In the Basque ministry there are pieces of anthology that refer to the professions or professions. Those who devour with humor, melancholy or seriousness. Thus, agriculture, fisheries, the textile industry, coal, grazing, appear in the fullness of their art, even if the centuries of humanity have gone extinct.

It is enough to stop in the pit of a verse and stimulate our imagination, and there we are, let us say on Mount Elokadi, next to the overcast fire of a farm where the strong wind of the last prairies is passed through all the grooves, talking to the pastors about this and that. And a larai larai larai vulture.

On December 4,
in the
midst of my
sheep on Mount Elokadi,
in the midst of
my sheep Rai larai larai larai, I froze...

Anyone who knows a little about agriculture will be surprised to hear that on December four sheep are in the countryside. Usually, flocks descend from the wires halfway, before the snows arrive. But Elokadi is not such a high desert: it rises to seven hundred and sixty meters, in the heart of Navarre, in the centre of the district that forms the village of Aldude and the foz of Beartzun. The trovator underlines the bitter humility of the temperatures of the port of Belaun.

However, like many, we have seen the top of Elokadi through the eyes of Erramun Martikorena, really ahead of the eyes from the hillside of the old barracks of Beartzun. Here, at first glance, it is believed that the plant mass that rests on the edge of the road is the kingdom of ivy leaf, to the point that we approach a little and begin to perceive the architecture of a strong house: stone doors, square windows, iron balcony... The night work between the Aldude Valley and the Baztan Valley, the smuggling, is a mysterious trace of the time when the barracks were strong.

Elokadi is approaching and there he is.

By far it would seem like Elokadi to wear a oak forest crown and you've been around the hull. Their alhajas are as fragile as ducks. We walked through the Basagar, following the white and green signs, to go back to the bridge of Beartzun, the six cocks dancing right and sinister. The song is suitable for measuring the passage, with a careful rhythm in the veins. It is a prosperous region, it is felt that the exchanges of pastors and traffickers were numerous: there are the vestiges of prehistoric movements, the crómlech, the pillars and the dolmens.

In addition to the pastors, smugglers and strong borders, the hunters of the Napoleonic army crossed the slopes of Elokadi, managed by the Harizpe Marshal of Baigorri. As a reminder of those times is the road for the stripes: The French emperor managed it in 1808 along Baztan, when he went to Spain to besiege Portugal. Banka, Aldude and Urepele are very close to Beartzu and Elizondo. However, in winter, when there is snow, the landscape is more difficult.

On December four, we can imagine the shepherds who are cold crossed, who with a dream of heat suffocate the flames. The trovator stresses the need for the blanket, in the second chapter that Azkue does not cover, but that Martikorena, perhaps picking it up from the habit, offers us:

In my hut I have
two lovely blankets like the other: The
presenter of
the late Otto, Rai
larai larai
otto, presents everything zilo and tarrata...

In the
pharmacy tarraconda
new blanket that has
not launched a single Rai
larai ray that
has not opened Karri a year ago.

In Responsibility, we only represented the shepherd behind his sheep on the trails of the mountains, but most of the time they worked two to three, rudely. We know the name of a co-worker. Lauriano seems to have a good mood. Perhaps, to spend the easier and more entertaining time, you could participate in the author's verse.

My good friend
Lauriano was
not complaining
about such a thing until
today, I
have never seen a Rai larai so larai.

Just as in the famous Bortüan Ahüzki, the hazelnuts of the mythic summit were completely found other qualities, such as the girls who came from the village of Behorlegui to have fun with the children, Elokadi also went to visit the pastors, which provided them with joy, vitality and love. But Maria and Kattalin distrust:

Maria and Kattalin do

not want
to spend
a night with us
in Elokadi.

In the Cancionero Vasco collection, we read a more reflective version. The load of carpets and moulds of those who fly Martikorena is undeniable. On the contrary, the cure Azkue had to compete with the cleaning, when he placed this variant on the paper:

Mary and Kattalin
wanted to do
the same with
the Rai larai
sheep as with the
sheep spend the night in Elokadi.

Pastors were generally landless peasants. Landlords. He was one of the sons of the woman who married at home. The social structure of the lords of the house was not delicate for those forced to act outside the system. However, the pastors were young in this song like the airoso, the dance, the conversation, the bertsolarism, the circus, right-handed in the Vassals, they had work and the girls looked at them with passionate eyes. What else could they ask for? Ah, yes, a blanket for the arrival of winter.

The poem shows the fundamental difference between the house and the house. One is rich, the other is marked by lack. Perhaps there is the finger of a silent class struggle that is never investigated. Abundance dominates the house:

At home it is
beautiful to see
what is the
cow's establishment on
the battlefield,
which is tied in a large branch...

What about the caset? Too thin, completely. It is a simple bord, soon and barely built, plagued by holm oaks and coconuts. They also show us the dog in critical condition:On the facade of the caset, a goat with the snout under the gut but you



are not at ease
Rai larai larai larai larai larai,
but you are not at ease thinking about...

The bertsolari laments the heat and cleanliness of the kitchen. In the gatibatu version, Azkue stresses that there is nothing sweetness to create strips for inside the wives in the chabola:

Here there
is no
cold everywhere,
but the Rai
larai larai
larai, bruised, is only a envy.

The pastors at the time had two or three Fridays a week. Like today's, deep down. We are a thousand leagues away from the romantic conjectures that the profession has grown, the century, on Mount Elokadi and on December 4.

In the Basque Country singers, this beautiful piece that is in a chosen place, we sing it with a smile that slides from the heart to the lips, arraiki, when we go to work. The wise Resurrection María Azkue included him in his most prestigious work, with musical partition, listening to Aldude’s Rectora Las Proprias. After all, the versions of Martikorena and Azkue bildu are almost similar. Except ... At the time of the quotation of Mary and Kattalin, the thirsts, so far from the word, so far from the signs of sin...

They don't want to spend the
night with the sheep in Elokadi...

The date of the poetic quote cannot be specified. We are convinced that it has not lost its present. The shepherds always walk around, denying the borders, the sheep to where, they, there, worried and joyful at the same time. Aldude, Urepele and Baztan appear in the Alhagis and when we get closer they are always ready to change prudent words. When we ask them the way, the answer is clear:

“People will pass through the trails through which the sheep pass!

A ray of light...