1See notes to “Juan Dekos,” p. 146.2I think this word occurs in some “Chanson de Gestes,” and in the Basque “Pastorales,” as a Mahommedan devil. If not, it is probably our own “Duke of Marlborough” thus transformed.Cf.the song, ”Malbrouk s’en va en guerre.”3This is again, “red, angry.”4Cf.Campbell, “The Tale of Connal,” Vol. I., p. 142.5This looks uncommonly like “Ho, you!” but it is given by Salaberry as a Basque cry, “Appel par un cri fort, par la voix élevée.” “Play,” as an exclamation to begin at games of ball, has no meaning in Basque, and is believed to come from the English. We have borrowed “Jingo,” “by Jingo,” from “Jinkoa,” “the deity.”6In Campbell’s first tale, “The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh, the hero is assisted by a dog, a falcon, and an otter.Cf.the notes in the translation of this tale in Brueyre’s “Contes de la Grande Bretagne;”cf.also, “The Sea-Maiden,” pp. 73 and 94, for a still closer resemblance.7Cf.“Tabakiera,” p. 94, and “Old Deccan Days,” pp. 83–91. It is curious to hear of the Red Sea from narrators so far apart, on opposite sides, as the Lingaets of the Deccan and the Basques, neither of whom, probably, had the most distant idea of its geographical position; certainly our Basque narrators had not.8In Campbell’s “Sea-Maiden,” the hero has only to think of the animals, and they are at his side; but he is not transformed into them.9Campbell refers to “The Giant who had no Heart in his Body,” “Norse Tales,” 1859. See his references, and those in the “Contes Populaires de la Grande Bretagne,” cited above. M. d’Abbadie has also communicated to us the outlines of a wild Tartaro story, told in Basque, in which the hero “fights with a body without a soul.”10Cf.Campbell’s “Tales,” before quoted, and “Old Deccan Days” (“Punchkin”), pp. 14, 15, for the whole of this incident.11Malbrouk seems now to assume the character of “Hermes, the clever thief.” If we mistake not, this cow appears also in Indian mythology.12For the whole of this tale compare Campbell’s “Sea-Maiden,” Vol. I., p. 71. The sea-maiden takes the place of the fish. Besides the three sons, the three foals, and the three puppies, three trees grow behind the house, and serve as a sign like the well boiling. Bladé’s “Les Deux Jumeaux,” in his “Contes Agenais,” is identical with this;cf.also Köhler’s notes, p. 148.13Much more is made of the sword in the Gaelic tales. In them it is always a magic or a mystic weapon.14This episode of the fight with the seven-headed beast is introduced in the same way in the Gaelic—“The Sea-Maiden,” pp. 76, 77.Cf.also “Rouge Etin,” in Brueyre.15In the Gaelic the charcoal-burner is a general.16This takes place not on the wedding night, but some time after in the “Sea-Maiden,” p. 82. The wife at prayers and the husband standing by indifferent is but too true a picture, we fear.17The “Sea-Maiden,” p. 82—“Go not, go not,” said she, “there never went man to this castle that returned.” See below.18Basque, “as must needs be.”19We were also told, in Basque, “The Powerful Lantern,” which was the story of Aladdin’s lamp, with onlyoneincident omitted. The present is much more like the Gaelic, but there (Campbell, Vol. II., 297–9) it is a lady who gives the snuff-box, which says, “Eege gu djeege,” on being opened. Campbell’s note is:—“The explanation of these sounds was, that it was ‘as if they were asking.’ The sounds mean nothing, that I know of, in any language.” “Que quieres?” is pure Spanish—“What dost thou want?”20Cf.MacCraw’s variation in Campbell, note, Vol. II., p. 301, for the rest of the story.21“Power” in these tales, in the Basque, seems always to mean “magic power,” some wonder-working gift or charm.22In Campbell’s versions it is “the realm of the king under the waves,” or “the realm of the rats;” but a voyage has to be made to that, and a rat takes the place of the servant in stealing the box again for the hero. “The Deccan Tales” mention the Red Sea.23The south wind is the most dreaded local wind in the Pays Basque. It is always hot, and sometimes very violent. After two or three days it usually brings on a violent thunderstorm and rain.24The lad here calls his snuff-box affectionately “Que quieres,” as if that were its name.25The likeness and the variation of this tale from Campbell’s Gaelic one, “The Widow’s Son,” etc., Vol. II., pp. 293–303, prove that both must be independent versions of some original like Aladdin’s lamp, but not mere copies of it.26This doubling of a price is to get a thing more quickly done—in half the usual time. At least, that was the narrator’s explanation.27These three clever men are found in Gascon (Bladé’s “Armagnac Tales,” p. 10), in Spanish, in Campbell’s “The King of Lochlin’s Three Daughters,” Vol. I., p. 238, and in many others.Cf.Brueyre, pp. 113–120, and notes.28Cf.The tale from the Servian, in Naaké’s “Slavonic Fairy Tales,” p. 7.29i.e., the piece of “braise,” or glowing ember from the wood fire, which is always nearly on a level with the floor in a Basque house.30Through the whole of the South of Europe, in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, etc., the firing of guns, pistols, crackers, is universal at all kinds of “fêtes,” especially religious ones; the half-deafened foreigner often longs for some such law as that infringed by “Mahistruba;” butcf.“Juan de Kalais,” p. 151.31Cf. supra, p. 38, “The Serpent in the Wood.”32This tale is somewhat like Campbell’s “Three Soldiers,” with the variations, Vol. I., p. 176. It is said to be very widely spread.33This is an interpolation by the narrator.34At Bayonne one part of the town is called “Les Cinq Cantons.”35For like involuntary sleep, where the lady cannot awaken her lover,cf.Campbell, “The Widow’s Son,” Vol. II., p. 296.36For the incident of the eagle,cf.Campbell, “The King of Lochlin’s Three Daughters,” Vol. I., pp. 238–9:—“When they were at the mouth of the hole, the stots were expended, and she was going to turn back; but he took a steak out of his own thigh, and he gave this to the eagle, and with one spring she was on the surface of the earth.”37Cf.the horse in Naaké’s “Slavonic Fairy Tales,” “Ivan Kruchina” (from the Russian), p. 117, and “the dun shaggy filly,” in Campbell’s “The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh,” Vol. I., p. 5, and elsewhere; also the horse in the “Uso-Andre,” and “The Unknown Animal,” below. Campbell, Vol. I., p. 63, remarks that the horses in Gaelic stories are always feminine; but they are red as well as grey.38In this, and the following tale, Ezkabi’s golden hair is evidently like “Diarmaid’s” beauty spot. “He used to keep his cap always down on the beauty-spot; for any woman that might chance to see it, she would be in love with him.”—Campbell’s “Diarmaid and Grainne,” Vol. III., p. 39, notes and variations.39Compare the following legend, and “Old Deccan Days” (“Truth’s Triumph”), pp. 62, 63.40Cf.above, “The Grateful Tartaro and the Heren-Suge,” p. 22.41Cf.note,supra, p. 113, and Grainne seeing Diarmaid as he lifts his cap or helmet. These beauty-spots seem to be the counterpart of Aphrodite’s cestus.42Cf.the two golden pears in the Spanish “Juanillo el Loco,” Patrañas, p. 38, given in exchange for the same water.43Cf.below, “The Singing Tree,” etc., p. 176.44Cf.