The women assist their relations in this dangerous traffic, and perform acts of daring, which are quite startling.

It is told of one, a young girl of Eshiarce, that, being hard pressed by a party of excise, she ran along a steep ledge of rocks, and, at a fearful height, cast herself into the Nive: no one dared to follow down the ravine; and they saw her swimming for her life, battling with the roaring torrent; she reached the opposite shore, turned with an exulting gesture, although her basket of contraband goods was lost in the stream, and, darting off amongst the valleys, was lost to their view.
The Basques have their comedy, which they call _Tobera-Munstruc_, or _Charivari represented_; and they enter into its jokes with the utmost animation and delight.

They generally take for their subject some popular event of a comic nature, and all is carried on extempore.

The young men of a village meet to consult respecting it; and then comes the _ceremonie du baton_.

Those who choose to be actors, or simply to subscribe towards the expenses, range themselves on one side; two amongst them hold a stick at each end, and all those chosen pass beneath it; this constitutes an engagement to assist; and it is a disgrace to fail.