Basque tales
Here are various tales Basque : Basa Jaun and wheat, The spinners of Lauzpelz, Basa Jaun and the spinners
Basa Jaun and wheat
One day in Ataun, San Martinico visited the Basa Jaun in his cave. He was deliberately wearing very large shoes for the occasion. When he saw there, all those big heaps of wheat, he made a bet with the Basa-Jaun: to see who, in one leap, would cross all those heaps without touching a single grain.
The Basa-Jaun passed easily over it; but San Martinico fell right in the middle of one of them, which filled his abarkak (traditional shepherd's shoe) with wheat. Then he took leave of the "Wild Lord" and headed for the valley.
But very quickly the Basa-Jaun realized that San Martinico carried grains of wheat in his shoes. He threw his throwing weapon, an axe, in her direction. This planted itself in the trunk of a chestnut tree, at a place called Mekolalde in San Gregorio d'Ataun, more than a kilometer from the cave of Muskia. She couldn't reach San Martinico which, by then, was even further away, but he didn't know how to use her.
From the depths of his cave the Basa-Jaun began to sing:
“If men had known this song they would have benefited from it;
when the leaf buds we sow the corn,
when it falls we sow wheat.
For Saint Laurent, we sow the turnip”.
A man passing by heard the song. Then San Martinico sowed the wheat grains in autumn and thus harvested the first time this cereal whose culture then spread throughout the whole world.
The spinners of Lauzpelz
A large group of spinners met every night in the Lauzpelz house in Ataun.
Once, the daughter of the house made a bet with her companions that she would fetch water from the Joxintxiota fountain located on the mountain where the Iturrioz house is located.
Picking up a vessel, she headed for the fountain as the other spinners watched from the moonlit Lauzpelz porch. From time to time her companions cried to her:
" Where are you going ? ".
"In such a place" she replied, indicating the place towards which she was heading.
But to one of these calls she did not answer. His comrades renewed their appeal, but in vain. Under the porch, the spinners were terrified at the thought of some misfortune that might have befallen their friend.
Thereupon a gust of wind blew through the porch of Lauzpelz and let these words be heard:
“Gaua Gauekontzat eta eune eunezkontzat”.
“The night for Gaueko and the day for the day”.
Since then nothing more has been known of Lauzpelz's daughter.
Basa Jaun and the spinners
Women were returning home at night, after having slipped into the Batix house in Larrazabal.
They heard an irrintzi (neighing of the Basa Jaun) and they responded to it.
They heard another, a little closer, in Larretagan, they answered it the same way.
But when they heard another much closer, they got scared and ran away to a house.
When closing the door, what happened while throwing fire hit the door and left the mark of ten fingers.
This house is called Urkiza-aurrekua.
