Basque tales
Here are three tales Basque : The two brothers, the age of the devil, Don Diego and Mari
The two brothers
A woman had two sons, one wise and the other foolish. The wise man ran the house, because the mother was ill. As a remedy for her pain, she took baths that the wise man prepared very well. Now, one day when the wise man had gone out, the fool was charged with preparing the bath. Very happy with this job, he imagines that he is obliged to surpass his brother in preparation; he puts his mother in the bathtub and pours a cauldron of boiling water into it. The poor woman was immediately cooked.
Thus, only the two brothers remained at home. One day they went to the market to buy a pig. The purchase completed, the wise man, still having business in the market, entrusts the pig to his brother to lead it home with a rope. On the way, the pig spoke in his language; and the fool, annoyed to hear it:
– “Let’s bet,” he said, “on who will arrive at our house the soonest.”
He lets go of the rope and starts running. In the evening, the wise man returns and asks about the pig. The madman tells what had happened.
– “Another time,” said the wise man, “remember that you must always pull by the rope what you bought at the market.”
– “Good, said the madman”.
At the next market, the two brothers go to buy a jug, which the madman is responsible for bringing back. But as he had not forgotten his brother's advice, he tied a rope to the jug which he began to drag along the road: it was broken into a thousand pieces. The wise man, seeing that he was not succeeding in anything, and that, moreover, his resources were lacking, made the fool understand that they were reduced to begging. They leave, and the wise man, having gone out first, tells the fool to open the door; after which he went ahead.
The madman understood that he had to put the door on his back. So he took it off its hinges and took it with him. And, although his brother had told him that it would be of no use, he refused to give it up. In the evening they arrived in a forest and, in order not to lie down on the bare earth, climbed a tree, the fool still holding his door. At midnight, ten thieves stopped at the foot of the tree to share a bag of gold.
While they were counting, the madman said to his brother:
– “I can no longer support this door, and he let it fall. The thieves, frightened, believed that God was throwing a piece of the sky on them and fled in haste. The wise man did not bother counting the gold. The two brothers built a beautiful castle and lived at ease.
The age of the devil
There once was a poor coal burner who had so many children that he could not feed them, no matter how hard he tried. One day when he was busy at his work, he saw an old, old man come near him who, after looking at him for a long time, finally asked him, with a semblance of interest, if he was very happy with his position.
– »How could I be? said the charcoal burner. No matter how much I sweat and toil after this cursed stove, from morning to evening and often from evening to morning; despite everything, my wife and my children, of whom I do not know how many, suffer from hunger.”
The old man, assuming a sweet air, said to the coalman:
– » Hardworking and honest as you appear, you deserve to be happier, I can see that clearly. Now, I want to please you and I promise you as much money as you can carry, on one small condition: that you tell me my age, within eight days.”
The charcoal burner immediately accepted. However, the next thought came to him, he thought it best to talk to his wife about the market. The coal burner's wife was not stupid:
– “Don’t worry,” she said to her husband; in eight years, I will find a way to find out the age of this old man.”
Last week, the charcoal burner and his wife went to the forest. Arriving at the charcoal furnace, the charcoal burner strips of her clothes, rubs herself with honey and begins to splash in a barrel full of feathers, brought there for this purpose. The old man arrives at the appointed time and he sees emerging from the barrel a fantastic beast, neither quadruped nor bird, and frolicking in front of him, with all sorts of grimaces and extraordinary gestures.
He is surprised and without thinking:
– “I have been in the world for nine hundred years, and I have never seen anything like it.”
Thereupon, the feathered woman disappears, and the charcoal burner, with a shrewd air, comes to take the old man's arm and whispers in his ear:
– “You are nine hundred years old.
– “I cannot deny it,” said the old man, “and you have won your bag of gold.”
The bag being heavy, and the charcoal burner, his wife and all his children, whatever their number, no longer had to suffer from hunger.
Don Diego and Mari
Don Diego Lopez de Haro was a very good mountaineer. One day he was going wild boar hunting when he heard on a hilltop a woman singing in a very loud voice. He approached, he saw that she was very beautiful and very well dressed, he fell deeply in love with her and asked her who she was.
She told him that she was of very high lineage. He told her that since this was the case he would marry her if she wished, because he was the Lord of this land.
She accepted but on one condition, that he promise never to make the sign of the cross.
He promised her, she left with him. That Lady was very beautiful, she had a shapely body other than this, she had a goat's foot.
They lived together for a long time and had two children, a boy and a girl. The son's name was Iñigo Guerra.
Then, one day, Don Diego crossed himself while he was at the table eating with his family. Instantly his wife threw herself out of the room with her daughter, through the window of the palace and fled through the mountains, so that she was no longer seen; neither her nor her daughter.
