Gleanings from Basque Literature [pp. 387]

GLEANINGS FROM BASQUE LITERA TURE.
by righlit of birth, and this position is
unreservedly conceded to him by the
proudest Castilian. An intense, but not
a gloomy, religious spirit prevails in the
country. After the early vesper service
on Sunday, all the Summer through, the
cur-, and the younger male portion of
his congregation, may be seen in the vil lage, playing at the national game of fie Iota, or tennis. At home music and danc ing are the amiusements of the people.
Mr. Borrowv speaks with contempt of
their literature, but we venture to think
that hle has somewhat underrated it. A
few ballads and songs, and some pieces
of dramatic composition, are all that re main of their ancient poetry, and even
these are many of them of doubtful
antiquity. The song of Altabiscar, a
ballad which describes the defeat of
Charlemagne's army, and the death of
Roland, at Rloncesvalles, will, we think,
compare favorably wvith most specimens
of ballad literature.
We present a specimen translated
fromt the original, which we believe has
never before appeared in an English
dress:
THE SONG OF ALTABISCAR.
"Sounds unwonted break the stillness of the mount ains of the Basques,
The master listens at his door, and'Who goes
there?' he asks,
The angry watch-dog wakens up, and hears the din
afar,
And'his deep howls fill the mountain slopes of Al tabiscar.
In the pass of Ibaneta sounds of tumult strike the
ear,
'Tis the dull and distant murmur of a host that
draweth near,
Right and left the cliffs re-echo it. The mountain
guard has heard,
And the signal horn blows loudly, and the master
whets his sword.
They are coming! they are coming! crops of lances
fill the pass,
And many tinted banners float above the mighty
mass
Of men in glittering armor.' Count, my boy, and
tell to me,
Are they one, two, ten, or twenty, or how many
may they be?'
'Twenty? thousands upon thousands! and more
thousands follow fast;
'Twere waste of time to count them, one would
never reach the last!'
Unite we then our sinewy arms-these rocks let us
uproot,
And hurl them down the cliffs upon the foemen at
the foot!
What seek they in our mountain home-those war riors of the north?
Why come they here to break our peace? Arise,
and drive them forth!
The rocks fall like an avalanche! A bruised and
bleeding mass
Of broken bones and quivering flesh lies reeking
in the pass."
The literature of the Basques is espe cially lrich in proverbs and proverbial
sayings, and they ha've been fortunate in
finding able and industrious collectors
and editors for them. In I657, Oilhenlart,
of Mauleon, an advocate in the conrts of
Navarre, published a collection of five
hundred and thirty-seven Basque pro verbs with a Frenchl translation, and
some years afterwards hlie made a second
collection of upwards of seven hundred
additional proverbs. The.volulme pub lishled by Oihenart, in i657, has been
reprinted, and very carefully edited by
M. Francisque Michel, who has prefixed
to the reprint an exhaustive bibliograph ical account of Basque literature.
Proverbial literature is, from its very
nature, much the same among all nations.
The wisdom which finds expression in a
short, sharp phrase is one and the same
wisdomn all the world over. Conse quently, very many of our very best max imes can not with propriety be regarded as
the exclusive property of any one nation
or language. They belong to mankind
in general, and appear in almost identical forms in every language. It is only
when general truths such as these are
expressed in a distinctly national or local aspect, that they become fairly the
property, as so expressed, of a particular
nation or country.
Thus, for example, when a Basque
mountaineer says, "The sea has no
branches," he describes the dangers of a
seafaring life in language most suggestive
to a native of the Basque hills. His
daily experience in the chase tells him
howv often he has to maintain his foothold by the assistance of a branch growing among the cliffs; and when he looks
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