Euskara

Learning Euskara Remotely

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I spent the 1991-92 school year in Donostia, with the goal of learning Euskara. I took a semester of intense Euskara classes, essentially completing two years of coursework in that one semester. My teacher, Nekane, was ever-so patient with all of my questions, my delving into the minutia of why this word went there, questions I never asked about my native English. I wanted to know why Euskara was structured the way it was, why those words meant what they did. It was a wonderful experience.

It was also a squandered opportunity. I didn’t learn nearly as much as I wish I had. Instead of practicing my newly earned language skills with native speakers, I hung out in bars with fellow Americans drinking kalimotxo and playing foosball. I spent nearly every weekend with my dad’s family in Bizkaia and, while you might think that would have been a great chance to practice my budding language skills, their Bizkairaz was so different from the Batua I was learning in class that I couldn’t really communicate with them effectively. It was so much easier to just break into Spanish, even though my Spanish was at a rudimentary high-school level.

My one big regret from that trip is that I didn’t master the language. And life since then has seen me master the language of math and physics in pursuit of my career with no time to revisit Euskara.

For some of us, COVID-19 brings an opportunity to fill in some of those gaps that we’ve always wished we had time to fill. I can’t say I’m one of them, as I’m lucky enough to still be able to do my job full time. But, for those of you who might have some extra time on your hands, maybe learning a little bit of Basque is in the cards.

I was recently asked about what resources there were for learning Basque online or remotely (thank you Vicki for asking the question!). If you are lucky enough to live near one of the larger Basque clubs, they may have resources available. For example, Txoko Ona, the Basque Club in my hometown of Homedale, has offered Basque language classes. But, if you are more isolated than even Homedale, far from any Euskaldunak that you can learn and practice the language with, there are a few resources online that might help.

First, in nice bit of serendipity, Hella Basque! has begun her own trek into improving her Euskara skills. She is sharing her adventures on her YouTube channel. As she explores learning Euskara, she is sharing some of the resources she has come across.

Unfortunately, there is no Duolingo for Euskara yet. There is a petition and multi-year effort, with volunteers at the ready, to try to make this happen. The more upvotes they get for this petition, the greater the chance a course might be made. If so inclined, check it out. As part of that effort, they have compiled their own list of Euskara-learning resources that may prove valuable for new learners.

Memrise has a course teaching some very basic vocabulary. As a starting point, this might hit the spot. Another Memrise course, Nire hitzak, adds even more vocabulary. And one more, Basic Basque, goes into grammar a bit more.

Ikasten.net has an online course for English speakers (as well as others) to learn Euskara. I haven’t tried it, so can’t comment on how good it might be, but I’m thinking of checking it out. Some of the online comments say that people who have completed this course come away with a very good mastery of the language.

Gorka Ioseba has a PDF course that you can download for free.

Bagoaz has an app from GooglePlay to teach aspects of Euskara.

There are also a few YouTube videos to help teach basics. For example, Zuhaitz has a series of videos teaching fundamentals of Euskara while Easy Basque has a series that goes into the grammar. And, keeping with online videos, Euskaragara has a series that go into some detail about some Basque words.

There are some great online dictionaries. My favorite, for English-Basque, is by Mikel Morris. I have his pocket dictionary at home, but his online Morris Student Plus is certainly convenient and, seemingly to me, very complete. Elhuyar also has an online dictionary, with translation between Euskara and Spanish, English, and French. Together, these two dictionaries should have you covered.

Sorgina Txirulina has stories in Euskara aimed for younger readers. The goal is to have simpler stories but completely in Euskara to both practice reading and comprehension. At least for some stories, they have audio files so you can hear the pronunciation.

If what you really need is practice, there are a few online places you can go. Mintzanet connects Basque speakers all over the world, of different skill levels, so that you can practice real time with actual speakers. There is also a Discord channel bringing together Basque speakers. I’ve never used Discord so don’t have a clue about how effective this is. But, if what you really need is to hear the language, these two resources might be perfect.

I hope these help. If anyone knows of other online resources, please share!

Basque Fact of the Week, History

Basque Fact of the Week: The War of the Bands

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It’s the late 1300s. The Castilian Civil War just ended and families in the Basque Country are jockeying for political power in the vacuum left behind. Old feuds that have simmered for centuries ignite. Families build towers to fortify their lands and their surroundings. The aide (or ahaide) nagusiak, the leading kinsmen, gather strength. War erupts between two families and their associated allies. This is the War of the Bands.