“Old Deccan Days,” p. 139; and Cox, “Aryan Mythology,” Vol. I., p. 160,seq.45Cf.below, p. 156.46The word “Ezkabi” is “the scab;” he either really had it, as in the next version, or was supposed to have it from keeping his head covered, as in this. In both cases the hair is most beautiful, precious, golden, and love-compelling.47Cf.with the whole of this tale, Campbell’s second tale, “The Battle of the Birds,” and the variations, especially the one of “Auburn Mary,” Vol. I. pp. 52–58.48Cf.Baring Gould’s chapter, “Swan-Maidens”—“Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,” p. 561,seq.49In the Gaelic the labours are more like those of Herakles—to clean out a byre, to shoot birds, and to rob a magpie’s nest. The Basque incidents seem to fit better into a climatological myth.50In “Old Deccan Days” (“Truth’s Triumph”) it is the hair and not the comb that does the wonders. In M. Cerquand’s “Récits” the comb is an attribute of the Basa-Andre.51In Campbell’s “Battle of the Birds” the hero always sleeps while the giant’s daughter does his task for him.52Here the narrator interposed, “You see it is just as it happens; the women are always the worst.” But in Campbell it is the giant himself who says, “My own daughter’s tricks are trying me.”53In Campbell the finger is lost in climbing the tree to get the magpie’s nest; but, as here, the bride is recognised by the loss of it.54In “Auburn Mary” the hero has to catch a young filly, “with an old, black, rusty bridle.”—Campbell, Vol. I., p. 55.55See below for a second marriage. In Campbell, p. 37, there is a double marriage.56In Campbell, p. 55, “Auburn Mary,” there is the same “talking spittle.”57Cf.“Truth’s Triumph,” in “Old Deccan Days;” and Campbell, pp. 33, 34; andsupra, “Ezkabi-Fidel,” pp. 113, 114.58Campbell, pp. 34 and 56.59In Campbell, it is an old greyhound that kisses him, but with the same result, pp. 34 and 56.60In one of Campbell’s “Variations,” pp. 51, 52, the ending is something like this. In more than one, the hero marries another bride in his period of oblivion.61Cf.Campbell’s “The Chest,” Vol. II., p. 1. The tales seem almost identical.62The usual term for “the Pope;” the French, “Le Saint-Père.”63This is a curious testimony to an ancient practice. In the same way the Basques call “La Fête Dieu,” “Corpus Christi Day;” “Phestaberria,” “The New Feast,” though it was instituted in the thirteenth century.64This is a very old and wide-spread story. The Gaelic versions are given in Campbell, Vol. II., p. 239,seq.Cf.also Cox, “Aryan Mythology,” Vol. I., p. 111,seq.65In the Gaelic it is the bishop’s horse.66This is in the Norse and Teutonic versions.67This, again, is more like the Gaelic.68This name was written thus phonetically from the Basque, and it was not till I saw the Gaelic tale that it struck me that it is simply “Jean d’Ecosse”—“John of Scotland,” or “Scotch John.” In the analogous tale in Campbell, “The Barra Widow’s Son,” Vol. II., p. 111, we read—“It was Iain Albanach” (literally, Jean d’Ecosse) “the boy was called at first; he gave him the name of Iain Mac a Maighstir” (John, master’s son) “because he himself was master of the vessel.” This seems decisive that in some way the Basques have borrowed this tale from the Kelts since their occupation of the Hebrides. The Spanish versions, too, are termed “The Irish Princess” (Patrañas, p. 234).69See note on preceding page, and Campbell, Vol. II., p. 3.70Whether this refers to any real custom about dead men’s debts, we cannot say. It occurs in the Gaelic, in “Ezkabi,” and in other tales and versions, notably in the Spanish; see as above, and “The White Blackbird,” below, p. 182.71In other versions it is the soul of the man whose debts he had paid, either in the shape of a hermit or afox. In the Gaelic it is left vague and undetermined. He is called “one,” or “the asker.” (Campbell, Vol. II., pp. 119 and 121.) The same contract is made in each case, and with the same result.72This is, of course, “Jean de Calais”—“John of Calais”—and would seem to show that it was through some French, and not Spanish, versions that the Basques learnt it.73This seems inserted from “Mahistruba,” p. 105.74In the Gaelic it is a general, as here, and not a lame second officer, as in “Juan Dekos,” who wants to marry the lady, and who sets the hero on a desert island.—Campbell, Vol. II., p. 118.75See note on page 149.76We had put this tale aside, with some others, as worthless, until we found from Campbell how widely it is spread. The earliest version seems to be the Italian of Straparola, 1567. The first incident there, persuading that a pig is an ass, we have in another Basque tale; the last two incidents are identical. They are found, too, in the Gaelic, though in separate versions. For killing the wife, see Campbell, Vol. II., p. 232; for the last, pp. 222 and 234.Cf.also “The Three Widows,” with all the variations and notes, Vol. II., pp. 218–238. Is this a case of transmission from one people to another of the Italian of Straparola? or do all the versions point back to some lost original? and is there, or can there be, any allegorical meaning to such a tale? The answer to these questions seems of great importance, and the present tale to be a good instance to work upon. Petarillo seems an Italian name.77“Peau d’Ane.”78“Fidèle.”79The narrator was here asked “if the place of the dance was at the king’s palace.” “No,” she gravely replied, “it was at the mairie.” In other tales it is on the “place,”i.e., the open square or market-place which there is in most French towns and villages in the south. It is generally in front either of the church or of the mairie.80This was explained as meaning “Beaten with the Slipper.” This version came from the Cascarrot, or half-gipsy quarter of St. Jean de Luz, and may not bepurelyBasque. Except in one or two words the language is correct enough—for St. Jean de Luz.81At an exclamation of surprise from one of the auditors, the narrator piously said, “It is the Holy Virgin who permitted all that.”82Cf.“The Serpent in the Wood,” p. 38.83Literally, “be full.”84Cf.the well behind the house in the “Fisherman and his Three Sons,” p. 87.85Cf.“Dragon,” p. 108.]86Here the narrator evidently forgot to tell about the child’s being exposed, and the gardener finding it, as appears by the sequel.87Cf.the well that boils in “The Fisherman and his Three Sons,” and the ring in “Beauty and the Beast.”88Can Bunyan have taken his description of the “Valley of the Shadow of Death,” in the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” partly from such tales as this?89Cf.above in “Ezkabi” and “Juan Dekos.” There is some similarity between this tale and Campbell’s “Mac Ian Direach,” Vol. II., p. 328. Compare also “The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener,” in Kennedy’s “Fireside Stories of Ireland.” We know only the French translation of this last in Brueyre, p. 145. “Le Merle Blanc” is one of the best known of French stories.90Cf.“Juan Dekos” for paying the debts, and the fox. In the Gaelic the fox is called “An Gille Mairtean,” “the fox.” (Campbell, Vol. II., p. 329,seq.)91Cf.the stealing of the bay filly in Campbell’s “Mac Iain Direach,” Vol. II., p. 334.92Huge cisterns, partly underground, for holding rain water, are common in the Pays Basque. They are, of course, near the houses off which the water drains.93Cf.“Basa-Jauna,” p. 49.94A piece of the braise, or burnt stick. This is constantly done all through the South of France, where wood is burnt. If your fire is out you run to get a stick from your neighbour’s fire.95Cf.note to “Basa-Jauna,” p. 49.96Cf.“Old Deccan Days” (“Truth’s Triumph”), pp. 57–58. The little girl is the rose tree there among the mango trees, her brothers. Cows are very gentle in the Pays Basque, and are often petted, especially the tiny black and white Breton ones. We have known a strong man weep at the death of a favourite cow, and this one of ten others.97The Ranee makes the same conditions in “Truth’s Triumph”—“You will let me take these crows” (her brothers) “with me, will you not? for I love them dearly, and I cannot go away unless they may come too.”—“Old Deccan Days,” p. 59.98This was recited to M. Vinson, and has been published by him in the“Revue de Linguistique,” p. 241 (Janvier, 1876). We have since heard of a longer form preserved at Renteria, in Guipuzcoa.99To these should perhaps be added the Latin of the Dolopathos and “Gesta Romanorum” of the 12th or 13th century.
