They sing with a certain effort of the throat, like the muezzins in the mosques, in high tones.

When one has finished his couplet, without a second of hesitation or silence, the other begins; more and more their minds are animated and inflamed.
Around the smugglers' table many other caps have gathered and all listen with admiration to the witty or sensible things which the two brothers know how to say, ever with the needed cadence and rhyme.
At the twentieth stanza, at last, Itchoua interrupts them to make them rest and he orders more cider.
"How have you learned ?" asked Ramuntcho of the Iragola brothers.

"How did the knack come to you ?" "Oh!" replies Marcos, "it is a family trait, as you must know.

Our father, our grandfather were extemporary composers who were heard with pleasure in all the festivals of the Basque country, and our mother also was the daughter of a grand improvisator of the village of Lesaca.

And then, every evening in taking back the oxen or in milking the cows, we practice, or at the fireside on winter nights.