Mairu

Mairu (or Mairuak in the plural in Basque), also called Maide, Mainde or Maire (or Intxisu(ak) in the Bidasoa valley) were, according to Basque mythology, giant builders of dolmens and cromlechs. They are often associated with the Lamias .

Mythology

The Mairu are credited with the construction of certain dolmens and cromlechs such as those of Ibañeta de Zugarramurdi (Navarra), those of Oyarzun (Guipúzcoa), and those of Mount Buluntsa. In Mendive, such constructions are due to the female companions of the maide, that is, to the lamias.^{[citation needed]} In Oyarzun they call the builders of the region's cromlechs intxitxu and say that they are cemeteries of these geniuses. As in the cromlench designated there: Mairubaratz (orchard of Mairu). Intxitxu, a masculine genius corresponding to lamia and sorgin, is another of the place names of Mairu. In Oyarzun there is a cave whose name derives from Maide, Maidazulo.

Characters with this name appear in various legends of Lower Navarra, Labort and the eastern end of Guipúzcoa, with such functions. In other areas of the country, these tasks are associated with other names: mairi, maru, mooru, moro, maide, maire, jentil, lamia (lamina), sorgin.

In other areas of Atlantic Europe, the arrival of "people from the South" with the science of building Megalithic Monuments. The presence of genetic chromosomes in the male DNA, haplogroup E1b1b1 in isolated minorities of the European population (including the Basque) along the European Atlantic coast as far as Scotland, and in female DNA as far as Scandinavia, seems to confirm the arrival many centuries ago if not millennia ago, of Mediterranean sailors of North African origin, where this genetic type is more frequent among the population. The Basque and Gaelic languages contain traces of Berber loanwords, already known for two centuries, and without explanation since then, since none of the two languages come from the same linguistic family.

There are legends in which the desiccated arm or arm bone of Mairu appears with mysterious virtues. Its name is Mairu-beso (or Mairu's arm), more specifically a bone from the arm of the unbaptized dead child. In the stories, the protagonist uses that bone as a torch to light up at night and sometimes to put the inhabitants of the house where the torch is lit to sleep. This legend is known, at least, in the region of San Juan Pie de Puerto (there, Mairu is still today a term to designate someone who is not baptized and therefore is not Christian: thus they call Mairu-kiss the arm of an unbaptized child or one that has died without being baptized. buried to this day in the surroundings of their own house or in the garden next to it). But the stories in which there are individuals who use human bones to light up at night can also be seen in other places such as Ataun (Guipúzcoa) and Meñaca (Vizcaya), for example.

It is possible that the name Mari owes its origin to the Christian Maria. But neither can another origin be ruled out; It could be related to Mairi, Maide and Maindi with which other legendary characters of the Mythology of the Basque Country are designated. The name mairi is found in eastern dialects and is the form mairu takes before a vowel of declension suffixes. The Mairi (mairu in unified Basque) are the builders of the dolmens; The Maide (perhaps variant mairü in Zuberoa) are geniuses of the mountains, male, builders of the cromlechs, while their female counterparts are the Lamias or geniuses of springs, rivers and caves; As for Maindi, it is surely the second part of saindu-maindiak, a plural whose singular would be saindu-maindu (the -u of the radical becomes in -i before a vowel, as in the case of mairi, and which in Western dialects would be said santu-mantu, an ironic-hypocoristic way of designating saints); These saindu-maindiak are perhaps the souls of ancestors who visit their old homes at night, according to beliefs from the Mendive region.

The name Maya seems to be related to Sugar who is considered Mari's consort and who must be the same person who was called Culebro.^{[citation needed]}

Survival

The term Mairu is still quite widespread, especially in names of towns or locations:

• Mairumendia or Mounts of Mairu (in Artajona, Navarre, 1300?) (today Marinundia) according to Jimeno Jurio.^{[chuckles]required]}
• Mairubide or road to Mairu (near Manurga, Álava).
• Mairuelegorreta or dry land of Mairu (caves of Gorbea).
• Mairuburueta or summits or extremities of Mairu (Term of Acosta, Álava)).
• Mairubaratz or or cemetery of Mairu (Cromlechs of Oyarzun).
• Mairuillarri or burial of Mairu (crómlechs de Zugarramurdi, Navarra).
• Mailarreta or Mairuilarrieta or pedregal de Mairuor place of crómlechs (on the Otsondo-Mondarrain mountain, Navarre).
• Mairuetxe or house of Mairu (pigs erected from Mount Buluntsa, Mendive dolmen and Okabe region).
• Mairu-artxan or endrino or deck of Mairu.
• Mairu-ilhar and Mai-ilar or brezo o brezal de Mairuor arveja de Mairu.
• Mairukeri or shelter or shelter of Mairuor Wild conduct.