The wind’s weeping, Amezketa

burruna; its sound called haizearen negarra

Source term: burruna (zurez egindako hots-tresna)

haizearen negarra: Basque, “the weeping of the wind.” Mateo Txistu: “Mateo Whistle,” the hunter-priest of the Basque wandering-hunter legend.

In Amezketa, under the Aralar hills, the burruna’s sound had a name of its own: haizearen negarra, the wind’s weeping. Itziar Goñi knew the wooden roarer from her childhood there, and it had a part in a story the village told. Mateo Txistu was a priest and a hunter. One day, as he was saying Mass, his hounds came past the church in full cry after a hare. He heard them and ran out after them in his vestments, with no time even to take them off. Ever since, somewhere out there, Mateo goes on, always moving, never once stopping, and on stormy nights his whistle and the baying of his dogs pass over. When the tale was acted out in Amezketa, the burruna gave the hunter-priest his voice.

Burrunaren hotsari Amezketan haizearen negarra esaten omen zioten.

In Amezketa, they say, the sound of the burruna was called the wind’s weeping.

Soinuenea, Euskal Herriko soinu-tresnen entziklopedia, “Burruna” (Itziar Goñi, interviewed by Juan Mari Beltran, c. 1990)

Particulars

Object

A wooden burruna, the Basque whirled board, known to Itziar Goñi from her childhood in Amezketa.

Function

Known from childhood; used to give Mateo Txistu, the wandering hunter-priest, his sound when his tale was acted out.