The study of the recent science of Comparative Mythology is one of the
most popular and attractive of minor scientific pursuits. It deals
with a subject-matter which has interested most of us at one period
of our lives, and turns the delight of our childhood into a charm and
recreation for maturer age. Nor is it without more useful lessons. In
it we see more clearly than perhaps elsewhere the reciprocal influence,
which none can wholly escape, of words and language upon thought, and
again of thought and fancy upon words and language; how mere words and
syllables may modify both conception and belief; how the metaphor,
which at first presented an object more clearly and vividly to the
mind than any more direct form of speech could do, soon confuses
and at last wholly distorts the original idea, and buries its
meaning under a new and foreign superstructure. We may mark here,
too, by numerous examples, how slowly the human mind rises to the
conception of any abstract truth, and how continually it falls back
upon the concrete fact which it is compelled to picture to itself in
order to state in words the simplest mental abstraction. The phrase,
"The dawn flies before the sun," passing into the myth of Daphne and
Apollo, is a lesson in psychology no less than in philology and in
comparative mythology.
Now, both the interest and the value of these studies are enhanced in
proportion as they become complete. Our conclusions approach nearer
to certainty, and will gradually pass from theory to demonstration,
as we find the same legends and modes of thought and expression on
natural phenomena constantly reappearing among the most distant and
the most isolated peoples, in languages which in their complex forms
tell of the infancy of human speech, and also in those whose worn-down
frame speaks of the world's old age.
Of the peoples now settled in Western Europe, the Basques are those
which are the most separate from other populations; distinct in
language, they represent, in a more or less mixed state, some older
stratum of European ethnology. Their language, too, as regards the
mass of the people, is still practically unwritten. [1] Here there is
a chance of finding legends in a purer and older form than among any
other European people; and in what they have borrowed from others, we
may have an almost unique crucial test of the time which it takes for
such traditions to pass orally from people of one language to another
and totally different one. None of these legends have been published
or even noticed till within the last two years, when M. d'Abbadie
read the legend of the Tartaro before the Société des Sciences et des
Arts de Bayonne, and M. Cerquand his "Légendes et Récits Populaires
du Pays Basque," before the sister society at Pau. [2]
Of course we must expect to find such legends very much altered,
and in a state of almost inextricable confusion, and this not only
through forgetfulness, and through the lapse of time since their
origin, not only by the influence of a total change of religion, but
they are also mingled and inter-penetrated with totally new ideas; the
old and the new will be found side by side in striking and sometimes
grotesque contrast. As in Campbell's "Tales of the West Highlands,"
personages of mythical antiquity go to kirk, and indulge in other
decidedly post-Reformation practices, so in these Basque tales the
reader must not be startled by the introduction of maize and tobacco,
of cannon and gunpowder, of dances at the mairie, and the use of
the guillotine, in stories which, perhaps, originally told of the
movements of the stars, of the wars of the forces of the atmosphere,
of the bright beauty of the rising, or of the glowing glory of the
setting sun. [3] The body is the same in all ages, but the dress varies
with the changing fashions. To borrow an illustration from a slightly
older science, this is not a simple case of contorted and overlying
strata to be restored to their original order, but rather of strata
worn down, reconstructed, and deposited anew, and even modified in
their latest stage by the interference of human action. And thus our
problem becomes an exceedingly complex and difficult one, and our
readers must not be disappointed if our conclusions are not so clear
and positive as might be wished. The present is merely a tentative,
and not, in any sense, a final essay towards its solution.
How are these legends told now, and how have they been preserved? They
are told by the Basque peasants, either when neighbours meet--after
the fashion made familiar to us by American novelists in the "Husking
Bee"--for the purpose of stripping the husks from the ears of maize,
an operation generally performed in one or two long sessions; or at the
prolonged wedding and other feasts, of which we have evidence in the
tales themselves, or else in the long nights round the wintry hearth
of their lonely dwellings. For it is one of the charms of the Basque
land that the houses are scattered all over the face of the country,
instead of being collected into crowded villages; and it is, perhaps,
to this fact chiefly that we owe the preservation of so much old-world
lore, and of primitive ideas, among this people. The reader must not
be surprised at the length of some of our specimens. The details of
the incidents of the longest are religiously preserved and, as told
at home, they are probably more lengthy (as anyone will understand
who has ever taken anything down from recitation) than as here
given. Many an unlettered Basque peasant could serve an irritable
stranger as Glendower did Hotspur, when he kept him "at least nine
hours in reckoning up the several devils' names that were his lackeys."
