outsider. This is equally true in respect to customs and folklore; so that the Basque frontier can be detected all along the line from village to village. The present boundary is of such a form that it denotes a complete equality of the two rival tongues. It has remained immovable for many generations.
The clearness of this frontier in France is interestingly illustrated by a bit of detail on the accompanying map. It concerns that loop which is roughly indicated upon the larger map just east of Bayonne. Here at the village of La Bastide-Clairence for generations has been a little tongue of Bearnais-French, penetrating deeply into Basque territory. The name of this town indicates a fortress, and another "Bastide" occurs in the tongue farther north. Broca inclines to the view that here was a bit of territory in which the French patois was so strongly intrenched that it held its own against the advancing Basque. It may have been a reconquest, to be sure. For us, the sharpness of frontier is the only point of concern, in contrast with the one in Spain. It is an undoubted instance of linguistic invasion toward the north.
Another difficulty, no less insuperable than the fact that their language was on the move in a quiescent population, lay in the