Vi. Contes Des F'ees. Derived Directly. Part 10 : VARIATIONS ON 'ASS-SKIN' We have four other variations of the above story, written down, with others, that we heard, but did not copy out. One, which much resembles the above, excepting in the commencement, opens with the proposal of a king's son to marry one of the three daughters of another king...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees. Derived Directly. Part 11 : ASS'-SKIN. 1 LIKE many others in the world, there was a king and a queen. One day there came to them a young girl who p. 159 wished for a situation. They asked her her name, and she said "Faithful." 1 The king said to her, "Are you like your name?" and she said "Yes." She stopped there seven years...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 08 : SUGGESTED EXPLANATION OF THE ABOVE TALE (THE LADY-PIGEON AND HER COMB). THIS legend seems to us to be one of the best examples in our collection of what may be called atmospherical, or climatological myths. The story opens with man in misery, without the aid of cultivation and agriculture. The old...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees. Derived Directly. Part 06 : THE COBBLER AND HIS THREE DAUGHTERS (BLUE BEARD). LIKE many others in the world, there was a cobbler who had three daughters. They were very poor. He only earned enough just to feed his children. He did not know what would become of him. He went about in his grief, walking, walking sadly on, and he...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 16 : A.)--TALES LIKE THE KELTIC. MALBROUK. 1 LIKE many others in the world, there was a man and a woman who were over-burdened with children, and were very poor. The man used to go to the forest every day to get wood for his family. His wife was on the point of being confined. One day he w...
Vii. Religious Tales. Jesus Christ : JESUS CHRIST AND THE OLD SOLDIER. ONCE upon a time, when Jesus Christ was going with His disciples to Jerusalem, He met an old man, and asked alms of him. The old man said to Him: "I am an old soldier, and they sent me away from the army with only two sous, because I was no longer good for anything...
Introduction : p. vii INTRODUCTION. 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...
Untitled : BASQUE LEGENDS BY WENTWORTH WEBSTER [1879] Title Page Contents Introduction I.--LEGENDS OF THE TARTARO Introduction The Tartaro M. d'Abbadie's Version Variations of 'The Tartaro' Errua, The Madman Variations of Errua The Three Brothers, The Cruel Master, And The Tartaro The Tartaro and Petit...
Iii. Animal Tales. The Ass And The Wolf : THE ASS AND THE WOLF. ASTOA ETA OTSOA. LIKE many others in the world, there was an ass. He was going along a ravine, laden with Malaga wine. (You know that asses are very much afraid of wolves, because the wolves are very fond of the flesh of asses.) While he was journeying along in that fashi...
I. Legends Of The Tartaro. The Three Brothers : THE THREE BROTHERS, THE CRUEL MASTER, AND THE TARTARO. LIKE many others in the world, there lived a mother with her three sons. They were not rich, but lived by their work. The eldest son said one day to his mother-- "It would be better for us if I should go out to service." The mother did not like...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 05 : THE SON WHO HEARD VOICES. Like many others in the world, there was a gentleman and lady. They had several children. There was one whom they did not love so much as they did the others, because he said that he heard a voice very often. He said also that this voice had told him that a father...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 12 : DRAGON. A KING had a son who was called Dragon. He was as debauched as it is possible to be. All the money that he had he had spent, and still more; not having enough, he demanded his portion from his father. The father gives it him immediately, and he goes off, taking with him a companion who had...
Iv. Basa Jaun, Basa Andre, And Laminak. Part 03 : THE PRETTY BUT IDLE GIRL. 2 ONCE upon a time there was a mother who had a very beautiful daughter. The mother was always bustling about, but the daughter would not do anything. So she gave her such a good beating that she sat down on a flat stone to cry. One day the young owner of the castle went...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees. Derived Directly. Part 02 : THE WHITE BLACKBIRD. LIKE many others in the world, there was a king who had three sons. This king was blind, and he had heard one day that there was a king who had a white blackbird, which gave sight to the blind. When his eldest son heard that, he. said to his father that he would go and fetch...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees. Derived Directly. Part 03 : VARIATION ON 'THE SINGING TREE, THE BIRD WHICH TELLS THE TRUTH, AND THE WATER THAT MAKES YOUNG' We have also the more common version of this story--of an aged king with three sons. He reads of this water, and the three sons successively set out to fetch it. The two first fail, and stop, drinking...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 13 : MAHISTRUBA, THE MASTER MARINER. LIKE many others in the world, there was a master mariner. Having had many losses and misfortunes in his life he no longer made any voyages, but every day went down to the seaside for amusement, and every day he met a large serpent, and every day he said to it: "God...
