l patronage in
Guipuzcoa; all was in the hands of the king, of the nobles or of the
municipalities, or else the priests were chosen by competitive examination
or elected by the people. They would not allow the priest to interfere with
the games or dances, and when the drama was forbidden in all Spain in 1757
by the authority of the Spanish bishops, the cortes of Navarre compelled
the king to withdraw the order.

For a stranger coming from lands of larger farms and apparently higher
cultivation, the agriculture of the Basques seems poor, but the old
scattered homesteads show a sense of security that has been lacking in many
parts of Spain; and the Basques have shown great adaptability in suiting
their agriculture to new conditions, helped by the presence of the courts
at San Sebastian and Biarritz. When the old self-sufficient village
industries declined, in consequence of the invention of machinery and
manufacture elsewhere, the Basques entered at once upon emigration to the
agricultural parts of the Americas, and the result has been that the Basque
Provinces and the Pays Basque probably have never been more prosperous than
they are now, and perhaps a new Eskual-herria and a new Eskuara are being
built up in the distant lands to which they are such valued immigrants.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--For so restricted a literature the _Essai d'une
bibliographie de la langue basque_, by Julien Vinson (Paris, 1891), with
the volume of additions and corrections, 1898, is practically exhaustive,
and is a mine of information on the principal works. See also for the
language, A. Oihenart, _Notitia utriusque Vasconiae_ (Paris. 1638 and
1656), 4to., ch. xiv.; Fl. Lecluse, _Manuel de la [v.03 p.0489] langue
basque_ (Toulouse, 1826); C. Ribary, _Essai sur la langue basque_ (1866),
translated from the Hungarian by Julien Vinson (Paris, 1877); W. J. Van
Eys, _Grammaire comparee des dialectes basques_ (Paris, London, Amsterdam,
1879); Prince L. L. Bonaparte, _Le Verbe basque en tableaux_ (London,
1864-1869); J. Vinson, articles in _Revue de linguistique_ (Paris,
1867-1906); L'Abbe Ithurry, _Grammaire basque_ (Bayonne, 1895-1906); Dr H.
Schuchardt, _Die Entstehung der Bezugsformen des Baskischen_ (Wien, 1893);
W. J. Van Eys, _Dictionnaire basque-francais_ (Paris, 1873); R. M. de
Azkue, _Diccionario vascongado espanol-francais_ (Tours, 1906); _Monumenta
Linguae Ibericae_, edidit Aemilius Hubner, fol. (Berlin, 1893) (texts and
introduction good; analysi