[61] The mountain La Rhune or Larrhun, is half in France, half in Spain. Its name is Basque, derived from _larre_, pasture, and _on_, good (in Navarre there is a river Larron and a village Larraona); but the first syllable has become the French article, and a lower flank of the mountain is known as “La petite Rhune.” [62] Napier, who had no gift of spelling, writes Atchuria, or Atchubia. The word means White Rock (_aitz_, rock, and _churi_, white) and its Spanish name is Peña Plata, Silver Mountain. [63] The badness of their French has been ridiculed in the proverb, “Parler français comme une vache (_i.e._ Basque) espagnole.” [64] Yet in a codex of the twelfth century occur eighteen Basque words, all of which, except four, are still used, if in slightly altered forms. The Basque language gives many proofs of the extreme antiquity of the Basques. The words for “knife,” “axe,” etc., are derived from _aitz_, meaning “stone.” The words for “Monday” (_astelehena_, “first day of the week”), “Tuesday” (_asteartea_, “middle of the week”), “Wednesday” (_asteazkena_, “last of the week”) point to a week of three days. The counting is vigesimal: “forty” is _berrogoi_ (twice twenty); “sixty,” _hirogoi_ (thrice twenty). The word for “twenty,” _hogoi_, has a curious similarity with the Greek εἲκοτι and the sheepscoring _gigget_. There are no general terms--no word for “tree” (for which _arbola_ is used), but for different kinds of trees; no word for “sister,” but for “brother’s sister,” “sister’s sister;” and no abstract terms (_karitatea_, _prudentzia_, _etc._, being used). [65] The best account of the Basques is to be found in the late Mr. Wentworth Webster’s “Loisirs d’un Étranger au Pays Basque,” and in his “The Basques, the Oldest People of Western Europe;” in M. Julien Vinson’s “Les Basques et le Pays Basque” and Francisque Michel’s “Les Basques.” [66] A French writer, Le Pays, speaks thus of the Basque country in the seventeenth century: “La joye y commence avec la vie et n’y finit qu’avec la mort. Elle paroist en toutes leurs actions. Les prestres en ont leur part aussi bien que les autres. J’ai remarqué qu’aux nopces c’est toûjours le curé qui mene le branle.” Another Frenchman of the same period says that the Basques of Labourd are “des gens toujours fols et souvent yvres.” Similarly, Larramendi says that the Basques are “muy inclinados á ver fiestas.” [67] Cf. their proverbs, “Lan lasterra, lan alferra--Rapid work, idle work;” and “Geroa, alferraren leloa--To-morrow is the refrain of the idle.”