Legends -- Pyrenees; Pyrenees -- Description and travel; Pyrenees -- History
when the common law of France superseded all local independence of
jurisdiction.
Cambo is a pretty, pleasant place, that has of late years risen to
notice as a health resort. It takes its name from what has been
supposed to be an Euscaldunic, i.e. Basque camp. I planned this and
sent plan and description to the Archæologia, in 1852. But with
greater experience of ancient camps than I had then, I have come to
doubt whether it is what has been supposed. It consists of a platform
on a hillock with a network of trenches about it, and ridges between
them sharp as the back of a knife. It may have been used as a camp of
refuge, but it could not contain a large force, and the dykes around
appear to have been formed by currents of water.
Itxasson is an eminently Basque village. The church contains rich
ornaments of silver gilt for the altar, given in the eighteenth century
by an emigrant, Pedro d’Echegaray, on his return from America, where he
had realized a fortune. The Basques, it may be noticed, do not give
their names to houses and farms, but assume as surnames those place
names from which they came.
From Itxasson the Pas de Roland is reached in half an hour on foot.
It is an archway bored in the crag beside the river. Road and railway
have so maltreated the rock that the Pas is now hardly worth a special
visit. It was through this arch that the Roman road passed, and through
it Roland the Paladin went to his death at Roncevaux. According to
local legend Roland set his foot against the rock and burst a way
through it by pressure. Road and rail now enter the mountains following
the river.
At Bidarray, on the mountain-side, is a grotto, about thirty feet deep.
In one corner a ladder conducts to a cavity, at the back of which is
a stalagmitic incrustation three feet high, of a livid hue, rudely
representing a human torso. This is held in high veneration by the
peasantry, and is called “the Saint of Bidarry,” though who the saint
was whom it is supposed to represent nobody can say. A very similar
incrustation occupies a niche in the Gorge of the Ardèche, and is there
held to be a lively presentation of Charlemagne. Sick people seek this
cave and soak rags in the water that dribbles from the figure, and
which has in fact built it up. They apply the rags to the suffering
parts of their bodies, and depart believing themselves to be healed,
but the rags are left behind as _ex votos_.
[Illustration: PAS DE ROLAND]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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