In La Soule the "Pastorales," or Basque dramas, which last from six
to eight hours of uninterrupted action, are learnt in the same way
by word of mouth during the long evenings of winter.
These legends are still most thoroughly believed in. They still
form part of the faith of these simple people--not at all, we need
hardly say, in the use of mythological or atmospheric allegory,
but as narratives of veritable fact. They believe them as they do
the histories of the Bible or the "Lives of the Saints." In fact,
the problem of reconciling religion and science presents itself to
their minds in this strange guise--how to reconcile these narratives
with those of the Bible and of the Church. The general solution is
that they happened before the time of which the Bible speaks, or
before Adam fell. They are "Lege zaharreko istorriguak"--"histories
of the ancient law"--by which is apparently meant the time before
Christianity. "This happened, sir, in the time when all animals and
all things could speak," was said again and again by our narrators at
the commencement of their story; not one doubted the literal truth of
what they told. Their naïve good faith occasionally severely tested
our own gravity. Appeal was often made to our supposed superior
knowledge to confirm the facts. The varying tone of the voice told
how truly the speakers sympathised with what they uttered. At times
sobs almost interrupted utterance, when the frequent apostrophe
came: "Think how this poor so-and-so must have suffered!" More often
bursts of laughter at traditional jokes, too poor to raise a smile on
less unsophisticated lips, broke the recital. Very determined, too,
is their adherence to what they believe to be the genuine text of
these old tales. "I don't understand it, but the history says so;"
"It is so;" "The story says so," was positively affirmed again and
again--e.g., in one of the Peau d'Ane or Cinderella stories, when the
lady has dazzled her admirer by her dress of silver (moonlight?),
then of gold (sunlight?), then of diamonds (dew-drops?), at last,
on the wedding-day, the bride and bridegroom dress each other. "I
don't know why," interrupted the story-teller, "but the story says
so." Could anything tell more quaintly of the marriage of the sun and
dawn? The sun decking the morning clouds with his light and beauty,
and they again robing him in their soft and tender colouring.
But we must pass on to the tales themselves. None of these, we think,
will be found to be genuinely or exclusively Basque; the oldest we take
to be those most widely known, and which are most distorted. The heads
under which we have arranged them are: (1) Legends of the Tartaro,
or Cyclops; (2) of the Heren-Suge, the Seven-Headed Serpent; (3)
of purely Animal Tales, which are neither fables nor allegories;
(4) of Basa-Jauna, Basa-Andre, and of the Lamiñak, or Fairies; (5)
Tales of Witchcraft; (6) those which, for want of a better name,
we have entitled Contes des Fées, in which the fairy is an Eastern
magician--these we have divided into sections, (a) those which
resemble the Keltic and other tales, and (b) those which are probably
borrowed directly from the French; our last division (7), Religious
Tales and Legends, are probably from mediæval sources common to Latin
Christianity, but they are interesting as specimens of the tales which
probably delighted the highest born of our own ancestors in the middle
ages, and now linger only among the peasantry in out-of-the-way corners
of Europe. Some of these tales seem to us to be more gracefully told,
and have more of human interest in them, than any of the others.