I. Legends Of The Tartaro. Introduction : p. 1 I.--LEGENDS OF THE TARTARO. WHO, or what is the Tartaro? "Oh! you mean the man with one eye in the middle of his forehead," is the prompt and universal answer. The Tartaro is the Cyclops, the sun's round eye,. But the word Tartaro has apparently nothing to do with this. M. Cerquand, in his...
Iv. Basa Jaun, Basa Andre, And Laminak. Part 02 : THE DEVIL'S AGE. THERE was a gentleman and lady who were very poor. This man used to sit sadly at a cross-roads. There came to him a gentleman, who asked: "Why are you so sad?" "Because I have not wherewith to live." He said to him, "I will give you as much money as you like, if at such a time you...
Vii. Religious Tales. The Saintly Orphan Girl : THE SAINTLY ORPHAN GIRL. THERE was a young girl who lived far from the world, alone, in sanctity. Every day a dove brought her her food. One day she saw a young girl whom two gens-d'armes were taking to prison or to execution. The orphan said to herself: "If she had lived like me, they would not...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 17 : p. 76 VI.--CONTES DES FES. UNDER this head, we include all those legends which do not readily fall under our other denominations. Fe and fairy are not synonymous. All such tales as those of the "Arabian Nights" might come within the designation of Contes des Fes, but they could hardly be included...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 09 : THE LADY PIGEON AND HER COMB. 1 LIKE many others in the world, there was a mother and her son; they were very poor. This son wished to leave his mother and go away, (saying) that they were wretched as they were. He goes off then far, far, far away. He finds a castle in a forest, and goes...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees. Derived Directly. Part 07 : VARIATION OF 'BEAUTY AND THE BEAST' We have another version of this tale, which is a little more like its prototype, the "Cupid and Psyche" of Apuleius. In this the monster comes only at night. At first she is horribly frightened at it, but little by little she becomes accustomed to it, and loves...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 03 : JUAN DEKOS, 1 THE BLOCKHEAD (TONTUA). LIKE many others in the world, there was a gentleman and lady who had a son. When he was grown up his father found that (his intellect) was not awakened, although he had finished his education. What does he do? He buys p. 147 a ship for him, and takes a capt...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees. Derived Directly. Part 13 : LIST OF PUBLICATIONS OF FOREIGN LEGENDS IN FRANCE We owe the following notes to the kindness of M. H. Vinson, judge at La Role, Gironde. They may be of assistance to some of our readers in the endeavour to trace out the length of time which is required for the translations of exotic legends...
Ii. The Heren Suge. The Seven Headed Serpent : THE SERPENT IN THE WOOD. LIKE many others in the world, there was a widower who had three daughters. One day the eldest said to her father, that she must go and see the country. She walked on for two hours, and saw some men cutting furze, and others mowing hay. She returned to the house, astonished...
Iii. Animal Tales. Acheria, The Fox : p. 43 ACHERIA, THE FOX. ONE day a fox was hungry. He did not know what to think. He saw a shepherd pass every day with his flock, and he said to himself that he ought to steal his milk and his cheese, and to have a good feast; but he needed some one to help him in order to effect anything. So he...
Basque Poetry. I. Pastorales : p. 235 BASQUE POETRY. I.--PASTORALES. PERHAPS there is no people among whom versification is so common, and among whom really high-class poetry is so rare, as among the Basques. The faculty of rhyming and of improvisation in verse is constantly to be met with, Not unusually a traveller in one...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic : THE DUPED PRIEST. 1 LIKE many others in the world, there was a man and his wife. The man's name was Petarillo. He was fond of sporting. One day he caught two leverets, and the parish p. 155 priest came to see him. The husband said to his wife--"If the priest comes again you will let one...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 07 : LAUR-CANTONS. 1 THERE was a man who was very rich. He wished to get married, but the young girls of this country would not marry him, because he had such a bad reputation. One day he sent for a vine-dresser, who had three daughters, and said to him, "I want to marry one of your three daughters; if...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees. Derived Directly. Part 09 : THE STEP-MOTHER AND THE STEP-DAUGHTER. A FATHER and his daughter were living together. The daughter told her father to marry again. The father said, "Why? you will be unhappy. It is all the same to me; I prefer to see you happy." And after some time he marries again. This lady asked her husb...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 11 : EZKABI-FIDEL. As there are many in the world, and as we are many of us, there was a mother who had a son. They were very poor. The son wished to go off somewhere, in order to p. 112 better himself, (he said); that it was not living to live like that. The mother was sorry; but what could she do...
