BASQUE TRAITS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 142, 12 March 1938, Page 10 (Supplement)

BASQUE TRAITS

Conservatism That Has Stood DEMOCRACY WITH A DIFFERENCE In times of peace nlaces like Bilbao or Santander are different from most other Spanish towns in that a large proportion of the population swaggers about in skimpy woollen bonnets, a fashion which in the last ten years has become almost world-wide, says T. R. Ritchie in "The Scotsman.” Teams of oxen, yoked only by the horns to the end of tlie draw pole, pull heavy waggons by exerting their head and shoulder muscles. Each team supports a sheepskin over its jointed heads. In summer the sheepskin protects the oxen from the sun, in winter it sheds the rain. There is nothing remarkable about berets or sheepskins; the strange thing is that men and oxen adopt no other head coverings for a caprice or change of season, and when you ask you are told that the beret is Basque and that the oxen are harnessed in conformity with the best Basque tradition. . The innate conservatism of tins Basque or Eskualdunac race which inhabits the western spurs of the Pyrenees and the-northern provinces of Spain was first brought to my notice with regard to the lacing of canvas sandals. In other regions I had worn such sandals or espadrilles and generally tied the laces criss-cross round the ankles in a manner which suited myself. One fine day I was taken to task by a Basque fisherman who remarked that my espadrilles were tied in the "Spanish manner,” and who promptly bent down and retied them in what he called the Basque style.

“Ther French Manner.”

Shortly afterwards I had occasion to interview an old Basque of some culture who had spent most of his life in Uruguay, and, to test my theory, I purposely laced the espadrilles in the usual lackadaisical fashion. After some conversation I casually remarked that espadrilles were handy for climbing the rugged hills around, and saw him give a sharp glance at my feet. He held up his hands in expostulation. "But, senor, that is not the way to tie espadrilles. You tie them in the ‘French manner,’ Allow me!” Without more ado the old gentleman rapidly undid the offending espadrilles and refastened them exactly as my first interlocutor had done. "There, senor, that is the only way to tie the laces of your espadrilles, the veritable Basque style of our fathers” ..... Is there not

something durable in it race which per- j sists in tying its sandals only accord- € ing to ancestral notions? v The average individual will sniff at such die-hard, inbred conservatism, but someone has said that scoffers “remain to pray,” and, after all, the scorner » ( wears on occasion a tail coat, the useless appendages of which are called 5 “Basques.” Why does he not cut these absurdities off when he feels them in the way or blowing about? Or does he j think he is carrying on ancestral notions by allowing them to remain an > everlasting image of Basque agility? ‘ Ah Old Basque Dame. i Long ago Voltaire perfectly des- j cribed Basques or Eskualdunacs as j "little men dancing on the tops of the . Pyrenees,” and thus bears witness to , their surprising nimbleness, or the instantaneous rapidity of their reflex actions. To view an old Basque dame, in the country districts, calmly smoking her pipe on the back of a little fasttrotting donkey, almost hidden by twin panniers of vegetables on the way to market, is a tranquillising spectacle. But a Basque fisherman darting about his cockle-shell of a boat in the rollers of the Bay of Biscay, or a local farmer wielding a heavy spade with the traditional tremendous dash is a sight for the gods in these modern times of ca’ canny. Naturally one must consider intellectual planes, and in that case the average Basque maid servant, eternally demonstrating her natural agility, is likely to smash the glass bowl containing' the Italian goldfish, or ram the poker through the back of the kitchen range. Really to observe this Inherited and cultivated Eskualdunac vim and suppleness to perfection it is only necessary to use half an hour in studying the Basque Jean Borotra smashing tennis balls. The National Game. Every Basque village or hamlet has its fives court or “fronton,” and the racial game of pelote or hand tennis, played against the wall with a long cane glove or “chistera” on the right hand, seems to have been in existence from that remote period when Eve bowled Adam out with an apple. This game has spread to Cuba, Mexico, and all over South America nowadays, and even in remote Indian cantonments I have seen fives courts, still standing, originally erected on Basque principles by veterans of Wellington’s Peninsular campaigns. Pelote has much to do witli the preservation of Eskualdunac physical fitness, and even to-day players are numerous while spectators are rare. ; The Escuara or Basque language sounds soft, though rolling, and most Basques are rather good singers. To most philologists it is a bit of a puzzle —this Escuara speech—but they are all agreed it is the most ancient in Europe, though there is something to be said for Gaelic. Though intensely democratic at an early stage, the Basque leadership has always existed in that the feudal system was almost completely ignored, and . power was engrossed by the largest landowners or chiefs of the clans. Nobility has ever belonged to the soil, and not to the family. The ancestral cult in ancient times amounted to a religion, and the theory of private property lias always been paramount. In many ways these virile people are much akin in their modes of thinking and their general history and outlook to the presentday natives of the Scottish Highlands. Family and Clan Sacred. The Ba s<iues are men of action rather than politicians, but they have never had any illusions throughout the ages on the modern democratic doctrine of equality without respects. To the Basque the family and the clan are sacrosanct, and it is related that when the French Revolution of 1848 was exciting a few hot-heads in St. Jean de Luz, they were brought together in the a churchyard by an ancient privateer of e the Napoleonic period who addressed ii them in these words: — V They talk to you of Equality; but the '• Creator, the master of us all, has esf tablished inequality everywhere . . .”

and went on, pointing to the graves—- “ Here, here alone, Equality reigns!”