Part 35 (2/2)
During a dangerous illness which she had, the shrine containing the relics of St. Leon was lowered, as in a period of general calamity; and, on her recovery, prayers and thanksgivings were commanded, and a solemn procession of all the officers of the town, civil and military, took place.
In 1738 she returned to Spain, greatly regretted by all who had known her at Bayonne; and, it seems, she was so much impressed with sorrow at having left an abode so agreeable to her that she survived only two years, and died at Guadalajara in 1740.
An account of a fete, given by the Queen on occasion of some successes in Spain which greatly rejoiced her, concludes with the following rather amusing sentence: ”After the repast was finished, much to the satisfaction of all, a _panperruque_ was danced through the town. M. de Gibaudiere led the dance, holding the hand of the _Mayor of Bayonne_; the Marquis de Poyanne bringing up the rear: so that this dance rejoiced all the people, who, on their side, gave many demonstrations of joy. It lasted even till the next day amongst the people, and on board the vessels in the river; and the windows of every house were illuminated.”
Bayonne has a reputation for being in general extremely healthy; and its position, in reach of the fine fresh sea air, seems to render it probable. To me, after the close atmosphere of Pau, it was peculiarly pleasant; and seemed to give new life, and restore the spirits, depressed by that enervating climate, where, except for invalids, a long residence is anything but desirable.
There seems but little commercial movement at Bayonne, and no bustle on the quays; indeed, except at Nantes, I have always, in France, been struck with the quiet and silent aspect of the seaports; so unlike our own. Just at the time we were there, great complaints were being made, in consequence of the prohibition of Spanish s.h.i.+ps from touching at any port of the South of France: commerce was at a stand-still, and all persons in trade seemed vexed and disappointed at the bad prospect before them.
CHAPTER XIII.
BASQUE LANGUAGE--DIALECTS--WORDS--POETRY--SONGS--THE DESERTER--CHARACTER--DRAMA--TOWNS.
THE Basque country,--in which the ancient town of Bayonne, or Lapurdum, holds a princ.i.p.al place,--is unequally divided between France and Spain.
The one part is composed of La Soule, Ba.s.se Navarre, and Labourd, and extends over a surface of about a hundred and forty square leagues; the other portion comprises Haute Navarre, Alava, Guipuscoa, and Biscay, and contains about nine hundred and sixty square leagues: so that the whole country in which the Basque language is spoken, enclosed between the Adour, Bearn, the river Arragon, the Ebro, and the ocean, contains not less than eleven hundred square leagues. Part of this extent is barren, rude, and wooded, and is said to resemble the ancient state of Gaul, as described by historians. Though immense tracts of wood have been cleared away, there is still more in this region than in any other of the Pyrenees; there are three great forests; one of Aldudes, in the valley of Balgorry, where exist the only copper-mines in France; the forest of Irati, near Roncevaux; and that of St. Engrace, which joins the woods of Itseaux.
The habits, manners, and language, of this people have engaged the attention of the curious for a series of years; and the speculations and, surmises to which they have given rise are without end. Although it is generally thought that the Basques are descendants of the ancient Iberians, some learned writers contend that the singular language which they speak, and which has no resemblance to that of any of the nations which surround them, approaches very near the Celtic.
Whether they are _Vascons_ or _Cantabrians_, they are called, in their own tongues, _Escualdunac_, and their language _Escuara_. Seventy-two towns, bourgs, and villages, are named, by Du Mege, as appropriated to the people of this denomination,--that is, from the mouth of the Adour to the banks of the Soison and the mountains south of the Pays de Soule.
He remarks that no historian of antiquity has made mention of this people, or their language, under the name they at present bear; and it was never advanced till the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, that the inhabitants of Alava, Guipuscoa, and Spanish and French Navarre had preserved the ancient language of the Iberians, and that they were the representatives of that nation; never having been conquered by any foreign invaders, and never having mixed their blood.
Du Mege observes, on these pretensions: ”History, studied at its purest sources, and from its most authentic doc.u.ments, proves that, in the most distant times, several nations,--amongst whom, doubtless, should be included those who first inhabited the coasts of Africa,--came and established themselves in Spain. The Pelasgians, the Greeks of Zacinthus, of Samos, the Messineans, the Dorians, the Phoceans, the Laconians, the Tyrians or Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, the Celts or Gauls, and the Eastern Iberians. Strabo mentions that in the Peninsula were many different languages _and alphabets_; no doubt, as many alphabets as idioms. Great care has been taken to discover the origin of these alphabets, the letters of which _are still to be found in Spain, in several inscriptions engraved on marble_, and in numerous medals.”