La pacificación de los bandos oñacino y gamboíno ante el corregidor Gonzalo Moro en 1394, painted by José Echenagusía around 1902, and on display in Museo de Bellas Artes de Álava.
  • The war began as a series of street fights, first in Bilbao in 1362 and later in the markets of Bermeo in 1413, between the Legizamon and Zurbarán families. Other actors joined in and fighting continued in earnest until at least 1433. Other families fought each other, including an alliance of the Gamboas, the Alzates, and the Baldas in Gipzkuoa who fought Juan de Saint Pedro and his allies the Oñaz and the Lezcano. As men died and fortresses burned on both sides, new feuds developed.
  • The main source we have about the War of the Bands comes from one Lope García de Salazar and his Las Bienandanças e fortunas — Book of Luck and Happy Chances. Written near the end of his life, this 25-volume work traces the history of the world, from the creation through Israel, Greece and Rome, to Spain, and ultimately to the events of his own life. He played a large role in the War of the Bands and his accounts are one of our best sources for medieval Basque history.
  • The war, or maybe more properly blood feuds, was an attempt by the aide nagusiak, the leading kinsmen or elder relatives, to exert that status to consolidate power and form a local nobility. By leveraging ties of kinship through land and its production, these elders tried to create their own fiefdoms, but were only moderately successful, becoming, at best, “lords without lordships,” or lords without formal titles.
  • While the Wars started out as inter-family fighting, as the self-proclaimed lords tried to exert power over surrounding towns, it seems to have evolved into a rural-vs-urban conflict. As these lords tried to control their neighboring towns, those towns, which had a very different view of social order and commercial development, pushed back. This ultimately led to the governing boards, or juntas generals, gaining authority within the cities.
  • It can be argued (as it is by José Ángel Achón Insausti) that, through this process of first men exerting power and then cities responding by establishing their own authority, the Basque concepts of universal nobility and self-government that are central to the fueros came to be.

Primary sources: Wikipedia; Achón Insausti, José Ángel; Las Guerras de Bandos. Enciclopedia Auñamendi, 2020. Available at: http://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/es/las-guerras-de-bandos/ar-153913/

Basque Fact of the Week, Euskara

Basque Fact of the Week: Basque Ideophones

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This week, a little bit of whimsy. Ideophones (also known as onomatopoeias) are words whose sound invokes the idea of the meaning of the word. Some examples in English are bang, boom, and splish-splash (and yes, I already took a bath). These are often used in comics as their sound conveys action, like Batman’s pow! and bam! Basque is full of these types of words. In a recent research article, Iraide Ibarretxe Antuñano analyzed some Basque ideophones, particularly from the point of view of their structure, meaning and function. Here are some of my favorites.

A comic by Alai Zubimendi highlighting a few Basque ideophones.
  • aiko-maiko: fuss, excuse, doubt
  • balan-balan: move clumsily
  • barranbila-birrinbala: noise, racket
  • binbili-bonbolo: gently, ding-dong, rocking
  • birrin-birrin: devastate, tear
  • bolo-bolo: spreading
  • bro-bro: boil hard
  • ddalanddal: totally full
  • dzarra-dzarra: scribble, doodle
  • firri-farra: spinning wheel, follishly
  • fits-mits:speck
  • gexa-mexa: weak
  • grik-grak: crackling
  • gur-gur: stream, grown
  • kluka-kluka: in gulps
  • nir-nir: gleam, twinkling (listed as dir-dir in the Morris Student Plus Basque Dictionary)
  • nistiki-nastaka: hodgepodge, jumble
  • pil-pil: simmer (as in Basque cod al pil pil)
  • plasta-plasta: crashing down
  • taparra-taparra: walk fast
  • tibiribiri-tibiribiro: chattering away
  • traka-traka: walk, trot
  • trinkilin-trankulun: swinging
  • triki-triki: walk slowly
  • ttapa-ttapa: walk with small steps
  • ttirri-tturru: trill, warbling
  • txart-txart: punish
  • tzillo-tzallo: shuffle
  • xinta-minta: whining, whispering
  • xirimiri: small jobs, drizzle (one of my favorite words and most appropriate for the Basque Country)
  • xuxu-muxu: whispering
  • zinkurina-minkurina: complaints, groans
  • ziltzi-maltza: mess
  • zirt-zart: slashing, crackling
Basque Fact of the Week, Euskadi

