In the heart of the Pyrenees is San Juan de Plan, a small town in the Chistau Valley that, due to its isolation in the mountains, has had to practice a subsistence economy. Among all the crops that the residents of San Juan have grown on their few farmlands , hemp stands out; Every year they dedicated a small space in their garden to cultivate this plant that provided them with the raw material for the manufacture of fabrics. We are in May, the best month for planting hemp. Some neighbors have decided to reserve a small plot of land for this crop as they did until a few decades ago. Josefina helps Aunt Serena, who covers her head with a woolen cap to protect herself from the rain, to prepare the soil with the hook pick and the rasclo. The hemp seeds are sown by broadcast and abundant since, the thicker the seed is, the finer the fiber will come out. "That's it. It seems thick to me." Hemp seeds are a very precious delicacy for birds or “muixons”, and you have to enronar them well with the rasclo so that they do not eat them. But as this is not enough, women will have to prepare some “scarecrows” with old clothes. " And now to make a scarecrow or two; sen will eat els muchons. Yes they will eat. Oh, enrabian, this. They will eat muchons. You have to put a scarecrow. " With the presence of the "scarecrows" in the garden, these women from San Juan de Plan try to keep the birds away from the seed before the plant grows. Hemp is a plant that requires a lot of humidity for its development. The abundant spring rains in the Pyrenees save continuous watering and facilitate the growth of the plant. At the end of September, the flower hemp has reached its maximum development. Aunt Serena, who once grew a lot of hemp in her garden, is going to help Adolfina to uproot the flower that is ready before the seed. "Well, such a Pilar of the agüerro, of the autumn, of the agüerro that is said here. Such a Pilar, we are. Oh, no, before the Pilar, you are wrong, you woman, who does not pass the Pilar. The grain do not believe. When José Manuel goes, I was born that day, they ranched with Papa Pepe the hemp in the boulevard and that night the baby was born, and it was the Pilar's day. But that's the grain, right? The grain one, yes. Man, this one that rancam now ranca before. Even if it is a fortnight that it is held. The flower does not produce seed, this is it, but it does not have very strong seed. The "moixons", the birds, have eaten it. That as we have sown they come here. "This has to be cooked here. This is already dry, other times green have been plucked and when it is crushed well like that and it does not break then it is collected. It is no longer left, because as it rains like this the grass is cooked ". A few days later, at the beginning of October, it is time to collect the seed hemp . Alfredo has gone to help Adolfina and Tía Serena in this job that consists of pulling the hemp plants. The uprooted bundles are tied in ropes with a knot made with the same plant. "This is the knot of the vencillo, which gets tied up. The knot of the vencillo we used to say, right Maria?" For hemp plants dry out and can be removed seed should place the sheaves stacked in modolones. This is a "modolón" "Ta takes the seed. Because this is done and ends seed to mature. This is now not it does well, it has to ripen, and if it matures, then it meshes when it is dry and the seed is taken out. " This is to cover the modolón, that we do not have straw, so it is tied with the rope and the moixons do not eat it. But the birds, who feel a special predilection for the seed, are on the lookout. This forces these people of the modolones mountain cover with a "Capellera" made of branches. "Ta moixons els that there are bugs because they do not eat ta. If Vien els foci of the Simien, then seize and eat it ." The modolones will be exposed to the sun and rain for about fifteen days, until the seed dries and can be detached. A few days until it matures and dries, about 15 days. The days necessary for the drying of the hemp have already elapsed. . Tía Serena, Adolfina and Alfredo return to extract the seed in each of the two plots where they have grown the hemp. "Now we are meshing it. Now trick the seed to come out." This work consists of first separating the stem from the seed and the leaves or "riscla", by stroking and rubbing with the hands. Then the seed must be separated from the "riscla" by winnowing. For this process it is necessary Let it make a little air, so that the dry leaves are dragged to a different point on the sheet where the seed has fallen by its own weight. To winnow the grain, Aunt Serena uses at first a blind ciazo called “tympanum”. " Now we have the sieve left and that's it. ”Once the leaves have been separated, all that remains is to remove the small impurities from the grain with the sieve, and then collect it in a sack for storage in the barn of the house until the next sowing. But in order to extract the The fiber of the hemp stem, the people of San Juan must cook it with the humidity of the meadows, where the garbas will remain spread on the ground under the action of the weather, the sun and the rain, which will take care of rotting the stems. "We are extending it ta gra bad later, to remove the riscla and make the thread. Let it cook here on the cam. That it can be removed after you pick the riscla. " You have to cook this and then we taste it, we give it with our hands to see if it is cooked. And until it has been cooked it cannot be raised, you have to leave it. If it rains, it cooks earlier and if it doesn't cost you more, the sun doesn't cook by itself, it has to rain. They have spent a few days in San Juan de Plan. We are at the end of