[80] The Basques took their revenge by the hand of M. l’Abbé d’Iharce de Bidassouet. In his “Histoire des Cantabres,” tom. I. Paris, 1825 (vol. ii. was not published), he derives all names of places from Basque, as the original language of the world. “Je ne serai pas assez hardi,” he says, “pour soutenir que le Père Éternel parlât basque,” but he is really convinced that it is so. L’Andalousie, with the help of the article, he derives from two Basque words, “landa lusia,” long land. Versailles is a Basque word, so is Athens, so is Helicon. Norway puzzles him for a moment, but soon with the remark that “Norvège est un mot altéré et corrompu,” he tosses it aside and proceeds on his reckless etymological course. Certainly to the irresponsible philologist Basque offers a delightful field. For instance, the name of the desolate salt lake of Kevir in Persia has been derived from a word “gavr” or “gav” (“hollow,” “depression”). In Basque “gabe” means without, and the word for night is also “gabe” (no doubt as being a hollow without light). Then we have the Gaves, de Pau, d’Oloron, etc.; the Spanish “gaveta” (a pigeonhole), “gavia” (pit dug for planting a tree); “cavus,” “cave” and so forth. But to draw inferences as to the origin of the Iberians, as to whether the same or different peoples inhabited the Caucasus and the Pyrenees, or even as to whether “le Père Éternel parlât Basque,” is a very different matter, beset with pitfalls innumerable.

[81] See Wentworth Webster, “Les Loisirs d’un Étranger au Pays Basque.” 1901. This was a common practice of the Romans who, meeting words so rough and horrid to their Latin pronunciation in the land of the Basques, “quorum nomina,” according to Pomponius Mela, “nostro ore concipi nequeunt,” would smooth and round these names and give them a Latin derivation. The Spaniards may have done the same in the case of Valencia Island, Co. Kerry. The form in old maps is Ballinish (Innish, “island,” and ball, “home” or perhaps “mouth”—the harbour the mouth of the island), and the peasants still pronounce the name Valinch.

[82] Yet those who connect Barcelona with the smoke and gloom of an industrial city, having heard it spoken of as the Manchester of Spain, are mistaken. Barcelona is still worthy of the praise of the Venetian ambassador in the sixteenth century, who called it a “bellissima città,” with “copia di giardini bellisimi,” and of the praises of Cervantes in “Don Quixote,” and in “Las Dos Doncellas,” where it is the “flower of the beautiful cities of the world and an honour to Spain.”

[83] “España: Hombres y paisajes.” 1909.

[84] A Spanish proverb says: “When it rains, it rains; when it snows, it snows; but ’tis bad weather when it blows.” Agriculture in many parts of Spain is literally “ἀπάνευθεν ἐπ’ ἀγροῦ πήυατα πάσχειν—to suffer woes apart upon the land.”

[85] Cf. Pío Baroja, “César ó Nada.” Madrid, 1910: “Hay una hora en estos pueblos castellanos, adustos y viejos, de paz y serenidad ideales. Es el comenzar de la mañana. Todavía los gallos cantan, las campanadas de la iglesia se derraman por el aire y el sol comienza á penetrar en las calles en ráfagas de luz. La mañana es un diluvio de claridad que se precipita sobre el pueblo amarillento. El cielo está azul, el aire limpio, puro y diáfano; la atmósfera transparente no da casi efectos de perspectiva, y su masa etérea hace vibrar los contornos de las casas, de los campanarios y de los remates de los tejados. El viento frío y sutil juega en las encrucijadas y se entretiene en torcer los tallos de los geranios y de los claveles que llamean en los balcones. Hay por todas partes un olor de jara y de retama quemada que viene de los hornos donde se cuece el pan, y un olor de alhucema que viene de los zaguanes.” Castille has been a little neglected by the novelists in comparison with other regions. But recently Ricardo León (in “El Amor de los Amores,” 1910), has sung the praises of the ancha, heróica tierra de Castilla, its austere simplicity and strength, its serene atmosphere, its golden crops, its flocks of sheep, clear streams, thyme-scented solitudes, and far horizons. And Azorín, in a short study, “En la Meseta” (La Vanguardia of Barcelona, January 4, 1911), as in his books “España,” “El Alma Castellana,” “Los Pueblos,” skilfully portrays the inner spirit of Castille: “Por la ventana se columbra un paisaje llano, seco, desmantelado; á lo lejos se divisan unas montañas con las cimas blanqueadas por la nieve.... Todo el silencio, toda la rigidez, toda la adustez de esta inmoble vida castellana está concentrada en los rebaños que cruzan la llanura lentamente y se recogen en los oteros y los valles de las montañas. Mirad ese rabadán, envuelto en su capa récia y parda, contemplando un cielo azul sin nubes, ante el paisaje abrupto y grandioso de la montaña, y tendréis explicado el tipo del campesino castellano castizo, histórico: noble, austero, grave y elegante en el ademán, corto, sentencioso y agudo on sus razones.”

[86] Señor Gasset, Minister of Public Works, now proposes (in a scheme explained to the Congress on March 9, 1911) to spend twenty-seven million pesetas on afforestation in ten years.

[87] Martial, referring to the frequency of winds of Spain, says—

“Debes non aliter timere risum
Quam ventum Spanius.”

[88] El Conde Lucanor, “Enxemplo 30:” “...el rey Abenabet de Sevilla era casada con Romayquia et amábala muy mas que á cosa del mundo, et ella era muy buena mujer, et los moros han della muy buenos enxemplos: pero una manera habia que non era muy buena, esto era, que á las vegadas tomaba algunos antojos á su voluntad. Et acaesció que un dia, estando en Córdoba en el mes de febrero, cayó una nieve, et cuando Romayquia esto vió comenzó á llorar, et el rey preguntóle porque lloraba, et ella dijó que porque nunca la dejaba estar en tierra que hubiese nieve. Et el rey, por le facer placer, fize poner almendrales por toda la tierra de Córdoba, porque pues Córdoba es tan caliente tierra et non nieva y cada año, que en el febrero paresciesen los almendrales floridos et le semejasen nieve, por le facer perder aquel deseo de la nieve.”