man the notes are farther apart than for a woman.
A blessed candle is lit next to the deceased. Some people burn bay
leaves and sprinkle drops of cologne in the room.
The body is then laid out in the deceased’s best clothes or, if the
person was married, in his or her wedding outfit. A neighbor, accom­
panied by a family member, carries out this operation. An abitu (a
scapular of the Virgin of M ount Carmel) is placed on the shroud, and a
rosary in the deceased’s hands.
It used to be customary to sprinkle a little salt and a few drops of
blessed w ax over the cadaver. Someone closes its eyes.
According to Ar^uby, a cloth decorated with bay leaves covers the
body of the deceased. In days gone by a special cloth called hilmihisia
served this purpose. Wealthy families would cover the walls of the room
where the deceased was laid out with cloth of this sort. Two neighbors
watch over the body until it is carried to the church on the second day
after the death. The neighbors gather in the room during the night to
pray the rosary.
A close relative of the deceased announces the death to the latter’s
stabled livestock (cows, sheep, etc.), making them stand if they are lying
down. The bees in the hive are also informed by knocking on the hive
with one’s hand and saying, “ Nagusia hil d a ” (The master has died),
“ Etxekoandria hil d a ” (The mistress of the house has died), “ Etxeko
semia hil d a ” (The son of the house has died), etc. It is said that trag­
246 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

edies will befall the livestock if this is not done. As regards the bees,
people say, “ Damutzen omen zaio ez erratia” (They were grieved at not
being informed), and the hive later dies.
All bells are removed from the cattle. They will not be replaced until
the period of mourning is over— that is, for two years if the deceased
or his wife was the owner, for one year if the deceased was a son or
daughter of the owners. Only the odd sheep grazing on the hillside still
wears a little bell. The owner of the Olha house, according to Arçuby,
died suddenly while aw ay from home. The cows in his stable began to
low, but nobody knew why until the news arrived that their master had
died. Then they were informed of the death and they stopped lowing.
Something similar happened on the Anihotzea farm: the lowing of the
cows in the stable let the lady of the house know that her daughter had
died, a fact that was later confirmed. She announced this to the cows
and they calmed down.
The deceased’s tenants and sharecroppers also announce the mas­
ter’s death to their animals in the same way. But this custom is now
falling into disuse.
The cadaver is placed in a varnished wooden coffin equipped with
four handles, made by local carpenters. A metal cross is placed on the
top. Previously, according to my informant Piarrezume Camino, who is
ninety-two years old, the dead were carried to the church on a gatabotta
(stretcher).
The gorputzgaileak (pallbearers) are four or six young, single men.
If the deceased is a child who has not yet made its first communion, its
coffin is carried by boys or girls, according to its gender. Previously a
child’s coffin was carried by its godfather. The adult pallbearers are paid
ten francs each (at the beginning of the twentieth century the amount
was four francs), and after the burial a meal is eaten at one of the tow n’s
restaurants.
The coffin of a member of the Daughters of M ary who dies in the
town is carried by other members of the organization, unless the church
is too far away. In this case it is carried by young men.
If the deceased belonged to a family that has tenants, it is they—
whether single or married— who carry the coffin to the church and
cemetery.
At the appointed time for the burial the neighbors and relatives of
the deceased, the pallbearers, and the parish priest with an altar boy go
to the house of mourning. The casket now lies on a table in the foyer
of the house. Beside it, on a chair, is a dish of holy water and a sprig
of laurel. The priest recites the ritual prayers and the cortège leaves
for the church. Meanwhile, the bell-ringer tolls the bells in the church
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 247

tower, spacing the notes according to whether the deceased is a man or

a woman. The coffin is carried along the route known as elizbide (the
path to the church). Each house has its own. The funeral procession also
takes this route.
If the deceased is a male, the funeral procession is organized in the
following fashion: the beetterra (altar boy) holding up the cross; behind
him, if the deceased belonged to a brotherhood within the parish, four
brother members bearing the organization’s identifying banner by its
corners; immediately after them the priest, attired in rochet [an embroi­
dered over-tunic] and stole; then comes the coffin, borne on the shoul­
ders of the gorputzgaileak; then the ahuko or chief mourners, headed by
the gizon-ahuko (men’s cortège) in the following order: the leenate or
first neighbor; aideak or jendakiak (the relatives, including the father of
the deceased, his sons, brothers, uncles, nephews, cousins, etc.), in order
of their degree of relationship and age; then friends and neighbors; then
the women’s cortège, beginning with the leenate who is followed by
friends and neighbors, cousins, nieces, aunts, sisters, mother, and wife.
The last woman in the procession is called the minyuri, a term also given
to the first male relative to follow the leenate of the men’s cortège.
When the coffin of a woman is being carried to the church, the
cortège or ahuko walking behind it is formed by female mourners in the
following order: the leenate, friends and neighbors, aideak or relatives
(cousins, nieces, aunts, sisters, daughters, mother), and the men’s cor­
tège (the leenate, the husband, father, sons, brothers, uncles, nephews,
cousins, friends, and neighbors).
There is no male cortège if there are no men in the household of the
deceased woman, nor at the burial of a very young child.
N owadays some families try to have the funeral procession pre­
ceded by a group of boys or girls (according to the gender of the
deceased), each carrying a lighted candle. During the funeral rites these
children stand on opposite sides of the coffin in two lines. They are paid
for this service.
Arçuby recorded the following in his work:

The chief mourner, or minyuri, follows the next-door neighbor; the

woman in charge of the female mourners walks at the end of the
funeral procession. Close relatives and the pallbearers (typically,
share-croppers on the property of the deceased) are dressed as
follows: a large hooded cape for the men, and a cape reaching down
to the feet, called “ caputcha,” for the women.
Formerly, it was obligatory for all the male mourners to wear
the large hooded cape. Later on, it was worn only by relatives, and
248 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

at a later period, only by close relatives, as is the custom today. The

vestry of the church now provides ceremonial mantles for mourners
to wear in processions. The large top-hat was required for all the
male mourners. Subsequently, it was worn only by the cross-bearers
who marched all the w ay to the church. Today, it has completely
disappeared (making its reappearance . . . in Carnival processions).
In Urrugne, until just a few years ago, it was still worn.
Formerly, all those attending the funeral had to wear black.
Today, except for those in mourning, many come in colored
clothing (the cost of dressing in style makes it impossible to
purchase an additional black outfit).3

Men attending the funeral generally wear a dark suit and a white
shirt with black buttons. The leenate and the closest relatives wear black
capes over their suits.
Women are also dressed in black, although nowadays they are
beginning to wear light colors. Relatives also wear black capes with
hoods (kaputxak) that cover them from head to ankle. The minyuri and
other family members of the deceased cover their faces with a blunda, a
black veil that falls from edge of the hood.
When the deceased is from a distant farm it is customary for the
clergy to start the procession at a house that is closer to the church,
and the coffin is carried there at the appointed time. Such a house is
called an altxatoki (lifting place). Thus the deceased from bordas (the
outlying farms to the south and southeast of the Istilarte neighborhood)
are received by the priest at the Espilteguia house (previously Dendal-
deguia). From the house of mourning to Espilteguia it is the leenate
who carries the church cross; afterwards it is carried by the altar-boy
accompanying the priest.
The bodies of people who die on farms toward Vera (Bera) are
brought to Etxetxarria; those of the farms near Hauziartzia are taken
to that house; the Mendiondoa house receives those from the Men-
diondokoborda farms and others in that area; the deceased from the
Goiburu area are taken to Idatzia; those from the San Ignacio area go
to the Aniotzea farmhouse, and those from the Auntzkarrika area are
received at Ibarsorogaina. Arguby states in this regard that,

The initiation of the funeral procession by the priest takes place at

the house of the deceased, assuming he is the owner. If the deceased
is a share-cropper or renter, it is done at a house specified for each
neighborhood, and closest to the church, to which the pallbearers
preceding the cross and followed by the funeral procession carry
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 249

the body prior to the arrival of the clergy. N o matter how far the
owner’s house was from the church, this custom was observed
without exception until very recently, when the route of the
procession was uniformly reduced out of regard for the penury of
the priests and the additional charge for the ceremony, despite the
loss of dignity suffered by the families.4

When the funeral procession arrives at the church the coffin is

placed on a simple bier in the center of the church, where it will remain
during the funeral rites. The persons forming the funeral procession
take their places in an orderly fashion: the women below and the men in
the galleries, so that the women wearing hooded capes (the leenate and
the relatives) occupy the yarleku of the deceased’s house and the men in
capes take up the central part of the first row of the galleries.
The religious aspect of the funeral consists chiefly of a mass— which
may be celebrated with a deacon in attendance or not, according to
the wishes of the deceased’s family— and the prayers reserved for these
occasions. The number of flower arrangements and wreaths marks the
difference between the funerals of the rich and the poor.
The prayers recited on these occasions are mainly the Paternoster,
the A ve Maria, and D e profundis.
During the funeral the yarleku is covered in sackcloth and black
fabric. Two tortxak (candles), provided by the church, burn above the
cloth; between them is a slender rolled w ax taper called ezko or ezkox-
igor, brought expressly by the family of the deceased; next to this one
are other rolled candles brought by the female neighbors. Behind the
burning candles and w ax, the hooded women with their veils down sit
on chairs or in prezdieux. It has recently become customary for these
women to form two or more rows in the center of the church, behind
the coffin.
There are no professional mourners at funerals, but the female
m inyuri, even if she is a distant relative of the deceased, frequently dabs
at her eyes with a handkerchief, letting it be seen that she is shedding
tears.
Members of the ahuko remain kneeling during the ceremony.
At a certain point in the Offertory, those attending who do not
contribute with an offering (serbitzu) taken up during mass approach
the entrance to the presbytery, where the priest awaits them with a pax
(metal plaque with a cross); they kiss this and make their offering by
depositing a franc in a bag or on a collection plate held by an altar-boy.
This money pays for the services of the priest celebrating the novena
mass that will begin that day.
250 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Arçuby reports that, “ Until recent years a novena mass took place
the week after the death. The offering, the prayer presided over by the
priest, and the funeral meal took place on the day following the death;
those attending who had made offerings returned for the novena.” 5
After the funeral mass the prayer for the dead is sung. This is also
done after other requiem masses are sung or before masses of other kinds
that, at any time of year, are celebrated for the souls of the deceased.
These prayers are sung by the priest and the xantre in the yarleku of the
household that has requested the mass, with a woman from that house
in attendance, wearing a hooded cape and veil.
During the funeral service the close relatives of the deceased
remove the lastaira (straw mattress) from the deathbed and take it to a
crossroads on the elizbide, where it is burned. Only a straw lastaira is
removed; otherwise a little bit of corn husk is taken to the crossroads
and burned. This fire and its residual material remind passers-by of the
death that has occurred in the house nearby and invite them to say a
prayer for the deceased.
After the mass and the absolution or prayer for the dead at the
church, the burial takes place. All those attending leave in the same
order in which they arrived at the church, preceded by the church cross,
the priest, and the coffin. The procession stops when the coffin arrives
at the tomb. After the priest has offered the ritual prayers everyone files
past the tomb and goes out in the same order, stopping to form a single
file on the road to the house of mourning. All present murmur a prayer,
such as the Paternoster, Requiem , or De profundis, and the cortège
breaks up. Only those from out of town and the deceased’s relatives,
invited by the male leenate, return to the house of mourning. As they
pass the place where the mattress has been burned they stop before the
ashes and other burned material, make the sign of the cross, and say
a prayer for the deceased. Together with the leenate and his wife they
enter the house and partake in the mezatako-bazkaria (luncheon for a
mass), which consists of beef broth, stewed beef, and coffee. Afterwards
they say a D e profundis and then disperse.
During the first few days after the funeral until the following Sun­
day some of the women relatives of the deceased dressed in hooded
capes, together with the female leenate, attend the mass for the soul of
the recently deceased. They place themselves in one or two rows behind
the torches and the rolled taper burning in the deceased’s yarleku, which
has been veiled in black. There they remain throughout the mass and the
prayer for the dead sung by the priest and the xantre. The masses held
in the parish church during these first days are paid for by the donations
made during the Offertory at the funeral mass.
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 251

