THE BAY OF BISCAY. 219 



The moral and intellectual characteristics of this 

 people correspond entirely with their external ap- 

 pearance. A most remarkable degree of cleanliness, 

 which strikes the traveller more especially among the 

 French Basques, shows that the Euskarians possess 

 that self-respect which is too often lost sight of by 

 our peasants and working classes. The feelings of 

 independence and of patriotism are the two great 

 moving springs of their life. Proud of their origin, 

 they despise all their neighbours whether Spanish or 

 French, but the Castillians and Gallicians are more 

 particularly the objects of their contempt. Enter- 

 prising and active, they are ever ready to leave their 

 country, but it is with a view of returning to it after 

 they have made their fortunes elsewhere. Capable 

 of devoting themselves to the most assiduous labours, 

 they soon become excellent workmen ; and this qua- 

 lity alone, in an industrial epoch like the present, 

 will probably secure at no very distant period to the 

 Spanish Basque provinces a decisive preponderance 

 over the other races inhabiting Spain. 



Gifted with a lively and keen imagination, the 

 Basques are naturally inclined to sportiveness and 

 pleasantry. The instinctive love of poetry and of 

 music, which is favoured by a language in which 

 the same consonants recur at every moment, is very 

 highly developed amongst them. Sometimes, on the 

 occasion of a festival or fete day, the inhabitants of 

 two different villages enter into a species of poetical 

 contest. For days together the improvisatori of 

 the two opposite parties challenge and reply to onc- 

 another in verse, which they either recite or sing to 



