Note 68 — IV ESKUAL-ERRIA

The great game at Irun, between French and Spanish Basques, about the year 1840, has become a legend, and is still spoken of by the peasants. Gascoña, the chief French player, was offered 10,000 francs “pour faire trahison,” but refused, were it ten times the sum. Oxen, crops, fields and houses were freely betted. The ball, we are told, was slily wetted for service, tintacks were scattered in the court, and Gascoña, accustomed to play barefoot, called for a pair of heavy wooden sabots, and continued the game. The French won, and were obliged to escape across the frontier without changing, and chistera on arm. Those were the times when the peasants left their farms to play for the love of the game. To-day the game is in the hands of a few professionals, for the benefit of foreigners, the result often arranged beforehand. “Aujourd’hui,” said an aged player of the frontier, “les joueurs rient quelquefois: nous ne riions pas, nous.”