The singing of the prayer for the dead takes place at the yarleku. An
altar-boy holds up the cross behind the hooded women, with the priest
and the xantre standing in front of the women and the lights. The faces
of the hooded women are veiled during the entire ceremony.
In the first few days following the funeral, the deceased’s family
makes confession and takes communion (the men do so on the first
Sunday following). The Sunday after the funeral the priest announces
in church the names of the individuals or households who have donated
money for the masses, known as serbitzu. At the end of the announce­
ment he mentions the amount of money that has been given as laxada
by the deceased’s family. The laxada seems to be a vestige of an ancient
contribution that households would pay to the church for the tomb. Six
suses from the laxada go to the Santa Catalina hermitage, and the rest
is divided equally between the upkeep of the church and fees for masses
for souls in purgatory.
The following is an example of the recognition of donors of ser-
bitzuak corresponding to April 8, 1945:

Jom ildegiko-borda’ko etchekoandre zenarentzat eman dute:

A laba M ari semearekin,
Seme Jean-Batistek andrearekin.
(Offerings have been given for the housewife of Jomildegi farm
who passed away, by:
Her daughter M ari with her son,
Her son Jean-Batiste with his wife.)

Alautchi Jeannek,
Semeatchi Sebastianek,
Iloba Frantchak.
(Granddaughter Jeanne,
Grandson Sebastian,
Niece Frantcha.)

Chilardi’ko familiak,
Landagarai’ko aita-alabak,
Adishkide batek,
Askain.
(The Chilardi family,
The father and daughter of Landagarai [house],
A friend,
Askain.)
252 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Familiak obligazionentzat,
Lachada 50 libera emanak.
(As the family obligation,
a laxada of fifty libera [pounds] was given.)

In 1942 the serbitzu was 8 francs; three serbitzu made up the fee for
a mass. In 1945 six serbitzu at 10 francs each covered the fee for a mass,
10 francs of this going to the xantre.
In 1968 the fee for a mass was 750 francs (7.5 new francs).
Serbitzu masses are celebrated on days assigned by the priest. These
are sung masses and include the prayer for the dead, which is also sung.
They are attended by one or more close female family members of the
deceased and some more distant female relatives, all dressed in capes
and veils. They preside over the prayer for the dead in the yarleku
and light and maintain the candles there. This ceremony is known as
elizatei.
On the anniversary of the death, or its urtebetetze, a mass is sung,
attended by one or more women from the deceased’s household and
other female relatives. After the anniversary the family arranges for yet
another mass to be held etxeko obligazionentzat (for the obligations of
the household), that is, for the souls of all the household members who
have passed away.
The rolled taper burning in the yarleku during the funeral continues
there throughout the year and is lit every day during one of the masses
being celebrated in the church. This function is performed by the women
of the deceased’s household or, in their absence, by the andreserora. The
position of andreserora no longer exists. These were women who took
a vow to devote themselves to the service of the church (taking care of
the cleaning, the altar-cloths and robes, the candles on the altar and the
tombs, etc.). The last of these women was M arfa Dithurbide who died
in 1902. After her death several of her functions were taken over by two
women, the first of whom died in 1948. The second retired to the town
hospital, and never again took care of the candles in the yarlekuak or
represented there the women of their respective houses. As a result,
prayers for the dead are no longer sung in the yarlekuak except in a very
few cases, because there are no women to preside over them. Since 1953
not a single priest has sung masses for the souls of the dead, nor have
any prayers for the dead been sung in the yarlekuak.
D olu is the term for mourning. The family members of a deceased
individual employ a variety of signs of mourning. During religious holi­
days men wear a band of black cloth on their jackets, either on a sleeve
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 253

or a lapel, in addition to black buttons on their shirts. Women wear dull

black clothing when the occasion calls for dolumina (full mourning),
black and white for doluerdi (half mourning). Dolumina is worn by the
family of the deceased. W idows and mothers wear it for the rest of their
lives; daughters for two years (previously for three years); sisters for one
year; nieces for six months. D oluerdi is worn by female cousins for three
months. W idows wear capes to church during major religious holidays,
but do not observe mourning if they remarry.
Ilargiak (moons), ilargieta (place of moons), ilarriak (stones of the
dead), and ilarrieta (place of the stones of the dead) are different names
for a cemetery. The grave is called obi or tomba. If it is constructed from
stone slabs it is referred to as an ehortze-toki (burial place). M ost of the
graves, especially the old ones, are placed east to west, with the head
facing the west and the feet to the east
Almost all the houses in Sara have their tomb clearly marked by
gravestones and stone plaques in the cemetery surrounding the par­
ish church. The tomb follows the house in any transactions and in the
passing of the house to the heir. The tomb therefore belongs more to
the house than to the family. Thus on ancient tombs there are inscrip­
tions referring to the houses to which they belong: M endiondoko tomba
(tomb of Mendiondo); Arrossagaraiko thhombac 1791 (tombs of Arros-
sagarai 1791); Harozteguico thombac; Sabateneco borda (Sabatene farm);
Kollaren borda; Etchoina; M ikelteiko borda; Hindartekoa; Legabeco
thonbac 1838; Bordaco-bordako tombac (tombs of Bordaco-borda);
Qulubia; Laheteco tombac; Baratceartea; Plaga-etcheberrico thombac
1884; Haranberria; Tcholdorichco-borda; M ailuen-borda; Perutegui;
Karrikaburucoac; Larraldia: Agustinen-borda; Portuco hobia; Mestru-
ainia; Ithurbideco hobia; Ortolopitz; Aniotz-beherea; Indianoen borda,
etc. Tombs attached to families rather than to a house are recent ones;
Famille Etcheberry Ortholopitz-beherea; Famille Doyargabal; Famille
Lastiry. There are also tombstones showing only the names of the indi­
viduals buried in them, like the one in front of the door on the right
side of the church, which bears the following inscription: C H R IST O A L
D E ITH V RBID E.
It is believed that on certain occasions the souls of the dead appear
to the living. Generally they appear at night in the form of a faint light
near houses and not too far from human beings. According to one of
my informants, shortly after the death of the man from Zulobia (about
fifty years before this writing), a small light appeared one night on the
roof of the house, and another appeared at the Mendiondo spring. It
was said then that it was the soul of the man from Zulobia. His soul was
unable to rest because he wanted to assign a task to the living.
254 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

According to my informants, souls that appear like this come to

request that masses be celebrated on their behalf.
Sometimes souls appear in their own homes, making themselves
known through strange noises. In such cases the person present should
ask: “Z er nai d u k ? ” (What do you want?).
One of my informants told me the following story about a case that
occurred on the Burkia farm, located in the Elbarrun neighborhood:

The Events at Burkia

“ M y father used to say that when my grandfather died in Burkia a

light would appear every evening at dusk and would get in through
the framework of the roof. They did not see anything else. But they
did hear loud noises— the ringing of cowbells, then the noise of
dishes on the kitchen sideboard sounding as if they had fallen onto
the floor.
“ M y grandmother would go with a candle to see what it was.
But there was nothing to be seen.
“ Because my grandmother slept with her daughter, one night
somebody began to take the daughter from the bed to the kitchen,
and tried to pull her down the drain in the sink. This scared them
and the following day they spoke with the town priest. He asked
my grandmother if she would be brave enough to talk to the light.
Yes, answered my grandmother, she was brave enough already.
“ The priest told her to address it using the familiar personal
pronoun.
“ That same night, when the light came in through the frame of
the roof, my grandmother asked it what it wanted.
“ The light answered by asking if she remembered that they had
offered to arrange a mass in Lezo. In their youth my grandfather
and grandmother had offered to have a mass said in Lezo.
“ M y grandmother answered that she did remember.
“ Then the light told her, ‘If you have that mass said, I will go
to heaven like a dove.’
“ Grandmother said ‘Yes, I’ll arrange for it to be said.’
“ The next day my grandmother set out for Lezo. And between
Sara and Ascain she found herself fighting hard to go on, because
something was holding her back. Finally, because she wasn’t able
to walk across, she crawled her w ay to Ascain.
“ After that she had no more problems along the way, and
arranged for the mass to be said in Lezo.
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara

“ From that time on they never saw or heard anything in the

house.”

(Related by Ganixon Larzabal of Sara, January 10, 1941, next to the

hearth of the Ibarsoro-beherea farmhouse.)
According to my informant from Ibarsoro-beherea, when Goyetxe
the butcher died, for a long time loud noises of chairs and scales and
weights were heard in the Arrosa house— which he had once owned—
located in the Ialarre neighborhood. It was said that the noises were
produced by the soul of the butcher who, in life, had misused the scale
when selling meat.
Another of my informants— Piarrezume Camino— told me that,
when he was a child, an elderly priest whom people called Bikario-xarra
(old Vicar) died in the town of Sara. He was buried in the cemetery,
next to the church, although until that time priests had usually been
entombed inside. Later, when the man in charge of ringing the dawn
bell went into the church, he noticed that all the pews and chairs in the
church were being violently shaken, causing a terrible noise, and so he
refused to continue with his job. Then a priest was brought in from
Zugarram urdi to bless the church. He did so, and even spent a night
inside it. After this the noises stopped.
 H U N T IN G