November. The sun and the autumn rains have had their effect on the hemp crop, rotting its hard part. Before the first snows of winter arrive, Aunt Serena and Josefina collect the hemp grains soaked by the dampness of the meadows. While Tía Serena raises the harvest to the village with the donkey, Josefina takes the opportunity to catch scratches or sloes, which will be needed to provoke salivation when the thread is made. “As they wet the cane with the saliva of the mouth, because this is eaten and gives them saliva. It is a thing that contains vitamins and is called priñons. " “With these priñons, there are two nights to be fired like six women or seven, that is, enough for the hemp lines that are made in a house. I don't take any more, there are already many. " In these mountainous areas of the central Pyrenees, the donkey is the most practical means of transport to carry any type of load to the house, and Aunt Serena knows very well this means of transport that she has used all her life. Hemp still carries a lot of moisture from the field on its stem. In order to extract the fiber, it must be completely dry, and therefore it will have to be stored in the house so that it loses moisture throughout the winter. “If it dries well now, it can be meshed at any time. Now it's wet, the day it's really dry. " Winter is over, and any dry, sunny day is conducive to turning hemp stalks into fiber. The women of San Juan de Plan, helped by Alfredo, gather in the courtyard of one of the houses to graze the hemp. The work of breaking the hemp wood in the cruixir grass is the hardest, and Alfredo has come to help the women in this first part of the process. With strong blows to the stems, the hemp fiber is separated from the "lees". Anita takes care of removing the "fuzz" that remains in the fiber with the "clarir" grass, which has a finer channel than the previous one. Alfredo "cruxe" and I clarify with the clarifying gram. I get the "risclo" out of him. And she uses the rake. Once the fiber has been freed from the "waste", Adolfina and Tía Serena are in charge of separating it in the rake or "rebús". The fine and long fibers that remain between the hands when raking are called “brin”, they are the best quality and are collected in closures. "The brin, the best, to make fine things, the shirts." The fibers that are hooked on the comb are called tow and are knotted in ball-shaped locks. This is the middle one, the bad one is apart, what Alfredo leaves behind, we have to review it. The worst quality remains are the "blots" and are used to make coarse fabrics for the field. This is a blur. Because there is a lot of riscla and it is tangled. The folding like the bast, the blur, there. Make sacks to bring potatoes, wheat, because we threw the wheat in the stables up there. And then hemp sacks were needed to carry the animals. Before there were no cars, no tractors, nothing. All based on neck. This process of grazing hemp has always been carried out in a family environment that relaxes the hardness and intensity of the work. The result of the effort remains there, in the basket; the fiber is already prepared for the elaboration of the thread. The "priñons" or sloes that Josefina picked in the fall, today are going to have their application to provoke saliva during the spinning of hemp. "Priñons" "Let's see if more saliva is made, that by spinning everything wears out, saliva and everything." In order for the fibers to bind together well, moisture is required, and that is why hemp was never spun in summer . “So that it hits better. If you don't spit it out, it won't. You have to praise them. " As it was a slow, entertaining and not very profitable process, this task of spinning has always been done by older women gathered in one of the houses; meanwhile, the young women could dedicate their time to animals and other household chores. “He was leaving at night. They closed I run. And they cremated the tow. To find boyfriends and girlfriends. This is wanted and this is not wanted. You ponebas one Taquí and another Taquí, and if clinging is that quereban and if not grasped is not quereban. "" At the age of fifteen and went to celebrate with a farmer honored he was a man of kindness When she tried to get married, another gallant asked her, he was a rich attorney and she despised him. This one was uncomfortable and swore in such a way that he would not be married if he did not marry her. " The" filing "of the hemp begins" rolling the spinning wheel "with the fiber. With the spinning wheel caught at their waist the women use one hand to separate the fiber and the other to rotate the "spindle" thus twisting the strands. "It's that I practice the filar every few days, but these mulleres, the poor for years that have not filau cañimo. The one that row is me, almost every day." As in all meetings neighboring San Juan de Plan make any excuse, either for work or for holidays, can not miss a bowl of broth to lift your spirits. "Get like you, who would you to say that you did not work, that you did not do it for you. " The houses with the greatest economic capacity gave the women of the most needy houses to do this task , paying them with bread or woolen fleeces.The widows did this work for other houses in exchange for the work of tilling and dallar that they could not do. By the weight of the thread, the women of San Juan de Plan calculate when the "fuso" is full and, taking advantage of its conical shape, they detach the "fusada" once it is finished. In order to wash the hemp thread well, the women of San Juan They collect it in skeins or "madaixas", which are made up of three fusadas each. The rig to convert the "fusadas" into skeins is called "dimuré", and