1See notes to “Juan Dekos,” p. 146.2I think this word occurs in some “Chanson de Gestes,” and in the Basque “Pastorales,” as a Mahommedan devil. If not, it is probably our own “Duke of Marlborough” thus transformed.Cf.the song, ”Malbrouk s’en va en guerre.”3This is again, “red, angry.”4Cf.Campbell, “The Tale of Connal,” Vol. I., p. 142.5This looks uncommonly like “Ho, you!” but it is given by Salaberry as a Basque cry, “Appel par un cri fort, par la voix élevée.” “Play,” as an exclamation to begin at games of ball, has no meaning in Basque, and is believed to come from the English. We have borrowed “Jingo,” “by Jingo,” from “Jinkoa,” “the deity.”6In Campbell’s first tale, “The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh, the hero is assisted by a dog, a falcon, and an otter.Cf.the notes in the translation of this tale in Brueyre’s “Contes de la Grande Bretagne;”cf.also, “The Sea-Maiden,” pp. 73 and 94, for a still closer resemblance.7Cf.“Tabakiera,” p. 94, and “Old Deccan Days,” pp. 83–91. It is curious to hear of the Red Sea from narrators so far apart, on opposite sides, as the Lingaets of the Deccan and the Basques, neither of whom, probably, had the most distant idea of its geographical position; certainly our Basque narrators had not.8In Campbell’s “Sea-Maiden,” the hero has only to think of the animals, and they are at his side; but he is not transformed into them.9Campbell refers to “The Giant who had no Heart in his Body,” “Norse Tales,” 1859. See his references, and those in the “Contes Populaires de la Grande Bretagne,” cited above. M. d’Abbadie has also communicated to us the outlines of a wild Tartaro story, told in Basque, in which the hero “fights with a body without a soul.”10Cf.Campbell’s “Tales,” before quoted, and “Old Deccan Days” (“Punchkin”), pp. 14, 15, for the whole of this incident.11Malbrouk seems now to assume the character of “Hermes, the clever thief.” If we mistake not, this cow appears also in Indian mythology.12For the whole of this tale compare Campbell’s “Sea-Maiden,” Vol. I., p. 71. The sea-maiden takes the place of the fish. Besides the three sons, the three foals, and the three puppies, three trees grow behind the house, and serve as a sign like the well boiling. Bladé’s “Les Deux Jumeaux,” in his “Contes Agenais,” is identical with this;cf.also Köhler’s notes, p. 148.13Much more is made of the sword in the Gaelic tales. In them it is always a magic or a mystic weapon.14This episode of the fight with the seven-headed beast is introduced in the same way in the Gaelic—“The Sea-Maiden,” pp. 76, 77.Cf.also “Rouge Etin,” in Brueyre.15In the Gaelic the charcoal-burner is a general.16This takes place not on the wedding night, but some time after in the “Sea-Maiden,” p. 82. The wife at prayers and the husband standing by indifferent is but too true a picture, we fear.17The “Sea-Maiden,” p. 82—“Go not, go not,” said she, “there never went man to this castle that returned.” See below.18Basque, “as must needs be.”19We were also told, in Basque, “The Powerful Lantern,” which was the story of Aladdin’s lamp, with onlyoneincident omitted. The present is much more like the Gaelic, but there (Campbell, Vol. II., 297–9) it is a lady who gives the snuff-box, which says, “Eege gu djeege,” on being opened. Campbell’s note is:—“The explanation of these sounds was, that it was ‘as if they were asking.’ The sounds mean nothing, that I know of, in any language.” “Que quieres?” is pure Spanish—“What dost thou want?”20Cf.MacCraw’s variation in Campbell, note, Vol. II., p. 301, for the rest of the story.21“Power” in these tales, in the Basque, seems always to mean “magic power,” some wonder-working gift or charm.22In Campbell’s versions it is “the realm of the king under the waves,” or “the realm of the rats;” but a voyage has to be made to that, and a rat takes the place of the servant in stealing the box again for the hero. “The Deccan Tales” mention the Red Sea.23The south wind is the most dreaded local wind in the Pays Basque. It is always hot, and sometimes very violent. After two or three days it usually brings on a violent thunderstorm and rain.24The lad here calls his snuff-box affectionately “Que quieres,” as if that were its name.25The likeness and the variation of this tale from Campbell’s Gaelic one, “The Widow’s Son,” etc., Vol. II., pp. 293–303, prove that both must be independent versions of some original like Aladdin’s lamp, but not mere copies of it.26This doubling of a price is to get a thing more quickly done—in half the usual time. At least, that was the narrator’s explanation.27These three clever men are found in Gascon (Bladé’s “Armagnac Tales,” p. 10), in Spanish, in Campbell’s “The King of Lochlin’s Three Daughters,” Vol. I., p. 238, and in many others.Cf.Brueyre, pp. 113–120, and notes.28Cf.The tale from the Servian, in Naaké’s “Slavonic Fairy Tales,” p. 7.29i.e., the piece of “braise,” or glowing ember from the wood fire, which is always nearly on a level with the floor in a Basque house.30Through the whole of the South of Europe, in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, etc., the firing of guns, pistols, crackers, is universal at all kinds of “fêtes,” especially religious ones; the half-deafened foreigner often longs for some such law as that infringed by “Mahistruba;” butcf.“Juan de Kalais,” p. 151.31Cf. supra, p. 38, “The Serpent in the Wood.”32This tale is somewhat like Campbell’s “Three Soldiers,” with the variations, Vol. I., p. 176. It is said to be very widely spread.33This is an interpolation by the narrator.34At Bayonne one part of the town is called “Les Cinq Cantons.”35For like involuntary sleep, where the lady cannot awaken her lover,cf.Campbell, “The Widow’s Son,” Vol. II., p. 296.36For the incident of the eagle,cf.Campbell, “The King of Lochlin’s Three Daughters,” Vol. I., pp. 238–9:—“When they were at the mouth of the hole, the stots were expended, and she was going to turn back; but he took a steak out of his own thigh, and he gave this to the eagle, and with one spring she was on the surface of the earth.”37Cf.the horse in Naaké’s “Slavonic Fairy Tales,” “Ivan Kruchina” (from the Russian), p. 117, and “the dun shaggy filly,” in Campbell’s “The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh,” Vol. I., p. 5, and elsewhere; also the horse in the “Uso-Andre,” and “The Unknown Animal,” below. Campbell, Vol. I., p. 63, remarks that the horses in Gaelic stories are always feminine; but they are red as well as grey.38In this, and the following tale, Ezkabi’s golden hair is evidently like “Diarmaid’s” beauty spot. “He used to keep his cap always down on the beauty-spot; for any woman that might chance to see it, she would be in love with him.”—Campbell’s “Diarmaid and Grainne,” Vol. III., p. 39, notes and variations.39Compare the following legend, and “Old Deccan Days” (“Truth’s Triumph”), pp. 62, 63.40Cf.above, “The Grateful Tartaro and the Heren-Suge,” p. 22.41Cf.note,supra, p. 113, and Grainne seeing Diarmaid as he lifts his cap or helmet. These beauty-spots seem to be the counterpart of Aphrodite’s cestus.42Cf.the two golden pears in the Spanish “Juanillo el Loco,” Patrañas, p. 38, given in exchange for the same water.43Cf.below, “The Singing Tree,” etc., p. 176.44Cf.