None of the residents of Sara practices hunting exclusively. But there

are hunters who devote a couple of months each year to dove hunting,
obtaining considerable income from it.
Iiztari means hunter. Although iizi is the generic name for wild birds,
one says iizian ibili (to go hunting) not only when the hunter pursues
birds but also when he hunts hare, wild boar, or other wild animals.
The object of the hunt includes not only animals whose flesh serves
as food for man, such as the dove (in Basque, uso), woodcock (pekada),
turtledove (torttoila), thrush (xoxo), mavis (billigarro), lapwing (itsas-
xori), hare (erbi), rabbit (lapin), and wild boar (basurde), but also
certain harmful animals, such as the badger (azkenarro), fox (azeri),
marmot (hudu), civet (gatu-potots), and the weasel (andde-ederra).
For hunting fox and badger they use poisons and traps (arte). To
frighten the badger out of the cornfields it is customary to light huge
bonfires in them during the night: the sight of the fire and the smell of
smoke frighten it. Another method for flushing out the badger is to
make noise with scythes and other iron instruments, or make a roaring
sound with the turruta (a cow ’s horn with a narrow hole in the tip) or
the rustic instrument called eltzaorr.
The standard trap is a simple noose of twine or wire placed in
narrow paths and openings in hedges frequented by wild animals; this
is commonly used for hunting foxes, hares, and rabbits, especially in
periods when the use of firearms is prohibited.
Eltzaorr is a drum or cylinder made of a hollow tree trunk open on
one side and closed on the other with a piece of cowhide or, better, a
piece of badger skin, drawn taut. A string smeared with w ax, one end
fastened to the center of the cover, is stretched past the open end of the
drum. To make it produce a sound, one holds it between the knees so
that the cover faces down, and while one hand holds on to the cord,
the other rubs it up and down roughly. This rubbing of the hand on
the cord produces a loud reverberation through the drum which can be
heard from afar.
At the beginning of this century there was an abundance of wild
boars, especially in Lizuniaga ravine, where they would go to eat tubers
258 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

of the plant called errebelarr (arum, araceae), chestnuts, etc. To hunt

them, the hunters would form parties of up to twenty men armed with
zizpak (shotguns) who would go with their dogs into the woods where
it was thought they would be found. The hunters would spread out
around the area where the dogs had announced the presence of a wild
boar; then they would wait until the dogs flushed it out and then give
chase, firing with their shotguns. There were years when ten or more
wild boars were killed in the territory of Sara. The last year a wild boar
was killed in this region was 1939.
Around 1896, a roebuck (basahuntz) was killed in Sara. It was Don
Cristobal Lerembure who killed it with a shotgun, on the boundary
between Nabarlatz and Arrotola, where his dogs had flushed it out.
There have been no sightings of wolves in Sara in recent times, but
the elders remember having heard that in an earlier time there were
some, and that in order to guard the sheep against their attacks, they
would bring them at night into korraliak (enclosures surrounded by
large stones). If a w olf came near, the shepherd would come out of his
hut carrying a lighted torch (ileti) in his hand and the w olf would run
away, frightened by the fire. M y informant Bernardo Ayetze told me that
he heard one of his grandfather’s brothers say that when he was young
the last w olf ever seen in the mountains of Sara was shot by a hunter
in the community called Potzuko-zelai and died in Otsopotzuak (on the
slopes of Mount Ibanteli). This happened a mere hundred years ago.
M y informant Domingo de Ursuegi says he heard his father, a
charcoal maker, say that when he was working in the mountains of Eli­
zondo with some other men, he frequently saw wolves pass through his
district. But as soon as the charcoal makers lit their pyres or woodpiles,
the animals would disappear. He also refers to his grandfather who used
to herd his flock of sheep on M ount Sayoa (Saioa) (Baztan), and who
frequently had to use fire to drive the wolves aw ay when they came at
night to prey on the sheep.
This grandfather of Domingo de Ursuegi, mentioned above, also
told how on a certain occasion a man from Baztan set out on his horse
for Mount Sayoa (Saioa), heavily armed and intending to hunt wild
animals. When after several days the hunter had not returned, his neigh­
bors went out to look for him; they found him dead beside his horse.
There were seven wolves around him, also dead. The flesh of the hunter
and his horse and been devoured, except for the m an’s legs, which were
protected by the leather chaps he was wearing.
When a fox, badger, civet (gatu-potots), marmot (bidu), or weasel
(andde-ederra) is killed, the hunter himself or someone he trusts carries
it around to all the houses in the town. This practice is called azeri-eske
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 259

(collection for the fox), askenarro-eske (collection for the badger), etc.
It is the custom that in each house the carrier is given a few francs (in
earlier days, two or three sous) in payment for the service the hunter has
provided to the neighborhood by killing a harmful animal.
The shotgun is generally used to hunt birds, except in periods like
the present when firearms have been confiscated. Huge nets are also
used for hunting by beating the woods in autumn during the period
when migrating doves stop to rest. Another procedure for hunting birds
that dates back to ancient times is the segada. The segada is a device
consisting of a curved willow branch with another stick or straight wire
attached to the ends like the string of a bow. From the curved branch
several bristles or horsehairs hang down, their free ends each forming
nooses two or three centimeters above the string. The bird that tries to
alight on the stick or wire forming the bowstring puts his head in one of
the nooses, becoming trapped. The segada, then, is a kind of trap (arte)
like those mentioned above.
Dove Hunting — The region of Sara is one of the Pyrenean passes
most frequented by doves during their autumnal migrations. The hills
between Ibantelly (Ibanteli) and Atxuri offer adequately low and wide
passages through that part of the mountain range. There are two sites
where dove hunting is practiced: Sarako-usategieta (the dove pass of
Sara), located on Mount Nabarlatz, and Etxelarko-usategieta (the dove
pass of Echalar (Etxalar)), on Mount Jauzmendi. The hunting season
runs from September 24 to November 15.
The dove pass of Sara forms a horn-shaped territory, wide on the
side where the doves enter and narrow like a canal or river mouth on
the other side. The sides are marked by Mounts Saiberri, Debalde,
Larria, Usategi, and Faardiko-harria, with a depression or canyon
between them called Tombako-erreka. The terrain, then, lends itself to
the practice of hunting by herding. The flocks of doves enter the fan
of hills and mountains forming the dove pass, driven by the shaking
of flags, the throwing of wooden disks, the blowing of trumpets, and
the combined shouting of the hunters. They hurl themselves toward the
only apparent exit— the mouth— where they are trapped in the invisible
nets awaiting them.
The last section of the channel or mouth is a flat area between for­
ests of large oak trees that function as two hedges that converge toward
the southwest as far as the top of a hill where an exit sixty meters wide
and twelve meters high is left open. Across this mouth or corridor
formed between the oak groves on either side through which the doves
have to pass, the hunters stretch their nets (in Basque, sareak). This
gives the place its name: Sarelekua (the place for the nets).
 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Six nets made of wire close the exit from the pass. Each one is ten
meters wide and twelve meters high, and is stretched between two oak
trees or between a post and an oak tree serving as supports. Each net is
held in place by two cords— one on each side— tied to the upper corners.
These cords, each one running through a pulley fastened to the top of
the supports, go all the w ay to the ground where they hold the net in
place, anchored at the bottom by a release lever or trigger.
The trigger is an iron lever placed vertically on a wooden struc­
ture that anchors it to the ground. Its upper arm, which is bent, serves
as a hook for the tightrope that holds the net up, while its lower arm
is connected by a thick wire to another lever (giderr) made of wood.
These triggers— one for each tightrope— hold each net down. Both are
operated by a sarezain (net guard) by means of a single giderr used to
instantaneously release the tightropes at the opportune moment, caus­
ing the net to fall suddenly to the ground.
The net is stretched at an incline so that it opens toward the south­
west, offering its inner face as an attack surface to the flock of doves
that come from the northeast. Its lower edge is held to the ground by
several stones laid on top of it.
At the moment the doves enter the net, the sarezain, pushing the
giderr of both triggers, releases the tightropes. Instantaneously, the net
falls, pulled down by two ring-shaped iron weights (erraztum) hanging
from the corners where the tightropes and net are joined. The doves are
trapped between the net and the ground.
Six nets close the corridor or mouth of the dove pass. The names
of these nets, starting from the southern side, are: Gainekoa, Xiztakoa,
Pagokoa, Harrikoa, Orrazekoa, and Beerekoa. They are lined up in a
slightly curved arc sixty meters long, its concave surface facing north­
east. Each net is operated by one man (who, because of his function,
is called tiralla (puller) or sarezain (netkeeper)) except for the last two,
which are operated by a single man. The sarezain is assisted in his work
by a man they call karrotabiltzailea (the disk-gatherer), a name denoting
one of his functions, which is to gather up the disks or karrota thrown
by the trapari or leader of the hunting party.
There are shelters (one between each two nets) that serve as screens
made of boughs, behind which the sarezain hide when a flock of doves
approaches the nets. Estalaria is the name for these shelters.
The hunters who flush out the doves and herd them toward Sare-
lekua are fourteen in number: nine xatarlari, each holding a white flag,
xatarr (also called abatari, from the word abata, which designates the
place where they stand); three butatzaille or throwers of disks (karrota)6;
one traparia or nausia, the leader, called this because of the place where
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 26l

he stands, which is Trapa7; and one trapagibeleko, the man who occu­
pies the Trapagibela (the spot behind the Trapa).
The hunters are distributed in different places around the perimeter
of Usategieta or dove pass. Starting from the Sarelekua, or the exit from
the pass, five xatarlari, called Orrazekoa, Aitzekoa, H arrikoartekoa,
H arrikoa, and Beerekoa, form the left wing. Orrazekoa occupies a
small cage made of sticks at the top of a tree, a few meters from Sare-
lekua. To the north, on the same side of the mountain, is Aitzekoa, also
in a cage supported by branches at the very top of an oak tree. Farther
north, Harrikartekoa sits atop another oak tree. Harrikoa has his cage
on top of a tower made with sheets of iron at the top of the cliff called
Faardiko-harria. Even farther north, in a shelter made of sticks and
ferns located on a hill at the foot of Faardiko-harria, Beerekoa hides.
He is the hunter who occupies the most advanced site on the left wing,
but since in many cases his functions aren’t necessary, his place is fre­
quently empty.
The right wing is formed by nine hunters stationed at some distance
from each other from Sarelekua to the peak of Mount Saiberry. Their
names are: Traparia, Trapagibelekoa, X okokua, Errekakoa, Arrigo-
rrikoa, Arrixuri, Larrekoa, D ebalde, and Saiberry.
Traparia (his post is called Trapa) is the Nausia or leader of the
hunters. He is stationed in a basket at the top of an oak tree, a few
meters from the G ainekoa net. From his post, he overlooks the corridor
and part of the pass, directing the operation with shouts and whistles
(in Basque, xistu) and, by throwing his disks during the last stage of
the maneuver he forces the doves down into the nets at the end of the
corridor.
Trapagibelekoa (stationed behind Trapa) is also posted at the top
of a tree, a hundred meters east of Traparia. He awaits the arrival of
the doves from his spot, armed with disks to keep them from veering
back to the south over the mountain instead of continuing on the route
marked by the level ground that empties into Sarelekua or the bottle­
neck where the nets are placed.
Further to the east, in a canyon cut into the mountain, the xatarlari
or flag-bearers X okokua (flag-bearer at the corner), Errekakou (the one
on the river) and A rrigorrikoa (the one on the red cliff) are posted. From
their stations, they overlook the ravine called Tombako-erreka (ravine
of the tomb). Their job is to shake flags and shout, thus keeping the
doves from crossing the peaks by flying through the depression formed
in the face of the mountain by a low hill in that spot.
262 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Arrixurikoa (flag-bearer on the white cliff) is the name of the xatar-

