Basque tales
Here are various tales Basque : Herensuge and the tale, the rake, the shepherd of Orozko
Herensuge and the tale
Near Ahuski (Soule) is the cave of Azalegi.
There once lived Erensugia, a serpent with seven heads. By his breath he attracted the flocks of the mountain and ate them. The son of a tale by Zaro *, in Alzai, killed him.
After having skinned a young bull, he fills this skin with powder and phosphorus. He sews it and, taking a horse, he goes to the cave and stands at the top. There he begins to whistle. When he realized that Herensugia was fidgeting and coming, he threw the skin at her. The snake pulled it in with its breath and swallowed it.
The tale returned on horseback. He then saw Herensugia pass through the air, covered in flames, he was heading towards the sea. As he had to pass over a forest, he mowed the tops of the beech trees. The tale died of fear.
We never saw Herensugia again.
* Zaro is a former castle of Alzai, now disappeared.
The rake
In the land of Beyrie, there was a large house of ploughmen. One day, while they were busy bleaching the corn, the boy told a young lady of the house * that he had left the rake in the fields. The young lady tells him to go get him. The boy replies no, that he will not be going out at this hour: It is past eleven o'clock. a maid says:
- " Well ! I will go ”and they bet something that she will go and bring the rake back. She comes out and goes. As she returned with the rake, midnight struck in the air. It is taken by the spirits. You know that witches have a lot of power at night. Going thus in the air, she passed over her house and threw the rake by the chimney, shouting:
- " Here it is ! "
If this poor girl, being thus carried away, had remembered to call upon God, the spirits would have left her; But it was only as she passed the Saint-Sauveur chapel that she thought of saying:
- "Lord, save me! "
Immediately the spirits left it at the tip of this mountain, and we can still see it there. It has remained the same. They made him a house of glass, and we put a rake in his hand. (this glass house, you could still see it, with the body of the young girl, at the time of the restoration).
* etxeko alaba: daughter of the house. One thus calls the younger daughters of any owner. The eldest is called "the heiress" prima, or andregaya: the future lady.
The Shepherd of Orozko
A shepherd from Orozko built his hut near the Superlaur cave in Mount Itzine.
To defend himself from possible attacks by the geniuses of the place, he placed several crosses and holy wax at the entrance. But a flight of vultures occurred which, landing on the roof of his shelter, molested him asking him to remove all these things.
He therefore had no other remedy than to remove them and since then he has not been bothered.
EN 
FR 
ES