Basque Fact of the Week: Basque Science Innovation

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The Basque Country has always been known for its industriousness, from master shipbuilding and navigation to the steel industry that made Bilbao so famous. Transitioning into the 21st century, the Basque Autonomous Community has pushed hard to establish a more modern base to the economy, including investing in and promoting basic science. One of the more visible consequences of that push are the Cooperative Research Centers.

Image from CIC nanoGUNE’s Facebook page from an article in the journal Science showing how graphene — atomically thin layers of carbon — can be used to bend light.
  • The CICs — Centros de Investigación Cooperativa or Cooperative Research Centers — are research labs that each focus on a particular scientific domain. The goal is to bring together researchers in a given area to enhance the scientific productivity of the group as a whole. Originally, there were seven such centers around the Basque Autonomous Community (the provinces of Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, and Araba) focusing on research in areas such as batteries, nanotechnology, and biomedicine. Today, four CICs are still going strong.
  • CIC nanoGUNE, located in Donostia, was founded in 2006 with the mission of promoting nanotechnology, both fundamental science and the transfer of ideas and technology to industry. Nanoscience is the science of the very small: from 0.1 to 100 nanometers. At this scale, matter starts to behave differently, with quantum mechanical effects becoming ever more important. The goal of nanoscience is to harness those effects to develop new materials for use in our every day lives.
  • CIC bioGUNE is located in Bilbao and has the goal of developing more precise and specialized medicines. They do this by exploring the interface between chemistry and biology with a focus both on host-pathogen interactions and the metabolism of cells. Their scientific activities “concentrates on discovering the molecular bases and mechanisms of disease to create new diagnostic and prognostic methods, promoting the development of advanced therapies.”
  • CIC biomaGUNE is another bio-focused center, this one located in Donostia. However, biomaGUNE focused more on biomaterials, the intersection between materials science and biology. They have a diverse portfolio of scientific activities, ranging from bionanoplasmonics and glycotechnology to various experimental facilities that focus on characterization of these materials.
  • CIC energiGUNE is focused on energy materials. Located in the Alava Technology Park outside of Vitoria-Gasteiz, they are developing new materials for energy storage. Think of batteries. But energiGUNE is studying other types of energy storage as well, including supercapacitors and thermal storage devices. The ultimate goal is to develop new materials that can help us distribute the energy that powers our modern world.
  • Three other centers, CIC marGUNE, CIC tourGUNE, and CIC microGUNE, were part of the original initiative to create these centers of excellence but seem to have been closed. marGUNE was focused on manufacturing while tourGUNE was dedicated to tourism and mobility of people. microGUNE was focused on microtechnology.

Basque Fact of the Week, History, People

Basque Fact of the Week: Paulino Uzcudun, the “Basque Woodchopper”

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My dad’s favorite sport to watch was boxing. I never asked him why (so many questions were never asked…) but I always assumed that it was because, of the sports on our American TV, boxing was the most straightforward, something he didn’t have to grow up with to understand, unlike American football. However, I recently learned about Paulino Uzcudun and now I wonder if maybe my dad had known about him and that is where is love of boxing came from…

Paulino Uzcudun, the “Basque Woodchopper.” Photo from Wikipedia.
  • Paulino Uzcudun was born in the Gurutze baserria in the town of Errezil, Gipuzkoa, in 1899. Even as a child, he was known for his immense strength. When his father died, he left home, eventually becoming a butcher in Donosti. In his youth, he became known as an excellent aizkolari, or woodchopper, hence his eventually boxing nickname.
  • In 1923, after completing his military service, he went to Paris to begin his professional boxing career. During his career, he became heavyweight champion first of Spain, in 1924, and then latter of Europe, in 1926. He began boxing in the United States in 1927.
  • He had many memorable bouts during his career, facing off with heavyweight champions including Max Baer (who he beat) and Primo Carnera (who he lost to twice). Perhaps the pinnacle of his career occurred in Yankee Stadium on June 27, 1929. Uzcudun lost a semi-final bout for a chance at the world title, losing in points after 15 rounds, to the German Max Schmeling, who later won the title. He would go on to fight Schmeling two more times, drawing once and losing their last bout.
  • The newspaper writer Grantland Rice wrote these stanzas about Uzcudun in 1929, emphasizing Uzcudun’s stocky and rugged stance:
This axman from the Pyrennees 
Is tougher than his native trees. 
And no man yet has made [him] run, 
I mean Paolino Uzcudun. 

