This is where the magic comes from Basque. In the world of old beliefs all beings and things have their image. Both are linked by a force, ADUR, and it is assumed that what is done to the image will occur to the being itself. This, like many others, was a popular belief in the country and numerous examples attest to this.
Basque magic
A resident of Ataun (Gipuzkoa) went to a soothsayer from Tolosa to check who had stolen the cow. The soothsayer then suggested that he take a candle, which represents the thief, and once it is extinguished, the thief must die.
In Leitza (Navarra), a man secretly sold a pig to pay a debt. The wife, believing it to have been stolen, returned and burned a candle. Shortly afterward the husband died due to an unknown illness. The success was attributed to the so-called “Adur”.
In Sare (Labourd), a young girl who had relations with a young man threatened to burn a candle if he did not keep his promise of marriage.
In popular knowledge, the face represented in the coins could be of any person. In Gipuzkoa, for example, it was common to twist a coin or throw it towards a chapel or even into a fire to harm someone.
In popular medicine, many remedies have a magical character. In Bizkaye, in the event of a dislocation, a cloth was placed on the painful area while pretending to sew it while saying: “Ligament stretched, ligament torn, ligament returns to its place”.
To cure the skin disease called "mal de la rose", the patient had to go around a rose bush saying: "The rose, with the rose" and repeat this gesture for nine days. This action was said to heal.
It is the same with the names of beings. We assure that what is said in the name will prove to be so. This is how curses inspired great fear. In Dohosti (Lower Navarre) it was believed that the day had a specific moment to curse but this is unknown. For this, a villager, wanting to punish a thief, spent the whole day repeating a curse so as not to miss this precise and unknown moment. It is said that thanks to this a thief threw himself out of the window.
On the other hand there is eye disease (transmitted by the eyes), BEGISKO (of the eye). It was a wicked force that certain people had the power to transmit through their gaze. Normally a power attributed to witches, people may have had it, although it is unknown where they got it from.
The latter, unlike witches, could use it on people or animals without wanting to.
To protect against this phenomenon, amulets were used. In some villages they were also hung on animals. This world may seem strange to us but before it was very clear. In Ormaiztegi (Gipuzkoa) they say: “Is there no eye problem? » “There is indeed one since we gave it a name.”
(we come back to: everything that exists has a name).
People were very careful with these unknown forces as this saying goes:
“We must not believe that they exist, we must not say that they do not exist.”