We fear scientific men will be disappointed in this
collection. Notwithstanding that we have been careful to collect from
those who know the Basque only, or who certainly knew only Basque
when they first learnt these tales, yet they are evidently much mixed
with French and Spanish. Our translations are literal to baldness;
the only liberty we have taken is in softening down the exceeding
directness and grossness of some portions. Not one tale is in the
least licentious--but the Basque language calls a spade a spade,
and not an implement of husbandry. [4] The Carlist war of the last
four years has prevented our getting any legends from the Spanish
Basque provinces, and has even to some extent hindered our work in
the French Pays Basque, by providing an almost exclusive object of
interest. In the more remote districts of the Pays Basque itself,
which we have not been able to revisit since we commenced this
collection, purer forms of some of these legends may be found, and
others of which we have no example; [5] but these which we give are
really representative. Though collected mainly in the neighbourhood
of St. Jean de Luz, we have tested them by enquiry of natives of all
the provinces, and find that they are equally well known in La Soule
and in Basse Navarre as in the Labourd. We never met with a Basque
peasant who could not tell us what are the Tartaro, the Heren-Suge,
Basa-Jaun, and the Lamiñak.
As a curious coincidence, we may notice how closely some of the Basque
names of the stars parallel those given in Miss Frere's delightful
"Old Deccan Days." In the narrator's narrative, pp. 27, 28, we read,
"She (the grandmother) would show us the hen and chickens" (the
Pleiades)--the same in Basque, "Oiloa chituekin;" "The three thieves
climbing up to rob the Ranee's silver bedstead"--the three stars in
Orion's belt, in Basque, the three kings, or brothers, or robbers; the
milky way, "the great pathway of light on which He went up to heaven,"
has also obtained in Basque a Christianized name--"Erromako zubia,
or Bidea," "the bridge or road to Rome." Again, "All the cobras in
my grandmother's stories were seven-headed," so the Heren-Suge in
the Basque country is always seven-headed. Little or nothing can be
gathered from the names of the actors, the heroes or heroines of
these tales. They are mostly anonymous, but the name, when given,
is almost always borrowed from the French. This is disappointing,
and much increases the difficulty of tracing the origin; but it is
analogous to the fact that scarcely a single purely Basque name is
to be found among the so-called kings and chieftains of the Basques
during the early middle ages. [6] Among the classic writers, too,
and among the soldiers and followers of our Anglo-Gascon princes,
hardly a name indubitably Basque is to be found.
For all more special details and discussions we refer to the
Introductions to the separate sections. The few references given to
the parallel legends of other countries are not intended to be at
all complete, much less exhaustive. The Pays Basque is not a land of
libraries, and it is not easy to collect these legends on the spot, and
at the same time to get together the books necessary for a comparison
of them with those of other countries. The few we offer are only those
which have fallen in our way, and though worthless to the specialist,
may be of some little aid as suggestions to the ordinary reader. [7]
For the same purpose we annex a list of the first publication of the
chief collections of foreign legends in France. [8] It is curious to
remark that, while the masterpieces of French literature seem never
to have penetrated beyond the surface of society, these legends have
pierced to the very bottom of the social mass, and have become real
living household words, even to those many millions of Frenchmen who
do not understand one word of French.
There remains the pleasant task of thanking some of the many friends
who have assisted us in this collection. I had hoped to have joined the
name of M. J. Vinson, the well-known Basque and Dravidian scholar,
to my own as joint-author of this simple work. I should hardly
have had the courage to have undertaken it had I not been assured
of his invaluable assistance in difficulties about the language of
the originals. Unavoidable circumstances have, however, prevented his
seeing the Basque of many of the later tales, and he therefore prefers
that the "Essay on the Basque Language" should alone bear his name. I
cannot but accede to his wishes; but, at the same time, I offer him
my most grateful thanks for the unfailing and unwearied help which he
so kindly afforded me for many months. The legends contributed by him
are noticed in their proper place. Our first acknowledgments are due
to M. d'Abbadie, of Abbadia, the well-known "Membre de l'Institut,"
for his kind assistance and ready communication of the legends in
his possession, and which were the starting point of our work. Next,
and even more, to Madame M. Bellevue, of Dajieu-baita, through whose
kind intervention the majority of these tales were collected, and who
assisted in the translation of almost all. And then to the sisters
Estefanella and Gagna-haurra Hirigaray, who contributed more than
twenty tales; to Dr. Guilbeau and other friends at St. Jean de Luz
who have taken a friendly interest in our work, and to all those
whose names are appended to the tales they furnished. It would be
presumptuous to hope that our readers will find as much pleasure in
perusing these tales as we have had in collecting them.