Various
Testaments Had Been Sold, Though The Number Was By No Means
Considerable:
The work had to labour under great disadvantage,
from the ignorance of the people at large with respect to its tenor
and contents.
It was no wonder, then, that little interest was
felt respecting it. To call, however, public attention to the
despacho, I printed three thousand advertisements on paper, yellow,
blue, and crimson, with which I almost covered the sides of the
streets, and besides this, inserted an account of it in all the
journals and periodicals; the consequence was, that in a short time
almost every person in Madrid was aware of its existence. Such
exertions in London or Paris would probably have ensured the sale
of the entire edition of the New Testament within a few days. In
Madrid, however, the result was not quite so flattering; for after
the establishment had been open an entire month, the copies
disposed of barely amounted to one hundred.
These proceedings of mine did not fail to cause a great sensation:
the priests and their partisans were teeming with malice and fury,
which, for some time, however, they thought proper to exhibit only
in words; it being their opinion that I was favoured by the
ambassador and by the British government; but there was no attempt,
however atrocious, that might not be expected from their malignity;
and were it right and seemly for me, the most insignificant of
worms, to make such a comparison, I might say, like Paul at
Ephesus, I was fighting with wild beasts.
On the last day of the year 1837, my servant Antonio thus addressed
me: "Mon maitre, it is necessary that I leave you for a time.
Ever since we have returned from our journeys, I have become
unsettled and dissatisfied with the house, the furniture, and with
Donna Marequita. I have therefore engaged myself as cook in the
house of the Count of -, where I am to receive four dollars per
month less than what your worship gives me. I am fond of change,
though it be for the worse. Adieu, mon maitre, may you be as well
served as you deserve; should you chance, however, to have any
pressing need de mes soins, send for me without hesitation, and I
will at once give my new master warning, if I am still with him,
and come to you."
Thus was I deprived for a time of the services of Antonio. I
continued for a few days without a domestic, at the end of which
time I hired a certain Cantabrian or Basque, a native of the
village of Hernani, in Guipuscoa, who was strongly recommended to
me.
CHAPTER XXXVII
Euscarra - Basque not Irish - Sanskrit and Tartar Dialects - A Vowel
Language - Popular Poetry - The Basques - Their Persons - Basque Women.
I now entered upon the year 1838, perhaps the most eventful of all
those which I passed in Spain. The despacho still continued open,
with a somewhat increasing sale. Having at this time little of
particular moment with which to occupy myself, I committed to the
press two works, which for some time past had been in the course of
preparation. These were the Gospel of St. Luke in the Spanish
Gypsy and the Euscarra languages.
With respect to the Gypsy Gospel I have little to say, having
already spoken of it in a former work (The Zincali): it was
translated by myself, together with the greater part of the New
Testament, during my long intercourse with the Spanish Gypsies.
Concerning the Luke in Euscarra, however, it will be as well to be
more particular, and to avail myself of the present opportunity to
say a few words concerning the language in which it was written,
and the people for whom it was intended.
The Euscarra, then, is the proper term for a certain speech or
language, supposed to have been at one time prevalent throughout
Spain, but which is at present confined to certain districts, both
on the French and Spanish side of the Pyrenees, which are laved by
the waters of the Cantabrian Gulf or Bay of Biscay. This language
is commonly known as the Basque or Biscayan, which words are mere
modifications of the word Euscarra, the consonant B having been
prefixed for the sake of euphony. Much that is vague, erroneous,
and hypothetical, has been said and written concerning this tongue.
The Basques assert that it was not only the original language of
Spain, but also of the world, and that from it all other languages
are derived; but the Basques are a very ignorant people, and know
nothing of the philosophy of language. Very little importance,
therefore, need be attached to any opinion of theirs on such a
subject. A few amongst them, however, who affect some degree of
learning, contend, that it is neither more nor less than a dialect
of the Phoenician, and, that the Basques are the descendants of a
Phoenician colony, established at the foot of the Pyrenees at a
very remote period. Of this theory, or rather conjecture, as it is
unsubstantiated by the slightest proof, it is needless to take
further notice than to observe that, provided the Phoenician
language, as many of the TRULY LEARNED have supposed and almost
proved, was a dialect of the Hebrew, or closely allied to it, it
were as unreasonable to suppose that the Basque is derived from it,
as that the Kamschatdale and Cherokee are dialects of the Greek or
Latin.
There is, however, another opinion with respect to the Basque which
deserves more especial notice, from the circumstance of its being
extensively entertained amongst the literati of various countries
of Europe, more especially England. I allude to the Celtic origin
of this tongue, and its close connexion with the most cultivated of
all the Celtic dialects, the Irish. People who pretend to be well
conversant with the subject, have even gone so far as to assert,
that so little difference exists between the Basque and Irish
tongues, that individuals of the two nations, when they meet
together, find no difficulty in understanding each other, with no
other means of communication than their respective languages; in a
word, that there is scarcely a greater difference between the two
than between the French and the Spanish Basque.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 143 of 218
Words from 145396 to 146448
of 222596