lari posted in a hut or shelter on Arrixuri peak, which is located on the
western side of Mount Larria.
Larrekoa is a butatzaile or disk thrower who occupies the tower
on M ount Larria, to the east of the xatarlari or flag-bearers mentioned
above. The tower is a crude stone structure, like a column with a square
base. On top of it is the observation post of the butatzaile. To climb to
the top he uses a tall ladder.
Finally, on Debalde and Saiberry (Saiberri) peaks, there are two
butatzaile or disk throwers stationed in small huts on the ground.
The xatarlari on the left wing are the ones best situated to see
the uso-multzu (flock of doves) approaching the pass. By yelling uuu,
uuu, uuu and snapping their xatarr or flags to make loud whiplash
sounds, they keep any doves from breaking off from the flock and flying
west. Additionally, they signal to the butatzaile on Saiberry (Saiberri),
Debalde, and Larria as follows: when a flock of doves heads toward
M ount Saiberry (Saiberri), they give three blasts on their trumpets; four
blasts means the flock is heading for Mount Debalde; two means Mount
Larria. When the flock heads straight down the middle of the refuge,
they signal with one blast. This warns the Trapagibeleko to keep the
doves from crossing the southern edge of the refuge and flying over the
mountain to the left of the nets.
If the flock flies toward Larria, the butatzaile stationed there throws
several paddles, or karrota (this is the Basque word for the wooden
disks painted white on both sides, with a handle for throwing). These
disks give the doves the impression that a hawk is plummeting toward
them. This causes the flock to descend abruptly to a few scant meters
above the ground in order to protect their bellies from attack by the
predator.8
When the flock approaches Debalde or Saiberry, Larrekoa signals
to the butatzaile stationed there by shouting for them to begin throwing
their disks to keep the doves from flying up again and escaping over
those mountains. The flag bearer on Arrixuri gives the same signal when
a flock heads toward his post, shouting: jo xatarra (shake the flag), to
force the doves to veer toward Sarelekua.
If the doves try to escape from the pass by flying over Tombako-
erreka, the flag-bearers Arrixurikoa, Arrigorrikoa, Errekakoa, and
X o koku a force them to change course by snapping their flags and
shouting uuu, uuu.
These maneuvers keep the flock of doves zigzagging between the
opposite flanks of the pass until they reach the final stage of their trajec­
tory, that is, into the channel that opens into the mouth of the nets. If the
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 263

flock makes any further attempt to veer toward the left, Trapagibeleko
throws his disks, forcing the flock downward into the ravine. Then the
xatarlari on the left wing go into action, snapping their flags. The doves
fly up again and over the level ground of Legagorri toward Sarelekua.
N ow they are under the direct control of Nausia or Traparia.
If the flock is heading straight toward the mouth where the nets are
placed, Traparia makes long, slow whistle sounds. He gives short, rapid
whistles if the flock veers toward the upper region of Tombako-erreka:
this alerts flag-bearer Errekakoa, who has to snap his flag to keep the
doves from escaping from the dove pass on that side.
If the doves veer toward the other side and approach Fardiko-harria,
Trapari alerts the xatarlari on H arrikoa peak, shouting: Harrikoa,
joizak (Harrikoa, shake it). H arrikoa snaps his flag. If the doves head
toward the side where Aitzekoa is stationed, the chief shouts: Aitzekoa!
The latter snaps his flag. When it is necessary for Orrazekoa to wave
his flag, Traparia shouts koa, koa, koa. Then, if the flock heads in the
right direction, Nausia or Traparia makes a short blast on his whistle
so everyone will stay quiet. When the flock heads straight toward the
nets, Nausia makes a series of whistles, slow at first and then rapid, so
the sarezainak will get ready with their hands on the triggers. As the
flock nears the Trapa post, the chief stationed there throws several of
his disks toward it. Then the doves descend almost to ground level. But
this is their doom, because once they are on the same level as the nets,
they will inevitably crash into the mesh. At that moment the sarezain
quickly activate the moorings of the nets, which fall suddenly, trapping
the doves between their meshes and the ground.
The five sarezain and the karrotabiltzaile rush toward the nets,
remove the doves from the meshing, and put them in the cotton sacks
that each one carries hanging from his waist. Afterward they meet in
front of a hut called Uso-etxola (dove hut), located near the nets, they
use scissors to cut one wing off each dove, and throw the doves through
a window into the hut.
Any doves sold right on the site of the hunt are killed in front of
Uso-etxola, since they don’t need to be kept inside. There is a flat stone
on the ground there, which they call Usoak-hiltzeko-harria (the stone
for killing doves). The dove condemned to die on this sacrificial stone
is thrown down on it with great force by a hunter, breaking its back.
Thus it dies instantly.
After depositing the doves in Uso-etxola, the sarezain raise the nets
and everyone takes up their posts to wait for another hunt.
The hunters work from dawn to dusk every day. Each man eats
at his post. At nightfall, Nausia shouts etxerat! (Let’s go home!), and
264 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

immediately the xatarlari blow long trumpet blasts that are heard by all
the hunters. This announces the end of the day. All the hunters gather in
front of the Uso-etxola. There the division of the catch will take place.
From time immemorial, twelve houses of the community of Sara
have shared by agreement the profits from this method of hunting in the
dove passes of Nabarlatz and of Jauzmendia. Those houses are: Zugarria
(which is a hospital today), Botikarioa (the storekeeper), Mielkoxepe-
nea (today, the post office), Etxauzea, Barnetxea, Argainea, Bexienea,
M oxoinea, Xerorainea, Etxazenea, Etxegaraya, and Hauziartzea.
The association pays the municipality of Sara 3,000 francs annu­
ally for the rights to the monopoly it enjoys to conduct the hunt in
both dove passes. They hold a direct lease on the Nabarlatz pass, but
sublease the one in Jauzmendia, paying residents of the town of Echalar
(Etxalar) 2,800 francs annually, since the bottleneck of the hunt lies on
land belonging to them. Until only a few years ago these rights cost only
1,200 francs, and before the year 1905 only 150 francs.
In the past, the privilege of belonging to the dove hunting asso­
ciation as a member was considered to be inherent to the houses cited
above, and not to the families. For this reason, the owner of Bexienea
was excluded from the association because he did not reside in that
house.
Today, in addition to the owners who participate in the hunt
through their farm workers or mutilak, eight other individuals called
ihiztariak (hunters) are chosen by the association to take part. One of
these is the nausi, or chief.
When a vacancy occurs in the group of ihiztariak because of death,
illness, old age, or some other reason, his place is filled by one of the
mutilak who has been in service to the association the longest.
The doves caught each day in the dove hunt are divided at the end
of the day among the partners and the hunters. This division is carried
out according to the terms approved by the association in the meeting
held on January 15, 1905, which read as follows: “ Beginning in 1905 the
division of the cost of the bird-decoys, which up until this day was split
equally between the hunters and the partners in the association, will be
pro-rated among the total number of hunters and partners as follows:
the hunters will deduct 8/20 of the total profit coming from the sales and
12/20 will be charged to the partners.”
The twenty hunters gather in front of the Uso-etxola (dove hut).
Two of them enter and begin handing the birds out in lots of three to
the nausi, who stands in front of the door. He shouts Fraile and hands
the first three doves to the ihiztari so named. He goes on calling out
names and handing three doves to each of the other ihiztariak, that is,
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 265

to X ila rd i, Iduzki (from Iduzkiagerreko-borda), Jean-Pierre, François,

Larrekoa, Traparia, and Traparigibelekoa. The lot for Traparia (the
name designating the leader or nausi) is four doves. The leader contin­
ues naming and handing lots of three to each of the mutilak, or repre­
sentatives of the owners, in the following order: Zugarria, Botikario,
M ielkoxepe, Erretora, Mendiburu, Argain, Bexien, M oxoinekoa, Xero-
rainekoa, Etxaz, Lehenburu, and Hauziartz. The lot for Erretora (the
name designating the Etxauzea farm ’s share) is four doves, one of which
is for the priest of Sara who, on Sundays during hunting season, cel­
ebrates mass for the hunters at three-thirty in the morning.
The procedure is repeated as many times as necessary with the
remaining doves, in the same order as indicated above, each time hand­
ing a lot of three doves to each participant, except for Traparia and
Erretora, who are given four doves each as mentioned above. When
there are fewer than sixty-two doves to be distributed, that is, when
there aren’t enough to hand out twenty lots, each participant is given
one dove, in the order indicated. In the distribution the following day,
the first order of business is to complete the lots that were incomplete
the day before.
The mutilak deliver to their employers— the houses where they are
employed— the doves to which they are entitled. The doves of the ihiz-
tariak are taken to the Ustekabea house, which is the one responsible for
selling them. The hunter Xilardi, the secretary of the group of ihiztariak,
keeps the accounts for his companions.
The quantity of doves caught varies greatly from one year to the
next.
The Abbot Dominique Lahetjuzan was the Vicar of Sara at the
end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth. He
produced a manuscript entitled “ Recherches sur le moeurs, l’origine
el l’idiome des basques” (Investigation into the Customs, Origins and
Language of the Basques) that is kept in the Argainea house where he
was born in the town of the same name. In that w ork he devotes several
paragraphs to the hunting of doves that was practiced in that region
during his time. In his words:

On the day following our arrival in the community,9 we went to

see the lovely dove hunt they practice there. An identical hunt
takes place in four other places on the slopes of the Pyrenees.
The weather was beautiful and there were almost no birds in the
air, yet we watched them trap some twenty bixets and an equal
number of doves, which was enough to give us an idea of the
total number caught. In earlier times, on some days the owners
2 66 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

of the nets received a profit of as many as sixty dozen live birds;

twenty years later they barely caught that many during the entire
hunting season. It is no longer profitable. A Society consisting of
the principal inhabitants engage in it only for their own pleasure
and that of visitors. It is rare for the catch to cover the cost of the
investment. That’s because in recent years the migration of doves
and other birds has diminished, according to calculations by the
hunters, by more than two-thirds, and it came to a halt during the
latest war with the Spaniards.
This dove pass is located a league and a half from the town
toward the mountain range separating France from Spain. It is split
from top to bottom. This one is on the outcrop of Mount Navarlatz
(which means rugged plain), which is easy to climb. A hunter lying
on a basket constructed at the top of a beech tree of the right height
directs the entire hunt. He is situated so that if his eyesight were
keen enough he would have a view of all the birds migrating from
that section of lowlands into the lower Pyrenees.
On the petition of a hunter, the Society will decide whether to
prohibit the release of decoys. This can be overridden by unanimous
agreement to allow their use by all petitioners because the goal of
the hunt was the general pleasure and amusement of the different
individuals who hunted with shotguns.
The chief hunter has under his command a group of boys each
carrying a flag for scaring the doves. He places them at regular
intervals on a line of peaks along the right side of the mountain,
and when a flock approaches one of them, the boy scares them by
shouting and waving the flag. The doves then veer toward another
row of boys parallel to the first, who wave their flags like the first
when the flock approaches them, causing it to veer from post to
post and to enter a small channel at the end of which is the hunters’
trap. He has an assistant who, like him, is perched atop a tree. He
throws a fake sparrow-hawk over the flock, causing it to dip down;
the chief hunter does the same, driving the ring-doves into one or
two of the nets.
Each of these nets is ninety feet long with blinds made of
evergreens placed at equal intervals along it where the trappers
hide along with the onlookers; they release the ropes holding the
nets when the dove is fifteen feet from it— if they release it too late,
the dove will be killed or seriously injured on crashing into it at
ordinary speed— even if it is stretched slackly sometimes the head
falls on one side and the body on the other. As the nets are released,
the feathers of one wing are pulled off so they can’t fly unless they
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 267

are lured by decoys. They are kept in a hole dug in the ground until
they can be distributed.