V. Witchcraft And Sorcery. The Witch : THE WITCH AND THE NEW-BORN INFANT. LIKE many others in the world, there was a man and woman, labourers, who lived by their toil. They were at case. They had a mule, and the man lived by his mule carrying wine. Sometimes he was a week away from home. He always went to the same inn, where there w...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees. Derived Directly : THE SISTER AND HER SEVEN BROTHERS. THERE was a man and a woman very poor, and overburdened with children. They had seven boys. When they had grown up a little, they said to their mother that it would be better that they should go on their own way--that they would get on better like that. The mother...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees. Derived Directly. Part 05 : VARIATION ON 'BLUE BEARD' In another version, by Estefanella Hirigaray, we have the more ordinary tale of "Blue Beard"--that of a widower who has killed twenty wives, and marries a twenty-first, who has two brothers. She drops the key in the forbidden chamber, and is detected by the blood on it...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 15 : THE FISHERMAN AND HIS SONS. LIKE many others in the world, there was a fisherman who lived with his wife. One day he was fishing and caught a fine fish (at that time all the animals and everything used to speak), and the fish said to him: 1 "Spare my life! Spare my life! I will give you all th...
Iv. Basa Jaun, Basa Andre, And Laminak. Introducti : p. 47 IV.--BASA-JAUN, BASA-ANDRE, AND LAMIAK. IT is somewhat difficult to get a clear view of what Basa-Jaun and Basa-Andre, the wild man and the wild woman, really are in Basque mythology. In the first tale here given Basa-Jaun appears as a kind of vampire, and his wife, the Basa-Andre...
Iv. Basa Jaun, Basa Andre, And Laminak. Part 04 : THE FAIRY IN THE HOUSE. THERE was once upon a time a gentleman and lady. And the lady was spinning one evening. There came to her a fairy, and they could not get rid of her; and they gave her every evening some ham to eat, and at last they got very tired of their fairy. One day the lady said to her...
I. Legends Of The Tartaro. Variations : VARIATIONS OF 'THE TARTARO' In other versions the young man goes into the forest with some pigs, meets the Tartaro there, is carried by him home, p. 6 blinds him with the red-hot spit, and escapes by letting himself down through a garret window, The Tartaro pursues, guided by his ring, which...
Ii. The Heren Suge. The Seven Headed Serpent. Part 05 : p. 20 II.--THE HEREN-SUGE.--THE SEVEN-HEADED SERPENT. IT would only be spoiling good work by bad to attempt to re-write the exhaustive essay which appears, under the heading of "St. George," in Baring Gould's "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages." He there traces the atmospheric myth in which...
Basque Poetry. Ii : II. IF we except the Pastorales, the whole of Basque poetry may be described as lyrical; either secular, as songs, or religious, as hymns and nols. There is no epic in Basque, 1 and scarcely any narrative ballads; even those chiefly are of uncertain date. A few sonnets exist, but they are almost...
V. Witchcraft And Sorcery. The Witches : THE WITCHES AND THE IDIOTS. ONCE upon a time there were two brothers, the one an idiot, and the other a fool. They had an old mother, old, old, very old. One morning early the elder arranges to go with his sheep to the mountain, and he leaves the fool at home with his old, old, mother, and said...
Vii. Religious Tales. The Poor Soldier : THE POOR SOLDIER AND THE RICH MAN. LIKE many others in the world, there was a man and his wife. They had an only son. The time for the conscription arrived. He went away with much regret. At the end of the seven years he was returning home with five sous in his pocket. As he was walking along...
I. Legends Of The Tartaro. M. D'abbadie's Version : M. D'ABBADIE'S VERSION. OUR next story was communicated by M. d'Abbadie to the Socit des Sciences et des Arts de Bayonne. The narrator is M. l'Abbe Heguiagaray, the Parish Priest of Esquiule in La Soule:-- In my infancy I often heard from my mother the story of the Tartaro. He was a Colossus, with...
Ii. The Heren Suge. The Seven Headed Serpent. Part 03 : VARIATION OF 'THE GRATEFUL TARTARO AND THE HEREN-SUGE' In a variation of the above tale, from the narration of Marino Amyot, of St. Jean Pied de Port, the young prince, as a herdsman, kills with a hammer successively three Tartaros who play at cards with him; he then finds in their house all their...