“Old Deccan Days,” p. 139; and Cox, “Aryan Mythology,” Vol. I., p. 160,seq.45Cf.below, p. 156.46The word “Ezkabi” is “the scab;” he either really had it, as in the next version, or was supposed to have it from keeping his head covered, as in this. In both cases the hair is most beautiful, precious, golden, and love-compelling.47Cf.with the whole of this tale, Campbell’s second tale, “The Battle of the Birds,” and the variations, especially the one of “Auburn Mary,” Vol. I. pp. 52–58.48Cf.Baring Gould’s chapter, “Swan-Maidens”—“Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,” p. 561,seq.49In the Gaelic the labours are more like those of Herakles—to clean out a byre, to shoot birds, and to rob a magpie’s nest. The Basque incidents seem to fit better into a climatological myth.50In “Old Deccan Days” (“Truth’s Triumph”) it is the hair and not the comb that does the wonders. In M. Cerquand’s “Récits” the comb is an attribute of the Basa-Andre.51In Campbell’s “Battle of the Birds” the hero always sleeps while the giant’s daughter does his task for him.52Here the narrator interposed, “You see it is just as it happens; the women are always the worst.” But in Campbell it is the giant himself who says, “My own daughter’s tricks are trying me.”53In Campbell the finger is lost in climbing the tree to get the magpie’s nest; but, as here, the bride is recognised by the loss of it.54In “Auburn Mary” the hero has to catch a young filly, “with an old, black, rusty bridle.”—Campbell, Vol. I., p. 55.55See below for a second marriage. In Campbell, p. 37, there is a double marriage.56In Campbell, p. 55, “Auburn Mary,” there is the same “talking spittle.”57Cf.“Truth’s Triumph,” in “Old Deccan Days;” and Campbell, pp. 33, 34; andsupra, “Ezkabi-Fidel,” pp. 113, 114.58Campbell, pp. 34 and 56.59In Campbell, it is an old greyhound that kisses him, but with the same result, pp. 34 and 56.60In one of Campbell’s “Variations,” pp. 51, 52, the ending is something like this. In more than one, the hero marries another bride in his period of oblivion.61Cf.Campbell’s “The Chest,” Vol. II., p. 1. The tales seem almost identical.62The usual term for “the Pope;” the French, “Le Saint-Père.”63This is a curious testimony to an ancient practice. In the same way the Basques call “La Fête Dieu,” “Corpus Christi Day;” “Phestaberria,” “The New Feast,” though it was instituted in the thirteenth century.64This is a very old and wide-spread story. The Gaelic versions are given in Campbell, Vol. II., p. 239,seq.Cf.also Cox, “Aryan Mythology,” Vol. I., p. 111,seq.65In the Gaelic it is the bishop’s horse.66This is in the Norse and Teutonic versions.67This, again, is more like the Gaelic.68This name was written thus phonetically from the Basque, and it was not till I saw the Gaelic tale that it struck me that it is simply “Jean d’Ecosse”—“John of Scotland,” or “Scotch John.” In the analogous tale in Campbell, “The Barra Widow’s Son,” Vol. II., p. 111, we read—“It was Iain Albanach” (literally, Jean d’Ecosse) “the boy was called at first; he gave him the name of Iain Mac a Maighstir” (John, master’s son) “because he himself was master of the vessel.” This seems decisive that in some way the Basques have borrowed this tale from the Kelts since their occupation of the Hebrides. The Spanish versions, too, are termed “The Irish Princess” (Patrañas, p. 234).69See note on preceding page, and Campbell, Vol. II., p. 3.70Whether this refers to any real custom about dead men’s debts, we cannot say. It occurs in the Gaelic, in “Ezkabi,” and in other tales and versions, notably in the Spanish; see as above, and “The White Blackbird,” below, p. 182.71In other versions it is the soul of the man whose debts he had paid, either in the shape of a hermit or afox. In the Gaelic it is left vague and undetermined. He is called “one,” or “the asker.” (Campbell, Vol. II., pp. 119 and 121.) The same contract is made in each case, and with the same result.72This is, of course, “Jean de Calais”—“John of Calais”—and would seem to show that it was through some French, and not Spanish, versions that the Basques learnt it.73This seems inserted from “Mahistruba,” p. 105.74In the Gaelic it is a general, as here, and not a lame second officer, as in “Juan Dekos,” who wants to marry the lady, and who sets the hero on a desert island.—Campbell, Vol. II., p. 118.75See note on page 149.76We had put this tale aside, with some others, as worthless, until we found from Campbell how widely it is spread. The earliest version seems to be the Italian of Straparola, 1567. The first incident there, persuading that a pig is an ass, we have in another Basque tale; the last two incidents are identical. They are found, too, in the Gaelic, though in separate versions. For killing the wife, see Campbell, Vol. II., p. 232; for the last, pp. 222 and 234.Cf.also “The Three Widows,” with all the variations and notes, Vol. II., pp. 218–238. Is this a case of transmission from one people to another of the Italian of Straparola? or do all the versions point back to some lost original? and is there, or can there be, any allegorical meaning to such a tale? The answer to these questions seems of great importance, and the present tale to be a good instance to work upon. Petarillo seems an Italian name.77“Peau d’Ane.”78“Fidèle.”79The narrator was here asked “if the place of the dance was at the king’s palace.” “No,” she gravely replied, “it was at the mairie.” In other tales it is on the “place,”i.e., the open square or market-place which there is in most French towns and villages in the south. It is generally in front either of the church or of the mairie.80This was explained as meaning “Beaten with the Slipper.” This version came from the Cascarrot, or half-gipsy quarter of St. Jean de Luz, and may not bepurelyBasque. Except in one or two words the language is correct enough—for St. Jean de Luz.81At an exclamation of surprise from one of the auditors, the narrator piously said, “It is the Holy Virgin who permitted all that.”82Cf.“The Serpent in the Wood,” p. 38.83Literally, “be full.”84Cf.the well behind the house in the “Fisherman and his Three Sons,” p. 87.85Cf.“Dragon,” p. 108.]86Here the narrator evidently forgot to tell about the child’s being exposed, and the gardener finding it, as appears by the sequel.87Cf.the well that boils in “The Fisherman and his Three Sons,” and the ring in “Beauty and the Beast.”88Can Bunyan have taken his description of the “Valley of the Shadow of Death,” in the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” partly from such tales as this?89Cf.above in “Ezkabi” and “Juan Dekos.” There is some similarity between this tale and Campbell’s “Mac Ian Direach,” Vol. II., p. 328. Compare also “The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener,” in Kennedy’s “Fireside Stories of Ireland.” We know only the French translation of this last in Brueyre, p. 145. “Le Merle Blanc” is one of the best known of French stories.90Cf.“Juan Dekos” for paying the debts, and the fox. In the Gaelic the fox is called “An Gille Mairtean,” “the fox.” (Campbell, Vol. II., p. 329,seq.)91Cf.the stealing of the bay filly in Campbell’s “Mac Iain Direach,” Vol. II., p. 334.92Huge cisterns, partly underground, for holding rain water, are common in the Pays Basque. They are, of course, near the houses off which the water drains.93Cf.“Basa-Jauna,” p. 49.94A piece of the braise, or burnt stick. This is constantly done all through the South of France, where wood is burnt. If your fire is out you run to get a stick from your neighbour’s fire.95Cf.note to “Basa-Jauna,” p. 49.96Cf.“Old Deccan Days” (“Truth’s Triumph”), pp. 57–58. The little girl is the rose tree there among the mango trees, her brothers. Cows are very gentle in the Pays Basque, and are often petted, especially the tiny black and white Breton ones. We have known a strong man weep at the death of a favourite cow, and this one of ten others.97The Ranee makes the same conditions in “Truth’s Triumph”—“You will let me take these crows” (her brothers) “with me, will you not? for I love them dearly, and I cannot go away unless they may come too.”—“Old Deccan Days,” p. 59.98This was recited to M. Vinson, and has been published by him in the“Revue de Linguistique,” p. 241 (Janvier, 1876). We have since heard of a longer form preserved at Renteria, in Guipuzcoa.99To these should perhaps be added the Latin of the Dolopathos and “Gesta Romanorum” of the 12th or 13th century.