Nothing satisfactory, however, has been established respecting the language; but a probable one appears to be Velasquez' opinion, that it is formed of dialects of Greek and Hebrew; but this opinion is combated by many learned Spaniards. One author, in particular, was so violent in his enthusiasm, that it led him to discover all the ancient history combined in the Basque language. To him it was of little consequence that the names mentioned by different authors belonged to Spain, Africa, England, or Normandy,--the learned Dr. Zuniga, cure of Escalonilla, explained them all as _Basque_. Thus, for instance, _Scotland_, called _Escocia_ in Spanish, he a.s.serts was so called from _escuocia_, a _cold hand_! Ireland, which is Irlanda in Spanish, means, in Basque, _Ira-Landa_, i.e., _meadow of fern_: and so on to the end of the chapter, in a strain which becomes highly comic. Another writer followed in his steps,--Don Juan de Erro y Aspiroz,--who surpa.s.sed him in absurdity; proving to his own satisfaction, not only that the Basque is ancient, but that its alphabet _furnished one to the Greeks_, and that the same nation instructed the Phoenicians in the use of money; added to which, they pa.s.sed into Italy, and _from them_ sprung the Romans--those conquerors of the world.
Certainly, etymologists do fall into strange errors; as when the forgery _pour rire_ of Count de Gibelin was taken for the Lord's Prayer in Celtic, and explained as such by the famous Lebrgant!
Humboldt, in his ”Researches” on the origin of the first inhabitants of Spain, falls into errors which are to be lamented; as his great name may afford sanction to the dreams of others. He acknowledges that he is puzzled to find that there is no trace amongst the ancients of the term Escualdunac. He does not go so far as Zuniga, who discovers in the name of Obulco, engraved on ancient medals, Tri-Gali, i.e. ”laughing corn” or Balza-Gala--”black corn:” that Catalonia (evidently a modern name) signifies, ”The country of wild cats.” Cascantum--”dirty place;” and Hergaones--”good place of the spinners!”
Du Mege observes, that Humboldt has unfortunately followed former writers too much; and though all he writes is worthy of respect, he fails to convince, in this treatise, having begun on false ground. Since then, M. de Montglave has ”proved” a fact which is very startling, namely, that there is a great affinity between the Basque language and the dialects of the indigenous nations of South America![36]
[Footnote 36: This M. Mazure will by no means allow in his ”Histoire du Bearn et du Pays Basque.”]
This last circ.u.mstance, which new observations seem to render more and more probable, would at once put an end, if really proved, to all discussion, and open a new field for speculation. It would be somewhat curious to establish the certainty of the South Americans having discovered and colonized Europe many centuries before they were re-discovered by Europeans!--this, once determined, the Druid stones and the round towers of Ireland might all, by degrees, be explained: the obstinate resolve of all learned persons to derive everything in Europe from the Greeks and Romans, or to go to the far East, when fairly driven there, to find out origins, is very hard upon the enormous double continent of the New World, whose wondrous ruined palaces prove the original inhabitants to have been highly civilized and of immense power: and which, by its extent and variety, might cast into insignificance those proud specks which imagine themselves suns, when they are, perhaps, only motes in the sun's beams.
It scarcely appears that the learned and impartial Du Mege has settled the question by his arguments; indeed he seems himself aware that it is yet open, for he rather confutes others than a.s.sumes an opinion himself.
He concludes, that the ancient Vascons who overran Aquitaine, in 600, are certainly not the same people as those who now speak the Escuara language, and that these _may have been_ ”one of those people who invaded the Roman empire in the reign of Probus, or the remains of those tribes to whom, in the time of Honorius, was confided the guardians.h.i.+p of the entrance of the Pyrenees. Thus placed in the defiles of the mountains, _it was easy_ for them to extend themselves successively into Aquitaine, Navarre, Guipuscoa, &c., to impose their _language_ and their laws on the terrified people, and thus _mix themselves with_ the Vascons and Cantabrians of Spain, and the Tarbelli and Sibyllates of Gaul.”
Whatever may be their origin, the Basques, as they exist at this moment, are a very singular people, both as to their customs and language: there is not the slightest resemblance between them and their neighbours; they are perfectly foreigners in the next village to that which they inhabit.
Some _profane_ persons (M. Pierquin, for instance, who goes near to do so, in an article on _la France litteraire_,) have dared to insinuate, that the language of the Basques is nothing more than a mere jargon, _both modern and vulgar_; but this is so cruel an a.s.sertion, and one which destroys so many theories, reducing learning to a jest, that no wonder M. Mazure and others are indignant at such boldness.
It must be confessed that, since extremes meet, the same arguments used to prove the cla.s.sical antiquity of the language would serve to convince that it was merely modern, and made use of, by uneducated persons, to express their wants as readily as possible. There are, in the Basque, terms which represent ideas by sounds, explaining, by a sort of musical imitation, many usual acts, and the appearance of objects; but this is frequently brought forward by its defenders in its favour, and as establis.h.i.+ng its antiquity.
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