He has a large and hairy paw, 
They break their fists upon his jaw; 
For socking rock is not much fun, 
I mean Paolino Uzcudun. 

He has a chest built like a cask, 
This heavy, thick-set, burly Basque, 
Who grins to see his claret run, 
I mean Paolino Uzcudun.
  • Paulino’s last fight, in 1935, was with Joe Louis, the famous “Brown Bomber”. Louis was a brutal fighter and Uzcudun was at the sunset of his career. Louis stopped Uzcudun in the 4th round with blows that Columnist Jim Murray later described: “Louis knocked Uzcudun’s gold teeth in so many directions, the ring looked as if somebody had stepped on a railroad watch.” It was the first time, in his 70 professional fights, that Uzcudun had been knocked off his feet.

Thanks to Eneko Sagarbide for introducing me to Paulino.

Primary sources: Boxing.com: Some Like it Hot, by Mike Casey; Wikipedia; Arozamena Ayala, Ainhoa. UZCUDUN, Paulino. Enciclopedia Auñamendi, 2020. Available at: http://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/es/uzcudun-paulino/ar-136928/

Basque Fact of the Week, People, Sports

Basque Fact of the Week: Félix Erausquin, a Champion Thrower

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Basques like to lift and carry heavy things. Basques like to cut up logs. Basques like to pull on ropes. And some Basques like to throw things. Perhaps the best thrower of things in Basque history was Félix Erausquin Erausquin. Born in Zeanuri, Bizkaia in 1907, Erausquin was one of the most decorated athletes of his time.

Félix Erausquin, image from the blog Atletismo e Historia.
  • In his prime, Erausquin was champion of Spain in multiple sports that involved throwing objects. From 1932 to 1957, he won a total of 27 championships in shot put, discus, Basque bar, and the javelin. He is only one of only four athletes (the other three being García Tuñón, Ignacio Izaguirre and Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo) who held Spanish titles in 3 out of 4 of the throwing events.
  • He was set to attend the 1936 Olympics, held in Berlin, but due to political upheavals ongoing in Spain at the time, he was unable to go. His first international competition didn’t come until 1948, when he competed in the London Olympics in discus, finishing 14th out of 28 at an age of 41. He continued to compete into his 70s and won the senior World Championship in discus in 1979. At an age of 72, he threw it 39.44 meters.
  • He is perhaps most famous for developing an entirely novel way of throwing the javelin, a style that became known as the Erausquin style. Based on how he threw the Basque bar, in this new technique, the thrower spun around, giving extra heft to the javelin. In 1956, when he was 48 years old, he set a new Spanish record in the javelin with relative ease using his new technique. Also using this new style, Migual de la Quadra Salcedo beat the world record and, for the first time, threw the javelin more than 100 meters. However, within a year regulations were changed to ban this new technique, because of the dangers it posed by inexperienced throwers facing the audience as they spun. None of the records using the Erausquin style became official.
  • Palanka jaurtiketa, or metal bar throwing and often referred to as barra vasca, is a traditional Basque rural sport inspired by miners in which a heavy metal bar (8-25 kg or 17-55 pounds) is thrown as far as possible. While multiple throwing techniques exist, one is to turn or spin as it is thrown.
  • Erausquin was also an accomplished boxer and his large hands led to the nickname “la coz de mula” or “mule kick.” His hands were so large that, when he played the piano, he had to use the sides of his fingers or he’d hit two keys at the same time.

Thanks to Eneko Sagarbide, Félix’s great nephew, for educating me about Félix.

Primary sources: García Martínez de Murguia, José María. ERAUSQUIN ERAUSQUIN, Félix. Enciclopedia Auñamendi, 2020. Available at: http://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/es/erausquin-erausquin-felix/ar-39685/; Wikipedia.