1See notes to “Juan Dekos,” p. 146.2I think this word occurs in some “Chanson de Gestes,” and in the Basque “Pastorales,” as a Mahommedan devil. If not, it is probably our own “Duke of Marlborough” thus transformed.Cf.the song, ”Malbrouk s’en va en guerre.”3This is again, “red, angry.”4Cf.Campbell, “The Tale of Connal,” Vol. I., p. 142.5This looks uncommonly like “Ho, you!” but it is given by Salaberry as a Basque cry, “Appel par un cri fort, par la voix élevée.” “Play,” as an exclamation to begin at games of ball, has no meaning in Basque, and is believed to come from the English. We have borrowed “Jingo,” “by Jingo,” from “Jinkoa,” “the deity.”6In Campbell’s first tale, “The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh, the hero is assisted by a dog, a falcon, and an otter.Cf.the notes in the translation of this tale in Brueyre’s “Contes de la Grande Bretagne;”cf.also, “The Sea-Maiden,” pp. 73 and 94, for a still closer resemblance.7Cf.“Tabakiera,” p. 94, and “Old Deccan Days,” pp. 83–91. It is curious to hear of the Red Sea from narrators so far apart, on opposite sides, as the Lingaets of the Deccan and the Basques, neither of whom, probably, had the most distant idea of its geographical position; certainly our Basque narrators had not.8In Campbell’s “Sea-Maiden,” the hero has only to think of the animals, and they are at his side; but he is not transformed into them.9Campbell refers to “The Giant who had no Heart in his Body,” “Norse Tales,” 1859. See his references, and those in the “Contes Populaires de la Grande Bretagne,” cited above. M. d’Abbadie has also communicated to us the outlines of a wild Tartaro story, told in Basque, in which the hero “fights with a body without a soul.”10Cf.Campbell’s “Tales,” before quoted, and “Old Deccan Days” (“Punchkin”), pp. 14, 15, for the whole of this incident.11Malbrouk seems now to assume the character of “Hermes, the clever thief.” If we mistake not, this cow appears also in Indian mythology.12For the whole of this tale compare Campbell’s “Sea-Maiden,” Vol. I., p. 71. The sea-maiden takes the place of the fish. Besides the three sons, the three foals, and the three puppies, three trees grow behind the house, and serve as a sign like the well boiling. Bladé’s “Les Deux Jumeaux,” in his “Contes Agenais,” is identical with this;cf.also Köhler’s notes, p. 148.13Much more is made of the sword in the Gaelic tales. In them it is always a magic or a mystic weapon.14This episode of the fight with the seven-headed beast is introduced in the same way in the Gaelic—“The Sea-Maiden,” pp. 76, 77.Cf.also “Rouge Etin,” in Brueyre.15In the Gaelic the charcoal-burner is a general.16This takes place not on the wedding night, but some time after in the “Sea-Maiden,” p. 82. The wife at prayers and the husband standing by indifferent is but too true a picture, we fear.17The “Sea-Maiden,” p. 82—“Go not, go not,” said she, “there never went man to this castle that returned.” See below.18Basque, “as must needs be.”19We were also told, in Basque, “The Powerful Lantern,” which was the story of Aladdin’s lamp, with onlyoneincident omitted. The present is much more like the Gaelic, but there (Campbell, Vol. II., 297–9) it is a lady who gives the snuff-box, which says, “Eege gu djeege,” on being opened. Campbell’s note is:—“The explanation of these sounds was, that it was ‘as if they were asking.’ The sounds mean nothing, that I know of, in any language.” “Que quieres?” is pure Spanish—“What dost thou want?”20Cf.MacCraw’s variation in Campbell, note, Vol. II., p. 301, for the rest of the story.21“Power” in these tales, in the Basque, seems always to mean “magic power,” some wonder-working gift or charm.22In Campbell’s versions it is “the realm of the king under the waves,” or “the realm of the rats;” but a voyage has to be made to that, and a rat takes the place of the servant in stealing the box again for the hero. “The Deccan Tales” mention the Red Sea.23The south wind is the most dreaded local wind in the Pays Basque. It is always hot, and sometimes very violent. After two or three days it usually brings on a violent thunderstorm and rain.24The lad here calls his snuff-box affectionately “Que quieres,” as if that were its name.25The likeness and the variation of this tale from Campbell’s Gaelic one, “The Widow’s Son,” etc., Vol. II., pp. 293–303, prove that both must be independent versions of some original like Aladdin’s lamp, but not mere copies of it.26This doubling of a price is to get a thing more quickly done—in half the usual time. At least, that was the narrator’s explanation.27These three clever men are found in Gascon (Bladé’s “Armagnac Tales,” p. 10), in Spanish, in Campbell’s “The King of Lochlin’s Three Daughters,” Vol. I., p. 238, and in many others.Cf.Brueyre, pp. 113–120, and notes.28Cf.The tale from the Servian, in Naaké’s “Slavonic Fairy Tales,” p. 7.29i.e., the piece of “braise,” or glowing ember from the wood fire, which is always nearly on a level with the floor in a Basque house.30Through the whole of the South of Europe, in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, etc., the firing of guns, pistols, crackers, is universal at all kinds of “fêtes,” especially religious ones; the half-deafened foreigner often longs for some such law as that infringed by “Mahistruba;” butcf.“Juan de Kalais,” p. 151.31Cf. supra, p. 38, “The Serpent in the Wood.”32This tale is somewhat like Campbell’s “Three Soldiers,” with the variations, Vol. I., p. 176. It is said to be very widely spread.33This is an interpolation by the narrator.34At Bayonne one part of the town is called “Les Cinq Cantons.”35For like involuntary sleep, where the lady cannot awaken her lover,cf.Campbell, “The Widow’s Son,” Vol. II., p. 296.36For the incident of the eagle,cf.Campbell, “The King of Lochlin’s Three Daughters,” Vol. I., pp. 238–9:—“When they were at the mouth of the hole, the stots were expended, and she was going to turn back; but he took a steak out of his own thigh, and he gave this to the eagle, and with one spring she was on the surface of the earth.”37Cf.the horse in Naaké’s “Slavonic Fairy Tales,” “Ivan Kruchina” (from the Russian), p. 117, and “the dun shaggy filly,” in Campbell’s “The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh,” Vol. I., p. 5, and elsewhere; also the horse in the “Uso-Andre,” and “The Unknown Animal,” below. Campbell, Vol. I., p. 63, remarks that the horses in Gaelic stories are always feminine; but they are red as well as grey.38In this, and the following tale, Ezkabi’s golden hair is evidently like “Diarmaid’s” beauty spot. “He used to keep his cap always down on the beauty-spot; for any woman that might chance to see it, she would be in love with him.”—Campbell’s “Diarmaid and Grainne,” Vol. III., p. 39, notes and variations.39Compare the following legend, and “Old Deccan Days” (“Truth’s Triumph”), pp. 62, 63.40Cf.above, “The Grateful Tartaro and the Heren-Suge,” p. 22.41Cf.note,supra, p. 113, and Grainne seeing Diarmaid as he lifts his cap or helmet. These beauty-spots seem to be the counterpart of Aphrodite’s cestus.42Cf.the two golden pears in the Spanish “Juanillo el Loco,” Patrañas, p. 38, given in exchange for the same water.43Cf.below, “The Singing Tree,” etc., p. 176.44Cf.