Basque tales
Here are various tales Basque : Anxo and the cowherds, God sees everything, The master marshal
Anxo and the cowherds
After eating, the cowherds of the village of Ezterenzubi left a piece of bread for Anxo, the genius of the region. They came every night, once the cowherds were asleep. On one occasion, only one of them, the youngest, left him his share of bread, the others left him nothing. Anxo took away the clothes of those who had not left the offering.
The young man's comrades asked him to go see Anxo in his cave and ask him for the clothes he had stolen. As a reward for this service, they promised him a heifer.
The young man introduced himself to Anxo and asked him for the clothes. Anxo gave them to him, asking him to give the heifer 101 hits with a stick. What the cowherd did, and the heifer gave him a herd of 101 head of cows.
God sees everything
One day Jesus was walking and Saint Peter followed him, carrying a loaf of bread under his arm. As they passed by a pond, the frogs began to sing in their own way.
Saint Peter says:
– » It seems that these frogs are hungry.
– “Yes, give them some of the bread that you are carrying,” replied Jesus.
But Peter, instead of bread, threw a stone into the pool, and the frogs were silent. A little further on, Jesus said to Saint Peter:
– “Let’s stop here, so you can comb my hair.”
Pierre obeyed, then suddenly, seized with terror, he cried out:
- " Lord ! what is this? You have an eye on the occiput.”
- " Without a doubt. With this eye I saw that, just now, instead of bread, you threw a stone into the frog pond.”
The master marshal
A blacksmith had this sign painted above his door: HABITE LE MAITRE MARECHAL
Jesus passing by one day, saw the sign and entered the forge.
– “Master,” said Jesus, “I am a humble farrier, eager to benefit from your knowledge. So allow me to shoe one of the horses waiting for their turn at the gate.”
– “Try your skills on this one, which is not easy,” said the blacksmith.
Jesus went to the vicious horse, cut off one of its feet, put the foot in a vice and quietly shoed it. When he had finished, he loosened the foot and stuck it back in its place.
And he did the same for each foot without the horse making any resistance. Having thus done so, he left the forge. The marshal, astonished, had not uttered a word. But Jesus was barely in the street when the marshal set out to take advantage of the lesson. He goes to the first unshod horse, cuts off its foot, shoes it with a vice, then tries to glue it back to the leg. He couldn't get over it, the foot wouldn't hold on and the horse was losing all its blood.
- " Master ! master ! cried the marshal, “I was wrong, come to my aid.”
Jesus retraced his steps, readjusted the foot to the bleeding leg and said to the marshal:
- “You would do well to remove the sign that is at your door.”
