WHO, or what is Tartaro or Tartare? " Oh! you mean the man with one eye in the middle of his forehead,” is the quick and universal answer. Tartaro is the Cyclops, the round eye of the sun, κύκλωψ. But the word Tartaro apparently has nothing to do with it. Mr. Cerquand, in his “ Legends and Popular Stories of the Country Basque ", derives the word from Tartar, Tartare, in the same way that the French word Ogre would derive from Hungarian, Ugri.
The only objection to this highly probable derivation (made even more probable by a Souletin variant, Moiriak) is the relatively late date (13th century) of the first appearance of the Tartars in Europe. It is moreover perfectly true that in many tales the Tartaro replaces and is identified with the giant or the ogre; but such does not appear to us to be the original conception of this mythological monster, and we have never heard from an illiterate Basque such a description of him.
To them he is simply a Cyclops – a huge man, with one eye in the center of his forehead.
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ToggleThe Tartaro / Tartar
Once upon a time there was the son of a king who, as punishment for a fault, became a monster. He could only become a man again by getting married. One day, he met a young girl who refused him, because she was so afraid of him. And the Tartar wanted to offer her a ring which she did not accept. However, he sent it to her through a young man.
As soon as the ring was on her finger, she began to say, "You there, and I here." He was still shouting that, and Tartarus was pursuing her incessantly; and, as the maiden had such a horror of him, she cut off his finger and ring, and threw them into a large pond, and there the Tartarus drowned.
Tartaro, Abbadie's version
Our following story was communicated by M. d'Abbadie to the Society of Sciences and Arts of Bayonne. The narrator is Father Heguiagaray, parish priest of Esquiule in La Soule:–
In my childhood, I often heard from my mother the story of Tartarus. He was a colossus, with a single eye in the middle of his forehead. He was a shepherd and a hunter, but a hunter of men. Every day he ate a sheep; then, after a siesta, all those who had the misfortune to fall into his hands. His home was a large barn, with thick walls, a high roof and a very strong door, which only he knew how to open. His mother, an old witch, lived in a corner of the garden, in a hut built of peat.
One day a powerful young man was caught in the traps of Tartarus, who took him home. This young man saw Tartarus eating a whole sheep, and he knew that he used to take a nap, and after that his turn would come. In his desperation, he told himself he had to do something. As soon as the Tartar began to snore, he put the spit in the fire, reddened it, and plunged it into the giant's single eye. Immediately he jumped up and began to run after the man who had wounded him; but it was impossible to find him.
“You will not escape. It is very well to hide yourself, he said; "but I alone know the secret how to open this door." »
The Tartar opened the door a crack and let the sheep out between his legs. The young man removes the big ram's bell, puts it around his neck, throws on his body the skin of the sheep that the giant has just eaten and walks on all fours to the door.
The Tartar examines him by touching him, notices the ruse and clings to the skin; but the young man slips from the skin, dives between his legs and flees.
Immediately the mother of Tartarus meets him, and says to him:
“O, lucky young man! You have escaped the cruel tyrant; take this ring as a souvenir of your escape. »
He accepts, puts the ring on his finger, and immediately the ring begins to shout: “Heben nuk! Heben nuk! (“You got me here! You got me here!”)
The Tartar pursues him, and is about to catch up with him, when the young man, mad with fright, and unable to remove the ring, takes out his knife, cuts his finger, throws it away, and thus escapes the pursuit of the Tartar. .