Echalar (Etxalar) dove pass (Etxelar’ko-usategieta) is located to the

southwest of the Sara pass, in the basin of the River Hiruetako-erreka.
Its mouth is on a slope of Mount Yauzmendi, half a kilometer to the
east of Leizarrieta Hill. All of the terrain through which the doves are
herded is located in the jurisdiction of Sara; only the nets are on prop­
erty belonging to Echalar. Therefore, the hunters from Echalar pay
those from Sara the annual tribute mentioned above.
This dove pass has been exploited since time immemorial by two
households of Echalar (Etxalar): Gaztelu and Arribiaga or Arribillaga.
Sixteen men classified in two categories participate in the hunt:
seven gizonak or veteran hunters, and nine motikuak or assistants.
Three gizonak and three motikuak are responsible for the nets and
their operation, so they are called by the generic name sarezaleak.
The remaining four gizonak are: Trapa (the leader) and Trapabiela,
each located on a tower on the right side of the channel that empties
into the nets; Aritza and Bieltrapa, stationed in a tree and on a make­
shift platform, respectively, on the left side of the same channel. The
four of them throw disks (which here are called m akila).
The rest of the motikuak are stationed on peaks on both sides of the
dove pass, following the gizonak. Those on the right side are called Arri-
kua, Domikua, and Abatarri, counting from the closest to the farthest
from the nets. Those on the left side are: Belata, Idoikua, and Larrekua.
All these men wave flags (in Basque, xatarra), except Idoikua who, in
addition to the flag, also throws disks or m akilak.
Abbot Dominique Lahetjuzan, in the manuscript cited above, has
this to say about the dove pass of Echalar (Etxalar):

All the birds that escape the lower hunting ground fly to the upper
section which is nearly half an hour along the road toward the
border. This is not as costly and using it makes up for part of the
expenses of the lower section. The Society exploits it jointly with
the Spaniards. There are four nets, two belonging to the Spaniards,
the other two belonging to the Society. They are stretched across
the Spanish section since the rest of the hunt takes place on the
French side.
From ancient times, the inhabitants of Echalar (Etxalar) have
ceded the right to hunt doves to two property owners of the Commune
only in the narrow channel where it takes place. Subsequently, they
268 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

sought to take back this permission, but to no avail. One of the

owners is a rich gentleman and the other a charcoal vendor. They
have tried to force the latter to sell his hunting rights for a large
sum of money ten times its value and which would have allowed
him to live comfortably. He stubbornly resists this temptation of
wealth or threats.
I asked a member of the Society, “ Where do the doves go?”
One flock, he told me, goes to the Canaries and to the southern
mountains of M orocco, the rest stay in Spain. The latter are divided
into two groups: two or three large flocks stop in the large forests of
the Pyrenees several leagues from here, and four or five flocks settle
more than a hundred leagues from here between the mountains of
the Asturias all the w ay to those of Portugal.

I am indebted to the kindness of Monsieur Pierre Dop for giving

me access to his archives in Argainea (Sara) and letting me transcribe
the copy of the extract of a lawsuit relative to the dove pass of Echa-
lar (Etxalar), which was presented before the ecclesiastical court of
Pamplona in the year 1665. The litigants were: on one side, Juan de
Goyechea, owner of the Gastelu [sic] estate in Echalar, and Domingo
Iturria, a resident of the town of Sara; on the other, Don Juan Jau-
regui, Rector of Echalar. The former sought to prevent the latter from
stretching his dove-hunting nets in the place called Nom parabos, 14.5
meters (24 cubits, according to one of the witnesses) from the site called
Yauzmendi, where the former placed their nets, following ancient cus­
tom and hereditary right recognized by agreement of the kings of Spain
and France. In the trial, among other documents, the following articles
appeared, which in the archive of Argainea are written in French:

1) That my clients [these are the words of the attorney of the litigants],
their relatives, grandparents and other ancestors, owners of the
houses they now possess, called Anduecea and Petrisencenea in
said village of Echalar (Etxalar) and that of Sara in the valley of
Labort in the Kingdom of France, have held and continue to hold in
tranquil and peaceful possession, since time immemorial, the right
to hunt the doves that migrate through that site and channel called
Yauzmendi which is within the confines of this Kingdom and that
of France . . .
5) That in order to cause greater injury and prejudice, said Rector has
cut down many trees and branches, opening a channel through said
site (Nomparabos) thus altering the course of the doves aw ay from
 Selections from An Ethnographic Sketch of Sara 269

the site of Yauzmendi where my clients have their nets and continue
to profit from the enclosures (fences), beaters and other devices
belonging to them, causing them, as has been communicated in a
variety of ways, a very serious loss as witnesses will testify.”

The first witness, Juan de Luzu, a priest and interested party, fifty-
one years of age, declared, among other things:

That his father came to the Yauzmendi site sixteen or twenty years
ago to hunt doves, that on numerous occasions he placed a net at
the site called Nom parabos with the permission and consent and
license of the parties who held the rights to the site and channel of
Yauzmendi without causing damage to said channel, and that the
doves which he caught at the site of Nom parabos, with the consent
and license of the interested parties, he shared in a proportion of
one to four with the chief hunter (trapario [sic]), who is the person
stationed on the tallest tree to throw the fake sparrow hawk (the
disk) to force the doves back down into the channel; but that the
Nom parabos site was heavily covered with trees, making it very
hard for the doves to pass through there, whereas the Yauzmendi site
had all the necessary qualities and conditions, until approximately
two years ago when Don Juan de Jauregui, Rector of said village of
Echalar (Etxalar), without the consent or knowledge of the parties,
removed and cut down several trees and tree branches from the
center of the Nom parabos channel, causing the doves that should
have headed directly toward the site and channel of Yauzmendi to
pass through the clearing cut in the Nom parabos site, especially if a
tree accidentally fell blocking the proper channel of Yauzmendi. In
that case, the aforementioned channel and hunt rightfully belonging
to the aforementioned parties since time immemorial would be
necessarily lost.10

The case having been resolved against the claimants, they appealed
to the court in Calahorra. Although the disposition of the appeal is not
known, the fact that the Rector of Echalar (Etxalar) did not continue
stretching his nets in Nom parabos suggests that it did not favor the
clergyman hunter.
 Notes

1. Ikuska i (1947): 183.

2. J. M . Hiribarren, Eskualdunac, 119.
3. A. Arçuby, “ Usages mortuaries à Sare,” Bulletin du M usée Basque (Bayonne),
nos. 3-4 (1927): 21-22.
4. Ibid., 21.
5. Ibid., 23.
6. Karrota is a disk made of alder w ood measuring from one to two decimeters in
diameter. The disk has a handle. These are used by the hunters posted near the nets,
i.e., the Traparia and Trapagibelekoa.
7. From the French trappe (trap).
8. The karrota used by the butatzaile on M ount Larria, like those used on Saiberri
and Debalde, are small, i.e., one decimeter in diameter. Those used by Traparia and
Trapagibelekoa are larger (two decimeters in diameter) so as to produce their effect
instantaneously because the doves are so close, and to prevent them from altering
their course in any w ay to escape from the channel. Being larger, they fall to the
ground more quickly.
9. He refers to the Plaza neighborhood in Sara.
10. The wind of hurricane force that blew on the night of the 15th to 16th of Febru­
ary of 1941 knocked down several of the thickest oaks and beeches flanking the mouth
of the dove-hunting ground, producing wide gaps in their rows, which allowed the
doves to change direction and, slipping through these openings, to cross the hill
without falling into the nets.
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--------- . “ M ari, o el genio de las m ontanas.” In H omenaje a D. Carmelo
de Echegaray, 245-68. San Sebastian: Imprenta de la Diputación de
Guipuzcoa, 1928.
--------- . “ Materiales para un estudio del pueblo vasco: en Liguinaga
(Laguinge).” Ikuska 1, nos. 4-5 (1947): 126-31 and 177-84; 2 (1948):
9-24 and 78-84.
---------. “ M atériaux pour une étude du peuple basque: à Uhart-M ixe.”
Ikuska (Sare), nos. 4-5, (1947): 107-25; nos. 6-7 (1947): 167-75; nos.
8-9 (1948): 2-8; nos. 10-13 (:94-8): 84-93.
---------. “ Las montanas y los bosques.” Eusko-folklore (Vitoria), no. 13
(1922): 1-2.
---------. “ La religion des anciens Basques.” In Compte rendu analytique
de la IlIe session de la Semaine d ’Ethnologie Religieuse [held in
Tilburg, Netherlands], 156-68. Enghien, 1923.
---------. “ La tierra.” Eusko-folklore (Vitoria), no. 1 (1921): 1-2.
Barbier, Jean. Légendes du Pays Basque d ’aprés la tradition. Paris:
Delagrave, 1931.
Barcellos, Don Pedro de. Livro dos Linhagens. Portugal, [fourteenth
century].
Barriola, Ignacio M aria. “ La medicina popular en el Paîs V asco.” Real
 Bibliography 275

Sociedad Vascongada de los Amigos del Pa^s (San Sebastian), 1952:

82-83.
Caro Baroja, Julio. Algunos mitos espanoles y otros ensayos. Madrid:
Editora Nacional, 1944.
---------. “ Notas de folklore vasco.” Revista de dialectolog^a y tradiciones
populares 2, 3rd Notebook (1946): 373-79.
---------. “ Sobre la religión antigua y el calendario del Pueblo V asco.”
In Trabajos del Instituto Bernardino de Sahagun, vol. 6, 9-24.
M adrid, 1948. (Reprinted in Vasconiana 2. M adrid: M inotauro,
1957.)
Cavaillès, Henri. L a transhumance pyrénéenne et la circulation des
troupeaux dans les plaines de Gascogne. Paris: Colin, 1931.
Cerquand, Jean François. Légendes et récits populaires du Pays Basque
[part 1]. In Bulletin de la Société des Sciences, Lettres et Arts de Pau
8 (2e serie, vol. 4) (1874-75): 233-85.
Chaho, Joseph Agustm. Biarritz, entre les Pyrénées et l ’océan: itineraire
pittoresque. 2 vols. Bayonne: A. Andreossey, [1855].
Chalbaud, Luis. “ La familia como forma ripica y transcendental de la
constitución social vasca.” I Congreso de Estudios Vascos [1918],
41-64. N .p., 1919.
Delmas, Juan E. Gma histórica descriptiva del viajero en el Senorio de
Vizcaya. Bilbao, 1864.
Echegaray, Bonifacio de. “ Significación de algunos ritos funerarios del
paîs vasco.” Revista internacional de los estudios vascos 16 (1925):
94-118, 184-222.
--------- . “ La vida civil y mercantil de los vascos a través de sus
instituciones juridicas.” Revista internacional de los estudios
vascos 13 (1922): 582-613, and 14 (1923): 27-60.
Echegaray, Carmelo de. “ Provincia de V izcaya.” In Geografia general
del Pa^s Vasco-Navarro, vol. 5, 672-990. Barcelona: Alberto
M arrin, 1917.
Fougères, Alain. Les droits de famille et les successions au Pays Basque
et en Béarn d ’après les anciens texts. Bergerac: Imp. Générale du
Sud-Ouest, 1938.
G ard a de Salazar, Lope. Crònica de siete casas de Vizcaya y Castilla.
N .p., 1454. (reprint M adrid, 1914).
Hiribarren, Jean M artin. Eskualdunac. Iberia, Cantabria, Eskal-Herriac,
Eskal-herri bakhotcha eta harri darraicona. Bayonne, 1853.
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Lancre, Pierre de. Tableau de l’inconstance des mauves anges et démons,

ou il est amplement traité des sorciers et de la sorcellerie. Paris,
1612. (English translation: On the Inconstancy of Witches: Pierre
de Lancre’s Tableau de l’inconstance des mauves anges et démons
(1612), ed. Gerhild Scholz Williams (A SM A R vol. 16). Co-published
by Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Arizona
State University (Tempe) and Brepols Publishers, Belgium, 2006).
Nussy Saint-Saëns, M arcel. Contribution à un essai sur la coutume de
Soule. Bayonne: Le Livre, 1942.
Romeu Figueras, J. “ M itos tradicionales pirenaicos.” Pireneos 6, nos.
15-16 (1950): 137-83.
Sacaze, Gaston. Inscriptions antiques des Pyrénées. Toulouse, 1892.
Seligmann, Siegfried. D ie magischen Heil-und-Schutzmittel aus der
unbelebten Natur. Stuttgart, 1927.
Staffe, Adolf. “ Beiträge zur Monographie des Baskenrindes.” Revista
internacional de los estudios vascos 17 (1926): 34-93.
Vicario y de la Pena, Nicolas. Derecho consuetudinario de Vizcaya.
M adrid: Asilo de Huérfanos del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus, 1901.
Vinson, Julien. “ An Essay on the Basque Language.” In Basque Legends,
by Wentworth Webster, 219-33. London: Griffith & Farran, 1877.
---------. L e folk-lore du Pays Basque. Paris: Maisonneuve et Cie., 1883.
von Schroeder, Leopold. Arische Religion (2 vols.). Leipzig: H. Haessel,
1923.
Webster, Wentworth. Basque Legends. London: Griffith & Farran,
1877.
 Index

A
abatz (wooden vessel), 207, 208, Andra-M ari, 80
227 animals
adur, defined, 69 in Asturiense, 141-42
agriculture early domestication of, 150-51,
Eneolithic, 165 152, 153, 154
Iron Age, 186 in Eneolithic period, 153, 154
Neolithic, 150, 151 hunted in Asturiense, 144-45
A id e k o ,87 hunted in Aziliense, 138
Aitzbitarte IV cave, 29, 39 hunted in Eneolithic period, 165
Akelarre of Zugarram urdi, 108 hunted in Sara, 48, 257-59
Akerbeltz, 107-9 in magic, 75
Alarabi, 92 in Neolithic period, 148
alasi (sideboard), 207 spirits as, 94, 98
Albi sinkholes, 79 See also dove hunting;
Alcobé (Professor), 155 transhumance
aldatei (granary), 195, 202 animism, 63, 65
Alsasua, magic in, 75 anthropological features
Altuna, Jesus, 29 (Eneolithic), 154-55
Altuna family, 31 Anxo, 92, 131
Altxerri, 29 Apellaniz, Juan M ., 29
Amboto Caves, 79 Araba
Amorebieta (Zornotza), 73, 76 artificial grottos in, 175
ancestors caves in, 172, J75
arbasoak, 215-16 dolmens in, 23, 156,157
cult of home and, 80, 82, 83, 84, in Iron Age, 186
123 Aralar
M ari as, 100 artifacts from, 160-61
andereserora (church assistant), dolmens found in, 20-21, 20, 23,
84 39, 45
Andoain, 71, 73 last Gentiles in, 19-20

Page numbers in italics refer to figures.

278 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

legend about the Gentiles and, spirits in, 84

19-20 subterranean roads and, 125
myths about weather and, 102 Ataun-Burunda dolmens, 23
San M iguel of Aralar, 96, 104-5 Atxeta cave, 29
Aranzadi, Telesforo de, 21-24, 29, Aurre, Ruperto, 80
32, 39, 42 austegui (ash pit), 205, 206
arbasoak (ancestors), 215-16 Axanguiz sorcerer (Ruperto
archeological activities of Aurre), 80
Barandiaran axes
first, 19-20 Bronze Age, 171,17 2, i j 6, 178
1938, 21-25 Eneolithic, i$8, 159, 160, 161
1955, 29 etymology of, 43-44, 167
Ar^uby, M . A ., 242 magic and, 75-76, 80, 107, 115
ardiborda (sheep fold), 192, 19s, Neolithic, 148, 149
194 Axtor cave, 29
arditei (corral), 195, 200 Aya (Aia), 71
arrespil (corral), 194, ip$ Ayerbe, M arfa Antonia de, 15, 18
art Ayetze, Bernardo, 258
of Asturiense, 144 azeri-eske (payment for killing a
of Aziliense, 138-40, 140 fox), 258
Neolithic, 148, 14p Azilian period, 42
artifacts Aziliense
Bronze Age, 17 1 ,172, y j j art, 138-140, 140
Eneolithic, 161, 163 food during, 138
from Salbatierrabide, 174 humans in, 137-38
See also jewelry; tools tools of, 138, 139,140
artzain-etxola (shepherd’s hut), w ay of life, 140-41
191-95, 192,195
asieta (plate), 207, 208 B
Astigarraga, magic in, 75 Baliarrain, 17
Asturiense Barandiaran, Antonia de, 15
fauna of, 141-42 Barandiaran, Ignacio, 29
humans in, 142 Barandiaran, José M iguel de
tools of, 142-44 archeological activities, 19-25,
w ay of life, 144-46 29
Ataun early life, 15-16
early life of Barandiaran and, 15 ethnographic study, 24-25, 30,
healing with magic in, 75, 76 39-40, 45
language i n ,16 exile, 25-28
legend from, 118 fleeing Franco’s uprising, 23-24
mythology of, 99, 130 limitations of interpretation,
Sara House in, 28 37- 38, 41, 45
 Index 279

maturity of, 21-25 birth, in Sara, 233-35

myth collecting of, 34-35 bisons of the Camarm, 22
as priest, 18 Bizkaia
return from exile, 28-30 dolmens in, 23
schooling of, 17-18 Etniker research groups in, 30
significance of etxe to, 47-48 ghosts and, 83, 84
unique contribution of, 38 mythology and, 99-100, 105
as witness to Basque history, 15 Sugaar a n d ,94
Barandiaran’tar, Jo xe M ikel. See See also Santimamine cave
Barandiarân, José M iguel de boar, 257-58
baratz (garden), 82 bodily adornments
baratz (stone circle), 181, 182, 183, in Eneolithic period, 158
185-86 See also jewelry
Barcellos, Count Don Pedro de, “ boiling in stones,” 227. See also
97, 99-100, 103, 105 burdinarri
Baroja, Julio Caro, 22, 33, 35,
Bolinkoba cave
ip6—p8
Aziliense period and, 137
Barriola, Ignacio M arfa, 73, 74-75
Eneolithic period and, 155
Basque language
Bouda, Karl, 26
Barandiarân and, 16
Breuil, Abbé H ., 21
collecting myths and, 35
Broglie, Paul de, 18
historical perspective on, 167­
Bronze Age, 171-79
68, 167
dolmen excavation and, 23
history of, 36-37
dwellings, 171-74, 173,174
use of in this book, 13
religion in, 177-79
Baxajaun, 92, 131
sepulchers from, 174-76, 175-76
Beasain, 71
Bedia, 71, 72 tools in, 1 7 1 ,172
beds burdinarri (“ boiling stone” ), 207,
burning mattresses after death, 208
82, 250 burial customs
in etxolas, 191, 192 the etxe and, 82
in Sara, 225 Neolithic, 151
Beigorri, 94 See also funeral practices
Belagile, 89 Burkia farm, 254
Berâstegui (Berastegi)
Barandiarân’s first schooling C
in, 16 Camino, Piarrezume, 210, 224,
legends from, 126, 133 246, 255
myth from, 69 candles, 69-70, 209, 210, 243, 249
Biarritz, 141 captive of M ari, 101-2
Bidartea House, 26, 28 Carranza caves, 22
28o Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

caves circles, in mythology, 111

as dwellings (Eneolithic), 155 climate
early exploration of, 21-22 in Asturiense, 141
exploration resumed in, 29 in Aziliense, 138, 140
spirits that inhabit, 132-33 in Eneolithic period, 153
See also specific caves in Mesolithic period, 137
Celts, influence in Pyrenees, 181, in Neolithic period, 147
182 clothing
cemeteries in death, 245
beliefs and rituals regarding, Eneolithic, 158
121-22 funeral, 248, 250, 252-53
the house as, 36, 48, 81-82, 84, in Sara, 222-25
121-22 coffins, in Sara, 246-47, 249
locations of, 196 coins
names of, 253 as image, 70-71
ceramics magic and, 70-71, 72
Bronze Age, 172 as offerings to spirits, 94, 95,
Eneolithic, 159, 161-63, 104
Iron Age, 183, 185 commandments of M ari, 105-7
Neolithic, 148, ijo Commission Internationale des
from Santimamine cave, 151 Arts et Traditions Populaires
Chair of “ Ethnology of the (Geneva), 26
Basque People,” 30 consanguineous relationships,
Chao (Chaho), Agustm, 93 211-22
cheese familial, 211-12
cheese press, 208, 227 house and family and, 212-14
in Sara, 230-31 house and household and,
vessel for, 207, 208 218-22
children in Sara reciprocal, 214-18
first communion, 234 Cortezubi (Kortezubi), 71, 72
funerals and, 247 courtship in Sara, 236
newborns, 234-35 craniums
youth, 235-36 Basque history and, 42-43
christening in Sara, 233-35 Eneolithic, 154
Christianity found in Urtiaga cave, 137-38
disappearance of Gentiles and, magic and, 75
20 Cro-M agnon man, 138, 155
documents prior to, 65 cromlechs, 181, 182-83
introduction in Basque culture, Culebro, 94, 96, 99, 104
117-18 cults
myths and, 62-64 of home, 80, 82, 83-84, 123
church, etxe and, 80-81 of M ari, 104-5
 Index 281

