Irulegi Irratia

II-051b

  • Recording date: 1995-02-28
  • Owner: Euskarabidea-mediateka
  • Main theme: Shepherds of Zuberoa.
  • Permission to query: Free
  • Permission to publish: Limited
  • Sound quality: Normal
Towns Dialects Maps
Soule
Piece Time Summary
A06 00:40:12
00:47:30		 The pasture lands have changed in price and in quality. The best thing was to make the deal gradually; to take a couple of days. He would go down by bicycle for two days to make the deal about the pasture land. Stories.(45:15") Goodbye.
A05 00:29:40
00:40:12		 (38:10") The hardest winter he has known. The problems of trying to take the milk by mule and cart.
A04 00:23:00
00:29:40		 (23:45") They began in the morning and they stopped at midday and they continued to come down in the evening. They needed about seven hours to bring the sheep down. The following day they sheared them. In the evening they would take them half way and from there they went on alone. There was no tradition of shearing up in the hills because there were no cars. The huts were far away off the road and it was costly to take the wool out to the road.They began to shear the sheep at six in the morning and they would do it quickly. Each shearer would do about twenty sheep. One shepherd sheared ninty-six sheep in a day on his own.They still do the shearing by hand. The new machines are very expensive.
A03 00:14:50
00:23:00		 They brought the sheep up in May and later, they came back down about the fifteenth of July to shear them. At that time there was no road to allow up the machine and the shepherds would come together at the huts and there was no kitchen for cooking.There was two hours walk from the hut down to the house. The following morning they would start the shearing at dawn. To bring the sheep down again they would put on bells. At the shearing there was always a bit of a party and there still is. In the evening they would sing and play cards and sometimes, they would spend the whole night at cards and start shearing the next morning without having gone home. So as not to leave his friends he has sometimes left the sheep unmilked. (21:08") Pedro, a shepherd from Ibañeta: how they have problems to bring down the wool, because of the customs officers they would shear the sheep above. They would make more profit by shearing below but, at least for some people, there are customs controls when you carry the wool.
A02 00:10:10
00:14:50		 (12:38") The shearing reminds him that the trip up is near. On Good Friday there was less work.
A01 00:00:00
00:10:10		 Introduction. A shepherd who has been many years in the Irati. He talks about the shearing.They used to begin shearing on the fourteenth of May. They would enjoy it because they would get together with other shepherds and they would sing and laugh a lot. As well as wine they would have lamb. At that time there were no roads. As soon as they left the hut they would sing and shout. There were a lot of shepherds and the master would come up by mule. He would take flour to make pancakes. During the period of the shearing some people would not bother to milk the sheep. Anecdote.
Track Time Listen to file
II-051b-B 48:16
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