Atarrabi, son of Mari, with his brother, Mikelatz, the youngest, both went to school in the school of the devil, a cave. At the end of their schooling one of the schoolchildren was to remain forever in the service of the devil. They drew lots and it was his brother who had the fate to stay. However, he took pity on his brother, indeed the latter was tormented, he remained there, in his corner, as if he were already the slave of his infernal master.
Atarrabi
The devil compelled Atarrabi to sift the flour he had in his well-stocked stores. It was endless work because the bran, like the flour, passed through the mesh.
The devil, who surely did not have excessive confidence in his disciple, continually asked him:
Atarrabi, nun aiz? (Where are you ?)
And Atarrabi had to answer:
Emen nago (I'm here)
Atarrabi taught the sieve to answer himself: emen nago, whenever the devil asked his question. One day, the devil found himself far away in a corner of his lair. Atarrabi began to walk out of this place, walking backwards, while the sieve took care of answering the classic emen nago. No sooner had he set foot outside than the devil saw him. He made a leap but too late: Atarrabi was already outside, beyond the reach of his master's jurisdiction. Only her shadow still extended in the cave, it was she whom the devil captured.
Atarrabi became a priest.
He was deprived of shade, the devil had taken it from him. This shadow joined him only during mass, at the time of the consecration.
However, deprived of shade, it was not possible for him to be saved. It was therefore necessary that he die at this precise moment of the consecration.
Feeling already old and seeing his near death, one day he asked his sacristan to kill him during mass the next day, at the time of the consecration.
The sexton promised to fulfill his wish and so he came to church armed with a stick, determined to keep his word. But when the time came he had no desire to shoot Atarrabi. It was the same the next day. On the third day he killed him.
Atarrabi had asked his sacristan to put him, after his death, on a rock near the church, and to observe carefully the type of bird that would carry away his corpse. If it was wood pigeons it was the signal that Atarrabi had been saved; on the other hand, if it was about crows it is that he had been condemned.
The sacristan did according to his master's desire and he soon saw a flight of wood pigeons which carried away the body of his parish priest.