“Old Deccan Days,” p. 139; and Cox, “Aryan Mythology,” Vol. I., p. 160,seq.45Cf.below, p. 156.46The word “Ezkabi” is “the scab;” he either really had it, as in the next version, or was supposed to have it from keeping his head covered, as in this. In both cases the hair is most beautiful, precious, golden, and love-compelling.47Cf.with the whole of this tale, Campbell’s second tale, “The Battle of the Birds,” and the variations, especially the one of “Auburn Mary,” Vol. I. pp. 52–58.48Cf.Baring Gould’s chapter, “Swan-Maidens”—“Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,” p. 561,seq.49In the Gaelic the labours are more like those of Herakles—to clean out a byre, to shoot birds, and to rob a magpie’s nest. The Basque incidents seem to fit better into a climatological myth.50In “Old Deccan Days” (“Truth’s Triumph”) it is the hair and not the comb that does the wonders. In M. Cerquand’s “Récits” the comb is an attribute of the Basa-Andre.51In Campbell’s “Battle of the Birds” the hero always sleeps while the giant’s daughter does his task for him.52Here the narrator interposed, “You see it is just as it happens; the women are always the worst.” But in Campbell it is the giant himself who says, “My own daughter’s tricks are trying me.”53In Campbell the finger is lost in climbing the tree to get the magpie’s nest; but, as here, the bride is recognised by the loss of it.54In “Auburn Mary” the hero has to catch a young filly, “with an old, black, rusty bridle.”—Campbell, Vol. I., p. 55.55See below for a second marriage. In Campbell, p. 37, there is a double marriage.56In Campbell, p. 55, “Auburn Mary,” there is the same “talking spittle.”57Cf.“Truth’s Triumph,” in “Old Deccan Days;” and Campbell, pp. 33, 34; andsupra, “Ezkabi-Fidel,” pp. 113, 114.58Campbell, pp. 34 and 56.59In Campbell, it is an old greyhound that kisses him, but with the same result, pp. 34 and 56.60In one of Campbell’s “Variations,” pp. 51, 52, the ending is something like this. In more than one, the hero marries another bride in his period of oblivion.61Cf.Campbell’s “The Chest,” Vol. II., p. 1. The tales seem almost identical.62The usual term for “the Pope;” the French, “Le Saint-Père.”63This is a curious testimony to an ancient practice. In the same way the Basques call “La Fête Dieu,” “Corpus Christi Day;” “Phestaberria,” “The New Feast,” though it was instituted in the thirteenth century.64This is a very old and wide-spread story. The Gaelic versions are given in Campbell, Vol. II., p. 239,seq.Cf.also Cox, “Aryan Mythology,” Vol. I., p. 111,seq.65In the Gaelic it is the bishop’s horse.66This is in the Norse and Teutonic versions.67This, again, is more like the Gaelic.68This name was written thus phonetically from the Basque, and it was not till I saw the Gaelic tale that it struck me that it is simply “Jean d’Ecosse”—“John of Scotland,” or “Scotch John.” In the analogous tale in Campbell, “The Barra Widow’s Son,” Vol. II., p. 111, we read—“It was Iain Albanach” (literally, Jean d’Ecosse) “the boy was called at first; he gave him the name of Iain Mac a Maighstir” (John, master’s son) “because he himself was master of the vessel.” This seems decisive that in some way the Basques have borrowed this tale from the Kelts since their occupation of the Hebrides. The Spanish versions, too, are termed “The Irish Princess” (Patrañas, p. 234).69See note on preceding page, and Campbell, Vol. II., p. 3.70Whether this refers to any real custom about dead men’s debts, we cannot say. It occurs in the Gaelic, in “Ezkabi,” and in other tales and versions, notably in the Spanish; see as above, and “The White Blackbird,” below, p. 182.71In other versions it is the soul of the man whose debts he had paid, either in the shape of a hermit or afox. In the Gaelic it is left vague and undetermined. He is called “one,” or “the asker.” (Campbell, Vol. II., pp. 119 and 121.) The same contract is made in each case, and with the same result.72This is, of course, “Jean de Calais”—“John of Calais”—and would seem to show that it was through some French, and not Spanish, versions that the Basques learnt it.73This seems inserted from “Mahistruba,” p. 105.74In the Gaelic it is a general, as here, and not a lame second officer, as in “Juan Dekos,” who wants to marry the lady, and who sets the hero on a desert island.—Campbell, Vol. II., p. 118.75See note on page 149.76We had put this tale aside, with some others, as worthless, until we found from Campbell how widely it is spread. The earliest version seems to be the Italian of Straparola, 1567. The first incident there, persuading that a pig is an ass, we have in another Basque tale; the last two incidents are identical. They are found, too, in the Gaelic, though in separate versions. For killing the wife, see Campbell, Vol. II., p. 232; for the last, pp. 222 and 234.Cf.also “The Three Widows,” with all the variations and notes, Vol. II., pp. 218–238. Is this a case of transmission from one people to another of the Italian of Straparola? or do all the versions point back to some lost original? and is there, or can there be, any allegorical meaning to such a tale? The answer to these questions seems of great importance, and the present tale to be a good instance to work upon. Petarillo seems an Italian name.77“Peau d’Ane.”78“Fidèle.”79The narrator was here asked “if the place of the dance was at the king’s palace.” “No,” she gravely replied, “it was at the mairie.” In other tales it is on the “place,”i.e., the open square or market-place which there is in most French towns and villages in the south. It is generally in front either of the church or of the mairie.80This was explained as meaning “Beaten with the Slipper.” This version came from the Cascarrot, or half-gipsy quarter of St. Jean de Luz, and may not bepurelyBasque. Except in one or two words the language is correct enough—for St. Jean de Luz.81At an exclamation of surprise from one of the auditors, the narrator piously said, “It is the Holy Virgin who permitted all that.”82Cf.“The Serpent in the Wood,” p. 38.83Literally, “be full.”84Cf.the well behind the house in the “Fisherman and his Three Sons,” p. 87.85Cf.“Dragon,” p. 108.]86Here the narrator evidently forgot to tell about the child’s being exposed, and the gardener finding it, as appears by the sequel.87Cf.the well that boils in “The Fisherman and his Three Sons,” and the ring in “Beauty and the Beast.”88Can Bunyan have taken his description of the “Valley of the Shadow of Death,” in the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” partly from such tales as this?89Cf.above in “Ezkabi” and “Juan Dekos.” There is some similarity between this tale and Campbell’s “Mac Ian Direach,” Vol. II., p. 328. Compare also “The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener,” in Kennedy’s “Fireside Stories of Ireland.” We know only the French translation of this last in Brueyre, p. 145. “Le Merle Blanc” is one of the best known of French stories.90Cf.“Juan Dekos” for paying the debts, and the fox. In the Gaelic the fox is called “An Gille Mairtean,” “the fox.” (Campbell, Vol. II., p. 329,seq.)91Cf.the stealing of the bay filly in Campbell’s “Mac Iain Direach,” Vol. II., p. 334.92Huge cisterns, partly underground, for holding rain water, are common in the Pays Basque. They are, of course, near the houses off which the water drains.93Cf.“Basa-Jauna,” p. 49.94A piece of the braise, or burnt stick. This is constantly done all through the South of France, where wood is burnt. If your fire is out you run to get a stick from your neighbour’s fire.95Cf.note to “Basa-Jauna,” p. 49.96Cf.“Old Deccan Days” (“Truth’s Triumph”), pp. 57–58. The little girl is the rose tree there among the mango trees, her brothers. Cows are very gentle in the Pays Basque, and are often petted, especially the tiny black and white Breton ones. We have known a strong man weep at the death of a favourite cow, and this one of ten others.97The Ranee makes the same conditions in “Truth’s Triumph”—“You will let me take these crows” (her brothers) “with me, will you not? for I love them dearly, and I cannot go away unless they may come too.”—“Old Deccan Days,” p. 59.98This was recited to M. Vinson, and has been published by him in the“Revue de Linguistique,” p. 241 (Janvier, 1876). We have since heard of a longer form preserved at Renteria, in Guipuzcoa.99To these should perhaps be added the Latin of the Dolopathos and “Gesta Romanorum” of the 12th or 13th century.
1See notes to “Juan Dekos,” p. 146.
2I think this word occurs in some “Chanson de Gestes,” and in the Basque “Pastorales,” as a Mahommedan devil. If not, it is probably our own “Duke of Marlborough” thus transformed.Cf.the song, ”Malbrouk s’en va en guerre.”
