LEBLANT (Robert) - Lot 423

LEBLANT (Robert) Le tribut des Trois Vaches payé par la vallée de Barétous à la vallée de Roncal. Doctoral thesis presented and defended at 2 a.m. on Saturday June 13, 1925. Paris, P.U.F., 1925. Faculty of Law, University of Paris. Large in-8 paperback: 2f., 230pp. 1f. E.a.s. from the author to Procureur général Ancely. Encloses an autograph letter from the author to Attorney General Ancely. Also enclosed is an 8-page article by the same author entitled "L'archéologie de la vallée de Barétous" (Pireneos 83-86 - 1967). Publisher's cream cover. Every year since time immemorial, the "Junte" ceremony has taken place at the Pierre Saint Martin. The story goes back to the 14th century: a shepherd from Roncalais quarrels with a shepherd from Arette over the use of a waterhole, and kills him. When the Barétounais couldn't find the murderer, they disemboweled his pregnant wife and hung the fetus and entrails from a tree. Expeditious execution by the Roncalais: they return to seek revenge and slaughter the shepherds. The inhabitants of Arette, who had been warned, regrouped and attacked the Spaniards on their way back, assaulting them from all sides and exterminating every last one of them. A merciless war raged for years. A peace was reached in 1375 in return for a tribute of three white mares, which were changed into three white heifers for lack of mares. An equally excellent story of the same kind is told by Jean BOURDETTE in his "Histoire du Tribut des Médailles payé à la Vallée d'Aspe par les Vallées de Darrè-Ayga en Labedâ". This was the first publication by Robert LE BLANT (1898-1972), who went on to devote his life to Béarn, and in particular to the Béarnais expatriates in the colonies.