V. Witchcraft And Sorcery. The Changeling : p. 73 THE CHANGELING. LIKE many others in the world, there was a gentleman and lady. They were very well off, but they could not keep any of their children. They had had ever so many, and all died. The lady was again in a hopeful condition. At the beginning of the night she was confined of a fine...
V. Witchcraft And Sorcery. Introduction : p. 64 V.--WITCHCRAFT AND SORCERY. OUR legends of witchcraft and sorcery are very poor, and in some of these, as said above, the witch is evidently a fairy. The reason of this is not that the belief in witchcraft is extinct among the Basques, but because it is so rife. Of stories of witchcraft...
I. Legends Of The Tartaro. The Tartaro. Part 02 : THE TARTARO. ONCE upon a time there was the son of a king who for the punishment of some fault became a monster. He could become a man again only by marrying. One day he met a young girl who refused him, because she was so frightened at him. And the Tartaro wanted to give her a ring, which she...
I. Legends Of The Tartaro. The Tartaro : p. 16 THE TARTARO AND PETIT PERROQUET. LIKE many others in the world, there was a mother and her son. They were very wretched. One day the son said to his mother that he must go away, to see if he could do anything. He goes far, far, far away. He traverses many countries, and still goes on ...
Vii. Religious Tales. Fourteen : p. 195 FOURTEEN. 1 LIKE many others in the world, there was a mother and her son. The lad was as strong as fourteen men together, but he was also obliged to eat as much as fourteen men. They were poor, and on that account he often suffered from hunger. He said one day to his mother, that it would...
Title Page : ACHERIA, THE FOX.--P. 42 BASQUE LEGENDS: COLLECTED, CHIEFLY IN THE LABOURD, BY REV. WENTWORTH WEBSTER, M.A., OXON. WITH AN ESSAY ON THE BASQUE LANGUAGE, BY M. JULIEN VINSON, OF THE REVUE DE LINGUISTIQUE, PARIS TOGETHER WITH APPENDIX: BASQUE POETRY LONDON: GRIFFITH AND FARRAN, Successors To Newbery...
Vii. Religious Tales. The Widow And Her Son : p. 202 THE WIDOW AND HER SON. 1 ONCE upon a time, and like many others in the world, there was a widow who had a son. This son was so good to his mother that they loved one another beyond all that can be told. One day this son said to his mother that he must go to Rome. The mother w...
Iii. Animal Tales. Introduction : p. 42 III.--ANIMAL TALES. WE give two stories as specimens of animal tales, which are neither allegories, nor fables, and still less satires. The reader must remember the phrase, "This happened when animals and all things could talk." So thoroughly is this believed, that the first tale of this...
Iv. Basa Jaun, Basa Andre, And Laminak. B : BASA-JAUNA, THE WILD MAN. ONCE upon a time there lived in one house the landlady and the farmer's wife. 1 The farmer's wife had three sons; one day they said to their mother to give each of them a ball and a penny roll, that they wished to go from country to country. The mother was sorry to part...
Ii. The Heren Suge. The Seven Headed Serpent. Part 02 : THE SEVEN-HEADED SERPENT. LIKE many others in the world, there was a mother with her three sons. The eldest said to her that he wished to go from country to country, until he should find a situation as servant, and that she should give him a cake. He sets out. While he is going through a forest he...
I. Legends Of The Tartaro. Variations Of Errua : VARIATIONS OF ERRUA. WE have several variations of this tale, some like the above, very similar to Grimm's "Valiant Little Tailor," other's like Campbell's "Highland Tales." In one tale there are two p. 11 brothers, an idiot and a fool (Enuchenta eta Ergela). The idiot goes out to service first...
An Essay On The Basque Language : p. 219 AN ESSAY ON THE BASQUE LANGUAGE, BY M. JULIEN VINSON. THE Basque Language is one which is particularly attractive to specialists. Its place in the general series of idioms has at last been well defined--it is an agglutinative and incorporating language, with some tendency to polysynthetism...
Vii. Religious Tales. Introduction : p. 194 VII.--RELIGIOUS TALES. WE give these tales simply as specimens of a literature which in medival times rivalled in popularity and interest all other kinds of literature put together. That even yet it is not without attraction, and that to minds which in some aspects seem most opposed to its...
Ii. The Heren Suge. The Seven Headed Serpent. Part 04 : THE GRATEFUL TARTARO AND THE HEREN-SUGE. LIKE many of us who are, have been, and shall be in the world, there was a king, and his wife, and three sons. The king went out hunting one day, and caught a Tartaro. He brings him home, and shuts him up in prison in a stable, and proclaims, by sound...