3This is again, “red, angry.”
4Cf.Campbell, “The Tale of Connal,” Vol. I., p. 142.
5This looks uncommonly like “Ho, you!” but it is given by Salaberry as a Basque cry, “Appel par un cri fort, par la voix élevée.” “Play,” as an exclamation to begin at games of ball, has no meaning in Basque, and is believed to come from the English. We have borrowed “Jingo,” “by Jingo,” from “Jinkoa,” “the deity.”
6In Campbell’s first tale, “The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh, the hero is assisted by a dog, a falcon, and an otter.Cf.the notes in the translation of this tale in Brueyre’s “Contes de la Grande Bretagne;”cf.also, “The Sea-Maiden,” pp. 73 and 94, for a still closer resemblance.
7Cf.“Tabakiera,” p. 94, and “Old Deccan Days,” pp. 83–91. It is curious to hear of the Red Sea from narrators so far apart, on opposite sides, as the Lingaets of the Deccan and the Basques, neither of whom, probably, had the most distant idea of its geographical position; certainly our Basque narrators had not.
8In Campbell’s “Sea-Maiden,” the hero has only to think of the animals, and they are at his side; but he is not transformed into them.
9Campbell refers to “The Giant who had no Heart in his Body,” “Norse Tales,” 1859. See his references, and those in the “Contes Populaires de la Grande Bretagne,” cited above. M. d’Abbadie has also communicated to us the outlines of a wild Tartaro story, told in Basque, in which the hero “fights with a body without a soul.”
10Cf.Campbell’s “Tales,” before quoted, and “Old Deccan Days” (“Punchkin”), pp. 14, 15, for the whole of this incident.
11Malbrouk seems now to assume the character of “Hermes, the clever thief.” If we mistake not, this cow appears also in Indian mythology.
12For the whole of this tale compare Campbell’s “Sea-Maiden,” Vol. I., p. 71. The sea-maiden takes the place of the fish. Besides the three sons, the three foals, and the three puppies, three trees grow behind the house, and serve as a sign like the well boiling. Bladé’s “Les Deux Jumeaux,” in his “Contes Agenais,” is identical with this;cf.also Köhler’s notes, p. 148.
13Much more is made of the sword in the Gaelic tales. In them it is always a magic or a mystic weapon.
14This episode of the fight with the seven-headed beast is introduced in the same way in the Gaelic—“The Sea-Maiden,” pp. 76, 77.Cf.also “Rouge Etin,” in Brueyre.
15In the Gaelic the charcoal-burner is a general.
16This takes place not on the wedding night, but some time after in the “Sea-Maiden,” p. 82. The wife at prayers and the husband standing by indifferent is but too true a picture, we fear.
17The “Sea-Maiden,” p. 82—“Go not, go not,” said she, “there never went man to this castle that returned.” See below.
18Basque, “as must needs be.”
19We were also told, in Basque, “The Powerful Lantern,” which was the story of Aladdin’s lamp, with onlyoneincident omitted. The present is much more like the Gaelic, but there (Campbell, Vol. II., 297–9) it is a lady who gives the snuff-box, which says, “Eege gu djeege,” on being opened. Campbell’s note is:—“The explanation of these sounds was, that it was ‘as if they were asking.’ The sounds mean nothing, that I know of, in any language.” “Que quieres?” is pure Spanish—“What dost thou want?”
20Cf.MacCraw’s variation in Campbell, note, Vol. II., p. 301, for the rest of the story.
21“Power” in these tales, in the Basque, seems always to mean “magic power,” some wonder-working gift or charm.
22In Campbell’s versions it is “the realm of the king under the waves,” or “the realm of the rats;” but a voyage has to be made to that, and a rat takes the place of the servant in stealing the box again for the hero. “The Deccan Tales” mention the Red Sea.
23The south wind is the most dreaded local wind in the Pays Basque. It is always hot, and sometimes very violent. After two or three days it usually brings on a violent thunderstorm and rain.
24The lad here calls his snuff-box affectionately “Que quieres,” as if that were its name.
25The likeness and the variation of this tale from Campbell’s Gaelic one, “The Widow’s Son,” etc., Vol. II., pp. 293–303, prove that both must be independent versions of some original like Aladdin’s lamp, but not mere copies of it.
26This doubling of a price is to get a thing more quickly done—in half the usual time. At least, that was the narrator’s explanation.
27These three clever men are found in Gascon (Bladé’s “Armagnac Tales,” p. 10), in Spanish, in Campbell’s “The King of Lochlin’s Three Daughters,” Vol. I., p. 238, and in many others.Cf.Brueyre, pp. 113–120, and notes.
28Cf.The tale from the Servian, in Naaké’s “Slavonic Fairy Tales,” p. 7.
29i.e., the piece of “braise,” or glowing ember from the wood fire, which is always nearly on a level with the floor in a Basque house.
30Through the whole of the South of Europe, in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, etc., the firing of guns, pistols, crackers, is universal at all kinds of “fêtes,” especially religious ones; the half-deafened foreigner often longs for some such law as that infringed by “Mahistruba;” butcf.“Juan de Kalais,” p. 151.
31Cf. supra, p. 38, “The Serpent in the Wood.”
32This tale is somewhat like Campbell’s “Three Soldiers,” with the variations, Vol. I., p. 176. It is said to be very widely spread.
33This is an interpolation by the narrator.
34At Bayonne one part of the town is called “Les Cinq Cantons.”
35For like involuntary sleep, where the lady cannot awaken her lover,cf.Campbell, “The Widow’s Son,” Vol. II., p. 296.
36For the incident of the eagle,cf.Campbell, “The King of Lochlin’s Three Daughters,” Vol. I., pp. 238–9:—“When they were at the mouth of the hole, the stots were expended, and she was going to turn back; but he took a steak out of his own thigh, and he gave this to the eagle, and with one spring she was on the surface of the earth.”
37Cf.the horse in Naaké’s “Slavonic Fairy Tales,” “Ivan Kruchina” (from the Russian), p. 117, and “the dun shaggy filly,” in Campbell’s “The Young King of Easaidh Ruadh,” Vol. I., p. 5, and elsewhere; also the horse in the “Uso-Andre,” and “The Unknown Animal,” below. Campbell, Vol. I., p. 63, remarks that the horses in Gaelic stories are always feminine; but they are red as well as grey.
38In this, and the following tale, Ezkabi’s golden hair is evidently like “Diarmaid’s” beauty spot. “He used to keep his cap always down on the beauty-spot; for any woman that might chance to see it, she would be in love with him.”—Campbell’s “Diarmaid and Grainne,” Vol. III., p. 39, notes and variations.
39Compare the following legend, and “Old Deccan Days” (“Truth’s Triumph”), pp. 62, 63.
40Cf.above, “The Grateful Tartaro and the Heren-Suge,” p. 22.
41Cf.note,supra, p. 113, and Grainne seeing Diarmaid as he lifts his cap or helmet. These beauty-spots seem to be the counterpart of Aphrodite’s cestus.
42Cf.the two golden pears in the Spanish “Juanillo el Loco,” Patrañas, p. 38, given in exchange for the same water.
43Cf.below, “The Singing Tree,” etc., p. 176.
44Cf.“Old Deccan Days,” p. 139; and Cox, “Aryan Mythology,” Vol. I., p. 160,seq.
45Cf.below, p. 156.
46The word “Ezkabi” is “the scab;” he either really had it, as in the next version, or was supposed to have it from keeping his head covered, as in this. In both cases the hair is most beautiful, precious, golden, and love-compelling.
47Cf.with the whole of this tale, Campbell’s second tale, “The Battle of the Birds,” and the variations, especially the one of “Auburn Mary,” Vol. I. pp. 52–58.
