Basque tales
Here are various tales Basque : the donkey and the wolf, Dominichtekun, Mari and Diego Lopez
The donkey and the wolf
Like many in the world, there was a donkey. He was leaving, loaded with Malaga wine, in a ravine. wolves, because wolves love donkey meat.) He was traveling like this when he saw a wolf coming in the distance; there was nowhere to hide.
The wolf reached him and the donkey said to him:
“Hello, hello Mr. Wolf, in case you are thirsty, I have some good Malaga to offer you.
I am not thirsty ! But I'm incredibly hungry!
My meal today will be your head and your ears.
Mr. Wolf, would you be good enough to let me
hear a mass? »
He said to him: “Good! All right. »
So our donkey went away. When he entered the church he closed the door from the inside with his foot and stood there quietly.
When the wolf began to grow impatient with waiting, he cried out:
“Oh, la la, how long this mass is! it feels like Palm Sunday. »
The donkey said to him:
“Dirty old wolf, have patience. I stay with the angels and I have my life (saved) for today.
- Oh dear ! bad ass, what a brat you are. If you ever cross my path again, you won't hear anything. »
The donkey said to him:
“There are no dogs around the Alagaia flock, if you go there you will have a number of sheep for yourself. »
The wolf gave up and went in search of the herd that the donkey had pointed out to him. When the donkey saw that the wolf had left, he left the church and returned home and took care never to approach again the place where the wolf lived.
Dominichtekun
In the old days, in a house, all the children died, quickly after their birth. No sooner had they been in our hands than, one or two, they were lost forever. Four or five little ones had already perished in this way, and now another child was going to be born shortly. Everyone's anxiety was great, because they didn't know what to do to preserve the child who was about to come.
While they were all like this in desolation, a little angel was born, extremely cute. And to think that, this time again, they would have to lose such a love!... They were all crying when, upon hearing the news, a very old man from the neighborhood showed up. Stunned to see them all in tears, he asks them if anything bad has happened.
– » No, no, there is nothing yet; the child has only just been born. But…
– “But?… what, but? What are you afraid of, that you burst into tears like this?
– » We don't think it's very worth telling you what we haven't told anyone yet... But, since you want to know, well! This is what always happens to us: the children we have had so far, we have lost them all, without even realizing it. And now we're here wondering when this one's turn will come.
– “Is that all, good people? If I had known!... We will remedy the evil, yes, we will remedy!... That's good; like this ; hold the dear little angel like this, until I decide otherwise…”
At the same time, having felt somewhat cold from being held by the knees in this way, the child sneezed. And immediately the old man shouted to him:
- “Dominichtekun, child! »
At the same time, a very irritated voice was heard coming from behind the door:
– » Cursed, he who taught you this! cursed yourself! »
And, while he was casting this curse, a large lamiña, truly horrible, was storming down the chimney... Since then, thanks to the old man, the child still lives. And,
-isn't it a miracle?
– since then too, no more children die anywhere, at least from the illness that caused them to die until then. And this, because, with every sneeze, every mother says to her child:
– » Dominichtekun, child! »
Husband and Diego Lopez
Diego Lopez who went to persecute the Moors, was captured and taken to prison in Toledo.
His son, Liiko Lopez, who was very affected by it, consulted the people of his country on how to go about delivering him. They told him that they saw no solution unless he went to the mountains to look for his mother (the mysterious lady of the mountain, Mari, with whom Diego Lopez had married), to ask her advice, which which he did.
alone, on horseback; he found it at the top of a rock; she tells him :
– Son Liiko, come closer, because I know well why you come.
He introduced himself to her and she said to him:
– You come to ask me how to go about getting your father out of prison.
There was a horse going alone through the mountain, she called it by name saying Pardal, she put a bit on it. She recommended to her son not to subject him to any constraint whatsoever with the aim of removing his saddle or bit, giving him something to drink, eat or shoe him. She told him that this horse would accompany him all his life, that he would never fight without winning, and that he would ride it and be in Toledo that very day in front of the door of his father's prison.
Then he would dismount, and meeting his father in a courtyard, he would take him by the hand and pretending to speak with him, he would take him to the door where the horse is standing and when they arrived there they would all mount him. both, and before night would be in their lands.
And so it was.
