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Basque (3 stories)
> Mari, the Basque Goddess
> The Basajaunak, Lords of the Forest
> Olentzero, the Basque Father Christmas
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The Basajaunak, Lords of the Forest
In Basque mythology, the Basajaunak (plural of Basajaun, Lord of the Forest) were an ancient race of stout, hairy wild men who lived in the mountains of the Basque Pyrenees, watching over the forests and all wild creatures. The Basajaunak were heavily built and about two to three metres tall. Dark, reddish hair reached their knees. They were very strong and surprisingly agile.
Long ago, only the Basajaunak knew how to plant, harvest and mill wheat to make flour. And they liked to keep this knowledge to themselves, but a Basque man called Martin worked out a plan to steal the secret and give it to the human race.
Martin put on a pair of very big and floppy shoes and went to see the Basajaunak. He dared them to test who could jump highest over the heaps of wheat they had harvested. The Basajaunak laughed at Martin, because they knew that a mere human would be no competition for them, and they laughed at his big floppy shoes. They all jumped over the wheat easily, but when Martin tried, he just landed on top of one of the heaps, and the Basajaunak laughed again.
Then Martin laughed, and he laughed last and best, but quietly, because his trick had worked. When the Basajaunak saw Martin happily walking away with his big, floppy shoes full of grains of their wheat, they realised that they had been tricked. They gave chase and Martin began to run for his life, and it's a good thing that he did. Even when he was very far in front of the Basajaunak, one of them threw a hatchet at him. Luckily Martin saw it coming and ducked behind a chestnut tree just in time, because the hatchet struck the tree and split it in half.
Safely back home Martin realised that, although he had the seeds, he didn't know when was the right time of the year to sow them. The Basajaunak also knew that and very happily but carelessly started to sing this song:
"If the humans knew this song, they'd be well informed.
When the leaf is in the bud, then you sow the corn.
When the leaf falls off the trees, then you sow the wheat.
When the February feast comes round, sow the turnip in the ground."
Fortunately, a man passing by heard the song and told Martin about it. He in turn told everybody else, and this is how the knowledge of cultivation spread amongst people, and the Basajaunak were left to believe that Martin was as clever or more clever than them.
Indeed Martin was very clever and managed to trick the Basajaunak on several occasions. One day, Martin wanted to know how to make a saw, so humans could cut down trees as the Basajaunak did and make mills to grind the wheat to make flour. The Basajaunak wouldn't tell, because they wanted to keep all their secrets to themselves. So Martin sent a man to the Basajaunak to tell them that he had discovered the secret of making a saw. "So he has seen the leaves of the chestnut tree, has he?" the Basajaunak said, unknowingly giving the secret away.
"Very well,” said Mari. “I will help you again, and this will end your problems. I will make a flower, the eguskilore (from eguski, sun and lore, flower), a beautiful thistle flower that resembles the shape of the Sun. You will put it on your front doors and it will protect you from the monsters of the night, as they will think it is the Sun and they will not dare to come close to it and will leave you in peace.”
That is how Martin learned to use the chestnut leaf as a model for making a saw blade, and humans were able to cut down trees and build flour mills. But there was a problem. The axles of the mills kept wearing out, and a lot of time was wasted in replacing them so often. So Martin sent a man to tell the Basajaunak that he had learned how to keep the axles from wearing out. "So he has learned to polish the axles smooth, has he?" the Basajaunak said.
On each of these occasions, the Basajunak were blissfully unaware that they had given their secrets away, and they admired the humans for their great cleverness. Perhaps because of this, they started to willingly help them out by warning the shepherds of coming storms by shouting from the top of the mountains. The Basajaunak have not been seen for thousands of years, but the echoes of their shouts, some people say, can still be heard just before the storms fall in the valleys of the Basque Country.
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