I. Legends Of The Tartaro. Errua, The Madman : ERRUA, THE MADMAN. LIKE many others in the world, there was a man and woman who had a. son. He was very wicked, and did nothing but mischief, and was of a thoroughly depraved disposition. The parents decided that they must send him away, and the lad was quite willing to set off. He set out then...
Vii. Religious Tales. The Slandered And Despised : THE SLANDERED AND DESPISED YOUNG GIRL. LIKE many others of us in the world, there was a mother and her daughter. They were very poor, and the daughter said that she wished to go out to service, in order to do something for her mother. The mother will not listen to it; what would become of her...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 06 : THE YOUNG SCHOOLBOY. ONCE upon a time there was a gentleman and lady. They had a child. The father was captain of a ship. The mother regularly sent her son to school, and when the father came back from his voyages he asked his child if he had learnt much at school. The mother answered, "No, no! not...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees. Derived Directly. Part 08 : BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. 1 As there are many in the world in its state now, there was a king who had three daughters. He used continually to bring handsome presents to his two elder daughters, but did not pay any attention at all to his youngest daughter, and yet she was the prettiest and most amiable...
V. Witchcraft And Sorcery. The Witches. Part 02 : p. 66 THE WITCHES AT THE SABBAT. 1 ONCE upon a time, like many others in the world, there was a young lad. He was one day in a lime-kiln, and the witches came at night. They used to dance there, and one pretended to be the mistress of a house, who was very ill; and one day, is she was going out...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees. Derived Directly. Part 12 : p. 158 (B.)--CONTES DES FES, DERIVED DIRECTLY FROM THE FRENCH. WE do not suppose that the tales here given are the only ones in our collection which are derived more or less directly from or through the French. Several of those previously given under different heads we believe to have been so...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 02 : p. 151 VARIATION OF THE ABOVE. JUAN DE KALAIS. 1 AS there are many in the world, and as there will be, there was a mother and her son. They had a small fortune. Nothing would please the boy but that he should go and learn to be a sailor. The mother allows him to do so, and when he was passed...
Vii. Religious Tales. The Story Of The Hair : THE STORY OF THE HAIR-CLOTH SHIRT (LA CILICE). ONCE upon a time, like many others in the world, there was a gentleman and a lady. They had no children, but they longed for one above everything. They made a vow to go to Rome. As soon as they had made the vow, the woman became pregnant. The husb...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 14 : TABAKIERA, THE SNUFF-BOX. 1 LIKE many others in the world, there was a lad who wished to travel, and off he went. He finds a snuff-box, and opens it. And the snuff-box said to him-- "Que quieres?" ("What do you wish for?") p. 95 He is frightened, and puts it at once into his pocket. Luckily he did...
Iv. Basa Jaun, Basa Andre, And Laminak. Part 05 : 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...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees. Derived Directly. Part 04 : THE SINGING TREE, THE BIRD WHICH TELLS THE TRUTH, AND THE WATER THAT MAKES YOUNG. LIKE many others in the world, there were three young girls. They were spinning together, and as girls must always talk about something while they are spinning, the eldest said: "You will not guess what I am thinking...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 10 : VARIATION OF 'EZKABI-FIDEL' We have another version almost identical with the above, except at the commencement. Ezkabi really has the scab. On his journey, after leaving his home, he pays the debts of a poor man whose corpse is being beaten in front of the church, and buries him. There is nothing...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees. Derived Directly. Part 14 : VARIATIONS OF OTHER FRENCH FAIRY-TALES. We have also, in Basque, a version of Madame d'Aulnoy's "Abenan." It seems to be a mixture of various legends strung together by this fanciful writer; but we do not think it worth either our own or our readers' while to try to disentangle its separate parts...
Vi. Contes Des F'ees, Tales Like The Keltic. Part 04 : THE MOTHER AND HER (IDIOT) SON; OR, THE CLEVER THIEF. 2 LIKE many others in the world, there were a mother and her son; they were poor, and the young man, when he grew up, wished to go from home, to see if he could better his position. His mother lets him go with great reluctance. He goes...
Iv. Basa Jaun, Basa Andre, And Laminak : THE FAIRY-QUEEN GODMOTHER 2 THERE were, like many others in the world, a man and a woman over-burthened with children, and very poor. The woman no more knew what to do. She said that she would go and beg. She goes off, far, far, far away, and she arrives at the city of the fairies. After she had...