Records

Records

Satrustegi

SM-010a

  • Recording date: 1979-07-06
  • Owner: Euskarabidea-mediateka
  • Informant: Antonio Castellot. Rosa Erro Redín. José Arraiz Zubiri. Estefania Laurenz.
  • Researcher: Jose Maria Satrustegi
  • Main theme: Life, the job. News of Abaurrea Baja. Witch stories.
  • View allowed: Free
  • Publication allowed: Limited
  • Sound quality: Normal
Town Dialects Maps
Piece Length Temas Sumario
A01 00:00:00
00:06:19		 jobs:, lifestyle Antonio was a shepherd in the States. He was there for thirteen years.Since his return he has always worked on the land for the house. They had cows, sheep and oxen. They sowed wheat, corn and vetch. They had eight or ten red cows and twenty or thirty sheep.All the goats from the village, fifty, were kept together. The goatsherd would take them up to the hills everyday and back again. As well as the wages from being a goatsman, the people would invite him to eat in their houses.
A02 00:06:19
00:09:14		 lifestyle Introduction of Rosa and José. They have had fifteen children. Six boys and six girls are living at present. Three live in America, in Nevada. Another one lives in Italy and the remainder live nearby. In Rosa’s house they had little land. There were five brothers and sisters. She has always lived in the village.
A03 00:09:14
00:09:50		 Basque language When she was young the Basque language was already in decline.The older people spoke it but not the younger people.
A04 00:09:50
00:13:15		 shop Rosa learnt to sew in Pamplona. She spent three months there. After getting married her only work was as a housewife. Her husband and her brothers worked the land. She had enough to do with bringing up the children. In the store they sold all kinds of things; grain, cheap shoes, wine, olive oil, salt...At that time there was little money and the people paid in barter. Later they had to go for the money. They still have the account books.
A05 00:13:15
00:14:40		 hunger The rationing did not arrive. In the village there was a mill and they would take the flour by night in stealth.They picked potatoes, cabbage, beans. They also had milk, they had four of five cows.
A06 00:14:40
00:16:40		 jobs:, jobs: Most houses had some sheep. The sheep from all the houses except three, were looked after in the same flock by a shepherd as there were not so many in total. The shepherd would be fed in the different houses.The goatherd looked afer the goats. He was paid and fed in each house, depending on the goat they had.
A07 00:16:40
00:17:12		 coal, miscellaneous His sons used to go to make coal.
A08 00:17:12
00:19:30		 Basque language In the village of Erro there are no Basque speakers left. The doctor is learning it now. She learnt from her parents, as her father only wanted Basque to be spoken in the house. They could speak Spanish in the street. She was the only one who learnt. Her brothers and sisters didn’t. Now she goes over into France when her children come to visit. They have family over there and as they don’t speak any Basque she goes along so as to be able to speak Basque.
A09 00:19:30
00:21:50		 animal husbandry:, animal husbandry: It is necessary to brand the livestock every year; the cows in Urepel and the sheep in Sorogain. In summer there are no sheep; they are branded on the 20th of September and brought up. The cows are branded on the 25th of May.It is necessary to pay per head for keeping the animals in Sorogain. Those from the valley also pay, but only half.
A10 00:21:50
00:24:10		 miscellaneous The house is called Eloi Iriarte.Estefanía was born in Abaurrea Baja. She learnt Basque from an early age from her mother. Her father was a carpenter and now her children are carpenters.
A11 00:24:10
00:25:56		 Basque language When she was young in Abaurrea Baja everyone spoke Basque and in Abaurrea Alta it was spoken even more.Now it has moved back so much.
A12 00:25:56
00:29:50		 jobs:, miscellaneous They went from Abaurrea Baja to Aoiz. The sons worked in a carpentry factory, but they wanted to work for themselves. The eldest started to work as an assistant to a man from Erro and in the end he bought the business. Then they all went there to live.
A13 00:29:50
00:35:55		 village In Abaurrea Baja they sow potatoes, wheat and barley.There are a lot of cows. Some houses have as many as sixty. And they don’t sell milk, they breed calves.In Abaurrea Baja there are a few people, but they have a lot of money. Now there are only seven families, before more than tweenty. The problem is taht there are no women to marry.In Abaurrea Alta the situation is much better, there are not closed houses.
A14 00:35:55
00:46:00		 witchcraft Their grandparents lived at home. The grandfather was ill but no doctor could say what the matter with him was. They went over to France and the grandmother was told that her husband was being harassed. She did not believe in those things, but, she took the medicine they prescribed for him. They had to leave it for forty nights at the window. A girl from another house saw that the medicine was burning and told them. But that happened every night. While the grandfather was ill, a woman from Ochagavía went to the house with her husband to do a job in the house. That woman had a bad vibration and one night a girl crossed her on the stairs and felt something strange. That night she could not sleep and after that she would have some turns where she would spend three days and three nights without opening her eyes. Meanwhile the grandfather died. They went to the fields to tell the grandmother who was with the youngest child and the oxen. She took up the child and put the oxen in the barn. But they escaped. It was a custom to say the rosary in the dead person’s house and the girl who suffered the turns went in with two others. And they danced over the dead man. That girl took a turn and with her eyes closed she told them where the oxen were that had escaped.Later on it snowed one day when they took the oxen to drink at the well and they escaped again. They tried to follow them, but they passed over places that nobody could cross and the oxen got lost. That girl told them where they were and she knew what they were doing at any given moment. At the same well the young people would meet to eat something and that girl always knew what they were talking about when they meet there. The woman from Ochagavía had a boy who was studying to become a priest, and with just two more years to go, the parish priest told them to take him home because he would never be a priest. That woman had a thing against certain people. And one time, so as not to cause any harm to the family, she went to the animal barn and twisted an iron. Finally, it turned out that the medicine was not meant to have any effect on the grandda, because the grandmother did not believe in it and that is why the two girls danced over him when he died.
Pista Hear file Length
SM-010a-A 46:01