Basque Fact of the Week, History

Basque Fact of the Week: Trees in Basque Politics and Religion

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The tree of Gernika is easily the most famous tree in the Basque Country. Once the gathering site where important decisions were made and kings had to take oaths to preserve Basque liberties, it has remained an icon and cultural symbol of the Basque people. However, it is not the only important tree in the country. Trees are intertwined in the politics, history, and culture of the Basques from pre-historic times.

The painting El Árbol Malato (1882) by Mamerto Seguí. From the blog of Félix Mugurutza.
  • The tree of Gernika is only one of several trees that served as gathering points for politics. In Bizkaia alone, there are at least four other trees where meetings were held and sovereigns received. The people of Encartaciones met under the oak of Abellaneda while those of the Duranguesado met under the oak of Gerediaga. According to the Fueros of Bizkaia, the people were to receive the Lord of Bizkaia under the tree of Aretxabalagana.
  • Living in such a mountainous and wooded terrain, the Basques clearly had a close relationship with trees. This is exemplified by a phrase recorded by Basque priest, musician, writer and academic Resurrección María de Azkue at the beginning of the 20th century: “Guk botako zaitugu eta barkatu isuzu” (“we will cut you down; forgive us”).
  • While not a lot is known about pre-historic Basque beliefs, mostly because they didn’t write much down, a little comes to use from the times of Aquitaine. The Aquitaines are now thought to be a cultural ancestor to the modern Basques. In inscriptions left in what is now Gascony, they mention a number of gods related to trees. These include Sexarbori (six trees in Latin), Fagus (beech in Latin), Abellion (apple tree in Gaulish), Areix(o) (oak in Basque), Artahe (evergreen oak in Basque) and Leheren (pinein Basque). Not much is known about these deities.
  • Trees are also connected to the legends of the Basque Country. For example, way back in the 9th century, the Basques, under the leadership of the mythical Jaun Zuria, were fighting the Leonese army. In the battle of Padura, they chased the Leonese to Luyando, in Araba. There they stuck a sword in a tree and promised to follow Jaun Zuria there whenever needed. That tree, Árbol Malato (in Basque, Malato Zuhaitza) or Árbol Gafo, marks the boundary of the Lordship of Bizkaia.
Art, Basque Fact of the Week, Diaspora

Basque Fact of the Week: Tree Carvings of the Sheepherders

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People, particularly boys and young men, have an almost uncontrollable impulse to leave their mark on their surroundings. Whether the graffiti that decorates the hearts of large cities or the now-preserved etchings of Spanish conquistadors on the rocks of El Morro, we have to show others we’ve already been there. The same is true of the lonely Basque men who wandered the back country of the American West with their flocks of sheep, though their canvas was the aspen trees that dotted the landscape.

Joxe Mallea-Olaetxe contemplating a carving on an aspen. Photo from the Society of Environmental Journalists.
  • Basque arborglyphs, as carvings in trees are called, have been found all over the western United States, stretching north-south from Washington state to Texas and east-west from North Dakota to California. Wherever Basque shepherds found themselves in groves of aspens, they made their mark on the soft bark of the trees.
  • No one has done more to study these arborglyphs than Joxe Mallea-Olaetxe, a former professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. Joxe has written extensively about the arborglyphs, most prominently in his book Speaking Through the Aspens.
  • The carvings span topics and themes from simply recording names to renderings of people (including female forms in various states of undress) and animals to ruminations on life. Often, they complained about the work and loneliness: Joxe and his colleagues have found carvings saying that the camp tender was a “lazy donkey with a sombrero,” “Sheep, you are killing me,” and “If [sheepherder] life is what these damn oldtimers told me it was, my balls are carnations.”
  • The trees also served as a way to communicate. Herders would carve messages that others would follow up on. For example, on one tree, one herder wrote “Wine and women both are good.” Several years later, another responded “Yes, but they are hard on your pocket.”
  • Of course, carving into trees isn’t a uniquely Basque activity. Irish sheepherders also made their marks on the aspens and everyone is familiar with the lovers who carve their initials onto trees. However, tree carvings go back much further. Both Native Americans and the Maori carved onto the surfaces of trees, marking astronomical events or recording their ancestry.

Primary source: Carving Out History: The Basque Aspens by Joxe Mallea-Olaetxe, in Forest History Today, Spring/Fall 2001.