popular tradition compares it to four horses heading towards France. "Four Horses go to France, they always run and never reach it. He dimuré. There are four, of course, he has four parts. " Anita and her mother have gone to another house to wash the skeins of hemp in the laundry room and remove all the residues that have remained between the strands . Now you have to hit it so that it unravels. This then shines and everything is deflated. Everything shines this, with a good fist. " With the blow of a trowel Anita cleans the skeins with the soap that she made herself in the winter. "Homemade, with soda and fat. Oil and fat. The best fat was pork, but now there is little, you have to put fat from lamb, ox, and cow. " "Girl this is like a bard. Mom, but how do you get me." "Okay, okay, he's going to kill me wet. I'll get a cold later." “Snake pat, and you add to soften the hemp and it becomes a little whiter, it is cleaned more, because this is strong, and you get used to pouring it into water and doing well.” Aunt Serena already has all the supplies ready. and ingredients needed to do the laundry: The skeins of hemp, the ash collected at home, the fetid hellebore or “snake pat”, the pot with hot water and the “roscadé. ” “This whiter, it is whiter because I cooked in the water, and this so black I cooked on the ground. " Josefina and Tía Serena fill the "roscadé" with the skeins of hemp, finishing them off with a few bunches of "snake pat". "This is called cenise, and it is to put the ash on top so that the fil does not pass the ash and it remains clean, and it is like a sieve, let's say, what happens is that the name is called " cenise. And this is what makes it clean. This is like bleach. Must be well matched the cenisa for everything, because then where pass the cenisa, which will pass the way down The casting process it lasts three hours and is to pour the boiling water from the kettle above the ash. This mixture of water and ash penetrates between the hemp fibers acting on them. Through a hole that has the "roscadé" at its base, the resulting liquid or "lisiva" comes out, which Josefina puts back into the cauldron to boil it again. Three hours have to boil. Pour the clean water into the cauldron with the "snake pat" When it boils it is poured here, the one that falls is thrown into the cauldron and so on for 3 hours. Passes are not counted, hours are counted. So you know if it is well past or not well past. Among other uses, "lisiva" was used to wash colored clothes and as a high-quality hair shampoo . “And you don't know how good this is, it scrubs the cadieras, the wood, that is, floors, disinfects, you can't imagine it. It is better than what they sell now. This is called lisiva, and what they sell is lye. As this is a very tiring job, Tía Serena takes over from Josefina. After successive passes of the liquid through the ash and the hemp, the "lysiva" comes out darker and darker, which indicates that the process is already coming to an end. This is left overnight until morning, until it cools down because you cannot touch the skeins with the hot water . It also has to rest because the heat is good for it, it cooks it. Then it has to be all tonight until tomorrow morning that it has to be washed, rinsed, it is a matter of rinsing it. Nothing more. In the mountains everything is used, and the ash left over from the laundry is a good fodder for the garden, which these women know how to value. "This is such a guy, such a guy" The next day the skeins have already cooled down. Aunt Serena and Josefina take them out of the roscadé to proceed with rinsing. The tumultuous spring waters coming from the thaw on the high peaks thicken the flow of the Cinqueta. The women of San Juan de Plan go down to the river to clarify the skeins of hemp in its waters. By beating with the paddle and rubbing it in the water, the skeins release the "lysiva" that is between their fibers, and part of the dark color that has remained in the laundry is lightened. Adolfina leaves the skeins to dry on the balcony of her house. It is late spring and the sun is intense, which will facilitate quick drying. "Well, this has been very clean." Once the skeins are dry, Josefina, with the winder, turns them into balls to take them to the weaver. “It seems that there is no mica, but in there is a lot because in each madaixa they put three fusados, and it is that, as to carry such a teixidor you have to put it by kilos, then the madaixa, since it is not weighed, each madaixa destas knows that it weighs, two kilos, one kilo. " Hemp has been one of the raw materials used by weavers to make textiles. The women gave the hemp balls to the weaver so that he could turn them into fabrics, either alone or mixed with linen, cotton or wool, depending on the garments to be made. "Well, I am going to explain what is feba del cañimo. This is a man's shirt, and it is one of the finest in cañimo." "And this is a nightgown made of mulberry, which at that time also wore nightgowns to sleep." "This is a quilt that was carried to bring bread to such a mountain." "This is the blurs, the toughest as you have ever seen, and this was made for sacks, to carry wheat, as potatoes ... " "And this is a box that serves as a bench and keeps the trousseau." Artificial fibers have replaced natural fibers. Only if we take into account the wealth of having a dozen hemp shirts, some sheets or two nightgowns in the trousseau, we can assess the effort of the mountain inhabitants in general and of the woman in particular Today, thanks to the collaboration of some residents of San Juan de Plan, we can learn about and value one of the activities that occupied part of her time until a few decades ago.
