race, we find
that all cutting instruments are of stone; that the week has only three
days. There are also other survivals now fast disappearing. Instead of the
plough, the Basques used the _laya_, a two-pronged short-handled steel
digging fork, admirably adapted to small properties, where labour is
abundant. They alone of the peoples of western Europe have preserved
specimens of almost every class of dance known to primitive races. These
are (1) animal (or possibly totem) dances, in which men personate animals,
the bear, the fox, the horse, &c.; (2) dances to represent agriculture and
the vintage performed with wine-skins; (3) the simple arts, such as
weaving, where the dancers, each holding a long coloured ribbon, dance
round a pole on which is gradually formed a pattern like a Scotch tartan;
(4) war-dances, as the sword-dance and others; (5) religious dances in
procession before the Host and before the altar; (6) ceremonial dances in
which both sexes take part at the beginning and end of a festival, and to
welcome distinguished people. How large a part these played in the life of
the people, and the value attached to them, may be seen in the vehement
defence of the religious dances by Father Larramendi, S.J., in his
_Corografia de Guipuzcoa_, and by the large sums paid for the privilege of
dancing the first _Saut Basque_ on the stage at the close of a _Pastorale_.

The old Basque house is the product of a land where stone and timber were
almost equally abundant. The front-work is of wood with carved beams; the
balconies and huge over-hanging roof recall the Swiss chalet, but the side
and back walls are of stone often heavily buttressed. The cattle occupy the
ground-floor, and the first storey is reached often by an outside
staircase. The carven tombstones with their ornaments resemble those of
Celtic countries, and are found also at Bologna in Italy.

In customs, in institutions, in administration, in civil and political life
there is no one thing that we can say is peculiarly and exclusively Basque;
but their whole system taken together marks them off from other people and
especially from their neighbours.

_Character_.--The most marked features in the Basque character are an
intense self-respect, a pride of race and an obstinate conservatism. Much
has been written in ridicule of the claim of all Basques to be noble, but
it was a fact both in the laws of [v.03 p.0488] Spain, in the _fueros_ and
in practice. Every