Basque Legends; With an Essay on the Basque Language. Wentworth Webster
with a corner of the floor, poor wretches as we are.”
“I have my husband, the Basa-Jaun, and if he catches you he will eat you; that’s certain.”
“And if he catches us outside he will eat us all the same.”
Then she let these three brothers come in, and she hides the three in three different corners. Afterwards, at nine o’clock, the Basa-Jaun comes. He made a great noise and blustering, and then the Basa-Andre goes out, and says to him:
“There is nobody here.”
“Yes, you have somebody; bring them out, or else I will eat you myself.”
And she goes and brings out the eldest brother, trembling with fright. The Basa-Jaun says to him,
“Will you be my servant?”
He says to him, “Yes.”
And Basa-Jaun begins again to sniff about.
“You have still somebody else here?”
And she brings out the second, and he says to him:
“Will you be servant to me?”
And he said, “Yes.”
Again, he smelled the smell of some one, and at the third time she brings out the third, and he says to him:
“All three of you shall sup with me to-night, and afterwards we shall go to bed. But to-morrow we will all go hunting.”
And they go hunting the next day until eight o’clock in the evening.
Now, they had at home a little sister. She was little then, but in time she grew up. One day the landlady and the farmer’s wife had put out the new maize in the garden to dry; and when no one saw her, the little girl took some from her mistress’ heap, and put it to her own. When the mistress saw that, she began to cry out, saying to her,
“Bold hussey that you are, there is no one like you! You will come to a bad end like your brothers.”
And the young girl began to cry, and goes to find her mother, and says to her,
“Mother, had I any brothers?”45
She says to her, “Yes, my child.”
“What were they?”
“Child, they went away a long time ago,” she said to her.
This little girl says,
“I, too, must be off to-day. Give me a distaff to spin with, and a penny cake.”
She sets off, and comes to the house of the Basa-Jaun, and she knocks at the door, and she lets her in. While his wife was telling her that it is the house of the Basa-Jaun, the elder brother comes in; but they did not recognise one another at all. And afterwards Basa-Jaun comes, and says, as he enters the house:
“You have something here for me,” says he.
“No,” says she.
“Show it.”
And immediately she shows her. Basa-Jaun says to her:
“Will you engage yourself as my servant?”
She says to him, “Yes, sir.”
Some days afterwards the brothers recognised their sister, and they embraced each other very much. And this young girl who was so well before began to grow thin. And one day one of her brothers asked her:
“What is the matter with you that you are getting thin like this?”
And she answered:
“The master every evening asks me to put my little finger through the door, and he sucks the finger through the door, and I become every day more sad and more languid.”46
One day, when the Basa-Andre was not at home, these brothers and the sister plotted together to kill Basa-Jaun, if they could catch him in a ravine in a certain place. And they kill him.
One day the wife asks,
“Where is Basa-Jaun?”
And Basa-Andre takes out three large teeth, and brings them to the house, and tells this young girl herself, when she heats the water for her brothers’ feet in the evening, to put one tooth in the water of each.47 And as soon as the third had finished washing the three brothers became oxen; and this young girl used to drive all three into the fields. And this young girl lived there on the birds they (the oxen) found, and nothing else.
One day, as she was passing over a bridge,48 she sees Basa-Andre under, and says to her:
“If you do not make these three oxen men as they were before, I will put you into a red-hot oven.”
She answers her:
“No! go to such a dell, and take thence three hazel sticks,49 and strike each of them three blows on the back.”
And she did what she told her, and they were changed into men the same as they were before; and all the brothers and the sister lived happily together in Basa-Jaun’s castle, and as they lived well they made a good end also.
Estefanella Hirigaray.
The Servant at the Fairy’s
Once upon a time there was a woman who had three daughters. One day the youngest said to her that she must go out to service. And going from town to town, she met at last a fairy who asked her:
“Where are you going to, my child?”
And she answered, “Do you know a place for a servant?”
“Yes; if you will come to my house I will take you.”
She said, “Yes.”
She gave her her morning’s work to do, and said to her:
“We are fairies. I must go from home, but your work is in the kitchen; smash the pitcher, break all the plates, pound the children, give them breakfast (by themselves), dirty their faces, and rumple their hair.”50
While she was at breakfast with the children, a little dog comes to her and says:
“Tchau, tchau, tchow; I too, I want something.”
“Be off from here, silly little dog; I will give you a kick.”
But the dog did not go away; and at last she gave him something to eat—a little, not much.
“And now,” says he, “I will tell you what the mistress has told you to do. She told you to sweep the kitchen, to fill the pitcher, and to wash all the plates, and that if it is all well done she will give you the choice of a sack of charcoal or of a bag of gold; of a beautiful star on your forehead, or of a donkey’s tail hanging from it. You must answer, ‘A sack of charcoal and a donkey’s tail.’”
The mistress comes. The new servant had done all the work, and she was very well satisfied with her. So she said to her:
“Choose which you would like, a sack of charcoal or a bag of gold?”
“A sack of charcoal is the same to me.”
“A star for your forehead, or a donkey’s tail?”
“A donkey’s tail would be the same to me.”
Then she gives her a bag of gold, and a beautiful star on her forehead.51 Then the servant goes home. She was so pretty with this star, and this bag of gold on her shoulders, the whole family was astonished at her. The eldest daughter says to her mother:
“Mother, I will go and be a servant too.”
And she says to her, “No, my child, you shall not do so.”
But as she would not leave her in peace (she assented), and
Cf. “The Sister and her Seven Brothers.”
This is the only representation that we know of Basa-Jaun as a vampire.
As the Basques commonly go barefooted, or use only hempen sandals, the feet require to be washed every evening. This is generally done before the kitchen fire, and in strict order of age and rank. Cf. also “The Sister and her Seven Brothers.”
The running water, we suspect, gives the girl power over the witch.
“Hazel sticks.” In the sixteenth century the dog-wood, “cornus sanguinea,” seems to have been the witches’ wood. In the “Pastorales,” all the enchantments, etc., are done by the ribboned wands of the Satans. This tale ends rather abruptly. The reciter grew very tired at the last.
Basque Lamiñak always say exactly the contrary to what they mean.
Cf. Bladé’s “Contes Agenais,” “Les Deux Filles,” and Köhler’s “Notes Comparatives” on the tale, p. 149.