48Cf.Baring Gould’s chapter, “Swan-Maidens”—“Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,” p. 561,seq.
49In the Gaelic the labours are more like those of Herakles—to clean out a byre, to shoot birds, and to rob a magpie’s nest. The Basque incidents seem to fit better into a climatological myth.
50In “Old Deccan Days” (“Truth’s Triumph”) it is the hair and not the comb that does the wonders. In M. Cerquand’s “Récits” the comb is an attribute of the Basa-Andre.
51In Campbell’s “Battle of the Birds” the hero always sleeps while the giant’s daughter does his task for him.
52Here the narrator interposed, “You see it is just as it happens; the women are always the worst.” But in Campbell it is the giant himself who says, “My own daughter’s tricks are trying me.”
53In Campbell the finger is lost in climbing the tree to get the magpie’s nest; but, as here, the bride is recognised by the loss of it.
54In “Auburn Mary” the hero has to catch a young filly, “with an old, black, rusty bridle.”—Campbell, Vol. I., p. 55.
55See below for a second marriage. In Campbell, p. 37, there is a double marriage.
56In Campbell, p. 55, “Auburn Mary,” there is the same “talking spittle.”
57Cf.“Truth’s Triumph,” in “Old Deccan Days;” and Campbell, pp. 33, 34; andsupra, “Ezkabi-Fidel,” pp. 113, 114.
58Campbell, pp. 34 and 56.
59In Campbell, it is an old greyhound that kisses him, but with the same result, pp. 34 and 56.
60In one of Campbell’s “Variations,” pp. 51, 52, the ending is something like this. In more than one, the hero marries another bride in his period of oblivion.
61Cf.Campbell’s “The Chest,” Vol. II., p. 1. The tales seem almost identical.
62The usual term for “the Pope;” the French, “Le Saint-Père.”
63This is a curious testimony to an ancient practice. In the same way the Basques call “La Fête Dieu,” “Corpus Christi Day;” “Phestaberria,” “The New Feast,” though it was instituted in the thirteenth century.
64This is a very old and wide-spread story. The Gaelic versions are given in Campbell, Vol. II., p. 239,seq.Cf.also Cox, “Aryan Mythology,” Vol. I., p. 111,seq.
65In the Gaelic it is the bishop’s horse.
66This is in the Norse and Teutonic versions.
67This, again, is more like the Gaelic.
68This name was written thus phonetically from the Basque, and it was not till I saw the Gaelic tale that it struck me that it is simply “Jean d’Ecosse”—“John of Scotland,” or “Scotch John.” In the analogous tale in Campbell, “The Barra Widow’s Son,” Vol. II., p. 111, we read—“It was Iain Albanach” (literally, Jean d’Ecosse) “the boy was called at first; he gave him the name of Iain Mac a Maighstir” (John, master’s son) “because he himself was master of the vessel.” This seems decisive that in some way the Basques have borrowed this tale from the Kelts since their occupation of the Hebrides. The Spanish versions, too, are termed “The Irish Princess” (Patrañas, p. 234).
69See note on preceding page, and Campbell, Vol. II., p. 3.
70Whether this refers to any real custom about dead men’s debts, we cannot say. It occurs in the Gaelic, in “Ezkabi,” and in other tales and versions, notably in the Spanish; see as above, and “The White Blackbird,” below, p. 182.
71In other versions it is the soul of the man whose debts he had paid, either in the shape of a hermit or afox. In the Gaelic it is left vague and undetermined. He is called “one,” or “the asker.” (Campbell, Vol. II., pp. 119 and 121.) The same contract is made in each case, and with the same result.
72This is, of course, “Jean de Calais”—“John of Calais”—and would seem to show that it was through some French, and not Spanish, versions that the Basques learnt it.
73This seems inserted from “Mahistruba,” p. 105.
74In the Gaelic it is a general, as here, and not a lame second officer, as in “Juan Dekos,” who wants to marry the lady, and who sets the hero on a desert island.—Campbell, Vol. II., p. 118.
75See note on page 149.
76We had put this tale aside, with some others, as worthless, until we found from Campbell how widely it is spread. The earliest version seems to be the Italian of Straparola, 1567. The first incident there, persuading that a pig is an ass, we have in another Basque tale; the last two incidents are identical. They are found, too, in the Gaelic, though in separate versions. For killing the wife, see Campbell, Vol. II., p. 232; for the last, pp. 222 and 234.Cf.also “The Three Widows,” with all the variations and notes, Vol. II., pp. 218–238. Is this a case of transmission from one people to another of the Italian of Straparola? or do all the versions point back to some lost original? and is there, or can there be, any allegorical meaning to such a tale? The answer to these questions seems of great importance, and the present tale to be a good instance to work upon. Petarillo seems an Italian name.
77“Peau d’Ane.”
78“Fidèle.”
79The narrator was here asked “if the place of the dance was at the king’s palace.” “No,” she gravely replied, “it was at the mairie.” In other tales it is on the “place,”i.e., the open square or market-place which there is in most French towns and villages in the south. It is generally in front either of the church or of the mairie.
80This was explained as meaning “Beaten with the Slipper.” This version came from the Cascarrot, or half-gipsy quarter of St. Jean de Luz, and may not bepurelyBasque. Except in one or two words the language is correct enough—for St. Jean de Luz.
81At an exclamation of surprise from one of the auditors, the narrator piously said, “It is the Holy Virgin who permitted all that.”
82Cf.“The Serpent in the Wood,” p. 38.
83Literally, “be full.”
84Cf.the well behind the house in the “Fisherman and his Three Sons,” p. 87.
85Cf.“Dragon,” p. 108.]
86Here the narrator evidently forgot to tell about the child’s being exposed, and the gardener finding it, as appears by the sequel.
87Cf.the well that boils in “The Fisherman and his Three Sons,” and the ring in “Beauty and the Beast.”
88Can Bunyan have taken his description of the “Valley of the Shadow of Death,” in the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” partly from such tales as this?
89Cf.above in “Ezkabi” and “Juan Dekos.” There is some similarity between this tale and Campbell’s “Mac Ian Direach,” Vol. II., p. 328. Compare also “The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener,” in Kennedy’s “Fireside Stories of Ireland.” We know only the French translation of this last in Brueyre, p. 145. “Le Merle Blanc” is one of the best known of French stories.
90Cf.“Juan Dekos” for paying the debts, and the fox. In the Gaelic the fox is called “An Gille Mairtean,” “the fox.” (Campbell, Vol. II., p. 329,seq.)
91Cf.the stealing of the bay filly in Campbell’s “Mac Iain Direach,” Vol. II., p. 334.
92Huge cisterns, partly underground, for holding rain water, are common in the Pays Basque. They are, of course, near the houses off which the water drains.
93Cf.“Basa-Jauna,” p. 49.
94A piece of the braise, or burnt stick. This is constantly done all through the South of France, where wood is burnt. If your fire is out you run to get a stick from your neighbour’s fire.
95Cf.note to “Basa-Jauna,” p. 49.
96Cf.“Old Deccan Days” (“Truth’s Triumph”), pp. 57–58. The little girl is the rose tree there among the mango trees, her brothers. Cows are very gentle in the Pays Basque, and are often petted, especially the tiny black and white Breton ones. We have known a strong man weep at the death of a favourite cow, and this one of ten others.
97The Ranee makes the same conditions in “Truth’s Triumph”—“You will let me take these crows” (her brothers) “with me, will you not? for I love them dearly, and I cannot go away unless they may come too.”—“Old Deccan Days,” p. 59.
98This was recited to M. Vinson, and has been published by him in the“Revue de Linguistique,” p. 241 (Janvier, 1876). We have since heard of a longer form preserved at Renteria, in Guipuzcoa.
99To these should perhaps be added the Latin of the Dolopathos and “Gesta Romanorum” of the 12th or 13th century.