The Basques of Lapurdi, Zuberoa, and Lower Navarre Their History and Their Traditions

Center for Basque Studies Basque Classics Series, No. 6 The Basques of Lapurdi, Zuberoa, and Lower Navarre Their History and Their Traditions by Philippe Veyrin Translated by Andrew Brown Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada 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. 6 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 © 2011 by the Center for Basque Studies All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America Cover and series design © 2011 by Jose Luis Agote Cover illustration: Xiberoko maskaradak (Maskaradak of Zuberoa), drawing by Paul-Adolph Kaufman, 1906 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Veyrin, Philippe, 1900-1962. [Basques de Labourd, de Soule et de Basse Navarre. English] The Basques of Lapurdi, Zuberoa, and Lower Navarre : their history and their traditions / by Philippe Veyrin ; with an introduction by Sandra Ott ; translated by Andrew Brown. p. cm. Translation of: Les Basques, de Labourd, de Soule et de Basse Navarre Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: “Classic book on the Basques of Iparralde (French Basque Country) originally published in 1942, treating Basque history and culture in the region”--Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-877802-99-7 (hardcover) 1. Pays Basque (France)--Description and travel. 2. Pays Basque (France)-- History. I. Title. DC611.B313V513 2011 944’.716--dc22 2011001810 Contents List of Illustrations..................................................... vii Note on Basque Orthography.......................................... xiii Introduction to the First English Edition............................... xv Preface ................................................................. 3 Foreword ............................................................... 5 Part 1 The Land and Its People 1. Contours — Soil and Subsoil — Mountains and Rivers .......... 11 2. Climate — Flora and Fauna — Ways of Life — Pastoral Life — Agricultural Life — Fishing ...................... 31 3. Population — Roads — Dwellings ................................ 57 4. Portraits of Basques — The Gipuzkoans — The Navarrese — The Béarnais — The Gascons — Inner Minorities — Basque Expansion................................................. 75 5. The Origin of the Basques: Diferent Theories — Prehistory — Is There a Basque Race? — From Cavemen to the Vascones — The Sources of Euskara — An Overall View ...................... 93 Part 2 History 6. The Basques in History — The Roman Domination — Visigoths and Vascones — Franks, Arabs, and Normans ......... 113 7. Formation of the Basque Country — Feudal Organization — Religious Expansion ..................... 125 8. English Domination — From 1155 to 1337 — The French Conquest — Baiona, an English City ................. 147 9. France and Spain — The History of the Kingdom of Navarre — From 1451 to 1530 ................................ 161 10. From 1530 to 1660 — The Reformation and the Wars of Religion — The Reign of Henry IV — From Richelieu to Mazarin — The Treaty of the Pyrenees ........................... 173 11. The Fors — The Royal Ofcers — The Local Assemblies — The Estates of Lower Navarre — The Bilçar of Lapurdi — The Court of Order at Soule — The Judicial Institutions — The Militias — Sabel-Churi and Sabel-Gorri — The Ambitions of M. de Troisvilles ............................... 189 12. From 1660 to 1789 — Seafaring Activity — Life in the Basque Country — The Struggle against Centralization .................. 209 13. The Estates General of 1789 — The Night of August 4 — The Revolutionary Upheaval — Military Operations — The Directoire, the Consulate, the Empire — From 1815 to 1940 ............................................... 231 Part 3 Traditions 14. Eskuara — Basque Toponymy — The Oldest Basque Texts — Written Literature — Baiones Gascon ............................ 251 15. Oral Literature — Popular Songs — Proverbs and Sayings — Folktales and Legends ............................................. 273 16. God’s Part — Churches, Chapels, and Oratories — Processions and Pilgrimages — The Devil’s Part.................. 293 17. Family and Social Life — Neighbors — Birth and Baptism — Marriage — Death . 319 18. Pleasures and Games — Games of Basque Pelota — Other Forms of Entertainment — Dances — The Popular Theater ..... 341 19. Costume — Pastoral and Agricultural Equipment — Popular Art........................................................ 367 Bibliography ........................................................... 389 Further Readings ....................................................... 415 Index ................................................................... 