194 11 AMBLES OF A NATUKALIST. 



which hang'upon the vines after the vintage is over.* : 

 Of this number was Aitor, the ancestor of the Eus- 

 kaldunac. Having retired with his wife into an inac- 

 cessible grotto, Aitor lived for a whole year in the 

 midst of fire and water, which were disputing for 

 supremacy everywhere around him. Overwhelmed 

 with terror, he forgot all the knowledge that had 

 been transmitted to him by his ancestors concerning 

 past events, and having even forgotten his own lan- 

 guage, he invented a new tongue. The sons of Ai'tor 

 having descended into the plains, spread rapidly, 

 and soon formed powerful nations, which always 

 faithfully preserved the language and religion of the 

 father that had descended from high places, their ancestor 

 of the mountains.] Polytheism in its coarse and ma- 

 terial aspect never prevailed among the Euskarians. 

 These people adored a supreme being, the Creator 

 and Preserver of the world, their Jao-on-Goica.f 

 They began and ended the day by addressing him 

 in prayer, and they offered him in sacrifice the fruits 

 of the earth by the hands of the ancient men of 

 their tribe ; but they did not raise any temple to him. 

 Their religious ceremonies, which were always very 

 simple, took place at certain epochs determined by 

 celestial phenomena, and were all performed under the 

 same oak beneath which their old men, who had be- 



* Philosophic des Religions comparees, by Augustin Chaho. Paris, 

 1848. 



f Artagoia, Arbassoia, names given to Aitor. (Philosophic des 

 Religions comparees. ) 



$ Or by contraction Jainkoa, the lord on high. (Augustin 

 Chaho, the Abbe d'Hiarce.) 



