[12] Cf. Alexandre Dihinx in the Impartial de Bayonne, in 1873. These articles have been reprinted by M. J. Vinson in L’Avenir de Bayonne, May, 1878.
[13] “The master of the house,” the usual respectful address to a Basque proprietor of any rank. His wife is “Etcheco Anderea,” “The mistress of the house.”
[14] Altabiscar is the mountain on the East, Ibañeta that on the West of the supposed scene of conflict.
[15] Of course it ought to be “vultures.” The Basque is distinctly “eagles;” an error which no Basque shepherd could have made.
[16] The use of rocks “is confirmed by the Basque ballad of Altabiscar, in which, however, there is no allusion to the powerful inducement of booty.”
[17] There are other examples of similar mystification in later Basque literature. “Les Échos du Pas de Roland,” par J. B. Dasconaguerre, Bayonne, 1868, professes on the title to be “traduit du Basque”; but the “Atheko-gaitzeko Oiharzunak” (the echoes of the bad door or pass), Bayonan, 1870, is really a translation from the French. To the Basques the name of Roland is unknown in connection with this beautiful ravine. M. Fr. Michel’s “Le Romancero du Pays Basque,” Didot, Paris, 1859, is scarcely less an embroidery on themes of which the ground only is Basque.
[18] Cf. lorea, from the Latin flos flore.
[19] An exact reprint of Echepare’s “Poems,” edited by M. Vinson, was published by Cazals, Bayonne, 1874.
[20] The most curious fact to notice in these hymns is, how very soon after their death the Jesuit Fathers, Ignatius de Loyola and François de Xavier, were celebrated and addressed as saints in Basque verse.
[21] This song is prettily translated in Miss Costello’s “Béarn and the Pyrénées,” London, 1844, where are also translations of some other Basque songs, the originals of which I have failed to trace.