419 List of Illustrations Illustration 1, page 13. French Basque Country is framed on the west by coastline extending from the estuary of the Aturri in the north to that of the Bidasoa to the south at the border with Spain. Illustration 2, page 14. The Bidasoa is, along its last seven or eight miles, the frontier between the two states. Illustration 3, page 23. Basque watercourses are not really navigable, but used to constitute a far from negligible source of energy. Illustration 4, page 27. In Zuberoa, subterranean streams have carved real canyons through the limestone rocks—canyons that are splendid natural curiosities. The Ibarrezker (Val Senestre) contains the famous gorges of Kakueta. Illustrations 5 and 6, pages 38–39. The ringdove (ursoa) holds too consider- able a place not to be mentioned here. When autumn comes, it is the favorite prey of our hunters. Equipped with birdcalls, they shoot it with rifles. But the birds are usually caught in big nets strung across the passes into which the ringdoves, startled from afar by the cries of lookouts, almost inevitably head. Illustration 7, page 41. The small artisan trades—earthenware makers, weav- ers, sandal-makers, chocolate-makers, chistera-makers—also keep the framework of traditional Basque life intact. Illustration 8, page 43. Pastoral life, which has always counted for a great deal in the activity of the Basque country dwellers, has very ancient roots. Illustration 9, page 49. The region possesses its own breed of oxen: these are red-haired animals, of medium size, strongly built, and very well- adapted to cartage and plowing. Illustration 10, page 52. Watchmen would keep a close eye on the waves from an atalaye—a sort of watchtower-cum-chimney. They would signal the presence of whales by sending up smoke. viii The Basques of Lapurdi, Zuberoa, and Lower Navarre by Philippe Veyrin Illustration 11, page 54. If large-scale fishing is dead, coastal fishing never ceased and is still alive and thriving. Illustration 12, page 55. It was first and foremost the use of steam—and more recently of fuel—which considerably extended the number of sailing days. Illustration 13, page 64. The bridge at Bidarrai (Bidarray), built in a more sophisticated way, could date to the fourteenth century. Illustration 14, page 67. History alone—the history of feudal struggles in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries—can explain the many fortified and infançon houses found here and there with their heavy ogival doors and narrow mullioned casement windows. Illustration 15, page 69. The Basque house forms a single block. It brings together inhabitants, cattle, and their harvests under the two gently sloping sides of a single roof of tiles. The facade is very dominant and rises at one end of the building, in the shade of the gable, which usually faces southeast. Illustration 16, page 72. Around the Lapurdian (Labourdian) dwelling, and completing its overall appearance, aligned high, flat stones stuck into the ground act as a fence. Illustration 17, page 98. A great number of artworks inspired by animal veneration have been discovered in Izturitze (Isturitz). The realism of these depictions—especially from the Magdalenian—bears witness to an extraordinary power of observation. Illustration 18, page 103. The triangular facial appearance of the Basques is due to a very marked shrinking of the face toward the chin, in contrast to an exceptional swelling of the cranium at the level of the temples. Illustration 19, page 121. It was the Normans who, at the gates of Baiona (Bayonne)—where a fountain perpetuates the tradition of the mar- tyr—are said to have beheaded Saint Leo in 892. Illustration 20, page 135. In Zuberoa (Soule), the abbey of Sainte-Engrâce is tucked away in the deepest recesses of the mountain. Illustration 21, page 137. There were more majestic examples of these ospi- tale, as the Basques still call them: one was this colossal commanderie of the Knights of Malta, whose haughty mass dominates the town of Irisarri (Irissarry). Illustration 22, page 139. Ospitalepea (L’Hôpital-Saint-Blaise), a church lost in the woods on the edges of Béarn, is an edifice unparalleled in the region thanks to its half-oriental style. List of Illustrations ix Illustration 23, pages 142–43. We do not know the name of the architect who conceived—and it is a unique monument in the whole of our Southwest—this cathedral in an entirely northern style, such as those of León and Burgos in Spain. Illustration 24, page 152. Zuberoa, like Lapurdi a century previously, became the direct property of the English sovereigns. They were represented in it by a captain

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