Records

Records

Satrustegi

SM-001b

  • Recording date: 1977-01-14
  • Owner: Euskarabidea-mediateka
  • Informant: Perpetua Saragüeta
  • Researcher: Jose Maria Satrustegi
  • Main theme: Christmas. Christmas trunk. Kings: letters. Saint John: fractional. Sorcières : Bean pod of seven grains. To wet the daughter. Witches, lamias (mythological characters).
  • View allowed: Free
  • Publication allowed: Limited
  • Sound quality: Good
Town Dialects Maps
Piece Length Temas Sumario
A01 00:00:00
00:02:38		 miscellaneous She introduces herself and her husband. She is from Mezkiritz and her husband is from Irurita. How she met her husband through an aunt of hers who lived in Bozate.She has lived in Irurita for twelve years, three or four in Pamplona and later in Mezkiritz.
A02 00:02:38
00:04:30		 school, village Mezkiritz is a compact village. Txorrondo is one of the districts. She was born there. There was nobody to do the work of the schoolmaster and Mr. Manuel Lusarreta Erro, the village priest was her teacher during three years. There were fifty four children.
A03 00:04:30
00:12:20		 Christmas: At Xmas, on the 24th of December, in the morning they would put two trunks of wood on the fire one on each side. The ashes from them were kept during the rest of the year. Everyone went to midnight mass. What her grandma used to do: Before going out to mass she would look at all the corners of the fireplace to make sure that there were no wheat grains left. When she returned from mass the first thing she did was to go to the fireplace and look for grains of wheat. If she saw some grains she would give thanks to God because that sign signified that they would have bread in the house all year. The Xmas trunk was known as the “Subilaro” trunk as that day was the “Subilaro”. Every night of the year those ashes were piled up in the middle and were covered over. On top of them three crosses were made with the fire poker, saying "Jaungoikoak duela parte, aingeruek beste hainbeste eta gaiztoak ez batere". (“May the Lord have his share and his angels too, and may the wicked have nothing”). When the breaddough was being put in the oven the same prayer was said. On New Year’s Day the village gave out bread cheese and wine to all those who went, but the women did not go. On the eve of the 6th of January, the day of the Three Wise Men, the two best plates in the house were placed on the table and the eldest person in the house shuffled the cards and the youngest cut the cards. The cards were taken out in the following order: God, Virgen Mary, grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, and the children from the eldest to the youngest. When the King of Swords came out that person would be the king for that year. Then the children would run into the street with their bells and exclaim: “Long live King/Queen” “so-and-so”. The next day that person had to prepare the breakfast.
A04 00:12:20
00:15:53		 customs, religion: On the eve of San Juan a fire was lit with the hay blessed by San Juan the previous year. The people would jump over the fire and exclaim “ The Mayor out !” or “The Mange out !” or whatever. On the eve of San Juan they took water from the well.With the dew they would strip off from the waist up and they would roll in the grass. One kid was born “stunted” and they made a fissure in an oaktree. On the night of San Juan they brought him there to the tree. There were two Juans and they said three times: "Don Juan, karrak Juan, Viva San Juan" and sticking the kid through the fissure. Nowadays, that kid has six children.
A05 00:15:53
00:16:45		 religion: On San Miguel’s day they would go to the hermitage and have mass there. The song of San Miguel was sung in Spanish.
A06 00:16:45
00:17:40		 beliefs After a birth, neither the mother nor the baby could leave the house for forty days.
A07 00:17:40
00:24:45		 anecdote, witchcraft The woman from the Apesui house. Apparently it used to be the priest’s house.They have always lived from livestock and agriculture. They reap the potato, wheat, corn and vetch. They sell sheep, milk the cows and sell the milk. They have cows, sheep and mares. They stack the hay in the silo or they leave it to dry. The oxen were substituted by tractors. They have different breeds of cow: Swiss and Dutch.For the sheep they employ a young man. Her husband and son also take care of them.
A08 00:24:45
00:29:57		 anecdote, witchcraft The witches also cast an evil eye on the new-born babies. Her mother had told her that three children died in this way. One time, on the road between Irurita and Arraioz three pigs suddenly appeared. At the place where the bridge crosses the river they disappeared. It began when the baby was two months old. She would change and water woud fall on the baby girl despite the fact that the sky was clear. That happened quite often. When she threw holy water on her making the sign of the cross it did not happen. In the end the child would suffer spasms from Tuesday to Wednesday and from Friday to Saturday. On the other days nothing would happen. Once the priest from Mezkiritz examined the child and noticing something strange, he mentioned it to the priest from Irurita. That priest said the child would have to be given the catechism and that was done. The child never got wet after that. When she was pregnant with that same child she would go to mass and, without wanting to do it, she would go against the priest. Once, in confession with the priest, she told him she could not bear to see him there. And he told her that the child that she was carrying would give a lot of work to the devil.
A09 00:29:57
00:31:18		 anecdote, mythology: Her grandmother used to tell how in Mezkiritz there were spirits. One time they went to the village to get a midwife. The midwife did the work but did not charge them anything as she was afraid. But one day when all of them had come out to comb themselves, she took a comb and brought it home with her as payment. She was seen by the ghouls and there has always been something in her house since then.
Pista Hear file Length
SM-001b-B 31:21