Basque Fact of the Week, History, People

Basque Fact of the Week: Old Basque Documents in the Americas

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The Basques, in their never-ending quest for new fishing and whaling grounds, pushed ever west, encountering Iceland, Greenland, and ultimately what would become Canada. At the same time, they were a large part of the Spanish conquistadors that pushed through South and Central America. It thus should come as no surprise that some of the oldest documents in the Basque language come from the Americas or that some of the oldest documents in the Americas are Basque.

The back page of Domingo de Luça’s will. Image from Canada’s History.
  • The oldest letter in the Basque language was written by Juan Zumarraga Laritz, the first bishop of Mexico, where he ultimately died. Zumarraga was born in 1468 in Durango, Bizkaia. As bishop, he was very influential in the development of the Catholic Church in Mexico. He made ultimately vain attempts to protect the native peoples against the abuses of Spanish authorities. He is also credited with making chocolate a popular drink for Europeans.
  • He wrote his letter, dated 1537, to Kattalin Ruiz Muntsaratz of Abadiño, Bizkaia. Kattalin was the lady of the castle of Muntsaratz, and Zumarraga was trying to arrange a marriage between his nephew and Kattalin’s daughter, Mari Inigez. While much of the letter is in Spanish, at some point, the bishop began writing in Basque. As described by Joxe Mallea Olaetxe, there are a number of reasons Zumarraga might write in Basque. There were sentimental reasons to write in his first language. But, more importantly, he was trying to smuggle silver from Mexico to Bizkaia and wanted to avoid scrutiny as much as possible. And so, he wrote in the “forgotten language,” as he called it.
  • Much further north, in Newfoundland, Basques were also active on the coast, fishing and hunting whales. The dangers of this journey and the occupation itself meant many Basques spent their last days on the Canadian coast. This was the case for Joanes de Etxaniz (1584), the inspiration for Guillermo Zubiaga’s Joanes comic; Juanes de Larrume (1577); and Domingo de Luça (1563). Each left behind their will and de Luça’s will, discovered some 450 years later by Dr. Michael Barkham, is now thought to be the oldest civil document we have that was written in Canada.
  • De Luça got sick not long after arriving in the Americas. Knowing how ill he was, he dictated his will and requested that he be buried in “this port of Plazençia in the place where those who die here are usually buried.” He left everything to his wife, María Martín de Aguinaga of Hondarribia. He also laid out the debts he owed and those that were owed him, in an effort to reconcile his accounts after his death.
Basque Fact of the Week, Food

Basque Fact of the Week: Breakfast in the Baserri

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Whenever I would visit my aunt and uncle in Munitibar, when they ran the Herriko Taberna, my breakfast always consisted of a pastry, often a bollo de mantequilla, and coffee. However, in the baserris they grew up in, breakfast was very different. I can only imagine that, even if food was plentiful, ingredients were limited. In the old days, breakfasts in the Basque countryside often consisted of porridges made from cornmeal.

Enjoying a bowl of Morokil. Image from eitb.eus.
  • One typical breakfast was morokil. Usually made from cornmeal, water and salt, it was cooked until it turned into a cream. When it is served, it is usually mixed with hot milk. In the richer houses, they made it directly with milk, making it creamer from the beginning. The paste could also be used to make what were called “hormigos” which would be served with a syrup. Here are video-recipes of morokil and hormigos. And here is a more modern twist on morokil.
  • Another variant of this type of breakfast is aixe. Made in a similar way, instead of using cornmeal, aixe is made with wheat flour and sugar, and using milk instead of water. For each liter of milk, about 60 grams of flour and 300 grams of sugar were added. It was often topped off with cinnamon when served. So, it is much sweeter and considered a more special treat, often reserved for Sundays.
  • Of course, similar foods are eaten all over. Way back in Roman times, they ate a similar porridge, so much so that a typical insult for Romans was “porridge eaters.” The modern Italian polenta is essentially the same type of food.
  • Corn, however, is a relatively recent addition to the Basque diet, coming by way of the Americas in the 1600s. Thus, foods such as morokil weren’t part of the diet before then. Millet was one of the primary foods. In fact, one Basque word for corn, arto, used to refer to millet. Seems like the word was simply transferred to the new crop once it became plentiful.

Primary source: EuskoNews.