A friend has asked me what a junk is. While he was reading about plants, he stumbled upon the jungle. I responded that it was a thin herb, a round tap, down to my knees. The Wikipedia in Basque reads as follows: “The junks are herbaceous vines (genus Juncus) that grow in wet areas, with straight and flexible stem. They usually are 1.5 meters high.” In Euskal Herria, we have many kinds of junks, and all of them are grouped in the genus Juncus, yes. The humidity is right, therefore, the risk of a joint. Hence the saying: “Drink like a cane.” Another one is pretty. “Eat like an ox, drink like a stick.” Yiaa is also called the Zia and the Wedge. In the book Camino al Parnaso de Eusebio Maria de los Dolores Azkue, father of the reputed Azkue, there is also a Christmas dinner on the coplas: “To see a drink, yes two tomes as if it were your beloved; / if many times it was Christmas Eve’s day / less than two with honey a year!”

The joint has been used for many tasks: molding roofs, greasing and making light, cesteria, laces, pigs… The name of gender Juncus comes from the Latin word “jungere”, which means “gathering”, and it explains a lot about its use.

Plentiful in wet areas, with countless uses, the junk has been with us for many years. Hence also the great variety of names to say theirs: ihi, ina, iz, ixa, iha, zia, zii, ziri, zipor… In some dictionary marmaros, alpitz and sarrachi are also collected… It was also called kilo de bruges in Larraun. Clarete in Oñati. In my opinion, Pierre Lhand has included in his dictionary the name of the lilipa or narcissus.

We also have a multitude of names to indicate the places where junks abound: junks, junks, rockets, junctures, yáschenes, cipayos, cisnes, cisnes, cisnes, cisnes, cisnes, ciidons, ciridons...

Ziortza Artabe has received a rite to remove warts from María Luisa Artabe Barrena by Amorebieta-Etxano: the joint will be picked up by the ritual, not by the verrugist, who will pull it out of the bottom, cutting the sharp tip and making a cross on the other side; making three crosses on the wart with secret words and praying. A jungle by a wart. It's buried at a crossroads, and when it rots, the wart disappears.

I know the house Ihitia, in Sara. The zestoarra suit Iñaki Azkune Mendia taught me that at the base of the name of our house there is also a joint: ihi mendi hotz.