culture Donostia-San Sebastian

accuracy in representing, 41 Barandiaran in, 49
cultural mythology, 61 healing with magic in, 74-75
gradation of myths and, 61-62 Don Z uria (Don Blanco (White)),
Magdalenian period and, 41, 99
i 37, i39 Dop, Pierre, 268
traditional Basque life, 30 dove hunting, 259-69
See also ethnography; religion; division of doves caught,
specific aspects o f culture 264-65
Cyclops, 92 dove-hunting association, 264
dove pass of Echalar, 267-69
D dove pass of Sara, 259
death in Sara, 242-55 hunters and their process,
coffins, 246-47, 249 260-63
customs after, 245 Lahetjuzan, Abbot Dominique
funeral clothing, 248 on, 265-67
funeral processions, 247, 248-49 in Sara (overview), 48
mourning, 245, 246, 247, 252-53 use of nets, 259-60, 266
myths about recent, 244-46 dowries, 220
myths as signs of, 242-43 dwellings
religious practices associated beliefs and rituals regarding,
with, 243-44, 248-53 121-22
serbitzu (offering), 251-52 Eneolithic, 155-58
souls of the dead, 253-55 Iron Age, 183-84
Delmas, Juan E., 93 of M ari, 98-99, 105, 106
devils, 86, 99, 122, 130, 131 temporary, in Sara, 191-95
diseases, curing with magic, 71-73 See also houses; rural houses
Dithurbide, M aria, 252 in Sara
dolmens
defined, 155 E
Dolmen of Ezkiregi, 169 earth, the
Dolmen of Jentillarri, 20, 20, in Basque mythology, 79-80, 95
118, 157 as dwelling of M ari, 98
Dolmen of Obioneta, 175-76 eating utensils, 207, 208, 227-28
Dolmen of Sasgastietako Echalar dove pass, 267-69
Lepua, 23 Edensugue, 93
Eneolithic, 155-158, 156, J57, 169 Eguren, Enrique de, 21, 24
Gipuzkoan, 21 ehortzeleku (family sepulcher),
in high sierra, 23 196, ip6—p8, 198-200, 200, 201
locations of, 166 Ekain cave, 29, 39
dolu (mourning), 252 Ekhi, 109-12
domestic cult. See the home Elduayen (Elduain), 70, 72, 83
282 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

El Montico, 172, i/j, 178 Etxelarko-usategieta (dove pass

Elorrio, 130 of Echalar), 259
Elosua-Placencia dolmens, 23 etxola (hut), 191-93, 192
eltzaorr (rustic instrument), 257 Euskara. See Basque language
emain (midwife), 232-33 Eusko Jaurlaritza, 30
Eneolithic period exile of Barandiaran, 25-28
Basque language and, 167-68, Ezpeleta
167, Inguma and, 87
clothing during, 158 spirits and, 83
dwellings/sepulchers, 155-158
lifestyle, 163-67, 166-67 F
man during, 154-55 family
overview of, 153-54 of M ari, 99-100. See also
religion, 168-70 consanguineous relationships
Ereno, healing with magic in, 75 fauna. See animals
Erensugue, 93 females. See women
Erio, 83, 242-43 ferrer^a (pot hanger), 207-8, 208
Ermittia cave field schools, 29
Aziliense period and, 137, 139, first communion in Sara, 234, 235
140 fishing
early exploration of, 21 in Asturiense period, 145
Eneolithic period and, 155 in Aziliense period, 138
Neolithic period and, 147 in Mesolithic period, 145
Ersugue, 93 in Neolithic period, 150, 151
espil (corral), 194, ip$ food
ethnography during Asturiense, 141
Barandiaran’s study of, 24-25, during Aziliense, 138
30, 39-40, 45 food in Sara, 225-32
of Sara, 45-48 beverages, 227
Etniker research groups, 30, 49 common foods, 226-30
Etxauri, 185 during German occupation, 232
etxe (house) meals, 225-27
cult of, 80, 82, 83-84, 123 milk/milk products, 227, 230-31
magic in, 80-81 religion and, 228
sacred nature of, 82 tableware, 227
significance of, 47-48 utensils, 227-28
as temple, 80-81 at wedding parties, 242
as tomb, 81-83 wine, 227, 231-32
See also dwellings; houses; France, exile in, 33
rural houses in Sara Franco (General), impact of on
etxekoak, 212, 217 excavation, 23-24
etxekoandre, 36 Friedrich, Adolph, 26
 Index 283

funeral practices Gran Enciclopedia Vasca, 30

Arçuby’s observations of, 242 graves, in Sara, 253
Bronze Age, 174-76, 175-76, 177,
179
coffins in Sara, 246-47, 249 H
customs, 124-25 H arixtoi cave, Iron Age and, 183,
Eneolithic, 169, 170 184
family order in processions, Haro, Don Diego Lopez de, 100,
211-12 103, 104
Iron Age, 183-84, 184 herbs and magic, 72-75
mass, 249-50 herding. See transhumance
mythology and, 81-83 heren (name of serpent), 63
offerings and, 124 Historical-Cultural School in
processions in Sara, 247, 248-49 Vienna, 24
home, the
G cult of, 80, 82, 83-84, 123
G aray (Garai, Bizkaia), 72 the etxe and, 80
Garayo (Garaio), 72 ministers of domestic cult,
Gauargi, 86 84-85
Gaueko, 86, 126-27 See also etxe
gaztain-espil (chestnut bin), 196, homes. See dwellings; etxe
203 honor, family, 216
Gentiles, disappearance of, 19-20, horses, in legend, 94, 102, 103-4
30 households. See etxe
gerixeti (ghost), 61, 83, 84 households in Sara. See clothing;
Gernika, Ieltxu and, 86 death in Sara; food in Sara; rites
ginger and magic, 71-72 of passage
Gipuzkoa houses
birthplace of Barandiaran, 15 beliefs and rituals regarding,
dolmens in, 23, 39 121-22
Etniker research groups in, 30 house and family in Sara,
excavations initiated in, 21 212-14
See also Urtiaga cave house and households in Sara,
goats, 107-9 218-22
godparents in Sara, 233 in mythology, 36
gods of Basque mythology, 85. See See also dwellings; etxe; rural
also specific gods houses in Sara
Goikolaua cave, Iron Age and, 183 human remains
gold in mythology, 98 Asturiense, 141, 142
Gom a (Cardinal), 27 Aziliense, 137
Gorrochategui, Joaquin, 44 Bronze Age, 174-75, I7^
grains, in Neolithic period, 150, 151 craniums, 42-43, 75, 154
284 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

Neolithic, 148 Iron Age, 181-86

from Urtiaga site, 22, 42 dwellings and sepulchers,
hunting 183-84
in Eneolithic period, 165 lifestyle, 185-86
in Mesolithic period, 137, 138, migrations from outside and,
140, 141, 144-45 181, 182
in Navarre, 48 tools, 184-85, 184-85,
in Neolithic period, 150 Isturitz cave
in Paleolithic period, 40-41 Aziliense period and, 137
hunting in Sara, 257-69 coins in, 104
bird hunting, 259 Eneolithic period and, 155
dove hunting. See dove hunting Paleolithic period and, 40
harmful animals, 257, 258-59 Iturriadarreta, jeiztei in, 194, 195
overview of, 48
tools for, 257 J
wild boar, 257-58 Jacques, Victor, 154
wolves, 258 Jentilbaratza (Orchard of
Gentiles), 19-20
I Jentiletxeeta, 155
Iditxu, 85, 127 Jentillarri, 20, 20,157
Ieltxu, 86 jewelry
Igoin-Akola, 23 Asturiense, 144
iiztari (hunter), 257 Aziliense, 139, 140
Ilazki, 112-14 Eneolithic, 159, 160, 161, 170
ilharri (family sepulcher), 196, Neolithic, 148, 149
198-200, 200, 201 of Sara women, 224
illargi (moon), 112-14 See also bodily adornments
in (sky), 115
incinerating corpses K
in Bronze Age, 176, i j 6 kaiku (wooden vessel), 191, 207,
in Iron Age, 183 208, 227, 230
Inguma, 87 kisulabe (lime pit), 196, 203-4, 204
inheritance kitchen tools, 205-10, 205, 208, 209
of homes and money, 217, Kixm i, 20, 117-18
218-20 Kobaundi, lamina from, 89
selection of heirs, 236 korralia (corral), 194, 195
Institut Basque de Recherche, 27 krisailu (oil candle), 209, 210
Intxausti Baita, 28 Kutzemendi tools, 184
Intxixu, 88
Iparralde, 25-26, 33 L
Iraunsugue, 93 labetei (shed for oven), 195, 202-3,
Iritxu, 85, 112, 127 203
 Index 285

Lahetjuzan, Abbot Dominique, Llodio (Laudio), 72, 76

265 “ los tres tristes trogloditas” (the
La Hoya, 185 three sad troglodytes), 48-49
lamias Lumentxa cave
overview of, 128-30 drawing of, 147
the sun and, 110, 112 in Eneolithic period, 155
lamin (lamina), 88-89 grindstone from, 148, 149, 150
lampion (oil candle), 209, 210 mill from, 151
language Neolithic human remains in,
stone tools and, 43-44 148
See also specific languages lur (earth), 95-96
Larrabezua, solstice fires in, 76 Luzu, Juan de, 269
Larramendi Chair, 28
Larraun, 74 M
Lauzpeltz, girl from, 126 Magdalenian period, 138-39
lawsuit relative to the dove pass craniums and, 42
of Echalar, 268-69 cultural levels of, 41
legea egin, 78 culture and, 137, 139
legends magic
from Ataun, 118 animals in, 75
cult of the home and, 83 axes and, 75-76, 80, 107, 115
the earth and, 79 in Basque mythology, 69
end of paganism, 118 coin as image, 70-71
Gentiles, disappearance of, cranial cavity and teeth and, 75
19-20, 30, 118 Eneolithic, 168-69
of lamia, 128-29 in the etxe, 80-81
multiple versions of, 34-35, 36 herbs/shrubs/trees in, 72-75
See also myths light as symbol and, 69-70
Leipzig, 18 names and, 77-78
Leiza, 69-70 religion and, 78
Lerembure, Don Cristobal, 258 salt/wheat/ginger and, 71-72
Lezetxiki cave, 29, 39 simulated sewing and, 76
lifestyle solstice fires and, 76-77
Asturiense, 144-46 sprinklings and, 75
Aziliense, 140-41 M aide, 88
Eneolithic, 163-67, 166-67 M aju, 94, 96, 99, 100
Iron Age, 185-86 males. See men
light. See also candles M alinowski, Professor Bronislaw,
the dead and, 124 22, 26
as symbol, 69-70 M alraux, André, 37
lime pit (kisulabe), 196, 203-4, 204 M am arro, 88
Lizarza, healing with magic in, 74 man. See primitive man
286 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

M anaria, healing with magic in, Bronze Age, 181, 182

76 possible Neolithic, 152
M ari, 96-107 milk
attributes and functions of, milking stalls (jeiztei), 194, 195
102-4 milk vessel (kaiku), 191, 207,
basic concepts, 96 208, 227, 230
commandments of, 105-7 preparation of in Sara, 227, 230,
cult of, 104-105 231
dwelling places of, 98-99 M iruatza dolmen floorplan, J57
family of, 99-100 M ondragon (Arrasate), spirits
female captive of, 101-2 and, 83
forms of, 96-98 Montico de Txarratu cave, 29
importance of, 36 moon, 79, 112-14
proper behavior toward, 105 M ugica, Bishop D. M ateo, 27
Sugoi and, 133 M urkondoa, 15
M arizulo cave, 29 M uru Caves, 79
marriage myths, 79-115
customs of, 81 beliefs, 79-80
familial relationships and, 220 cult of the home and, 83-84
in Sara, 215, 220, 236-42 cultural gradation of, 61-62
mastietxola (shelter for vineyard curses and death, 244
workers), 196, 202 defined, 61
mattresses, burning after death, the etxe and, 80
82, 250 the gods, 85
Megalithic period, site of Igoin- levels of knowledge and, 64
Akola, 23 magic and. See magic
megaliths, in Iparralde, 27 ministers of domestic cult,
men 84-85
clothing of in Sara, 222, 223, mythic spirits, 36
224-25 religion and, 62-64
duties of, 221 signs that accompany death,
funerals and, 247, 248, 249 242-43
hairstyles of, 223-24 souls of the dead and, 253-55
marriage customs and, 81 See also legends; specific
Mesolithic period m ythological figures
Asturiense, 141-46
Aziliense, 137-41 N
Barandiaran’s excavation and, names
39 given names, 213-14, 233
overview of, 137 magic and, 77-78
midwives, 232-33 surnames, 212-13
migrations nature, myths and, 61
 Index 287

Navarre Pasajes de San Juan, 70

daughter of Inhurria and, 127 pegarra (jug), 208, 209
dolmens in, 23 Perunezarra, 15, 16
Etniker research groups in, 30 Pettazzoni, Raffaele, 26
funeral practices in, 82 Picaud, Aymeric, 114
hunting in, 48 Pilar (Barandiaran’s niece), 46
in Iron Age, 186 pot hooks, 205, 206
spirits in, 84 prehistory
Neolithic period Barandiaran’s study of, 44-45
Barandiaran’s excavation and, Basque people and, 42
39 data of, 43
dolmen excavation and, 23 stone tools and, 43-44
stone tools and, 43-44 See also specific prehistoric eras
nets for dove hunting, 259-60, 266 primitive man
newborns in Sara, 234-35 Asturiense, 142
Aziliense, 137-38
O Barandiaran’s excavation and,
Obermaier, Hugo, 21 39
offerings Barandiaran’s writings on,
to ancestors, 123, 124, 129, 179 39-42
to the dead, 80-81, 249, 250 Basque people and, 42
religious, 235, 249 Cro-M agnon man, 138, 155
to spirits, 94, 104, 105, 169, 170 Eneolithic, 154-55
oilotei/ollotei (chicken coop), 195, stone tools and, 43-44
202 punishment, from M ari, 106-7
Okina sinkholes, 79 Pyrenees
ongarritei (fertilizer bin), 195, 202 dove hunting in. See dove
opor (cup), 207, 208, 227 hunting
orthography, Basque, 13 Eneolithic period and, 153,
Oyarzun (Oiartzun), 70, 72 154- 55, i54
healing with magic in, 74 prehistory and, 43
solstice fires in, 76 Western Pyrenean race, 154, 155

P R
paganism radiocarbon dating, 43
coins and, 104 religion
legendary end of, 118 belief in celestial divinity, 179
myths and, 62-64, 65 Bronze Age, 44, 177-79
Paleolithic period death and funerals and, 243-44,
cave art and, 29 248-50
cave exploration and, 39 Eneolithic, 44, 168-70
hunting methods in, 40-41 after funerals, 251-52
288 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

lamias and, 130 San Martinico, 131

magic and, 78 Santa Cruz de Campezo, 89
Mesolithic, 140-41, 145 Santa Leocadia, 178
myths and, 62-64, 65 Santimamine cave
Neolithic, 151 animal domestication and, 148
spirits and, 63 Asturiense age and, 141, 142,
rites of passage, 233-55 142-44, 145-46
birth and christening, 233-35 cranium from Eneolithic period
courtship and marriage, 236-42 in, 154
first communion, 235 in Eneolithic period, 155, 163
youth, 235-36 initial excavations in, n -2 2
roads Neolithic tools from, 148, 14p
Eneolithic, 153, 154 Roman period and, 94, 104
sacred nature of, 82 Santorkaria grottos, 174, 177, 177
rural households. See etxe San Victor de Gauna, healing
rural houses in Sara with magic in, 75
kitchen tools in, 205-10, 205, Sara
208, 20p Bidartea House, 26
structures attached to. See clothing of. See clothing
structures attached to rural dove pass of. See dove hunting
homes ethnography of, 45-48. See also
temporary dwellings, 191-95 consanguineous relationships;
tools and equipment of, 205-10 rites of passage
food of. See food in Sara
S homes in. See rural houses in
Sacaze, Gaston, 109 Sara
Saindi-Maindi, 88 hunting in. See hunting in Sara
Saint John, 74, 76, 110 Inguma and, 87
Salazar, Lope G ard a de, 94 legends of, 132, 134
Salbatierrabide magic in, 70, 73-74, 76, 77
artifacts from, 174 temporary dwellings in, 191-95
sand pit, 176 Sara House, 28, 28
tools from, 184 Sarako-usategieta (dove pass of
salt and magic, 71-72 Sara), 259
San Gregorio de Ataun Schmidt, Wilhelm, 24-25
at Barandiaran’s birth, 15, 1$ schooling of Barandiaran, 17-18
first mass, 18 science, myths and, 59-60, 63-64
Sara House in, 28 segada (trap for birds), 259
San Gregorio de Sorlada, healing Seligmann, S., 78
with magic in, 75 Seminary of Vitoria, 18-19
San M artin de Arberua, spirits sepulchers
and, 83 from Bronze Age, 174-77, I75
 Index 289

caves as, 42, 155 Spanish Civil War

in Eneolithic period, 155-58 Barandiaran’s exile and, 25-28
etxe and, 81 Franco, impact of on
in Iron Age, 183-84 excavation, 23-24
in Sara houses, 196, 198-200, Spanish language, Basque
200, 201 orthography and, 13
See also tombs spells, of M ari, 106-7
serbitzu (offering), 249, 251-52 spirits
serpent as spirit, 93, 94, 96, 132 culture of the home and, 80,
servants, 221-22 83-84
seven sisters, 100 the modern Basque and, 117-18
sewing (simulated), magic and, 76 myth and, 79
sheep religion and, 63
artzain-extola (shepherd’s hut), See also specific spirits
191-95, ip2 spiritual pursuits. See religion
herding in Eneolithic period, sprinklings in magic, 75
153, 154, 158, 164 stele
herding in Iron Age, 186 from Saint-Michel, po
herding in Paleolithic era, 187 from Sorhapuru, pi
shrubs and magic, 72-75 storms
sickle M ari and, 99, 102, 106-7
M ari and, 107 mountains as origins of, 121
Sugaar and, 94, 132 structures attached to rural
sinkholes homes, 195-204, ip6-p8
of Agamunda, 94 subterranean roads, 125
of Okina/Albi, 79 Sugaar, 94, 99, 132
Sugaarzulo of Kutzeberri, 94 Sugoi, 99, 132, 133
smoking in Sara, 232 sun
Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi, 33 in Basque mythology, 79
Society of Basque Studies (Eusko in Bronze Age religion, 179
Ikaskuntza), 24 Ekhi, 109-112
Solacueva cave, 29 See also solstice
solstice surnames, in Sara, 212-13
beliefs/rituals surrounding, swastikas, in mythology, 111
IIO-II symbols, in mythology, m -12
solstice fires, 76-77
soneko. See clothing T
sorgin (witch), 88, 130 tales. See legends; myths
Sorguin, 89 Tartalo, 92
soul, in Basque mythology, 80, 81, teeth, in magic, 75
82, 83-84 terrina (clay vessel), 207, 208
Soule, spirits in, 84 thistle flowers, m -12
290 Selected Writings o f Jo sé Miguel de Barandiaran

“ the three sad troglodytes” , 48-49 Urkizelai, ardiborda in, 193

Tilburg (Holland), 25 Ursuegi, Domingo de, 258
tobacco, use of in Sara, 232 Urtiaga cave, 21, 22, 29
tomba (family sepulcher), 196, cranium discoveries in, 42,
198-200, 200, 201 137- 38, 154
tombs in Eneolithic period, 155
in Basque mythology, 81-82 Urtzi, 114-15
in Sara, 253 usategieta (dove pass), 259, 261
See also sepulchers
tools V
Asturiense, 142-44 Viaticum, 243
axes. See axes virgins in mythology, 100
Aziliense, 138, 13p, 140 Vitoria Seminary, 18-19, 21
Bronze Age, 17 1 ,172, 177 vocabulary of consanguineous
Eneolithic, 158-61, 169-70 relationships, 211, 212
Iron Age, 184-85
Neolithic, 148 W
stone, 43-44 weather. See storms
Torto, 92 weaving, in Iron Age, 184
Tovar, Antonio, 28 weddings
transhumance ancestors and, 220, 238
in Eneolithic period, 153-54, I54, in Sara, 220, 236-39, 240-42
164 wheat and magic, 71-72
in Iron Age, 186 wine
Neolithic period and, 152, 152 in Sara, 226, 227, 231-32
trees and magic, 72-75 serving for apple picking, 69-70
tupin (stewpot), 207 weddings and, 237, 242
Txindoki Caves, 79 witchcraft, Akerbeltz and, 108-9
witches
U death and, 244
Unified Basque language, 13. See powers from, 127
also Basque language See also lamias; sorgin;
University of Burgos, 18 Sorguin; spirits
University of Frankfurt, 26 wives
University of N avarre, 30 assets in marriage and, 219
University of Salamanca, 28 incorporating into husband’s
Upper Paleolithic period, 21 family, 123
Urarte, 175, 177, 178 influence of, 220
Urbia dolmens, 23 religious responsibilities of, 220
Urbion well, 79 surnames of, 213
Urcia (God), 114 women
Uriatxa cliffs, 173 birthing and, 233
 Index 291

clothing of in Sara, 222-23 xokolat-m akila (whisk), 208

duties of, 221
funerals and, 126, 247, 249 Y
hairstyles of, 223 yarleku (family’s site in parish
marriage customs and, 81 church), 81, 196, 198, ipp
marriage of widows, 239 Yarza, Ramon Adan de, 120
as ministers of the house, 84-85, Ynchausti, M anuel de, 26, 27
221 Ynchausti, M iren, 28
status of, 84-85, 220 youth in Sara, 235-36
w ork, in Sara, 221
Wundt, Professor Wilhelm M ax, Z
18, 22 zerrietxola (pig hut), 200, 202
zerritei/zerrizola (pig sty), 195, 200
X zizailu (tall bench), 206
Xareta, 46 Zuria, Jaun, 94